wee New Zealand post (1)

The drawback to taking 2000+ photos on a two-week vacation is the post-vacation slog through them all.

No, I take that back: it's kind of fun, in fact.

In any case, I'm trying to get my Chicago life back on track, so stay tuned for a short series of posts from the vacation. I still intend to devote some lengthier posts to a few memorable meals and to our wine tasting tour in Hawkes Bay. Otherwise, I just want to get some photos out there for the four of you who might actually read this.

Up first: shots of Auckland. A sunny couple of days there to get into town
and have a swim at the Tepid Baths, shop on High Street and surroundings, lunch at Tasca in Vulcan Lane,


sip wine at Mecca,
and simply enjoy urban life.

two meals with Dion and Minna

One of the happiest things to learn about Dion and Minna over the last few years is that they, too, enjoy good food and good wine. Look, I know I'm called a food snob - to my face, even - and sometimes it's a fair accusation. So let me revel in it yet again.

On our first night in New Zealand, I saw a beautiful book at Dion and Minna's and was compelled to flip through it. Ah, the lust in my heart. A cookbook and a coffee table book: I knew that by the end of the trip, I'd buy my own copy. You can imagine my delight to learn that it was from the restaurant we'd dine at the next night, Saffron.

I love when fine dining is out of the way. I love that a small isolated town - albeit one that seems to bank on tourism - has such great dining. Arrowtown, not far from Queenstown and all the wineries and recreation of Central Otago, has the look of a restored old-time village. Saffron, meanwhile, just sits there, not too assuming.
Ah, but treats are in store inside.

I didn't get a copy of the menu (so I'm trying to pull some descriptions from the Web site), nor did I get good photos of all the courses. No shots of the raw Bluff oysters - a seasonal delicacy - for example. Meaty oysters and briny. We got the last order, and that only added to the enjoyment, of course. I also don't have a shot of my whitebait done two ways. The cookbook shows a plate of three preparations, and three are available, but not all on the same plate. I think I did well to forego the fritter and just have them simply fried and lightly coated in flour and fried. So simple, and yet the appetizer stuck with me throughout the remaining two weeks in the country and beyond. And did Conrad have an appetizer? I think so, but I cannot recall. No shots of our shared side dish of roasted vegetables that sent me on a two-week obsession over the delight of kumara.

An amuse-bouche: bloody Mary, served as a liquid-filled soft globe on a spoon.


Conrad's main course of Akaroa salmon, poached with creamed spinach, potato, wasabi, sweet ginger dumpling, sake beurre blanc.

My own main course of calves liver, crumbed, sauteed golden, with red cabbage, chicken & chestnut boudin. Liver is such a rare thing to see on menus, and I was drawn to it immediately. Worth it.

Dion and Minna knew the local wines better and steered us to a Valli Pinot Noir. In the end, we downed two bottles (and we wonder why we gained weight on the trip? HA!) Dinner done, we moved on to dessert.

Conrad wasn't wowed by dessert, a hazelnut praline souffle with hokey-pokey ice cream. I kind of have to agree, to a point. The souffle had a good nut fragrance but was mostly a bit blandly eggy in flavour. What redeemed it was plunking the ice cream into the still hot souffle. At that point I thought it rather tasty.

Oh, and indeed I did buy the book at the end of the trip. Food porn, utterly, and I love it.

Minna and I had corresponded at some length, trying to figure out fine dining in Auckland. In the end, though, we went for familiar rather than new: The French Cafe. Dion and Minna love the place a great deal, and when we'd dined there with them in 2007, we had enjoyed it mightily as well. Dion, in fact, recalled that I had raved about the quail. Good memory on that man, and quick check of the blog entry now shows that indeed I had. Which didn't stop me from ordering the recent preparation of that bird as my appetizer. Again, no menu to work from, and worse, few good photos. Bear with me - I'll get this right one day. Working from the Web site, then:

My appetizer of roasted quail breast with sweet spices, almond cream, quail b’stilla, poached apricot, pistachio oil.

Conrad's appetizer of swordfish carpaccio with pink grapefruit vinaigrette (which Conrad asked to have left off), shaved fennel, candied lemon, freshly picked crab, watercress.

