Goodlife Weekend in Wellington

We got a great Air New Zealand deal to Wellington so decided to visit Irwin and Michelle last weekend. Despite it being about 5 degrees cooler than Auckland, the weather was beautiful and it was a good excuse to catch up over lots of coffees and be entertained by the mini-me's, Eva and Matilda.

Irwin and Michelle live near Petone which is a neat little suburb that reminds me of Ponsonby - lots of great cafes, neat little independent shops and old buildings. According to Michelle, Wellington has the most coffee roasters per capita in the world.  I'm not surprised as there are cafes and roasters everywhere through the city and the suburbs and the aromas are wafting everywhere. 

Cool stained glass at Caffiend Cafe, Petone

Cafes of particular interest in Petone are 'Caffiend' and 'Go Bang'.  We've been to both a few times now and there's always great coffee, great atmosphere and the cabinet food looks homemade and delicious. 

Fresh Water on tap in Petone

Petone also has the neatest little attraction - the fresh water spring, Te Puna Wai Ora, right in the middle of town.  People come from all over with their big drums to fill up on fresh water.
On Elle's recommendation we also got to the Dowse Gallery in Lower Hutt which is worth a look if your in that part of town. The Hairy McLarey children's book author, Lynley Dodd, was signing books, so there was a queue out the door.

On Saturday night we went into the city and checked out a few of Wellington's attractions.  To me, Wellington has a  real creative, artistic and cosmopolitan vibe that is hard to find elsewhere in New Zealand.  All roads (and good public transport) seem to lead to the city centre which gives it a heart. You can walk pretty much everywhere - people are walking down Cuba St Mall at all hours and it doesn't seem as overrun with hooligans as Auckland's Queen St at night.  


Here was our Saturday night line up: 
First off was 'Matterhorn' for a drink. A very cool bar with an amazing wine list. Wow - I wish this was around the corner from my work! The restaurant is meant to be great also, but that will have to wait for another time.
We then strolled down to 'le Metropolitain' for yummy French bistro fare.  Of course they had good duck confit so how could I not be happy with that?!  
We finished at 'Logan Brown', Al Brown's award winning restaurant, and my glass of Clearview Sea Red and some nice homemade chocolates was the perfect finish. Just the architecture is worth going in for the drink. What an amazing building. I think its an old bank. 


Well, maybe next time we go we'll leave it for a warmer time of year to go to Wellington but it was a great escape for the weekend. In the words of Dr Averil:  O for Awesome!

Irwin and Matilda at 'Go Bang' (so innocent!)

Michelle and Eva at 'Go Bang'

Al and Eva playing with phones in cars....

Matterhorn - very cool restaurant / bar in Cuba St

Al's artistic shot at Matterhorn

Give me dad's pancakes any day!

A picture of significance by a 'local' artist

Cool stainless steel installation on the wall at the Dowse Art Museum

This took up a whole wall at the Dowse

A couple of wind blown birds at Eastbourne 

Al's artistic pier shot at Eastbourne

Auckland: favourite cafes and beaches on a winter's day

Sentinel Beach with a view of the Harbour Bridge

Well, we are well and truly into winter now in Auckland with unpredictable weather and cold, fire worthy nights. This is the time of year when a nice sunny day is really appreciated.

A favourite weekend pastime for us on a sunny winter's day is to grab a hot coffee and a quick pastry and head down to one of the beautiful, secluded Herne Bay beaches to soak up some vitamin D. We started this tradition with our old Pooch, Sophie, who loved nothing more than to splash around the beach, and it's still one of our favourite things to do. The beach is remarkably close and I don't think people realise what a quick and uplifting escape this can be. Beaches are always a nice place to visit and not the domain of summer alone.

Living in Ponsonby means there is no shortage of great places to grab a coffee and a quick pastry. Here are my current top 5:

1. Agnes Curran on the corner of Ponsonby Rd and Franklin Rd, this place is an institution and probably one of my favourite cafe's in Auckland. It feels like you're walking into an old Auntie's for a cup of tea with lots of Antiques, quirky chairs, simple cabinet food, great service and of course great coffee.Even my parents became temporary fans when they were here from Canada last year, enjoying the nice rhubarb brioches and coffee.  Agnes Curran also displays local artist's work and we just recently bought a piece by a Ponsonby artist named Timothy Clark. Very cool.

