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Browsing tag: food

  • January 23, 2013

    Eat of the week: Cazador, Mt Eden

    T and I are yin and yang in many aspects, but one thing we share a love of is filling our bellies. Food is always central to our anniversary celebrations, and last month we ventured into Cazador over on Dominion Rd (the southern end of the Mt Eden stretch, just a few minutes from our house in Mt Albert).

    After awkwardly navigating through the entrance (the front door opens into a tiny enclosed space where you can presumably shake off rain and pull yourself together before opening another door that takes you into the restaurant) we found ourselves in a cosy little space, the first diners of the night. It’s a rustic place with a homey feel – stuffed deer heads and strings of onions adorning the wall – and earthy food to match.

    While the wary eater in me gravitated toward the tried and true (i.e. safe) choices on the menu, I reminded myself that the whole reason we were there was to try the Cazador specialties: game. Sadly, the pheasant was all out, so the two mains we opted for were rabbit and the fish special of the day.

    food cazador mt edenFirst up: the rabbit. A couple of drumsticks (does that apply to meat aside from chicken?) anchored in a thick red stew with pieces of smoked bacon, vegetables and a bit of spinach on the side was a great introduction to rabbit meat on my part. Every note in this dish matched the others perfectly. Delicious.

    We’ve been getting into our fish this summer, and the terakihi on this occasion was simple yet lovely. I was a little dismayed when the plate arrived, I’ll admit – it looked far too plain to be appealing. Sometimes, less really is more, though. I even shoveled down the peas (which I normally shun, but in this case I couldn’t get enough of them – small, soft, fresh). Wasn’t so hot on the unidentified pieces of charred vegetables (resembled bok choy) but T liked the contrast. Winner.

    The only letdown was the side salad T chose –  charred sweetcorn on a bed of lettuce, accompanied by feta, tomatoes, and capsicum. The mix of textures worked well and it was creamy, not dry, but sadly lacking in flavour (the corn in particular). Bland.

    Instead of sharing a single dessert, we ordered two: Baked cheesecake with berry compote (perfection) and baklava (of course). The latter was a little too heavy on the cinnamon for my taste, but not for T’s. The rose water syrup and yoghurt added an interesting touch. Awesome.

    Frugal factor: low. Mains are clustered around the $30 mark, but at least portion sizes are decent – the servings are actually enough to fill up on. This is not a cheap eat, but it is a good eat for a special occasion. If you’re not on a budget, carry on!

    A shoutout too to the delightful staff – warm and charismatic. Nice hosts make dining out so much more enjoyable! Our waitress was super jovial and not at all pushy.

    Cazador
    854 Dominion Rd

  • January 16, 2013

    Adventures in the kitchen: Sweet chicken stirfry with crunch

    Easy Asian stirfry chicken

    Here’s a relatively easy weeknight dinner idea, adapted from this recipe by Iowa Girl Eats. The original called for sesame seeds (which I forgot to get), broccoli (which I hate – I considered substituting cauliflower but that seemed a little off, texturally and aesthetically, so I quickly fried some bok choy to have on the side, and it was fresh and green and light and spot on). I substituted chives for spring onions and tossed in some nuts.

    Ingredients:
    Rice
    1/4 cup honey
    2 tablespoons soy sauce
    1 bunch of bok choy, cut up
    1 garlic clove, minced
    1 egg white
    2 tablespoons cornflour
    2 chicken breasts, cut up
    salt & pepper
    A handful of chives, chopped
    Cashew nuts to sprinkle

    Instructions:

    • Cook rice (I tossed about a cup worth into my cooker and left it to its devices).
    • Stirfry bok choy for a few minutes until softened (but still reasonably crisp), then remove from heat.
    • Mix honey, soy and garlic in a bowl.
    • In another bowl, whisk egg white and cornflour.
    • Season chicken with salt and pepper, then toss them into the egg mixture to coat.
    • Stir fry chicken until cooker through, then turn off the heat but leave it on the element. Add in the sauce and chives, and stir through.
    • Remove and serve up in bowls over rice and alongside the bokchoy.

     

    Easy Asian stirfry chicken Frugal factor – 4/5. If you’re lucky, you might get chicken breast for $10/kg. Probably the most expensive would be the honey, if you don’t already have it on hand. I bought cashews for another reason, but we had enough left over to use in this dish.

