These are a few of my favourite things

 - Fiona


There are a handful of dishes – both restaurant  and home-cooked – that the merest thought of prompts immediate salivation. They are nothing flash (well, with one exception, which I will come to later). These are the dishes lodged permanently in the memory, dishes that comfort, food that delivers an abundance of flavour but is in essence something quite simple.

The first is one of my mother’s Saturday Night Teas. As kids, with both parents hard at work on our sheep farm during lambing, shearing, or dagging, various neighbourhood teenagers or family friends would be called upon to pop in and take care of my sister and I. In case said babysitter happened to be an imbecile, there was a an A4 hardcover book in our brown linoleum kitchen with handwritten instructions on how to make a basic Saturday night kids’ dinner – macaroni cheese, vegetable soup, and my favourite – eggs on toast. Surely not a recipe for eggs on toast, I hear you chorus. But it was the way Mum made them that needed to be replicated just so by any interloper. Two slices of Molenburg bread, well toasted and spread thickly with butter and Vegemite. Two perfectly poached eggs from the chook house atop toast. And the clincher – lots of grated tasty cheese, and a dash of pepper. Even as I type, I can taste the creaminess of the egg, the bite of the cheese, the savoury Vegemite and feel the crunch of the toast. Husband thinks this recipe sounds ‘gross’ – it’s really not. It’s perfect.

The second is somewhat more complicated – a dish from my early 20s and one I’ve never tried to replicate. From now defunct Wellington restaurant Castro's, blue cheese and peanut wantons.  This was always the entrée of choice as a young  journo in the capital – in fact, I recall one occasion when I skipped a main course entirely and simply ordered a triple serve of these delicious morsels. It was the incongruity of the dish that pleased me just as much as the flavour of it…. The idea that something as European as blue cheese should be married with crushed nuts and encased in an Asian wonton wrapper, deep fried, and served with a bittersweet raspberry coulis (yes – this was the early 90s people) appealed. They were pure decadence – crispy, nutty, buttery.  These days you can order the Castro's blue cheese and peanut wontons at Chow http://www.chow.co.nz/ in Tory or Woodward Streets in Wellington.

Thirdly, from Scott’s Epicurean in Hamilton, spaghetti aglio olio. I can’t link to the site so you can check out this humming little central city café for yourself, because they don’t have one. What they do have is brilliant service, good coffee, a cabinet stocked with sugary goodness, and a short menu brimming with easy, comforting food. Scott loves the breakfast quesadilla – I can’t move past the spaghetti – a small bowl of perfectly cooked pasta, extra virgin olive oil, a smack of chilli, heaps of parsley, garlic and parmesan. When Scott’s away touring the world and texting me about the smokey barbecued mullet he’s eating on the beach in Portugal, I’m usually found in our herb garden, snipping huge handfuls of flat leaf parsley, which I chop roughly, mix with 3-4 cloves of crushed garlic (depending on how many meetings I have the next day) , a spoonful of chilli from a jar in the fridge, and a long slosh of oil. I love a good grind of rock salt on mine too. It’s the fastest, easiest, tastiest dinner I know and I now believe my aglio olio rivals the one I first tasted at Scott’s almost 8 years ago.

I could add in here a wee list of other café treats I love – the coconuty, lemony kedgeree from Savour and Devour http://www.savouranddevour.co.nz/ in Auckland’s Grey Lynn and the chicken and mayo sandwich from Nikau www.nikaucafe.co.nz in Wellington’s City Gallery to name just two.

But the final spot goes to the incredible soup I had just last month at Toto www.totorestaurant.co.nz. It was my birthday – I picked Scott up from the airport after one of the aforementioned mullet-eating tours, and we traipsed off to this much-loved stalwart of the Italian dining scene here in Auckland. It holds a particularly special place in our hearts because we’ve dined here many times before and also, got married in its private basement area, the Montecristo Room, 18 months ago. This time, we ate above ground, right next to one of the restaurants two blazing fires – and my starter of zuppa di pesce alla Toto  (seafood soup) totally blew my mind. Obviously these guys know how to start their soup with a fabulous fish stock, because this plate of wintry goodness had a depth of flavour that I’d never tasted before. It was rich, savoury, tomatoey, packed with herbs, and full of mealy pieces of white fish, mussels, the most tender baby octopus, fat prawns, and pipis. In fact, it was faultless – and I almost cried with happiness.  The rest of our meal at Toto was also excellent, in particular the dessert we shared– a light, soft ricotta cake served with a strawberry consommé that had the right level of sweet and zing to finish the meal perfectly. Oh Toto. How we love you.

As always, keen to hear comments and your contenders for tantalising meals you could eat over and over again…  Let Eat, Pay, Love know and we’ll check them out.   