A peak into Agnes Curran

Picked this up at Agnes: Ponsonby Post Office by Timothy Clark

2. Il Forno at 55 MacKelvie St, this Italian Bakery is another local Ponsonby institution. Their Almond Croissants are quite a regular feature on the beach trips as are their yummy Italian donuts.  I love the little complimentary Madeleines they often serve with each cup of coffee as well.  Nice touch!  We are often also likely to grab a fresh loaf of ciabatta from the bakery for later on.

3. La Boulange, an amazing little French Bakery at 214 Jervois Rd. They bake their pastries fresh on the premises in batches throughout the day in a relatively small oven. If you're lucky you'll arrive as something is just finished baking. Their Croissants and Pan au Raisin are just fabulous when fresh from the oven.

4.  Philippe's Chocolate and French Pastries has its factory shop on Great North Road, just before Bond St. Great French Pastries are available in the mornings. The coffee isn't bad, but we're more likely to grab a pastry and then head back to Agnes Curran for the coffee!

5. Farro Fresh, a new addition to the neighbourhood based at 34 Westmoreland St in Grey Lynn, has a nice selection of pastries - I'm not sure who makes them - probably Loaf, but I am a fan of the Chocolate Hazelnut Brioche.

There are plenty of beaches in the Herne Bay area.  If you're interested, just drive down Sarsfield St and at the end of most of the intersecting roads is a stairway down to the beach.  Also, a bit further along is Marine Parade which has a number of stairways to the beach as well.  One of our Faves is Herne Bay Beach.  Really, you are not far from the beach anywhere in Auckland and there are plenty of secluded spots to enjoy.

Allister manages to take some great photos so thought I'd share some from the other day at one of our more regular beaches, Sentinel Rd Beach in Herne Bay, with its lovely boat sheds and the Harbour Bridge in the background.

Happy coffee drinker

top of the steps leading down to the beach

Neat old boat sheds keeping an eye on the bridge

Living Well (and the art of self induced fois gras)

Sign in a place we stayed

Well, I've just come back from a trip to Canada and the USA which was fantastic.   It was a long awaited and well needed break - a revival of my 'good life' spirit after being far too focused on work for the last few months. We ate so much good food in the two week period that I feel I can relate to those poor ducks who are force fed for fois gras, except in my case, it was self induced!

The purpose of the trip was my mom's 70th birthday.  As ever its great to catch up with family, which I really don't get to do often enough, but we also managed to get out to Calgary to visit some besties, Deb and Dave, and on the way home we managed to squeeze in a stop in the San Francisco area, including a few days in Sonoma and Russian River. Because it was spring, we even managed to get the last of the snow falls in Calgary.  I don't think Allister will be rushing to experience Canadian winters any time soon!

New Zealand and Australia have some fabulous cuisine, but I was so impressed with the food in North America on this trip - there seems to be somewhat of a revival of local, well produced, non chain-food fare.  It all got off to a pretty good start with the home cooking in Kelowna including my mom's famous German Roladen and my dad's signature waffles.  Then came the homebaked torten from the German ladies which you cannot resist with the best of intentions. We had a great birthday celebration and got my mom off to a good start for her next decade!

All the German's living in the Okanagan Valley meant a great deal of pork knuckles and sauerkraut was also consumed by Allister.  Add some great Canadian wines from Mission Hill winery, literally up the road from where my parents live, and it's a recipe for indulgence. 

Lobster Mac and Cheese

Next stop, Calgary, where my foodie friend Debbie just returned from Rome with her smuggled stash of Italian salami and cheese (I love it!).  By dinner on the third night in Calgary, at a very cool Italian restaurant named Vero with tasting platters from the kitchen, homegrown Alberta lamb, and the ultimate Canadian delicacy, Lobster Mac and Cheese, I almost felt like my liver and intestine were going to malfunction!  I had progressively eaten so much over the course of a few weeks, one more 'after dinner mint' (my new/old favourite monty python quote) would have really blown the keg!

