Hastings Farmers Market

Hastings Farmers Market

Hawke's Bay A&P Showgrounds
Kenilworth Road, Hastings
Every Sunday 8.30am -12.30pm

It was an absolute pleasure to visit the Hastings Farmers Market over the Christmas break. It is held in big open fields with plenty of space for free parking and has a real market feel to it. I think many people had the same idea as there was a huge crowd, but the queues were not large unless you were wanting a coffee!

There was a variety of fruit and vegetables available at very competitive prices and that had to be my highlight. I only wish I could have taken some of the herb and vegetable plants home with me. However, you could not go past the stands of fresh fruit juice, wheatgrass juice and fresh bread; tastings from the Kaweka range, such as Thai chicken curry; Firstlight meats; The Deli for delicious chorizo sausage; Te Mata Mushrooms (see photo of grow your own mushroom buckets), St Andrews Limes (for a range of delicious dressings and sauces - try the lime and passionfruit crush, or lime and vanilla syrup. These are available in many good food stores including Farro Fresh); Farmgate wines, Hawthorne and Bay Expresso coffee, Aunty Celia’s Muesli, just to name a few.

Now, if I lived in the Hawkes Bay, I'd be there every week to get my fruit and veges!

Auckland Fish Market

Auckland Fish Market
22 Jelicoe Street, Viaduct, Auckland

Overall rating: 5
This gets our vote for BEST FISH SHOP IN AUCKLAND

Are you sick of looking at the fish in the supermarket and wondering how old it is? A trip to the Auckland fish Market is definitely the place to go as you are guaranteed the fish will be fresh, and the prices reasonable.

An array of fish and seafood is available, whole, filleted, kebabs, stuffed, etc.

Along with the fish store, you can eat at the restaurants attached to the same building. And there is even a grocery store, with fresh produce in the same building, making it a one stop shop.

There is now a night market on a Thursday night from 5-9pm. I haven't been to it yet, but if you plan to eat there it is the night to go. (I'll update the blog when we have been).

On top of this, there is also a Seafood School, with a range of classes to choose from, and a wine shop that even stocked one of our favourite wines from Matakana, the Imposter, from Omaha Bay Vineyard. I think they have all bases covered!

This is a great place to take visitors from out of town!

Nosh Food Market

Nosh Food Market,
422 Dominion Road, Mt Eden

Monday to Saturday 8.30am to 7.00pm, Sunday 9.00am to 6.00pm

A welcome addition to the upmarket supermarket shopping in Mt Eden is Nosh Food Market. It has now been open a couple of weeks and the place is buzzing with the local foodies from Mt Eden.

The store has fresh produce, a great selection of cheese and cold meats in the deli, a wine selection, fresh bread baked daily, flowers and a range of dry goods from all around the world.

The BlackRock Butchery at Nosh has fine meats and seafood and New Zealand produced hams and free range turkeys ready for Christmas. It is great to have somewhere to buy fresh fish on the way home from work, instead of having to traipse all the way down to the Fish Market!

C.A.C. Bar & Eatery

C.A.C Bar and Eatery
26 Normanby Road, Mt Eden, Auckland
Hours: 11am - late Monday to Friday. 10am - late Saturday and Sunday

Overall Rating: 4 Price: $$-$$$ Cuisine: Tapas

Food: 9 Drinks: 7 Ambience: 7 Service: 8

C.A.C. occupies an historic 1920's bluestone building that once housed the Colonial Ammunition Company - hence CAC, and another regular of ours.

We have some favourite dishes inspired from the Mediterranean that you must try. Namely, the Risotto balls with sundried tomato & mozzarella; Hummus with spiced lamb and pinenuts; Grilled Beef Steak with tomato, parmesan and salad greens; and Chorizo Sausage with braised onion, green grapes & rosemary to name a few. I must admit, we don't try many other dishes as these are fabulous.