Minna, Dion, and I all had the pink roasted lamb with soft white almond polenta, sweet tomato, buffalo ricotta, stuffed zucchini flower, lavender foam. The polenta was brilliant, and the zucchini flower filled with buffalo ricotta was a wonder.

Conrad stuck to fish (and I can't recall what type - salmon?) with seared scallops, stir-fried asparagus, shitake mushrooms, pea shoots, ginger sauce, fennel cream.

For dessert Conrad enjoyed the assiette of French chocolate, featuring warm chocolate tart, milk chocolate ice cream, cocoa brulee, chocolate macaroon, chocolate sauce.

The rest of us each ordered the apple creme brulee, a magnificent concoction of caramelised apple, vanilla apple jus, green apple sorbet, butterscotch, pain d’epices.
This was the best dessert I had on the trip, I think.

Our wine was a lovely Pinot Noir from the Canterbury area of the South Island, the 2005 Bell Hill Old Weka Pass Road. We ended up with a generous heaping of contentment, and were once again glad to have visited. It's very easy to see why this is a favoured restaurant, and I was sorely tempted to buy its cookbook as well.

Two very very fine meals in New Zealand, and yet, there was one restaurant we liked even better (and one other restaurant that was very definitely comparable to these two). Our hard lives...

second best meal on NZ trip?

Second best? Possibly. We dined very well while in New Zealand, I must admit. Oh come on - if you've seen this blog before, that won't come as a surprise.

Good meals are more than simply immaculately and creatively plated portions of exquisite treats, served by someone calling me "Sir". Setting, company, occasion - all can override the actual food itself if not complementing what is on the plate.

Or the paper.

On an easy Sunday in Auckland the four of us (plus Elvis) went the takeaway route. We picked up fish and chips (snapper in this case) and drove up to Mt. Eden where we walked round the rim of the crater to a view of much of Auckland below. Blankets spread, paper packages of fish and chips unwrapped, a bottle of Lindy's (we tried to taste as much typical NZ cuisine as possible!) opened.

Sunset came upon us

- and we weren't the only ones there to enjoy it, of course. Just such a remarkably relaxing meal together, and other than champagne flutes, no dishes to deal with.

And, as an added bonus, Conrad and I found ourselves setting each other off into giggles much of the rest of the trip simply by jokingly uttering the supposed NZ pronunciation of the meal: fush and chups. I mean really, how do you top a meal like that?

lunch in Vulcan Lane

Two years back we somehow stumbled upon a little tapas place in Vulcan Lane, in the heart of prime shopping in Auckland. We went there two or three times, but for breakfast. Excellent toast. I'm not sure why we went there in the first place - maybe the pomegranate logo drew us in? The name was Tasca, and we remembered it fondly ever since.

Jafa has taken its place as a breakfast spot for us now, but for old time's sake we made our way to Vulcan Lane while shopping today and landed at Tasca for a bite of lunch. The unfortunate thing was that there were few wine options, and the chilled glass of Sauvignon Blanc I wanted on a warm day was not there for me. We made up for it later after shopping with a glass at an outdoor bar not far away at Mecca.
Anyway, we found our alley and cafe, sat at a little table outside to watch well-dressed people pass by, and had lunch.

Salads for us each: Conrad's had chicken and avocado while mine had chorizo, potato, and spinach. I sipped back my 17th flat white (awesome NZ coffee) of the trip, and we plotted a few more shop stops after lunch. Nice recapturing the memory of last time, even if there was no bacon involved this time.

Funloving

These entries will be out of order and sporadic while I don't have regular (cheap/free) Internet access. Sorry to those one or two of you out there who thrive on this blog.

:-)

It's not yet fully daylight here in Queenstown, in the south of the South Island. We've already had breakfast at the hotel buffet, and before we head off for a day of wine tasting, we want to stroll into town, maybe pick up a good coffee there. A short entry then, and - of course - food related!

Conrad and I arrived in New Zealand Sunday night, too late for dinner, though not too late to re-pack for a flight Monday morning. A good night of sleep, and then on a sunny Auckland Monday morning, we joined Dion and Minna (we were staying at their place) and Minna's parents for breakfast nearby. Jafa is the name of the place, and a clever little name, too.

