All posts tagged: New Zealand

OOOOBY BOX WEEK 2

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To get more efficient in our grocery shops this winter, we are replacing the 2 to 3 trips per week to the market, with a weekly CSA delivery of fruit and vegetables. I plan on topping this up with a fortnightly trip to (or maybe even delivery from) traditional supermarket and a fortnightly trip to Nosh (a local gourmet food store). Local CSA project OOOOBY has a great concept and ethic and we are in week 2 of our subscription. This week our CSA box included: Vegetables Half a cauliflower (conventional sprays) 1 big red kumara (certified organic) 8 carrots (conventional sprays) A huge bunch of red russian kale (certified organic) 7 baby beets (certified organic) Fruit 6 pink lady apples (conventional sprays) 10 gold kiwifruit (certified organic) Only 2 varieties of fruit this time, and while my list and email both suggested that I was to be gettting mandarins or tangelos, they didn’t arrive in the box. The weirdest thing in the box is: Kale. I’m looking forward to using it because for some reason it isn’t …

OOOBY BOX WEEK 1 – Review

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Our first week trial run of local CSA company OOOOBY was a success. Every single item from last Tuesday’s CSA box was eaten before the next box was delivered although for a moment it looked like we weren’t going to get through all the fruit. But a solid weekend of fruit eating got us through the lot. I picked up a trick via Youtube on how to prepare kiwifruit and having pieces of ready to eat fruit on a platter made it more enticing. It was so much fun peeling kiwfruit this way, once I started, I couldn’t stop. Last week our CSA box included: Vegetables 1 garlic (self certified organic) 1 red skinned turnip (self certified organic) 6 carrots (conventional sprays) 1 fennel (certified organic) 2 brown onions (certified organic) A couple bunches of silverbeet (certified organic) 6 agria potatoes (certified organic) 1 large bunch of Italian parsley (Certified Organic) Fruit 6 newstead gold apples (conventional sprays) 3 mandarins or naval oranges (BioGro certified) 9 green kiwifruit (certified organic)  Meals for week 1 included: Baked …

OOOBY BOX WEEK 1

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CSA CSA is a way for locals to support their local food growers and producers but subscribing to a set price per season (or month) in return for a weekly delivery of produce. I’ve written about CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in 2009. Back then I wasn’t in a hurry to sign on because of lack of control over what we received. 3 years on, I appreciate the concept more. CSA is a great way to get variety into your weekly meals with local, seasonal and organic produce. It connects local growers and their communities together in the most efficient way possible. CSA usually involves fruit and vege, but there is also CSA for meat and eggs, and CSF which stands for Community Supported Fishery. In the summer, I adore my walks two to three times a week to the various local markets to buy fresh food. But now that it’s winter, the days are short and cold and it’s dark by the time I get home from work. No part of me wants to leave home and walk …

Local Leather Love

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A lady’s bag is an important item. I can’t stand bucket type bags with no pockets, especially having to rummage through a mountain of stuff when my phone is ringing. I love a bag that has plenty of pockets or compartments, even if I forget which one I put my phone in. My last bag purchase was a cute tan satchel that cost less than $20 on Trademe but also lasted less than 20 days. It wasn’t leather and the weak “faux leather” was just not worth fixing. Getting it fixed would cost the same amount as purchase. It was not a strong or a reliable bag. Once it broke, it needed to be carried around like a giant clutch. My bag before that was fabric and I finally retired it after 4 years of continuous duty. By the time I was done, the fabric was covered in lint and the lining inside torn to shreds. I had sewn it up many times (by my shoddy hand) and given it new buttons to make it extra …