  • January 11, 2013

    Adventures in the kitchen: Mozzarella making

    Had I been born a couple centuries ago, my prospects as a mere woman would be considerably dimmer than they are today. T is indisputably the better cook.  And as this piece (originally published at Good) demonstrates, I can’t even make cheese when a Mad Millie kit puts everything I need right in front of me.

    Cheese and I have always gotten along well. It’s a genetic thing. Thinking back, I can recall memories of my mother standing in the kitchen in the evenings, slicing off slivers from her trusty Colby block, enjoying a solitary snack.

    Over the years I’ve progressed from sliced cheese to block cheese to soft cheeses, and now, the full gamut of Nosh’s displays. But as with other dairy products, the price of the good stuff (and even the mediocre stuff) makes it a luxury rather than a staple. So I was amped to try my hand at making my own.

    The first attempt started off well on the back foot. After unpacking the entire Mad Millie cheesemaking kit, I had to make an emergency trip to the supermarket to pick up some disposable gloves. Armed with two kinds (the clear food preparation type and a hardier all purpose variety), it was game on.

    I’d seen a demonstration of ricotta making first-hand, from start to finish, and while it looked easy as pie (and is therefore probably the place to start as a beginner) it’s actually not a cheese I’m a big fan of. No – straight on to mozzarella it was – how hard could it be with step-by-step guidance?

    making mozzarella

    They say cooking is an art, and baking a science. The boy and I both tend to fly by the seat of our pants, but it’s important to observe the times and temperatures laid out in the instructions, so I kept the booklet close at hand (too close, perhaps; it’s permanently wrinkled from rogue spills). Also, its important that you choose your kitchen utensils properly and most important the knives. I suggest you to read this article on cutco knife reviews to make sure you choose them properly.

    All started off well. The mixture began to coagulate into satisfyingly solid curds:

    making mozzarella 2

    Once formed, we wrapped them up neatly to drain…

    cheesemaking 3

    and then revealed these.

    cheesemaking 5

    So far, so good.

    Now the tricky part – the rewetting and working of the curd into balls. The general idea is that you place some curds into a slotted spoon, lower the spoon into the hot water, then pull them back out and form the mozzarella balls with your hand. The curds at this point should be lush and pliable; I’d seen this part at the demonstration. However, these specimens were neither stretchy nor particularly soft. It seemed as if they’d lost too much moisture along the way and couldn’t get their mojo back, no matter how long they spent plunged back into the pot.

    cheesemaking 6

    The end result? An odd texture I’d describe as something like a firm feta – not what we were going for, but at least it was vaguely cheesy and definitely edible.

    cheesemaking 7

    It made for a good toast topping, anyway, along with a bit of bite courtesy of a red onion.

    mozzarella making 8homemade cheese 9

    I should probably have prefaced this by noting that I am almost always spectacularly unsuccessful at Pioneer Woman-type pursuits. I’ve never successfully made bread from scratch at home, and I’ve never, ever had dough double in size (despite the countless times I’ve tried baking my own cinnamon rolls). I’ve failed at yoghurt, too. (I have managed to cobble together both hummus and mayonnaise from scratch, but not to the point of cracking a decent flavouring of either.) So it’s not entirely surprising that my grand ambitions in this instance also fell short.

    After a couple more tries at mozzarella, again with the same result (and a separate iffy attempt at mascarpone – our improvised double boiler couldn’t hit the required temperature heights) I’ve decided I may just have to go back to basics and start with ricotta.

  • December 28, 2012

    In which I show my princess colours

    These holidays I’m republishing some old posts that newer readers might have missed first time around. Enjoy!

    Top sirloin steak topped with an onion ring

    THIS here is a good steak. Image via Wikipedia

    I’ve always thanked my lucky stars that I have no food allergies, nor do I have any specific dietary requirements. That makes things a lot easier in the E/T household. We eat together and we generally eat the same things – no separate meals required.

    The only thing is, I’m getting a lot pickier. I’m getting a bit more high-maintenance. As in, I cannot bring myself to eat cheap tuna (it’s mushy, watery and generally foul). Cheap ice cream tastes less like dairy and more like fake to me. And I’ve always been selective about the kinds of meat I eat, but these days I’m a total gourmet diva when it comes to choosing cuts. Sadly, our budget doesn’t stretch to rib eye or T-bone. It barely stretches to beef mince, the way things are going.

