Te Tuhi lemon tree grove, Preston Road reserve, East Otara

I’m pleased to announce that the foraging movement is growing around New Zealand. ha. Growing. Oh, I’m hilarious.

Anyway… Auckland in particular is lush with free fruit and vegetables. The brilliant thing is that Councils are now supporting the movement (among many other fabulous people). East Otara is on it’s way to having the first Freedom Fruit Garden:

The inaugural planting of a Freedom Fruit garden will occur on Friday 25 June from 9.30am, at Preston Road Reserve, East Otara, Auckland. The day of planting will be celebrated with an official opening event, with performances including Rongomai Primary School’s Kapa Haka group and conclude with a hangi.

John Darroch, guerrilla gardener and general horticultural genius, recently appeared on Close Up talking about foraging in Central Auckland. If you want to give it a go but don’t really know where to start, there is a helpful google map of free food sources all around New Zealand. General foraging etiquette applies… in basic terms, be nice. Also, feel free to add your own secret spots to the map. In particular, if you have a feijoa tree and happen to live near Newmarket, I’d be pleased to see your input. Kthx.

I’m on a mission to do some guerrilla gardening of my own. I think the empty section next door would be infinitely more fetching with a giant pumpkin patch on it. Yusssssssss.

So to celebrate my impending move, I am writing a list. All the stuff you say ‘I should totally do that one day’ – goes on the list. Thanks to my Wellington list, I’ve eaten dinner at the restaurant with Wellington’s best location and worst food (Fisherman’s Table), dragged flatmates on day trips (Somes Island), attended my first sports game (Phoenix) and investigated Welly’s urban legends (the trippy tree).

In return, I may provide vaugley interesting reports back on my list-based activities. So let me know! What needs to be on the list?

• * Moist chocolate sludge cake
• * Fresh fruit tartlets with pistachio
• * Pink frosted cupcakes
• * Opera cake
• * Chocolate dipped strawberries
• * Petite macaroons
• * Hand made Grand Marnier and honey truffles
• * Mozzarella, cherry tomato and basil bites
• * Smoked salmon and lemon cream cheese wrapped pancakes
• * Petite sandwiches of Champagne ham with English mustard, roast beef with horse radish cream, cucumber and cream cheese, egg and watercress, grissini wrapped in Parma ham
• * Savoury herb scones with crab meat
• * Espresso coffee and exotic teas

I’d drink champagne and make it last the whole afternoon. Where else is good for High Tea in Auckland? Anywhere cheaper than $36?

A pastry-topped beef pot pie from Galbraiths on Mt Eden Road was an unexpectedly good start to the night. After that and a glass of wine we crossed the road to the Powerstation to wait with the 100-or-so other slighty-aging fans for the doors to open.

After a brief rush to the stage to secure spots, drinks were sourced (the cash bar at the Powerstation is unusual, but great for those that thought far enough in advance to bring folding stuff) and the wait began. After ominous introductory music, the Pixies took the stage at 9pm on the dot.

Being the 20th anniversary tour of their Doolittle album, most of the set list was pre-determined: b-sides from singles off the album, then the full album itself, followed by two more b-sides, then finally a run through of (mainly Surfer Rosa/Come On Pilgrim) hits for an encore.

The erstwhile Black Francis has lost none of the power in his scream, and while his face said ‘sleepy and a bit bored’, his voice screeched biblical Spanish alien sex. Joey Santiago looked nervous the entire night, though he needn’t have – he’s a man well in control of his instrument, so to speak. David Lovering was everyone’s dodgy old uncle, and Kim Deal offered the occasional comment in advance of the songs, as well as smiling through the whole shebang. Watching 1000 people trying to whistle along with La La Love You, and yodel along with Caribou, I reckon I’d have cracked a smile or two as well.

Our spot – second row from the front, stage-right, in front of Joey – was even closer than I let myself hope for. It was a privilege and a thrill to be that close to a band that formed a significant part of the soundtrack to my teens and 20s – let it not be said that I (and most of the crowd, by the looks) didn’t appreciate every minute of it. Speaking of the crowd – they were well-behaved, and the (fairly sparse) security team didn’t have a lot to do all night.

After a joint bow, each member of the band went along the stagefront to slap hands and wave to each section of the audience – a nice touch that further endeared them to an already happy crowd. We were out by 11pm, and then it was back home for an early night before round #2.

The next day we were pleasantly surprised by Bellota, on Federal St under SkyCity. I was expecting a sterile, hotel-restaurant style environment, but I got an intimate little tapas bar with excellent pork belly and a range of tasty pintxos. Not cheap, but not exorbitant.