Deb and Dave run a bakery at the Calgary Farmer's market (called Yum bakery - if you're ever there you MUST go for a visit).  The market was really an excellent experience, where lots of local, fresh, well produced products were on offer all under one very big roof.  We don't really have any markets on that scale here and I wish I could transplant something like that to Auckland. (Calgary's population is actually slightly smaller than Auckland, so nothing stopping us) Yum bakery is very cool. They make everything themselves from scratch, including sourdough bread made from their starter named 'Eduardo' (they wanted something that sounded like a sexy Italian who will go forth and multiply! Apparently all good sourdough starters have names and can run into 100's of years of age). My pick - the fig and fennel sourdough which goes remarkably well with smuggled fresh Italian gorgonzola cheese as it turns out.  (Yum bakery was rated one of the top bakeries in Calgary recently, which they really deserve). 

San Francisco always inspires me as a food destination and this time was no exception.  I think the whole wine region North of San Fran is a natural foodie zone, but the 'locavore' movement just goes off there.  We went to 'The Girl and The Fig' in Sonoma the first night, which was heaving.  Apparently Lady Gaga had been there recently in a quest to buy a winery, but I think this place is always busy.  I had the duck confit (of course) and Al had the 'plat du jour', the house specialty - a revolving 3 course, seasonally inspired meal.  It was so good I bought a cookbook there.

Here's an example of their menu of the day or 'plat du jour' which they change regularly and costs $34 USD for 3 courses plus and extra $10 for 3 local wines to match.

Duck Confit Basteeya at Aziza

There were many other places, including ZaZu in Santa Rosa which cures all of its own pork products, but the highlight was back in San Fran at 'Aziza', a Morrocan Michelin starred restaurant which is probably one of THE foodie experiences of the year so far.  The restaurant is in a non descript building in a non descript part of SFO, but once you enter through the doors it feels like you've been transported to another place entirely. Anyone who knows me knows that Duck is always my first menu choice (hmmmm... maybe there's a reason I feel fois gras'ed so much!) and at Aziza, there was no exception.  Allister and I had the Duck Confit Basteeya with raisin and almond as a shared starter - if I could even marginally recreate this dish, I would be a very happy person.  Confit Duck and an almond paste are wrapped and backed in filo and dusted with icing sugar.   The sweet, savoury, nutty combination and the overall textural experience were just wow.  (Yes, Allister bought me a cookbook from here also! I will have to do my best to recreate what we experienced)

Well, its back to work now in earnest and if I can manage to keep some work life balance during this next crazy phase I will be doing well.  In the way that winter follows summer and night follows day, my duck confit splurge will now need to be followed by a slightly leaner, less fois gras'ing cuisine!  

Gallery next to SFMOMA

Diego, the cellar door dog at Porter's Creek winery in Russian River

My Award for Best Billboard!

The Great Kiwi Summer - Mt Maunganui and Gisborne

It seems most New Zealanders feel an inalienable right to a decent 2-4 week break over Christmas and New Year.  Businesses shut down, many of Auckland's best cafe's shut down (partly because they need a break and partly because no one is really left in Auckland - they've all gone to the beach!) and New Zealand goes into slow(er) mode.
My best friend from Canada was out last year and could not believe this phonomenon.  There is no way a Canadian business would shut down for that long - it's commercial suicide.  Not so here.  In fact, we expect and plan for it.

This year, our break consisted of Christmas at Mt Maunganui and a few days in Gisborne, which are both such great Kiwi holiday destinations, and then a week just puttering around the Auckland region. 

Here are some of my out of town highlights:

Mt Maunganui


A fine day outside at Astrolabe

 Astrolabe, Mt Maunganui Rd. We started with Justin's big birthday here and had a fabulous time. Good weather is required, which we had, as it's basically a big Astroturf area with an eclectic mix of camp chairs which you can pull up anywhere, almost like a picnic in the park.

'Nek Minit' at Astrolabe



Mills Reef Winery, Bethlehem.  This is a great winery and the cellar door experience has been good any time we've been there.  They are more than happy for you to try the full line up including their premium 'Elspeth' range.

Prawn Linguini, Tay St Bistro

Tay St Bistro, Mt Maunganui.  Always a bustling cafe and their prawn linguini was just what the doctor ordered on a miserable rainy day.  My coffee was good, but one of us was on decaf - they lost marks for using stale beans.

Catching up on the latest 'goss' at Grindz

Grindz Cafe, Tauranga.  My favourite cafe in the Bay.  This is the place to go on a bad weather day (or any day for that matter!  I go here every time I am in the Bay) - just chill out in the comfy sofas and read a trashy mag. Good long black and fresh decaf beans.