    I definitely don’t plan on starting to cook separately, but I do think certain meals are going to take a little more thought (either that or I’ll just eat more breakfast for dinner). If he wants marinated tenderised steak (the kind that comes in $20 packs) or ribs, or pork, then I’ll have a tiny piece with tons of veggies.

    Have your tastes grown more discerning with age? Ever have dining clashes with your housemates?

  • December 27, 2012

    What would your last meal be?

    These holidays I’m republishing some old posts that newer readers might have missed first time around. Enjoy!

    I hate naming favourites. Favourite band, movie, song, colour, food…..I’m just too indecisive, or perhaps too apathetic, to decide.

    But I think I’ve finally come up with my favourite kinds of foods, and my favourite cuisines.

    Foods I could not live without…

    Malaysian

    assam laksa[via avlxyz on Flickr]

    Assam laksa. Mmm…

    Thai

    pad thai[via Flickr user adactio]

    Pad thai. Always a winner.

    Indian

    rogan josh[via Flickr user jlastras]

    Rogan Josh (and tikka masala is another trusty fave)

    And in terms of generic food items?

    Potatoes. I think deep down a part of me was once a poor Irish farmer.

    Cheesecake. Can never get enough.

    Pasta. So versatile!

    If I had to pick my perfect last meal on earth, I think I’d go for a Singapore laksa with lots of hard boiled eggs and prawns. Followed by cheesecake and a fudge brownie with whipped cream or ice cream (I’m allowed two desserts, right??)

  • November 26, 2012

    Struggling to eat healthy

    My eating habits have gone to hell in a handbasket lately.

    I don’t know about you, but when things get busy, my diet suffers. You’re short on time, so you end up eating toast and noodles and things that are quick and easy. Or you end up buying food and blowing your budget as well.

    A couple of other things are also contributing factors:

    Social club
    Every Friday afternoon is social club time at the office. My usual MO is to fill up on bread, cheese and salami. But lately, I’ve been gravitating toward the chips (if there’s one thing I have no control around, it is chips of any kind – potato, corn, whatever) and Coke (even though a can is too much for me in one go). The new organisers have also started getting more delicious things like Tim Tams and raspberry slices, further testing my restraint.

    Weekend breakfasts
    T doesn’t usually eat breakfast, and he starts work at 6am on weekdays anyway. Weekends are our time to ease into the day, waking up slowly and then having a leisurely breakfast. Unlike me, he’s not a cereal or toast guy. He’s not even really a pancake kind guy (?!?!). So it’s usually about a full on cooked meal, or lately, a bakery run. So good, but so bad.

    So that’s my foodie confession for the week. At least there’s only one way from here: up. Right?

  • November 23, 2012

    Friday Five: New-to-me Auckland cheap eats

    Moustache milk and cookie bar in Auckland - NZ Muse

    Moustache Milk and Cookie Bar

    When I first learned there was a new place in Auckland that sold only milk and cookies (plus ice cream and coffee, etc), I knew I had to check it out.

    Verdict? Quite honestly, I wouldn’t go back again. I’m not in the city very often, and while I know the prices are high at Moustache due to the amazing ingredients they use, they’re too rich for my blood.

    That said, the fresh baked cookies are out of this world, and the whole aesthetic of this place is too cute.

    Flavoured milks, $1.50. Cookies (I think) $3.50.

    moustache.co.nz

    review my kitchen dominion road auckland food

    My Kitchen

    A reasonably new addition to the Chinese stretch of Dominion Road, My Kitchen is a Taiwanese cafe that also draws on Korean, Japanese and Chinese influences. The long and narrow staircase up to My Kitchen may put you off. Persevere, though, and it will pay off.

    It’s an adorable little space, where you’re expected to pour your own water and tea, collect your own cutlery, and concoct your own mix of soy and chili sauces/oils from the service station. The drinks menu at My Kitchen could rival Momo Tea’s, and are massive (some come in bottles rather than glasses). Choose from the vast range of sides and smaller dishes – soups, dumplings, etc – or the larger set meals, which also come with small bowls of soup, sides of veggies and fruit.

    Dishes $10-20

    menumania.co.nz/restaurants/my-kitchen-express-auckland

    mamak chancery auckland restaurant review

    Mamak

    The loveliest, most gregarious and friendly taxi driver I’ve ever encountered posed a series of questions to me as he drove me home from a recent dinner event (one at Okahu, which I’ll talk more about below). Among them was this gem: “Do you feel like you are home when you’re in Malaysia?” I don’t even have to think about it. I may have been born there but New Zealand is my home. Though Malay food is damn hard to beat, and if you’re in the mood for it, you could do worse than visit Mamak.