Salt pigs

- Scott

I'm one of those annoying people that happily discounts any number of menu items on the basis that "No, I cook that sort of thing all the time myself". I don't, of course. I don't have a brigade of sous chefs chopping vegetables perfectly, or making silky sauces to go with my fish dinner, or putting the final touches on the plate using a pair of minature tweezers and a pepette. Which is just as well really, because restaurants are one of the few places that we get to sit back and witness some modern day magic. It could be some tricky molecular gastronomy.... or the best vegetable soup you've ever eaten.

It's pretty cool to see restaurants open the recipe book for home cooks to have a crack at - but I always wonder if they really give you all the info. I mean, in this time of shrinking expense accounts and vanishing disposable income, of wannabe home MasterChefs and people who "love to host" - why would you? Surely it's bad for business?

Having enjoyed the awesome modern Vietnamese on offer at Cafe Hanoi (http://www.cafehanoi.co.nz/) a couple of times I was overjoyed to see a few of their signature dishes turn up in the latest Cuisine magazine (http://www.cuisine.co.nz/) which, also awesomely, we are receiving free as a make-good for the power company stuffing up our bill two months running.

Anyway, having just about come to blows over who would get to eat the last serving of Cha Ca (grilled fish with turmeric, galangal & dill) on my last visit, it was pure serendipity that this recipe was among the six or so Hanoi's chef Jason van Dorsten was willing to cough up.

The process itself is easy; marinate some fresh white fish fillets (in my case gurnard) in ginger, galangal, turmeric and fish sauce and then pan grill it with onions, beans and dill. To serve, all it takes is some nuoc cham (garlicky chilli) sauce and some rice / rice noodles.

For once - and anyone who knows me will understand how hard this was for me to do - I actually followed the recipe to the letter. And even measured and weighed ingredients as accurately as your average chemist might when mixing up Granny Jean's heart elixer. Well.... almost. Truth be told I've never grown dill in my herb garden and the idea of buying leafy green herbs is a bit foreign to me - unless it's really 'foreign' leafery we're talking about. So I substituted fennel fronds. And second, I added some tamarind paste I found in the fridge (I've used it maybe once in the last nine months so I was keen to decrease it's 'cost per swallow' ratio). It seemed to make sense to me... French vibe with fennel; check. Viet-Thai vibe with tamarind; check.

The end result? It was bloody tasty. But it was incredibly salty - which is odd given my salt pig barely came within a trotter of the pan. It was so salty that Fiona, my wife and fellow blogger - whose only real connection to her farming upbring is that she still likes to nuzzle a salt lick from time to time and is the sort of person who likes to add salt to their butter - found it almost overbearing. I licked my plate clean, but also drank seven litres of water and had a kidney transplant for dessert.

What went wrong? Was it the tamarind? Was it really that far gone? Does fennel have some weird reaction when it encounters fish sauce? Maybe I should just have given in and done what the guy in the chef jacket had asked me to... or perhaps I should book a long lunch at Hanoi and try it all again.

Ah... so recipes in magazines are good for business then. I get it.

Muy caliente!

- Scott

I've been slightly obsessed with Mexican food for a few years now;  finding good local purveyors, buying or growing a few ingredients, learning how to make it. Most importantly I like eating it. In fact, it seems to have taken over from Thai food for me - perhaps because it's much easier to pull together a good version at home.

But if you're not into making your own, you're in luck - there are Mexican joints popping up around the place, most recently in Wellington's film hub Mirimar. As I've been telling anyone who'll listen that AK has the best spot in the country, it seems we're heading for... dum, dum, daaahh... The Mexican Stand Off!

Today is Cinco De Mayo - the 5th of May, Mexican Independance Day - so it seemed like the perfect time to take a trip out to Mexican Specialties in Ellerslie, Auckland and conduct some 'research'. 

I'll lay my cards on the table right now and state, I am a Mexican Specialties lifer. I have eaten here 50+ times in the last few years - and that's saying something given it's 25kms from my front door to theirs. It's a combination of the vibe; loose, vibrant and homely, and the food; super fresh, unassuming, tasty as all hell. The menu has remained pretty much unchanged since it opened 4 years ago - but that's just a sign that they know what they're doing, and that they're delivering something people want. Personal favourites are the Prawn Tostada; poached prawns in avocado and chilli sauce on a crunchy corn tortilla. Chicken Enchilada with Tomatillo Sauce. Marinated Fish Tostada. And of course the Beef Taco - which, with its perfectly cooked steak (please, dear God! - or rather, dear Chef Carlos? - tell me what's in the marinade!) partnered with guacomola all wrapped in soft flour tortilla, is the stuff of legend. People (well, Fiona mainly) rave about the hot chocolate too, but the dark cocoa, chilli and cinnamon combo is too much for me. 

I'm sure visiting Mexicans / Americans find it a bit pricey - $8 for a cheese quesadilla, $12 for the beef taco - and I guess it does stray from its 'cheap and tasty' roots for that, but it's worth the effort and expense.

