All posts tagged: Auckland

Foodbox Menu 3

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Winter is coming. Over the last week, The Koala and I have hunkered down and watched three seasons of Game of Thrones. According to story, since we had a long and hot summer we will have a particularly long and cold winter. Joy. The Koala’s job requires him to be on the road all day so he doesn’t have the luxury of a microwave or fridge. Last summer, I bought a nifty warmer/refrigerator to take with him on the road. Because of this, I have been able to send him to work with hot lunches. It’s getting chilly now and leftovers have become a welcome part of our work day. I can tick off one of my bucket list items. Woo! I used to buy my lunch but now I bring leftovers and we have so many leftovers I can barely keep up. Not a bad problem to have. I’ve had to put more than one meal in the freezer to enjoy another time. One day I’ll remember there’s a couple of roast drumsticks and baby potatoes that need …

Foodbox 3

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First impression Red and purple are my two favourite colours. Maybe not together all the time as they can be quite grabby intense, but certainly on their own. So it was a delight to unpack our Foodbox this week and see lots of red and purple. We got heaps of apples this week. I specifically requested more apples apples so it was cool to have 2 kinds of apples this week. Vegetables Red cabbage half Red capsicum x 1 Red kumara x 2 Baby red potatoes x 25 (1.6kg) Tomatoes x 2 Broccoli x 1 Button mushrooms x 250g Fruit Apples – Envy x 6 Apples – Lemonade x 5 Mandarins x 3 Lime x 1 Kiwifruit x 3 Banana x 3  Add ons 1 dozen free range eggs The most interesting thing in the box 25 baby red potatoes. They’re like a little army. They look so lovely I have to resist biting into them like I would an apple. CSA Link Party If you are interested in CSA and what see what other …

Foodbox Menu 2

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A delivery once a fortnight is perfect for our two person (plus one bunny) household. I’m glad we’re not getting these once a week. Possibly if we ate only fruit and vegetables, but we’re omnivores so the Tuesday box of goodies is only part of what we eat. I wouldn’t mind a little more fruit to get us through, but other than that, the vegetables are spot on. Because we only get the $33 Appetiser box, that makes it great value at $16.50 a week. Vegetable garden I’ve been slacking off in my vegetable garden lately due to the rain. I think my radishes, carrots and beetroot are suffering. Would it be considered crazy to poke clear umbrellas into the soil to shield them from the weather? Planning I’m getting the hang of planning for the two weeks at a time. The bonus is that we shop less than so I can spend more time cooking, writing, photographing, and dreaming up new projects (also eating, being wrapped in blankets, drinking wine, playing with a fat …

Foodbox 2

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Our second Foodbox arrived yesterday afternoon and though we had a dinner date, I couldn’t help but sample one of the lovely ambrosia apples before we left. Easily the best apple I have eaten. Ever. I made the amateur mistake of putting the apple core in my office bin instead of the heavy, lidded kitchen bin. When we got home from dinner, the rubbish was knocked over, the apple core missing, scattered seeds in the hallway and one nonchalant rabbit. I guess we’ll never know who did it. First impression Good. Seemed just as heavy as the last box though I couldn’t be bothered weighing everything this time. Some exotic things to our regular shopping list. A good thing as it’s a chance to experiment a bit with cooking and eating unfamiliar things. Vegetables Kale (cavalo nero) x 1 Mini white cabbage x 1 Sweet stem broccoli x 1 medium bag Spinach leaves x 1 large bag Mung bean sprouts x 1 medium bag Potatoes x 8 Carrots x3 Swede (rutabaga) Italiano Cherry heritage tomatoes x 1 …