    Murtabak, laksa, kuay teow, nasi lemak – you’ll find all those classics on the menu at Mamak. As my Instagrammed photo suggests, I opted for a scorching curry (my mouth is watering and palms are sweating just recalling it) served up with fluffy rice and a side of sauteed cabbage. Delightful.

    Dishes $10-20

    facebook.com/mamakinchancery

    Lump rice at Siri Sri Lanka in Sandringham, Auckland

    Siri Sri Lanka

    I didn’t really know what to expect from Sri Lankan food. Turns out it’s not that far off Malaysian/Indonesian cuisine. The lump rice was recommended, consisting of rice, curries, fried chicken, a hardboiled egg, and a strange but tasty dry coconutty mixture for topping (that’s my best attempt at describing it) all wrapped up in banana leaves. Aside from the dry and slightly bland chicken drumstick, it was a great introduction to the country’s cuisine.

    Dishes $10-20

    dineout.co.nz/restaurant.php?rest=11611

    ora king salmon the wharf

    The Wharf

    I think it’s safe to say The Wharf in Northcote is probably not a cheap eat by any stretch of the imagination, but all the same, I did eat here for nothing thanks to a product launch.

    Situated just over the North Shore, out on a little head by the bridge, it enjoys unparalleled views of Auckland Harbour. In all the years I’ve lived here, I’ve never been to Northcote Point, and wow, I’ve been missing out.

    So, while I didn’t dine at The Wharf, exactly, I did attend a four-course lunch hosted there. The menu was created by Nicholas Watt, a big deal chef, brought on board to design a special menu for the launch of Ora King salmon. It kicked off with sesame crusted salmon paired with a divine smoked eggplant puree, followed by teriyaki salmon belly (I was not a fan of the caviar or the barely poached egg that were served with it) and finally, roast salmon accompanied by miso ruby grapefruit and chili pickled cucumber, which was probably my favourite dish.

    thewharf.co.nz

    Special mention also to Okahu, where I attended another event recently. I actually enjoyed the pork belly served up to us (I’m not a pork fan at all, and definitely not of belly) and could have cried at the sumptuous, creamy sauce that was lavished upon the cod main (it was that good, I even overlooked the heavy-handed mint garnish). I would have licked my plate if I had not been in public. Unfortunately, my phone died, robbing me of the opportunity to capture the beautiful dinner forever.

    For now, I’m still working my way through some restaurants that have been on my to-do list forever. This may or may not be helped along by the recent release of the new Metro Eats app. It collates info on the magazine’s 50 best restaurants list, and, more importantly, its top 50 cheap eats (which I’m pretty sure includes most of the places in this blog post). And TheInsider, another new app marketing tactic that directs you toward local happy hours and meal deals, has also found its way onto my phone, though I’ve yet to use any of the offers on it.

    How do you decide where to eat out? Do you like trying new places or stick to the tried and true?

  • November 22, 2012

    Work lunches: bring your own, save money

    Bring lunch to work and save moneyYou might have noticed a distinct lack of monthly spending recaps on this ole blog of late. I’ll admit, I’ve been less than upfront about our spending recently.

    Things have been out of whack, with our holiday (which I did recap financially in this post) putting money into T’s bike, and as I mentioned yesterday, a month of lost income.

    That doesn’t mean I’ve been entirely ignoring our financials. Reviewing the last couple of months made it clear we’d been paying for convenience too often, and that T had been nickel and diming us to death with purchases here and there (aside from his regular fun money, which is $80-100 a week, about half of which goes on lunches, $20 on poker night twice a week, and the rest of random snacks/golf/the rare night out, etc. To a tightwad like me, who hardly spends anything in a normal week, it’s insanely extravagant – but I can also see how fast that can go given how much things actually cost).

    We’re trying out a reduced allowance for him, in tandem with him starting to bring his own lunches to work. I used to make his lunches, but eventually I gave up as half the time he didn’t eat them and in all honesty, it’s enough of a grind organising my own. Now it’s all on him.