8.5/10 (points deducted for not serving freezing cold cerveza... or being open more than three days a week)

http://www.mexicanspecialities.co.nz/

I'd been hearing about the tasty tacos & burritos being pimped from a stand at the Sunday market in central Wellington for months, but when I had the chance to stroll down, there was no such thing to be found. "Never fear", my southerly friends said, "They're opening a full Taqueria soon". And lo and behold, La Boca Loca opened its doors a fortnight ago.  I've made two trips to the Park Road site in Mirimar, and so far so good. Unlike Mexican Specialities, the menu here is extensive... and looks likely to get even bigger given the builders are hard at work putting together a dining room next door to the current taco counter. The food here is almost a different beast to my local. It's definitely more refined, which makes sense given the chefs have some pedigree in the restaurant trade, and that is reflected in the environment too; think lots if stained wood and carefully crafted flashes of colour.

So far I can definitely recommend the Burrito de Res; stuffed with slow cooked beef brisket (an underused cut) and the Roasted Pork Tacos - which come in delicious white corn tortillas and with a tangy pineapple salsa. Everything looks beautiful on the plate and is presented with a touch of flair. I like that they fry their own tortilla chips on the premises too, and that they make a point of sourcing sustainable and 'happy' products (I'm talking pigs, chickens and cows here mainly). Again I think that the prices might raise an eyebrow - but probably not, this is NZ and we're used to paying over the odds for quality food.

7.5/10 (but watch this space, I think I'll be back for more) 

http://www.labocaloca.co.nz/

Other spots around AK:

Taqueria (Ponsonby Rd) - Well, the prices are right... and it's definitely a quick and cheap bite, but there is no love in the air here. Corn torillas (yeah!) but overly sweet fillings (boo!). 6/10

Mexicali Fresh (various locations around AK) - Kind of like an upmarket Taco Bell... I'm not into it. 5/10 

Ashi Itzcalli (Surrey Cres) - I went for lunch, which was a mistake. This is definitley a dinner spot - with prices for mains ($25+) that reflect that. I like that they have a dish called Slutty Mexican Fillet on the menu and shape the rice like an Aztec pyrimad... no lie!  6/10

Take four hours and two hungry people. Combine.

I'm sold. The tasting menu at Clooney is a thing of wonder.
Scott and I have a thing for degustation, but seem to tackle them about a year apart. They're expensive.

I'd booked us into Clooney http://www.clooney.co.nz/ tucked away behind the rather depressing Victoria Park Market in Auckland, as a surprise for our one year wedding anniversary. We hadn't intended to do the eight courses, but when the menus came, it became impossible to resist. Scott loosened his belt, I did some quick sums. At $130 a head, or $230 if you include the matching wines, you want to make sure the babysitting is cheap that night.

Mum had the kid under control. She doesn't charge, and so we began.

I won't pick apart the entire menu for you but here's the thing. The food is exquisite, and the meal is perfectly paced. You start with a tiny serve of vodka marinated kingfish with the teeniest calimari rings on the side, and it's a wee bite of heaven. Then there's a Japanese inspired broth with dashi and roe, followed by my favourite course of ostrich and foie gras. These three courses take over an hour to complete and just when you're wondering whether you should be stealing a few truffle fries off the neighbouring table (Scott had a $2 coin he was going to swap for a handful) the protein arrives: pork fillet with cider jelly, then Scott's favourite course - the lamb with farro and soy bean. After that, there's a zingy cape gooseberry course, signalling the beginning of the sweet courses.

And suddenly, we detour. I wasn't thrilled with the second to last course but Scott loved it - a sweetish salad of pomegranate and walnut. Sorta felt to me like a starter that had arrived five courses too late.

The lightest chocolate and chestnut souffle to finish and we were sated.

As a special occasion destination, Clooney is tops. If you were to recommend a place to your visitors to Auckland - a gastronomic must-do - Clooney's tasting menu would head up the list. But you've got to ask yourself if any meal is worth $130. Is it?

In this case, I think the answer is yes. If you consider that you're paying for service (impeccable, always is there), plating (every pinch of micro-greens perfectly positioned), ingrediants (fresh and fine), ambience (sexy, velvety, dim and delish), and of course taste, then it rates. Save up, go there.
With a bottle of Martinborough Vineyards sauvignon blanc under my belt I even felt brave enough to raise the 'salad posing as pudding' course with owner and Maitre d' Tony. He considered it, and said he caught my drift.... although he argued that the dish deserved its position given the sweetness of the beetroot and pomegranate.

Next time we go there, we'll be signing up for the set menu at the other end of the Clooney economic spectrum - the $49 pre theatre menu. Three courses, in and out by 7:30pm. That, I can afford more than once a year.