Grindz

Shopping Mt Maunganui.  They still have a lot of very cool independent boutiques with some neat things you won't see in the mall.

Walking around (or up if you're feeling fit) Mt Maunganui.  Obviously this is good weather activity, but I never tire of it. 40 minutes will get you around the base and then a coffee at either The Deck Chair or one of the other cafes on the boardwalk is great.

Gisborne

Matawhero winery - we drove here on the way into town to meet with everyone.  They have a lovely outdoor area and we had a fantastic platter for lunch.  This is the birthplace of NZ Gewurtz, though a bit of a drier style than I prefer. 

Millton winery - great wines and fantastic cellar door experience.  Their Chenin Blanc is a fave. 

Tolaga Bay - walk along the 600m long wharf and then try some fish and 'garlic' chips at Blue Water, a local delicacy.

Incidentally, Tolaga Bay's Uawa FM radio station holds a world record for the longest continuous radio broadcast.  In 2010, DJ Nikora Curtis broke the 175-hour with his record at 176.5 hours. How cool is that?!  This isn't exactly a metropolis, so a great way to put a town on a map.

Villaggio Cafe - we went here for both coffees and dinner.  A very cool little place and where I would go again if I was in Gisborne.

The Winemaker's Daughter - good brunch.

 

One thing we noticed on the roadtrip is that most restaurants had only 5 items on the menu to choose from.  Uncomplicated, but all menu options were good.  I suppose it makes sense - less waste, just a few very well executed choices.

So, as my own 2 week break comes to an end, on the one hand I am feeling a bit deprived because the weather hasn't been that great, but on the other I had a great time and am feeling a lot more relaxed than I did on the 23rd of December and I am ready to face another year of madness, mahem, and, hopefully, all that life brings us this year! 

As I set my alarm for an early start tomorrow morning back at the office, I wish you all a happy, prosperous, healthy 2012. 

Christmas with Friends

For me, Christmas is the time of year when the distance to loved ones seems the greatest.   Family overseas, departed loved ones, friends around the globe - we all seem to have those we are thinking about in an extra special way during this silly season.  
Now seems like a good time then, to count the blessing of family and special friends who we do spend time with in NZ - they are a part of the fabric of our lives, those we laugh with throughout the year and those who we want to spend time clinking glasses with during this time of festive cheer. One such group of friends were fortunate enough to congregate at Jo and Elle's for a spectacular annual Christmas dinner just recently. This is a day of pure indulgence: Elle and Jo's exceptionally good cooking, far too much good wine and increasingly entertaining company makes this quite the affair.

This year was exceptional, with a raft of delicious nibbles and then this 8 course menu:

• Rumaki (liver and water chestnuts wrapped in bacon and grilled on the bbq)
• Chilled Avocado soup with garlic bbq prawns
• Basil panacotta with tomato sorbet
• Elle's mom's Alabama crabcakes
• Bbq lamb with an amazing salsa verde
• Vietnamese shaking beef on a bed of greens
• Chocolate truffle cake
• and the grand finale of the most sensational raspberry mouse

And yes, this is restaurant quality food - Elle painstakingly plans the menu weeks in advance and generously puts an amazing combination together.  Eating around their large communal family sized table, this is a long, 8 hour affair.  Food is matched with wines that if you added up, would put this line up in the stratespheric price range if you actually managed to find them on a restaurant wine list, but which have been carefully nurtured in people's cellars just waiting for a special occasion like this to be taken out. It is a real treat to say the least!

In the spirit of Christmas cheer, I have asked a few friends to 'toast' their favourite wines from this past year.  Here's what they came up with:

John

2006 Seresin Reserve Chardonnay

2009 Matua Valley single vineyard grenache

Shelly

2010 Villa Maria Keltern chardonnay  (Shelly is the world's biggest Chardy fan, so trust her on this one!)

Gabor

2009 Trinity Hills The Gimblett, Gimblett Gravels bordeaux blend

Oloroso sherry lustau 1/58

Shaw & Smith Chardonnay verticle 2006, 07, and 08

Curt

1988 French Chateau Sudierault Sauternes, carefully cultivated in his cellar and absolutely perfect.

2007 Ramey Hyde Vinyard Napa Chardonnay

Elle

2006 Church Road Tom Chardonnay

2005 Schoffitt gewürztraminer

2002 Te Motu Cabernet

Jo

Apsley Gorge Chardonnay from Tasmania (and many other wines from their recent memorable trip to Tasmania!)