    The first week he managed to forget to bring his lunch one day, and on another I volunteered to make it because he was feeling sick in the evening. My gut feeling is this probably isn’t going to last all that long, and not for 5 days a week, every week. (I usually batch my lunches in two lots, cutting down prep time, but he’s more into sandwiches made daily.) The thing is, this is an area with definite potential for savings, and he really doesn’t make enough to justify buying food every day – I just don’t know if he’s cut out to put in the effort on this count.

    How does your household manage work lunches?

  • October 24, 2012

    Review: The Conservatory (Wynyard Quarter, Auckland)

    I lunched at the Conservatory in Auckland with a group during Fashion Week, and my first thought was: Oh! I’ve been past here before! To be precise, when the new Wynyard Quarter first opened up, T and I came to the nearby Auckland Fish Market, then ventured out to the waterfront for a looksee. The new eateries were expensive and not really to our style, so this is my first Wynyard dining experience. However, I remembered this particular restaurant for the woven capsule seats outside, suspended between roof and ground by chains, which we stopped to admire.

    We’ll start with the good, shall we? The portions are generous. The wine list is enormous, taking up almost all the pages in the menu, with food only accounting for the last couple. I had the seafood salad, which was delicious – mussels, prawns, scallops, salmon, with green salad, crispy noodles and what I think was a drizzle of soy. Light, very well balanced and pretty fresh. (What is proper etiquette for eating crispy fried noodles, by the way? They were in pieces too large to comfortably fork but too hard to cut – a diner sent a piece flying into her neighbour’s lap that way.) I would’ve loved if they’d removed the prawn tails and even the scallop roe, but I am a child.

    wynyard quarter the conservatory seafood saladI also sampled the Conservatory pizza (a light touch with prosciutto, salami and tomato) and potato chunks, their take on the classic side of chips. These were absolutely enormous – about half a potato’s worth each – and perfectly cooked, served with a strangely orange aioli that turned out to have a hint of chili and paprika.

    There are just three desserts available (raspberry mousse served with lemonchello syrup and cream/mixed berry tiramisu served with a berry compote/duo decedent chocolate pudding) but all sound divine. I would’ve liked to have tried them all, but alas, dessert was not part of our visit.

    An aside: while for some reason the menu drops an all-important ‘s’ off ‘desserts’ and randomly apostrophises ‘pizzas’,  below that, amusingly, reads the phrase 18 inches (as measured by a woman). Yes, the pizzas are ginormous, though none of us had a ruler to hand.

    Other elements failed to impress. We were seated in the sheltered (plastic sheeted) conservatory outside facing the water. Some of the black-covered chairs, however, were adorned with questionable white stains that resembled bird poop. One of our group noticed that the bottles on our table were somewhat scummy looking, resulting in cloudy water and floaties. And the Caesar salad was the last meal – by a significant margin – to arrive, by which time the first couple of dishes had gone cold while sitting (Caesar salad, of all things!)

    So, a mixed bag. Some attention to detail wouldn’t go amiss (they weren’t hugely busy during our visit, and had only just opened for the day by the looks of it). YMMV.

  • October 18, 2012

    Adventures in the freezer aisle

    I’m buried in the depths of an enormous food rut.

    I’m buying  almost exactly the same items when shopping every week. It’s like a terrible parody of my own life. Eating the same thing for lunch for days in a row. Every meal should be a pleasure, but I can’t remember the last time I had a memorable meal.

    The only vaguely interesting thing happening in my kitchen at the moment comes from the freezer department. I know – the devil, you say! I’ve more or less stopped buying frozen foods – chips, patties, vile combinations of pre cut veggies. But since getting back from the South Island I’ve wanted to eat more fish, and on a whim the day we got back, I wandered over to the frozen fish department.

    My last memory of frozen fish is of a terrible 20-pack of what was billed as lemon pepper fish – mostly crumb with hardly any fish flesh at all, and hardly recognisable as such. But it turns out Sealord does decent crumbed fish fillets. It comes in super plain packaging so you can hardly distinguish it from the budget brand stuff, but it’s affordable and, most importantly, it’s good.
    If you’re in NZ, I definitely recommend the kumara crumb fillets (which, incidentally, I’m pretty sure I was part of the market research taste testing group for yonks ago before it came out).

    I’ve been steering clear of the freezer department for the longest time, but maybe it’s worth a second look every once in a while.

    What, if anything, do you buy frozen? How can I get motivated to tackle the recipes I’ve got piled up in my bookmarks folder?

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