Foodbox Menu 1

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This the first week of our Foodbox deliveries. If I didn’t plan out a menu, we wouldn’t have a hope of finishing all the produce. I have decided to receive a Foodbox once a fortnight instead of once a week. I rediscovered a jar of laksa paste in our fridge so features heavily on this week’s menu. I got personal with the paste and a free range chicken at the start of the week and a spatchcock chicken led to dinner for two and 2 lunches. Foodbox Menu 1 Items in bold are from our Foodbox. Hash brown, garlic butter mushrooms, free range bacon and fried egg. (pictured) Scrambled eggs with parmesan and onion on Vogels toast. Avocado and parmesan on Vogels toast. Chicken salad with lettuce, tomato, boiled eggs, broccoli florets, dressing. Roast chicken sandwiches: lettuce, edam, mayo, mustard, pickles, tomato. Spatchcock chicken, smeared with laksa paste, roasted with potatoes, kumara, courgettes, onions, carrots and garlic Laksa with fat noodles, prawns, lime, mushrooms, broccoli and onions. Pan fried salmon with butter lime sauce. Served with sweet corn, courgette and millet. Courgette pasta …

Foodbox 1

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“Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing that a tomato doesn’t belong in a fruit salad.” Miles Kington It is Autumn and daylight savings means I wanna cut corners. I don’t want walk to the market after work in the rain and dark, so I get stuff delivered. It’s convenient, not lazy. Lazy would be ordering takeout because there’s no food in the house. Last winter, we ate through 3 months of Ooooby deliveries. I loved receiving a weekly delivery of produce and extra tasty add ons. I am trialling FoodBox for a month or two, to compare the experience. First impression Our first Foodbox arrived this week and we received the Appetiser which is $33 per week including delivery. A major difference for us this time round is that we now have a vegetable garden so I’ve put a few things on the “do not want list”. No point in eating home grown lettuce and store bought lettuce each week. The box weighs over 7kg and I’m a seriously …

Monday Bunday: Paintings by Joanne Ho

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Some bunny and bunny friend paintings by Auckland artist Joanne Ho. Ok, full disclosure, Joey is my little sister. It’s possible that I’m a little bias, but I love my sister’s paintings. She doesn’t just paint bunnies, but here are some of the bunny highlights plus some non-bunnies at the end of this post. If you like what you see, you should buy her art! Ideal for children of all ages. The Koala and I have been elbow deep helping out for the annual Japanese Art Festival over the weekend. Some amazing pieces shown from Japanese artists and also a handful of kiwi artists. Parp or the farting rabbit is clearly a mythical beast because rabbits don’t fart. I am the proud owner of this painting now. Acrylic on wood. Some of these are still for sale so head over to her Facebook page or her blog for more info or to contact her directly. Here are some of my favourite non-bunny ones too…

Mid-week holiday

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Waitangi Day in the middle the week is freaking AWESOME. I completed 2 of my 10 summer tasks. If we had public holidays on Wednesdays more often, I’d get more shit done. Not burnt out enough to need a full day’s quiet time, not tacked onto a weekend to lead to 2 days of partying plus one of nursing a hangover. Waitangi Day is unofficially considered New Zealand Day and there’s a whole lot of history if you want to get into it, but for most kiwis, it is a public holiday that can be guaranteed to be sunny. My morning was spent nursing a bowl of leftover pasta, attending to emails and blogging while cooking up a batch of tomato sauce. Eager to take it for a test drive, the afternoon was spent with a van-load of friends at Cheltenham Beach. This is our favourite swimming beach at high tide (don’t even bother at low tide). We enjoyed fish and chips with my bottle of home made tomato sauce, a refreshing swim, making sand …

Foodie Mecca

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Coco and I checked out the eagerly awaited Ponsonby Central yesterday. It was busy and happening with a good number of people enjoy the sunshine and foodie mecca. With butchery, fresh produce, fish, bakery, cafes and many street food style, Ponsonby Central is foodie heaven. They have office space upstairs too and I swear, if I win a substantial prize in the lottery, I’m buying office space here to freelance in and preparing to get fat. Hands down the most popular place in the street food lane is El Sizzling Chorizo who specialise in Argentinian BBQ. The big hunks of smokey marinaded meat cooking in their open kitchen looked fantastic. We had a day of moseying planned so were not quite in the mood for a meat feast (one should have a lie-down/siesta booked immediately after). Judging from the happy eaters, this is the place to get a meat fix. We started at the furtherest end of the eating lane at Maldito Mendez. This place is all about the fresh and punchy flavours of South …