Jaffa (two "f"s), as we've learned is an orange and chocolate candy. Food, of a type. Jafa, we've also been reminded, is New Zealander slang for a resident of Auckland. Understand, quite like Chicago in relation to the rest of Illinois, Auckland is vastly more populous than any other city, and much more happens there. This sets up an odd, occasionally uneasy relationship with the non-Aucklanders, and it gets expressed as a nickname: Just Another Funloving Aucklander. JAFA.

Except Funloving isn't quite the word that the "f" stands for.

Breakfast was great. I'm keen to go back. A lot of the food tastes different and better here, kind of like how food is supposed to taste. Unadulterated. Does that make sense?

Conrad opted for eggs benedict made with house-cured salmon (which had a sweetness to it) while I had the potato cakes with poached egg, arugula, and bacon. Very very good, and to wash it down, flat whites. New Zealand coffee. I spent two years yearning to have this coffee again.

A great start to a vacation, and when I get a chance, I can report more on the flight over incredible scenery, the beauty of Queenstown, the relaxing spa treatment, and the marvelous dinner in Arrowtown we had to close off just this first day.

15th NZ Post: middle day in Auckland

Last post of the NZ trip. Very sad, somehow. We've already been back almost three weeks, in fact, and the realization of that is a blow, I tell you.

These are the "lost" photos of our middle day in Auckland. I had seen them before so I don't know why they went astray. Easily recovered, as it turns out. I'm sorry that, despite the warm day there, the sky was not clear blue. I'm also sorry that it they don't document our trip as well as I'd like. Ah well.

I played the tourist card that morning in Auckland, so our first destination was Sky Tower, the tallest structure in Oceania. The whole darn Southern Hemisphere, in fact. It certainly is an exclamation point on the skyline, and it does offer great views of the city.







The thing about Auckland - and in saying this I don't mean to disparage the city (though we really did like Wellington most of all) - is that it has an unique and unparalleled location on an isthmus. So much waterfront and harbour available to it. But for all that it's a city of sails, it's also a city of sprawl, and in some ways it's yet another large, kind of faceless city. Truthfully (did I say this before?), it reminds me of Toronto in how it somehow fails to capitalize on its best assets. But the ciew was still impressive from the tower observation decks, so I should quibble less, right?


Our main agenda (gay agenda, of course!) item that day was shopping. We roamed a small stretch of streets: High Street and things nearby. We did quite well for ourselves as well, and when summer hits Chicago (nice hint of spring the last two days, I should add), we'll break out some of the fun stuff to wear. No lunch for us. Rather, we ate a very very late breakfast at Tasca in Vulcan Lane. Conrad liked his scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, and I was delighted not just with the well-prepared poached eggs and large portion of bacon, but the multigrain toast was exceptional. Truly.



And no shopping expedition could do without a spell sitting on a patio with coffees!


I wish I had better pictures of dinner that night. We did a poor job of photographing one of the best meals we've had anywhere. No, really. Dion and Minna had a reservation for the four of us at French Cafe. It's a simply decorated room, and the service is not of the polished sort we've had at places like Avenues with four people assigned to various duties at each table. What it did have was a menu from which it was difficult to select items because too many of them were intriguing. It also had polished service of a different sort - the woman who took care of our table actually took care of it but didn't make herself too much of a presence. Tough trick to pull off. She managed it with seeming ease.

We do have a few photos, though. Conrad and Minna both enjoyed a starter of Roasted goat's cheese sevred atop beets.I regret that my quail done five ways did not come out well in photos. The second best course I had in NZ the entire time, I think. On the other hand, we did capture the labels from the two wines we drank. I think that a bottle of the Mt. Difficulty is on its way overseas to us in our shipments.



My pink roasted lamb was also lovely. Can I admit that to the best of my recollection, this was the first time I'd had stuffed zucchini blossom?


We hope (fingers crossed) that we'll make it back to NZ in 2009. How wonderful that would be. For now, it's trying to clean our home and get myself doing some new and fun things in the kitchen. Joe puts me to shame with the wonders he comes up with. Those fig pinwheel cookies are so getting made here one day soon! As for travel, well, Baltimore, Austin, and Vancouver are all planned for the next three weeks, May will bring a work trip to Minneapolis, and June features Denver and DC. Really, though, some time at home will be nice!