All posts tagged: duck

Street Eats 2016 – Eats

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Some of the most delicious things happen by pure chance. On Saturday morning, while eating a whitebait fritter on slice of bread, AND a bag of crunchy deep fried chicken skins (both uncommon in my life), I realised I could combine the two. The result was better than either food on its own. Soft, fish, lemon, crunch, salt, chicken-y. It was so good. I should start my own stall. Ha. My friend and I set upon Street Eats at Shed 10 on Auckland’s Queens Wharf ready to eat and ready to be wowed. This year, Street Eats spanned two levels of Shed 10 giving more room for visitors to move about and there was plenty of seating available. A family friendly affair, there was plenty of activities to keep kids occupied which is great even if you don’t have kids…If you know what I mean. We ate, we drank, we enjoyed atmosphere as guests of AirAsia. We arrived early at 10.30am and didn’t come across any queues, though we did hustle through to avoid crowds. I …

Street Eats 2015 – food porn and people watching

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Today is the last day of Restaurant Month. What a month it’s been! On Saturday was Street Eats, a highlight and grand finale event of Restaurant Month. I arrived at Street Eats at 10.30am when it opened, paid $5 admission and set upon documenting and eating my way through the huge selection of delicious food. As I’ve mentioned before, going early is the best way to avoid crowds at Street Eats. I only had to wait in line for 1 dish and since I got there early before the crowds, I even got to chat to some chefs about their dishes. Each restaurant, eatery, pop up and food truck offered between 3 and 5 dishes, all under $10. Shed 10 was filled with restaurants and plenty of seating. In the centre island, drinks could be bought from various wine, cider and beer retailers.  With festive bunting and live music it was set for great atmosphere. Food trucks and pop ups lined the outside space between Shed 10 and The Cloud. I had already eaten at both Mexico and Orleans last week …

Spiced duck with honey roasted figs

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  The following post is part of a series of recipes celebrating figs which are currently in season.  I’m in love with Saveur Duck (also sold under Gameford Lodge). I found these duck breasts in the frozen section of my local specialty food store. Pop them in your freezer if you like the idea of having duck breast on hand. They are very easy to work with, just thaw overnight in the fridge and you’re ready to go. Out of the four dishes at our four course fig feast, this dish was The Koala’s favourite. This recipe serves 2 as a main course or 4 as a starter. Spiced duck with honey roasted figs Serves 2 Ingredients 1 whole duck breast (2 halves) 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon sugar 1/2 teaspoon 5-spice powder 4 figs, halved, stems removed Honey Preparation Preheat oven to 200°C (390°F). Pat the duck breast dry with a clean tea towel. If using a whole breast, cut into two halves. Using a sharp knife, score the duck skin diagonally both ways about 2 cm between cuts. Be …

Peking Duck for busy people

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Peking Duck is a dish that you fall in love with. World famous from Beijing, crispy roast duck is sliced with a high skin-to-meat ratio and eaten with spring onion (scallions), cucumber, hoisin (or plum) sauce and wrapped in thin Chinese pancakes. Think of it as Chinese duck tacos. Shared with others, you usually get 2-3 pieces per person as a starter dish. It may be frowned upon to scoff 10 pancakes and call it a meal, but would you judge me if I said I did exactly that twice for this post? Let’s call it “research purposes”. When dining at Chinese restaurants, my family orders Peking Duck on almost every special occasion. It’s a bit pricey, but it’s a treat. You should see our eyes light up when the dish is brought to the table. Your turn can’t come quick enough. When I introduced Peking Duck to The Koala, he was was a bit peeved that he had gone so long without it. He loved it too. Beijing Duck In 2006, The Koala and I ate visited Beijing and …

Duck Duck Duck!

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To celebrate 4 years of Bunny Eats Design, I’d like to share a few wonderful things that I’ve gushed about, salivated over and adored. You might have noticed I have a little love affair with duck. Be it duck fat, duck liver or duck legs. If you followed my 31 reviews in 31 days last month, you may have noticed I ordered duck quite a few times last month. Yes, duck and I are old friends (well, the ducks might not think so). With special thanks to Saveur Duck, we are giving away a whole duck to each of 3 prize winners. Now 3 of you can join me on my duck feasting! Due to the logistics of this prize, this competition is only open to Auckland, Hamilton and Wellington residents. To enter, simply fill in the form below.