One great thing about this tapas bar, is that the dishes are not tiny. A basket of fresh bread is delivered to the table and this accompanies the hummus especially well. Dishes range in price from $10-20 and for two people 4-5 dishes are ample.

The drinks menu for wine is slightly overpriced, but they do have a great range of cocktails and imported beers to choose from as well. The restuarant has two floors and is darkly lit in most areas. The upper floor is a great venue to hireout for 20-40 people. They even have live music some nights.

Check it out for the best value tapas bar in Auckland! (That I have been to anyway!)

Dulcie May Kitchen

Dulcie May Kitchen, 809 Mt Eden Road, Auckland
Hours : Monday - Friday 8am - 5pm, Saturday 8am - 3pm, Closed Sunday (except it was open today!)

Overall rating: 5

The Dulcie May Kitchen has just won the Metro Magazine award for best cake shop for 2009. This award says it all. The quaint little shop/cafe has a delicious array of cakes, made on-site 'the good old-fashioned way' to choose from. However, it does not only sell cakes, it has a range of sandwiches, and lunch dishes, great coffee, and it also specialises in take-home dinners made fresh daily and available to pick up after 3pm.

The shop also sells Velvet coffee, Teaz Tea, Kapiti Kitchen cordials, granola, preserves and homeware, plus Matakana Gourmet Nut Butters.

The shop was inspired by the owner's grandmother, of which they have written a cookbook also available in the store. This shop is well worth the visit.

SABATO

SABATO
57 Normanby Road, Mt Eden
(09) 630 8751
Monday – Friday: 9.00am to 5.00pm
Saturday: 9.00am to 5.00pm
Sunday: 10.00am to 4.00pm

Overall rating: 5

If you have deep pockets, and have a taste for fine imported food, Sabato is the place to shop.

Sabato is a leading food importer and distributor of fine foods primarily from Italy, Spain and France. It has been the first to introduce many key ingredients to the New Zealand market and caters to the needs of chefs and ‘foodies’ throughout New Zealand.

Sabato have very generous tastings of many of their imported products and those created in their own kitchen throughout the store, and another great touch are the free recipe cards found near many of the products.

It really is a one-stop shop, with a fabulous deli, large selection of olives, pasta and accompanying sauces, chocolate, kitchenware, and frozen pastry section just to name a few things to choose from. You can even order on line at Sabato.

Q Restaurant Review

Q Restaurant, at the Westin Hotel Lighter Quay, 21 Viaduct Harbour Avenue, Auckland.
(09) 909 9038

Overall rating: 5 Price: $$$$ Cuisine: NZ/Pacific Rim
Food: 9 Drink: 9 Ambience: 9 Service: 9

For a pricey restaurant your expectations for exceptional food, service and wine selection are always high, and at Q you won't be disappointed. It is a beautiful restaurant with a unique ambience with backlit marble and a mixture of romantic quiet corners and more open areas for groups. I think there is even outside areas, but the weather has been too cold when we were there.

We have visited the restaurant twice and after the first visit I couldn't wait to go back. I must admit the second time was a little disappointing, therefore I can't say they have consistency. However, they have a fabulous wine selection, and the food is exceptional, if you choose the right dish. Look out for the seared tuna, whole snapper, and beef fillet.

Our second trip back we had already decided to have the sticky date pudding. So, even though the degustation menu was very tempting, we decided to go a la carte. The caramel sauce on the pudding is to die for, but unfortunately the pudding was dry. However, you cannot knock the service as our waiter asked for our opinion and we were honest. The kitchen did a taste test themselves, agreed, and immediately withdrew it from the menu. (We were only charged for one).

The Westin is a beautiful hotel, and has a lovely bar you can go to for pre-dinner drinks. If the dessert hadn't been disappointing I would give the food 10. and, we will be back!

You won't be disappointed!