New Zealanders love their pies

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I was once told by someone, that something I once said while eating struck a chord with her. “Every now and then, a girl needs a pie.” The cut off date for the Bakels NZ Supreme Pie Awards was yesterday and from now until July, pie makers all over the New Zealand will be perfecting their pies leading up to judging day on the 19th July. This excites me. If only I knew someone who needed a human guinea pig for their pie perfecting month. Last year, a fruit pie shocked the nation (ok, slight exageration) when it beat 4,400 entries and took the coveted top pie award. Fruit pies are ok, but I’m a meat pie kind of girl. Mince and cheese to be exact. New Zealand beef with a layer of melted cheese in a buttery puffy pastry case. Oh gawd. Pies in New Zealand are a traditional food (borrowed from England) and eaten for breakfast by kids on their way to school, everyone for lunch and others for dinner with an optional …

Auckland Seafood Festival 2012

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Today, armed my sister, Joey, and our cameras, we tackled my first Auckland Seafood Festival. I always suspected that it would be an expensive exercise that wouldn’t be worthwhile. I was wrong. This festival really celebrates New Zealand seafood and the new location of Wynyard Quarter is perfect. Surrounded by water and boats old and new, the festival was beautifully decorated and it was often hard to figure out what props had been brought in to entertain the sea theme and what were already there. We arrived a little after 11am to a queue shortly after the doors opened. Greeted by seafood on ice, this was a nice preview of what was to come. If you don’t like seeing eyes on your food, then keep walking. We made our way around and quickly found something we couldn’t turn down. The Wild Seafood Challenge. There were 6 different items for $2 for each item or $9 for a platter of all 6. This included: kina, prawn killers, turbo shells, sea cucumber, octopus and kina shots. The …

Out Standing 2: David Schofield at Grey Lynn Farmers’ Market

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David Schofield is the 2011 New Zealand Chef of the Year this year and it was a pleasure to see him whip up some quick and delicious dishes on Sunday morning at the Grey Lynn Farmers’ Market. This was the very last of a national series of cooking demonstrations at farmers’ markets organised by Kylie and Blair from Out Standing In Their Fields. Farmers’ markets celebrate seasonal, local food and buying at your local producers is a great way to show your support. The stars were hot smoked salmon, flounder, oysters, and free range bacon. David had a wealth of knowledge and it was clear how passionate he was about his food by the trivia he shared with the crowd. He encouraged questions and interaction from the audience. Having plenty to talk about, David disclosed right from the start, “I waffle”. His veering was hardly offcourse, never pointless or uninteresting and I enjoyed his tidbits of foodie folklore. Toothsome trivia from David: The demand for perfect produce encourages imports. If we happily buy odd shaped and …

Taste at The Cloud

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Taste at the Cloud has been running at the Cloud on Queens Wharf since September 13th. Today is the last day. I highly recommend you check this out today if you are heading around the city. It’s your last chance! There is no entry fee, you only pay for your food and drink ticket. Tickets come your choice of 2, 4, 6 or 8 dishes with matching beverage. Prices $17, $28, $42 or $54. The more dishes you buy, the cheaper the average price per dish. We didn’t realise until after we had bought our three separate tickets that we could split 1 or 2 big tickets between us. Oh well. Hopefully this info benefits someone else. There are menus from four themed kitchens: Seaside, Urban, Rural and Winery/Orchard. Each offering four kiwi showcase dishes. You can choose to mix and match any of the menus. You simply queue at the kitchen of your choice, collect your food and then your drink. We checked out the food at the Cloud yesterday and Now I wish …

Tale of two prawns: Steamed Garlic Prawns & Super Tasty Grilled Prawns

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A thing or two about prawns Prawns in New Zealand are imported raw as we have no prawn fishery. They are snap frozen at sea and can be easily thawed at home, so never buy thawed prawns because you don’t know how long they have been thawed for. Maybe it’s only been a couple of hours, but maybe it’s longer. Why risk it? If they’re snap frozen at sea and you thaw them just prior to cooking, they will be as fresh as possible. Prawn size and weight If you have bought prawns before, you may have noticed a special numbering system in place. It seems counter-intuitive, but the smaller the number, the larger the prawn. Less is more! Well, less is big. U10 or U20 means under 10 or 20 prawns per kilo. These are the biggest prawns and also the most expensive. Handy guide to prawn sizes (per kilo) Extra large 10/20 also displayed as U10 or U20 Under 10 and Under 20 prawns per kilo Large 21/30 Under 30 prawns per kilo Medium …

