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!