De Post Belgian Beer Cafe Review

De Post Belgian Beer Cafe
Mt Eden Road, Mt Eden, Auckland
Open daily from 8am till late

Overall rating: 3 Price: $$-$$$ Cuisine: Belgian/Pub grub

Food: 5 Drinks: 7 Ambience: 5 Service: 5

Originally opened in 1886 as the Mt Eden Post Office this building was transformed into De Post Belgian Beer Café in 2000.

The bar serves authentic Belgian cuisine and beer, and also a selection of wines from NZ and Australia.

The bar is renowned for its signature steaming mussel pots and famous mussel platters. However, on our last visit we attempted to be different and try the fish of the day. Unfortunately, that was unavailable so we went for a quick option of garlic bread, pork spare ribs, and a chicken Caesar salad. After an hour wait the meal showed up, with the ribs cold and the salad the worst Caesar I have ever come across. When it came to pay, the waitress had run out of paper in the till, didn't have a pen, and also got me to check the bill of which she was missing our drinks (and she was the one who had served us).

Ok, it was a busy night, but sorry guys, there is definitely room for improvement here. Or maybe, we will just keep the bar in the category of drinking not eating, or stick with the mussels and fries - of which they do quite well.

Sorry, not on my list of recommendations.

Lanna Thai Restaurant Review

Lanna Thai overall rating 4 stars Price: $$

839 Mt Eden Road, corner of Peary Road, Mt Eden, Auckland (09) 638 6758 Open from 5:30pm

Food: 8 Wine: 6 Ambience: 6 Service: 8

This restaurant has become one of our regulars on a night when we don't want to cook. This week we took three friends with us, including a couple of Germans who had just flown in from Bangkok. We had a selection of entrées including spring rolls, chicken satay and moneybags. All are delicious, but the favourite would have to be the satay chicken.

Portions are very generous, and therefore we only ordered 3 to share. The Pad Khing (stir-fried chicken with ginger, mushrooms and pring onions), roast duck curry, and from the vegetarian selection Pad Pak (stir-fried mixed vegetables, bean curd, sweet chilli sauce and cashews) We shared a bottle of sauvignon blanc and the total bill was $153. Great value for money.

The place was pretty full, so it was not so quiet on this night, but usually it is busy but not loud.The staff are very friendly and the service is great.

A great mid week dining experience.

Fabulous Samoan Honeymoon

Dates travelled: JULY 2009

First stop, the most populated island in Samoa, the island of Upolu. We transfered across to the southern coast to the SINALEI REEF RESORT. Unfortunately due to the tsunami it has now been closed until approx May next year, but when it is back up and running it is a beautiful resort to stay at. What we liked most about it was that there were no children under 12 (sorry kids, but when on honeymoon...) and our private fale with a beautiful sea view. As it is now closed I won't go into any more details of the Sinalei, but I do give it a huge recommendation as we visited many places on the southern coast including COCONUTS and the rustic SEABREEZE and in our opinion nothing really compared to it. (However, it is not cheap, so depends on your budget)

Back in Apia, we found a great restaurant owned by an Italian guy and his Samoan wife (apparently, but can't confirm that) called PADDLES. It has an excellent lunch menu and serves great coffee - which is something hard to come by in Samoa we found. Actually, we went back there three times as the food turned out to be fabulous.

We circumnavigated the island, visiting waterfalls, the Piula Cave pool etc, but actually nothing beat hanging at the beach and swimming in the natural water pool at the Sinalei.

Five days later we were on our way in our hirecar to the ferry to Savaii. The trip should have taken 40mins but we decided to take the seaview route and were not disappointed. From Fagalei Bay to Cape Tulivae was the most scenic views we had found on the island. We passed through beautiful villages. We crossed some of the worst pot-holled roads ever, and a ford in about a foot of water, all of which our little Hyundai Getz was not designed to cope with!