A taxi to Vector Arena, and we were amongst the heaving masses. Purchasing alcohol at the Arena is fine if you get there early; by about halfway through the support band (Collapsing Cities), queues were about half-an-hour long and gettng worse. Drink early!

Sound at the Arena was fine (for a large arena-style show) – having been to a couple of previous concerts I wasn’t overly worried, and that was justified. Visuals were interesting and adding something from what we’d seen the previous night. The ominous opening music was revealed as a soundtrack to an excerpt of the Luis Buñuel/Salvador Dalí film Un Chien Andalou, which is referenced in the opening track (Debaser) on the album.

Set list was obviously very similar to the night before, with a few of the encore songs swapped in, out or around. Then, after giving their goodbyes with another round of waving and bowing, they were gone.

The Corner Bar under Hotel DeBretts on Shortland St provided drinks afterwards – though with only two barmen dealing to a large (if quite polite) crowd, and no drinking at the outside tables after 11pm, I think I’ll head further afield after future Vector gigs.

I look forward to the 40th anniversary concerts in 20 years’ time.

Setlist

Dancing the Manta Ray
Weird At My School
Bailey’s Walk
Manta Ray
Debaser
Tame
Wave of Mutilation
I Bleed
Here Comes Your Man
Dead
Monkey Gone To Heaven
Mr. Grieves
Crackity Jones
La La Love You
Number 13 Baby
There Goes My Gun
Hey
Silver
Gouge Away
Wave Of Mutilation (UK Surf Mix)
Into the White

Encore (Powerstation):
Isla De Encanta
Nimrod’s Son
U-Mass
Bone Machine
Vamos
Caribou
Gigantic
Where Is My Mind?

Encore (Vector Arena):
Where Is My Mind?
Broken Face
Isla De Encanta
The Holiday Song
Nimrod’s Son
U-Mass
Gigantic

Reluctant blogger Auckland Cheap Eats Review loves authentic Asian food,  but luckily for us, hates paying much cash for it. Here’s his MO.  If you go and say nice things about them on his site, he may even write us some more. Go on.

Why do I have this stupid compulsion to come up with ridiculous puns for the titles of these posts?  Why?  As Mr Fawlty’s medical guests once said “there’s enough material there for an entire conference”.  I’m sure that would apply to most people, but it probably applies a little bit more to some than others.  Anyway I blame my mother.  Primarily ‘cos she’s dead and can’t answer back and also ‘cos she smoked and drank heavily during pregnancy.  Eek, a mouse.

So, stupid title or not, you simply can’t hide from this delightful offering any longer.  I refer to, of course, Hainanese Chicken Rice (HCR).  Now don’t let me down; I’m picking that the majority of my learned readers will already have been introduced to this wonder of the Orient.  If you haven’t you should be slapped until you take the plunge - chickenallergy sufferers obviously exempted, but you’ll need to show your badge.

Full review after the jump…

Hard to know perzactly where to start with this one; after all it’s like it says – chicken and rice wiv a little bowl of soooop.  Oh no it isn’t.  If only life were that simple.  If any cheapeat is a testimony to cooking skills it’s this one.

HCR originated in the South China island of Hainan about 450 trillion years ago.  Later migration to Malaysia and Singapore created the Nyonya peoples (also known as Peranakans) and HCR is the spine of their quite delicious and sophisticated cuisine.  As with many SE Asian dishes there are multitudinous variations upon a basic theme; if you’re interested sit down with a large cuppa and go Googling – you’ll find heaps of recipes.  Despite the variations there is one common theme.  Complexity.  What appears to be a simple dish has a tortuous methodology.  My tip?  Don’t even think about cooking it yersweetself.  Leave it to the experts and help the employment figures.

So what is it?  Chicken and rice wiv a little bowl of soooop of course, weren’t you listening?  The whole thing revolves around the creation of a masterstock, in which the rice is cooked, the chicken is poached and from which the soup is derived.  Now I’m guessing that these masterstocks are closely guarded family secrets, and have been in continual production for 450 trillion years, like they never finish the pot but simply top up as required, meaning 450 trillion year old tastes have been allowed to develop.  I’m sure you’ve all considered, nay, worried about the fact that, due to the Earth’s water being a fixed amount from the beginning of the atmosphere, we do not drink beer we just rent it.  This means that statistically we have all probably drunk a molecule or two of Julius Caesar’s “beer” along the way.  Now that may sound disgusting (….but give her a dusting etc)  but a) it’s sort of true and b) it explains the ridiculous depth of flavours in a good HCR.  That said, I’ve never really had a bad ‘un and I’ve had hundreds.  Along with our old mate meegoreng it’s the main lunch item in Singapore and Malaysia, and one tends to join the locals.  Doing so adds to the flavour of the visit and helps conjure up visions and memories.  Maybe my bucolic visions of wood fires, straw hats and 500 year old cooking grannies are all wrong.  Maybe there’s some ginormous nuclear powered factory in the depths of Tennessee that ships 5 tonne vac packs of the stock to a central warehouse hidden away in the Cameron Highlands where gravity distributes the golden liquid via labyrinthine pipes to the local kepala desai who allow only chosen villagers to purchase it, generally those villagers with a surfeit of amazingly nubile young daughters willing to……..whoa boy, cheap eats, remember.