Auckland Art Week is…

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Auckland Art Week is just around the corner (13-23 October) and there is time to have a squiz at all the events that are on to figure out which ones tickle your fancy. Some events that require a ticket but there are plenty of free events. More info can be found at artweekauckland.co.nz. Some things to see and do at Auckland Art Week: Basement Fest 2011. A whole lot of shenangins going on at Basement Theatre, including street art show The Dirty 13, Comedians including: Cori Gonzalez Macuer presents Cori Gonzalez Macuer, Burlesque show: In Flagrante and Regrooved Block Party. 28 September to 22 October @ Basement Theatre. Alessandra Zecchini and her daughter Arantxa Zecchini-Dowling will be making, baking and decorating as per their new book Party Food for Girls. 16 October @ Lopdell House Gallery. Artfeast. Mixing 2 of my favourite things. 18 October @ Whitespace. Hungry! Opening Night. 13 October @ Te Karanga Community Art Space. Alphabet City Open Studio. A must if you have any interest in letterpress, zines or bookmaking. 18 …

Whitianga Scallops

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The seafood people came bearing scallops that had been plucked fresh from Whitianga. I can’t resist a fresh scallop so I bought a bag of them for $26. I was hungry and fresh seafood is a weakness. When they are fresh, the are sweet, tender and not at all fishy. They have this this flavour that reminds me of oysters and lobster. I wish there were more words in our vocabulary to define the difference. Scallops are one of those seafoods that I have yet to overindulge in. Even when we’ve travelled to destinations where scallops are plentiful, we haven’t eaten to our limit. In New Zealand, we eat both the white adductor muscle and the orange/white coral. They are sold as one. Both the orange and the white part are equally delicious. I would feel cheated if I were served scallops with only the adductor muscle. I might eye the server suspiciously and impore, “Where is the rest of my scallop?!”. Scallops in the morning? I woke up thinking about scallops. The Koala asked, …

Maketu Pies

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I spied the Maketu Pie shelf in the deli section at the supermarket the other day so I bought 2 of their mussel pies. “Kiwi mussels cooked in a beautiful creamy cheese and parsley sauce then encased in our handmade, flakey golden pastry.” I feel like I’m a late bloomer when it comes to these pies. The few people I’ve spoke to all said they love Maketu Pies. I popped these in the oven and served with a simple green salad with tinned beetroot slices. I really enjoyed this pie. Full of flavour without all the salt. Store bought pies often have so much salt in them you can’t taste anything else. I guess it’s just as well because sometimes the ingredients in pies aren’t things you want to be tasting. I like the fact that these pies have a very short shelf life. As mussels should be. I’ll be buying these again for an easy quick dinner. I actually think the 2 for $6 “special” is their permanent pricing. More on Maketu Pies including a …

Semi-Permanent and We Can Create

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For the past 8 years, Semi-Permanent has been THE design conference to go to if you live in Auckland. Originating from Australia, it’s been going strong since I was a first year design student all those years ago and I’ve been to so many I’ve lost count. I know I’ve missed at least one but it was with a very reluctant, heavy heart. SP began as a one day event of creative industry speakers from around the world, but now it’s ballooned into a two day event with a myriad of side events (art exhibitions, after parties, subtle mobs) running alongside the conference. It’s a super inspiring event and one that no creative should miss. I swear I come home super charged and ready to explode with things to explore/make/research. This year, the New Zealand organisers of SP, The Church have branched off from SP to do their own conference called We Can Create. The two design conferences are 2 weeks apart. SP is 12-13 August and WCC is 26-27 August. With limited WCC earlybird …