A sucker for scallops wrapped in bacon

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I’ve been gorging on seafood and booze all weekend and today is the final day of the Auckland Seafood Feastival. Please note, it wasn’t until late afternoon that I realised that it was a feastival rather than a festival. On a blue skied Saturday, I attended with my three of my friends at the opening time of 11am and we didn’t leave until closing around 6pm. I would say we gave it a mighty good bash. Scampi Street I’d been raving about Scampi Street since last year so we grabbed two plates of BBQ scampi to share. Scampi Street was slightly relocated this year and didn’t have the same “street” or alley feel. I recently learned that scampi are known as langoustine so if you know that term for it, you’ll know that these are sweet and fleshy and can be good eating. The scampi were smaller than last year’s and were not cut in half (crayfish style) for easy eating. The result was messy and a little disappointing. After I’d hyped it up so …

Double pass to om nom yum

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I am pleased to announce a double pass worth $40 to give away to one lucky reader courtesy of the Auckland Seafood Festival. All you have to do is share one word that best describes your favourite seafood in the comment section below. Delicious words like Mills & Boon 50 Shades for food voyeurs. Terms and Conditions One entry per person Valid email address must be supplied with entry and winner will be contacted by email Entries close midday Monday 21 January 2013 Winner drawn on Monday 21 January 2013 and announced on this blog and on the Facebook page You must be able to attend the Auckland Seafood Festival on any of the festival days: 26, 27 or 28 January 2013 Prize not transferrable for cash. No food, booze, flights, travel or accommodation expenses will be provided. You make your own way there You must be aged 18 and over to enter To be eligible, entries must fulfill the competition requirements Bunny Eats Design reserves the right to reject any entry if it does not meet the criteria above …

Dreaming of plump, sweet scampi

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Auckland Anniversary means that our little city enjoys a 3 day weekend. This mid-Summer holiday means locals flock to the beach and the outdoors and gorge on fine food and booze (New Years resolutions already forgotten). If you’re interested in feasting on incredibly fresh, beautifully cooked seafood, head down to Halsey Wharf at Wynyard Quarter next weekend for the Auckland Seafood Festival. A community project with proceeds going to local charities, there’s all sorts of good juju in attending this festival. Not to be missed if you love seafood. With over 65 seafood dishes on the menu there is surely several dishes to tickle the tastebuds of seafood lovers. The Wild Seafood Challenge is on again and for $12 a good way to tick off some seafood boxes. This year’s Wild Seafood Challenge includes: Raw Kina Marinated Sea Cucumber in Coconut with Ginelli’s Lemon, Lime and Cucumber Sorbet Marinated Grilled small fish with Kawakawa aioli Grilled Octopus The Mussel Mary with Ginelli’s Champagne sorbet Grilled Scampi Last year’s super popular Scampi Street will be back and …

Auckland Markets this December

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For those living in Auckland, here’s my pick of city side markets where local talent will showing their wares this December. I’ve listed them in date order and the first one starts tonight in St Kevin’s Arcade on K Road and the last one is on the 23rd. Thursday 6 December 2012 First Thursday, St Kevins Arcade, K Road, 6-9pm, www.firstthursdays.co.nz Friday 7 December 2012 Silo Markets, Silo Park, 5pm til late, http://www.silopark.co.nz Saturday 8 December 2012 Auckland Art & Craft Fair, Aotea Centre, 11-4pm, aucklandfair.blogspot.co.nz Silo Markets, Silo Park, 12-6pm, www.silopark.co.nz Mt Eden Village Craft Market, Mt Eden Village Centre, 1-4pm, http://www.eventfinder.co.nz Friday 14 December 2012 Christmas Markets, Aotea Square, 5-10pm, http://www.the-edge.co.nz/christmasmarkets Silo Markets, Silo Park, 5pm til late, www.silopark.co.nz Saturday 15 December 2012 Made & Found Market, St Johns Church, Ponsonby, 1-4pm, www.facebook.com/MadeAndFoundMarketDay Mt Eden Village Craft Market, Mt Eden Village Centre, 1-4pm, www.eventfinder.co.nz Silo Markets, Silo Park, 12-6pm, www.silopark.co.nz Christmas Markets, Aotea Square, 5-10pm, www.the-edge.co.nz/christmasmarkets Sunday 16 December 2012 Christmas Markets, Aotea Square, 10am-5pm, www.the-edge.co.nz/christmasmarkets Last minute rush! Sunday 23 December 2012 Beresford Square X-Mas Fair, 1 Beresford Square, 12pm-6pm, link. …