Back to the HCR.  So what are the many variations?  OK, the chicken can be poached or poached then roasted; the chicken can be served hot (Singaporean) or cold (Malaysian/Thai); the rice can be yellow or white etc etc.  In Thai places the dish is called kha mun gai.  And it can easily be given an informal Heart Tick – just peel off the skin and give it to the mongoose.  My personal fave is cold, poached, skin on, yellow rice and that seems to be the most common format in these parts.  I also break with tradition by having hot sambal as a side, but make sure you ask for this after the dish is in front of you or they tend to substitute that for the other dipping sauces (see pic).

In Auckland every man and his mongoose – did you know that the plural is mongeeses? – seems to sell HCR. As I said, I’ve tried dozens of them and to be fair they have all been on the high side of good, even standing up to comparison with the HCR capital, Singapore.   I had a dry one once from that Chinese place upstairs at Mercury, but even that was OK.  The main reason I prefer cold is that the chicken is generally served over a bed of beansprouts in a delightful dressing.  When it’s cold you get this luvverly crunch which becomes a less than luvverly squelch when hot.  And the rice, don’t forget that it’s been cooked in the mysterious masterstock so treat it with respect please.

So for once I’m not going to recommend a specific eatery.  Good ones are available all over, even in the CBD!  By the way, that’s a bottle of Tsingtao beer in the background.  330ml of 5% delectability for $4.50, but if I told you where it was from I’d have to kiss you.  Make love not war.

As a concept Hainanese Chicken Rice easily rates full marks.

Korea, what is it good for? Absolutely everything if the way their economy continues to develop is an indicator. Hyundai, Samsung, LG, Daewoo, Hankook, 400kph trains etc etc, the new industrial marvel. I reckon the humble bibimbap is a microcosmic glimpse of the thinking that supports such development.

Elegant, efficient, healthy and cost effective, that’s the bibimbap. It’s one of Korea’s national dishes, and so varies regionally, but the one pictured here is from New Village Korean Food in the Newmarket Plaza Food Court, Kent St, Newmarket (see previous posts) and it seems to be pretty representative of the offerings to be had around Auckyland.

Bibimbap means mixed rice. How understated. This is one of the freshest, healthiest, tastiest bits of nosh around. Room temperature steamed rice sits in a bowl and is surrounded by neatly prepared raw courgette, carrot, beansprouts, mushrooms and greens. In the middle of these is a helping of nicely moist but amazingly unfatty minced beef and the whole is topped with a fried heggyweggy. This lot receives a healthy shaking of black pepper and a drizzle of sesame oil. One takes gobfuls of this delectable combination with an appropriate quantity of the accompanying gochujang, Korean medium-hot chilli sauce. My oh my, luvverly. But let’s not forget the all important differentiator…the relishes, ‘cos these do vary place to place and New Village offers the biggest and best selection Those little spuds second from left are class-A addictive, but watch the seaweed as it can grab the old uvula and lead to near death moments.

So, that’s the bibimbap. But it has a mate – the dolsot bibimbap. Dolsot means (very) hot stone pot, and so the above ingredients are lobbed in to one of these hence creating a volcanic version to warm the cockles of ones’ wintery heart. Not only does this approach make the dish very different to the room temp version, it has the added bonus of creating a ricey crust at the bottom of the bowl. Crunch crunch.

$8 – $10 depending on the outlet. New Village is $9.

Quality: 9/10 Quantity: 8.5/10 Value for money: 9/10

These guys also cater for those of us out there who are coeliacs.   They do a good selection of gluten free breads & food which is great news and they also do classics like Eggs Benedict with a potato rosti option to avoid the whole bread situation.  Spiffing stuff!

Does anyone else have a favourite place to get a caesar salad?  

They are also looking for items for the goody bags and/or sponsorship for this event which is $250. In return for sponsorship your logo is displayed on the website and, if sponsored in time, on the posters advertising the event.  If you are keen to help out then head to the website and get in touch with the organizers via the sponsorship page.