The crossing on the ferry took 1.25 hrs. The boat was jam packed - I doubt OSH would have approved! The roads on Savaii are well maintained and we drove past a lovely beach on our way to LE LAGOTO RESORT. The restaurant at the hotel was pretty standard, however we prefered to walk down the road to a little hut where an Austrian guy was making 'authentic' Italian pizza at SEKIA PIZZA. He prided himself on using the best ingredients he could get his hands on and we were not disappointed. Amazing thin crusted pizza at a great price ($25-29ST) and he even delivered. Sitting on our patio looking out to sea, eating fabulous pizza and drinking local beer - what more could you ask for?!

LE LAGOTO has spacious airconditioned rooms with seaviews. Staff are friendly, breakfast was excellent (included in the package) but the best deal was the jug of Pina Colada for $50ST. Fantastic! It has a lovely sandy beach and a great swimming area with crystal clear water and plenty of fish. The coral is getting a hammering, but it is still somewhat alive.

10 days in a tropical paradise, where the people are friendly and pace of life is island time. Priceless!

This review can also be found on http://www.tripadvisor.com

The great wedding cake debacle

The City Cake Company, Mt Eden Village - Overall rating 2 - overpriced and arrogant
Rocket Kitchen, Ponsonby Road, Auckland - Overall rating 5 - beautifully presented cakes.

This blog entry is one of the reasons why I started this blog. It was an experience that I needed to share with other prospective brides looking for a wedding cake.

As you are probably aware, all you need to do is say it is for a wedding and miraculously, the price goes up! Now I'd heard this, but had not experienced it for myself until I went to the City Cake Company in Mt Eden Village.

I wanted to have cup cakes, and had tried a number of different options, and was getting a bit frustrated. I finally decided to go back to the City Cake Company and grudgingly spend $600 for a three tiered cake stand of cupcakes with a small cake on the top. Now, you say, $600 really? Well, they milk it, $65 to hire the stand to put their cakes on, over $100 for the small cake on the top and 60 cupcakes at $6.50 each. The woman serving me had the list of calculations in front of her and there was $30 on the list unaccounted for. I asked what that was for and was told under no uncertain terms "that's just what we do." And it certainly was not up for discussion. So, a 5% addition for the hassle for them or what? They must see every bride coming and just think we will pay anything, and it wasn't like I was being cheap at $600 for it after all! (so that is my little vent about this debacle!)

So what did I end up with? A three tiered Rocket Kitchen Chocolate Whiskey Cake, which was absolutely delicious. I bought ribbon from Eve's pantry and dropped that into the shop prior and got the florist to do a spray of orchids for the top. I then bought gold paper covered chocolate hearts to go around the base. A little DIY and we had a cake that tasted so much better than the cup cakes anyway at less than half the price!

An explanation of my rating system

Well, I have done some research and checked out what everyone else doing restaurant reviews is doing regarding their rating systems and have decided to keep it pretty simple.

Firstly, there will be an overall star rating of between one to five.

Secondly, there will be a price guide:
$ - under $15
$$ - $16-24
$$$ - $25-32
$$$$ - $33+

And lastly, a rating for the following out of 10:
Food
Wine selection
Ambience
Service

Hey, we are hereeeeeee!!!

So here is my new blog... all about food. Eventually I hope people will find it useful because of its
- restaurants, cafes and caterers reviews in Auckland (and anywhere my 'accomplice' and I visit);
- where to shop for good food including specialist food stores and farmers markets;
- where to buy fresh fish, and the best butchers
- wines and winery reviews (more than likely written by the accomplice!)
and whatever else I am inspired to talk about, or vent as the case may be.

So, if you know me, you know that when I go out, I expect better food than I can cook at home myself! My husband and I love to dine out and share a passion for fine wines - but not ones that cost a bomb. When I have time I love to cook special meals for friends at home.

I want this blog to give straight up honest reviews as one of my pet hates is poor food and service. So watch out, any unsuspecting waiter or waitress without the will to be at work! I'm not pretending to be an expert either... so feel free to email or comment on anything I have written.

Sit back and enjoy the read...