Voting dollars

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Karma points. Call me a superstitious nitwit, but I believe in karma points. Karma is doing good deeds in this live for a better life in the next. But to me, karma points is doing good in this life and reaping the rewards and avoiding bad stuff happening in this life. At the very least, cosmic stuff aside, being a good person attracts other good people into your life. That is tangible. Every dollar you spend is a vote for something in the world. When you spend somewhere you don’t believe in, you’re taking a vote away from something you believe in. Shopping for locally made products is gaining momentum. Buying local made is considered a luxury these days and Christmas comes just once a year. Isn’t that Christmas a luxury? I can’t say I’m going 100% local this year, but I’m sending some of my votes that way. Shopping early and buying local makes me less stressed. Even if you don’t believe in karma, avoiding stress is easy to justify. Buy from Christchurch If …

First Thursday: December Special

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If you are not prone to bouts of art and craft and making presents this Christmas, the next best thing is to support other crafty people in your local by buying their wonderful, whimsical treasures. Every dollar you spend is an upvote. This December, will you vote for malls, international chains and production-line-made goods? Shopping locally means that you put your money directly into the pockets of your neighbors and peers to help them have a good Christmas this year. Buying locally can means that money will be spent locally too. Buying out of our own backyards is good for you and your neighbors. First Thursday is on this Thursday in Auckland all around K Road in the city. So if you want to splurge on some unique gifts that are not mass produced, head along from 6pm for a gander. As well as the amazing craft market, there will be breakdancing, burlesque, crafts, live music, swing dancing, live painting, kissing booths, art installations, film screenings, workshops, sustainability talks, bike tours, fashion shows and body …

Everything is too delicious – Taste 2012

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It’s my birthday week and I’ll go to a bunch of awesome foodie events if I want to. I love this shiz. Food, wine, good music and the best company. Yes please! My friends Coco and Livvy went with me to opening night tonight. Taste of Auckland started today at Victoria Park, Auckland City and boy what a treat. Coco is a seasoned Taste veteran like me and it was Livvy’s first time. We are all pretty adventurous eaters so it was fun to share our dishes. We arrived keen as beans, just after 5.30pm and stayed until the 9.30pm closing. I would recommend the full 4 hours to get a well paced walk through and a class or two of your choice. The weather was perfect with only a the tiniest hint of drizzle later in the evening. Not enough for us to head to shelter or pull out umbrellas. From the 11 restaurants represented, we tried 9 dishes from 9 restaurants. Not bad, maybe with an extra person we could have made it to …

Go on Hush Puppy. Beast it.

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Movies are the new books. In lieu of a foodie book this month, I’m reviewing a foodie movie. Don’t call me lazy, I’m still reading. It just happens to be a really long book and it’s not a foodie one. The Koala and I attended Films For Foodies last night at Rialto (courtesy of Rialto Newmarket). Films For Foodies is a monthly event, carefully curated to appeal to foodies. For $35 per person, there was a plate each of southern influenced food from The Professional Bar & Restaurant school, a glass of wine, lemon cheesecake from Gu and a foodie goodie bag. All this was enough for a light dinner. The movie started a little late and after some prizes and talk, we settled in to watch this month’s foodie movie: Beasts Of The Southern Wild. The movie Set in a fictional place called the Bathub just outside the levies of New Orleans, Louisiana, this story is told through the eyes of six year old Hush Puppy. What can I say? I loved the movie. …