Unbelievably Easy Feijoa, Chocolate & Custard Pastries

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Tofu the bunny has been eating feijoas (pronounced fee-jo-ahs) and I have to check the lawns every day so that he doesn’t over eat. I toss any half eaten feijoas into the worm bin. The uneaten feijoas get turned into all sorts of yummy things. I made these babies for Natahma’s baby shower last week. It was the first baby shower I’ve ever been to and it was mostly just eating yummy food, talking about girl stuff and drinking champagne and feijoa wine. We didn’t play any silly games and the experience didn’t put me off having babies for life. These pastries are really easy to make and if you have a heavy feijoa tree in your yard, this is a good way to get rid of some. If you don’t have feijoas, I’m sure you could experiment with other fruit. I considered using plums and maybe still will at a later stage. I made something similar over a week ago but the latest ones are much, much better because they have chocolate in them. …

Burgers at Matakana House

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Opensouls, one of my favourite bands in the whole world, played their final show last Sunday. It was at Leigh Sawmill Cafe which is about an hour drive north. So we made an afternoon of it and packed the van with some friends. Clinging on to the last threads of summer, we visited the beach by Goat Island for a swim and a snorkel. It was a beautiful day in Auckland but as we drove north, the skies turned grey and by the time we’d finished swimming and snorkeling, it was pelting down. Swimming and snorkeling are a surefire way to work up an appetite and with Leigh Sawmill closed until 4pm for set up and every single shop in Leigh closed on a Sunday afternoon, we were forced to drive to Matakana for a munch. Matakana is pretty gourmet as far as small towns go and I realised I’d never been there before. They have a highly rated farmers market which I do hope to visit another time. As we drove down the main …

Deadliest catch right here in New Zealand

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Alaskan King Crab is expensive and pretty hard to get in New Zealand but I got to try some in November last year. However, since October 2010, fishermen have been given the go ahead for an exploratory permit to catch king crab in New Zealand waters. Sadly, it seems that the market for this crab is not destined for New Zealanders. “…could be marketed as high-value products in Europe, Asia and the US, as the practice of catching them in pots allowed for live exporting. King crabs, which grow up to 1.2m long, are a valuable commodity in the Northern Hemisphere.” I’m still baffled as to why people don’t eat crab here in NZ. Perhaps a thriving crab industry in NZ will change this? I hope so. If not, let’s hope a king crab industry right here in NZ will mean reasonably priced king crab for the handful of us that like to grapple with these pincy critters. I hope it doesn’t all go to the overseas market! That would be sad indeed. Read the full article here …

Birthday Dinner on the Tramway Restaurant

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Surprise birthday gift from parents-in-law: A 4-course dinner for on the Tramway Restaurant. Yes, I know! Spoilt! Tablecloths, linen napkin, lots of cutlery, air conditioning, smooth music in a colonial style dining tram – this was the works! The menu is short and sweet. Perfect for a chef on a tram. The tram seats about 35 diners and there is a tiny kitchen in the centre of the tram. There are no doors so both dining areas can see into the kitchen space. 35 diners with 4 courses in a tiny kitchen over 3 hours. The chef is a genius! We shared bread and dips, I had a lamb entree, salmon main, brownie with compote for dessert. I wasn’t expecting salmon to appear on their limited menu. This was local salmon and beautifully cooked. I even ate all my asparagus. The others had a vegetable tart, porterhouse steak, cajan chicken breast, coconut creme brulee and a cheeseboard. Everything was delicious. We shared 2 bottles of Church Road Merlot and were tipsy and pleasantly full by the …

Friday Favourites: Fish Burger

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An amazing meal isn’t just about the food. What you did that day, the company you keep, surroundings and other stuff can all affect your enjoyment of a meal. After a lovely day at the Muriwai last summer, I got to eat this beast for a late lunch. A big piece of deep fried fish, plenty of salad bits and tons of mayo/tartar. It was at the fish and chip shop attached to the store on the way out of Muriwai. I don’t know the name of it, but I’m sure you’ll find it. It still looks good half way through. What’s a kiwi day at the beach without some fish and chips?