Duck fat two ways

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I refuse to believe every “new fact” I read about food because facts change as science and attitudes change. You can shop around for the truth you want to hear. Once you find it, you can hold onto it tightly. Blind to other truths. So today I read that duck fat is considered by some as a healthy fat. Healthier than butter, closer to olive oil. Oh GOOD. Because I bought a jar of duck fat just last week. One version of the truth is good enough for me. A new fat I’ve never cooked with duck fat before, so in the spirit of research here’s two simple recipes that might inspire you to cook with duck fat. Duck fat can be found in glass jars in the oil section or in plastic tubs in the meat section of your supermarket or at fancy food shops. You can even make your own duck fat as a by product of cooking duck like this. Duck Fat & Sage Roast Potatoes Sage is easy to grow and …

No love

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When you can’t decide what to order at an unfamiliar place, I’ve always figured your best bet is to go with their specialty. At a steak house? Order steak. Sushi shop? Order sushi. It should be a no brainer. If in doubt, don’t order the seafood platter in a burger joint. Don’t order the cheeseburger in a fish and chip shop. Both will usually contain frozen elements and possibly nuked back to life. There’s a trend for places to offer too wide a menu and instead of doing a few really things well, they do many things badly or average at best. An Australian coffee chain was offering “authentic” Thai cuisine not long ago. Really? I wish I could have a Thai fish cake with my espresso…said no one ever. The other day I went out for lunch with The Koala. Going out for lunch is a treat that every worker should reward themselves with once in a while. It breaks up the day and for a moment during the week, you can pretend you don’t …

Monday Bunday: Duck-Rabbit Problem

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This fluffy sculpture by Kathy Temin is a cuddly play on a well known duck-rabbit optical illusion. The sculpture looks so sweet and cuddly I want to put on my pyjamas, slippers and watch telly with it. Viewed from the yellow side, it is supposed to resemble a duck. Viewed from the pink side, a rabbit. Though why it’s head is severed and presented on a watermelon plate is beyond me.

Cook Duck (thanks to Nosh)

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Singing songs like “The Man I Love” or “Porgy” is no more work than sitting down and eating Chinese roast duck, and I love roast duck. – Billie Holiday As much as I adore duck, I have never cooked it. Until now. When I saw Nosh’s recipe for duck this week, I knew that I had to make it. Absolutely had to. With a title like Sticky Cherry Duck legs with Parsnip Mash and Roast Fennel, I didn’t stand a chance. They even listed Nipple Hill Pinot Noir for the marinade. Cherries, duck legs and nipples. I don’t know where this is leading to, but it sounds sexy. The recipe can be downloaded from their website here. It is a pdf so don’t freak out when your computer pauses for a moment to download and open the file. My only adaptions were that I used bouillon instead of stock, garam masala instead of allspice (I thought I had, but turns out I didn’t have allspice) and I roughly split the recipe in half since I was cooking for …

Cabbage soup with meatballs and duck stock

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Autumn weather is in full force and we’ve brushed the cobwebs off the hot water bottles and have been snuggling up to them in bed. The heater hasn’t made it’s debut yet, but in an old villa, it won’t be long. We had Peking Duck on Sunday at Canton Cafe and I took the duck carcass home. I remember when we ate Peking Duck in Beijing, the duck carcass was taken home to make soup. So I figured I would boil up the bones and make a rich duck stock to form a soup base. Cabbage soup with meatballs and duck stock Soup Ingredients 1.5 cups soup mix (pearl barley, yellow split peas, green split peas, red lentils) Quarter of a large cabbage 1 tablespoon of oil 5 potatoes Duck stock 1 duck carcass (meat removed for another meal) Meatball Ingredients 500g beef mince 1 tablespoon ground chilli seasoning* Salt Half an onion, finely chopped Half a cup of breadcrumbs 1 egg, beaten 2 tablespoons Worcester sauce Preparation In a large pot, heat the oil …

Vientiane: Joy Restauant on the Mekong Promenade

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In the city of Vientiane, the Mekong Promenade is wide, the river being very low during dry season and during the day the promenade is peaceful and quiet. You kind of wonder where is everyone? But come sunset, pop up bars and restaurants line the streets and finding a good spot to watch the changing sky is easy. Just before another pink sunset, we find ourselves at Joy Restaurant on the Mekong Promenade. The colourful display of food entices us and after a Beer Lao or two, we choose a few dishes by physicall pointing instead of choosing from the printed menu. It’s so much better to be able to select from a kitchen rather than trusting translated menus. This allows you to order dishes that look good on that day rather than picking your usual favourites. The wiggling bits coming out of the shells told me that the cockles are still alive. The prawns looked particularly plump. The Koala had never tried cockles before and it’s a novelty to get them at all let alone fresh …