Stoneyridge Larose barrel pressings tasted at labnight at Pinot Plus 

Anne

Dunnolly Pinot Noir during a trip to Waipara - like nothing she's had beforehand

Mark

1988 John Riddoch Coonawara Cabernet (purchased from a cellar in Penola, Coonawara - this was definitely yummy and a perfect example of why you want to save something good for a number of years!)

1998 Leasingham Classic Clare Sparkling Shiraz

1998 Esk Valley Terraces

Cath

2004 Kerpen WS Auslese

1998 (?) Jim Barry The Armagh (another from Curt's cellar!)

2005 Felton Road Block 1 Riesling

Al

1988 John Riddoch Coonawara Cabernet (yes, a second mention) 

1988 French Chateau Sudierault Sauternes (I could add this to my list too)

1999 Grant Burge Meshach Barossa Shiraz

2004 Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier

Mine:

2008 Coriole The Lloyde Shiraz - tasted at my favourite vinyard in McLaren Vale

2010 Jasper Hill Grenache - from yet another special cellar door tasting

2002 Providence Merlot Cabernet Franc Malbec from Matakana - a treat from Sakiko at last Lab Nite

1988 Alsace Kientzler Gewurtz from Curt's cellar - the smile on Curt's face showed the pure joy a wine collector experiences when saving something for that long and it tasting absolutely perfect.  What a real treat.

Sophie:

And last, a special toast to Sophie, that special pooch we lost earlier this year - we opened our last bottle of 1997 Montrose Mudgee Black Shiraz to toast the wonderful time we had with her (1997 was the year she was born and Montrose Black Shiraz was the first case of wine I ever bought).

Merry Christmas to the many people we love.

MooChowChow

MooChowChow is one of my favourite Ponsonby Restaurants.  This is a recent (within the last year) addition to the local scene.  It's a very cool Thai Restaurant which I've been to 3 times in the space of a month. Just the name is enough to make it worth checking out, surely?!  It's perfectly Ponsonby as far as urban eateries goes so I decided it was probably a blogworthy location for all Auckland food lovers. We even took my parents here while they were over from Canada and it did not disappoint.

My favourite waiter

I had a look at Mehran's Dineout profile, but looks like he missed this one so I'll try to do it justice.  (Mehran for those who don't know is my crazy friend from Chicago who inspired me to get blogging - he's a food and wine lover from Chicago, who was here for only about 8 months and did 61 restaurant reviews!  Check out his rather colourful Auckland dining experiences on Dineout if you're feeling adventurous:  Mehran's Dine Out Reviews for Auckland)

As for MooChowChow, its Thai with a modern twist.  The chef did a stint at Longrains in Sydney, which makes sense, given the non traditional Thai style tapas coming out of the kitchen. There's no green curry chicken or pad thai here, just lots of interesting little dishes to share. And get this, the food menu is less than a page and the drink list is 7 pages! 



Caramalised Pork Hock and Chilli Vinegar



Unlike Mehran, I didn't ask the waiter his name, but he was really good all 3 times.  Funny, flirty, and good at making recommendations on the dishes - mostly he pulled faces at some of the more average dishes and pushed us toward the more interesting ones - good man.  My favourite dishes would have to be the 'Caramalised Pork Hock and Chilli Vinegar' and the 'Grilled Beef Short Rib in a rich red peanut curry'.  Yummy yummo - do I really need to share?! Both were melt in your mouth with a punchy asian salad on the side. All was matched with a nice Alsace Pinot Gris (or a Pingpong long for Jo!).



Beef Short Rib - Sensational!





Lots of empty plates



Everything was great and although the buzz and atmosphere could be mistaken for a Thai night market, it's pure Ponsonby.  Plenty of beautiful people, relaxed seating, stools around big shared tables and the back of the restaurant is basically a temporary structure that's painted in my favourite fushia colour.

Definitely give this place a go, especially if there's a group of you so you can try a lot more of the dishes!



happy patrons