All posts tagged: gourmet

Top gifts for Foodies at Auckland Fair

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Auckland Fair is on next Sunday at Shed 10 on Queens Wharf from 10 to 4pm. Entry is $5, kids under 12 free. For those who haven’t been before, it’s a huge collection of carefully curated local makers under one roof. There will be jewellery, homewares, art, ceramics, textiles, snacks and heaps more. I’m looking forward to picking up locally made goodies for Christmas presents. Even applying a lot of self restraint, I ALWAYS end up buying some gifts for myself. I can’t help it. There’s so much awesome stuff. Buying locally this Christmas, even for a few gifts means your loved ones receive something unique and it supports small local businesses meaning this Christmas will be a little brighter for your community. I’ve rounded up a few gifts for foodies you will find at Auckland Fair. If you are not in Auckland, this list can serve as an ideas to find similar items in your area. Top gifts for foodies Ceramics A home cook can never have too many lovely bowls and plates to display their …

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 …

Taste of Auckland is almost here

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Taste of Auckland at Victoria kicks off tomorrow and runs through until Sunday. Last year it coincided with the Rugby World Cup with an additional Taste at The Cloud event and was renamed Taste of New Zealand, but this year it is back to it’s original name. I look forward to this every year because it’s just another excuse to be a glutton. Seriously though, the food at Taste is stunning to look at a even better to eat. It’s different to The Food Show as it is more fine dining and gourmet products. I think of The Food Show as the supermarket expo and Taste as the fine dining and gourmet expo. What’s on There are various masterclasses: whiskey, coffee and cocktails as well as chef cooking demonstrations on stage. This year, 11 restaurants will be featuring 3 dishes each at about $8-12 a plate. Gourmet food, wine and booze producers will also be out in full force and Taste is always a great opportunity to taste new things and grab bargains. The Menu The awesome thing about …

Pinot Noir and a Platter

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I’m super lucky to have Sabato just around the corner from work. Sabato is a gourmet food store and it’s a happy place where I can pretend to be a foodie during my lunch break. Here I can pick up olives stuffed with all kinds of wonderful things, small pottles of very good pâté and breads with heart. I can sample a whole lot of new things that I’ve never tasted before. Sabato make delicious gourmet sandwiches to order. The sandwhich I had was huge, wrapped in pretty paper and filled with yummy Sabato goodies. Platters are great. Each bite a tasty something else. Interactive and social. Platters are made for sharing. Manzanilla olives stuffed with chorizo, potato sourdough, chicken and brandy pâté, Ferndale gruyere, Whitestone priobiotic brie, and of course, roasted garlic*. All washed down with a celebratory glass of pinot noir. When we ate this platter for dinner, I pretty much ate a can of olives by myself. Red wine and olives. That’s real health food. But if tomorrow, scientists decide that neither red wine or …

Tasting, tasting, 1, 2, 3.

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2011 will be my third Taste festival and I’m looking forward to trying and buying new delicious things and soaking up the good atmosphere down at Victoria Park. Taste of New Zealand kicks off this evening in Victoria Park, Auckland and the menu can be found on their website here or scroll to the bottom of this post. The dishes range from 8 to 20 crowns and a crown costs $1. This year, there are 13 restaurants offering 35 dishes. Quick breakdown: Dessert 5 Shellfish 5 Fish 5 Venison 3 Beef 3 Pork 3 Lamb 3 Duck 2 Chicken 2 Rabbit 1 Mixed grill 1 Vegetarian 1 There are loads of dishes for omnis and pescis, but only 1 vege dish of portobello mushroom. I ordered 4 dishes last year (all the ones on my wishlist) and I recommend 3 or 4 dishes per person for dinner. Don’t forget to make room for all the samples on offer. It’s great to have someone with you so you can sample their dishes too. Last year, we tasted …

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 …