We spent last weekend in Wellington to attend the wedding of our good pals, Benisa. We flew Qantas across the ditch, and were served lunch. There were two options on offer – chicken or pasta.
I had the teriyaki chicken. It was okay despite the unappetising appearance. Chicken in a sweetish sauce, rice, a sliver of carrot and a small amount of floppy Chinese broccoli.
Alastair had the pasta with peas and pumpkin. It looked cheesey!
The meals were served with a green leaf salad (with a sachet of balsamic vinaigrette) and a bread roll.
For dessert, ice creams were handed out.
On the flight home, we were sitting right at the back of the plane. By the time the trolley got to us there was only the chicken option left. It was similar to the meal I had on the way over, except the chicken was in a slightly different sauce.
Dessert was again ice cream!
The meals weren’t terribly inspiring, but we have flown on enough budget airlines over to NZ to be grateful to be fed at all!
While we were enjoying ourselves in Wellington, bushfires were sweeping across Victoria in the worst natural disaster in Australia’s recorded history. On our flight home on Monday, we flew over the Latrobe Valley, and saw evidence of the bushfires – not just burnt land but also plumes of smoke from fires that were still burning. My thoughts are with those who have been affected by these horrific events.
Our first night in Hobart, we wandered around acquainting ourselves with the city. For dinner, we walked down to the waterfront and decided to eat at a seafood restaurant.
I had blue eye fillets, marinated in soy, honey, garlic, and ginger, char grilled and served with stir fried vegetables and potatoes ($31.50). It was okay – not great, not bad.
Dad had fish and chips ($29.50), and choose to have his fish grilled. It was served with chips and salad. Mum had the baked blue eye served on borlotti beans, roast zucchini, eggplant and capscium with sweet corn puree and pappa di pomadoro sauce ($33.50).
Mako Seafood Constitution Dock Hobart, Tasmania
My Dad seemed to be obsessed with fish so the following night we had fish and chips. We went down to the waterfront again, and ate at Mako Seafood, which is actually a floating two level pontoon. Along with the fried stuff, you can also purchase fresh fish.
I had a mini fish basket – for $8.50 I got a piece of fish, which was trevalla, a prawn, scallop, calamari and small chips.
Mum and Dad shared a fish feast – fish, 2 prawns, 2 calamari, scallop, chips and salad.
On Saturday, after visiting the Salamanca Markets, we stopped for lunch at Say Cheese. I felt like eating bits and pieces, so I ordered an antipasto platter ($23). It was massive! The plate was loaded with cheese, smoked turkey kransky, button mushrooms, smoked octopus, eggplant, peppers, olives, sundried tomatoes, and dolmades.
I also received a large bread roll and crackers. It could’ve easily fed two people. Look how many crackers there were!
Fortunately, Mum and Dad had smaller meals so they were able to help me out with mine! Mum had a smoked chicken salad and Dad had a smoked salmon salad.
New Sydney Hotel 87 Bathurst Street Hobart, Tasmania
Nearing the end of our trip, we had dinner at a random pub. I had a MASSIVE peppered steak pot pie ($20). This thing was seriously gigantic, and it was all big chunks of meat. It was also quite salty, and I only managed half because I got rather tired of eating nothing but meat chunks. The chips were good though.
Mum had a small seafood and tomato pasta with rocket ($13) while Dad had fish AGAIN. He had the fish of the day ($28). Mum also ordered us a caesar salad ($10) to share – and thank goodness she did! I was grateful for the lettuce to break up the tedium of my pot pie.
In November, Alastair and I also made a quick trip to Blenheim. Last time we were there, we had breakfast at Raupo. On this trip, we found ourselves at a loose end and went to Raupo again for cake and coffee. We had a chocolate torte with white chocolate mousse and raspberries ($7.50). It was a sponge like cake, so wasn’t too heavy, and it was yuuuuuuuum.
We returned again for breakfast on our last day. I wasn’t feeling particularly hungry (I’m not sure what was wrong with me – it’s very unusual!) and just had a couple of mini croissants with butter and jam (normal toast wasn’t on the menu).
Alastair had pancakes with fresh fruit and yoghurt.
That’s it for this edition! I have been a tad slack with posting recently, but I have a couple of half written posts that I will try and finish this weekend.
Mum and dad went home yesterday morning. We have been exceptionally spoilt during their stay with us so yes, I was sad to see them go, although it was for purely selfish reasons! I’ve had to start doing housework again. Sigh.
Before they left, I considered confiscating their passports, but I’m pretty sure that’s frowned upon in this country.
Still, even though they’re no longer here, we’re still reaping the benefits of their stay. The past couple of nights, dinner has been left overs that they made. Additionally, my freezers are full to bursting with food – containers of dumplings, meat, and more left overs. I will start cooking and baking again soon, but for now I’ll leave you with some of my favourite photos from Hobart.
Mum about to walk up Kelly’s Steps. These steps were built in 1839 by the adventurer James Kelly to connect Salamanca Place with Battery Point.
Taken in the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. The gardens were lovely. I took A LOT of flower photos.
Like this one.
We went on an “eco adventure cruise” around Tasman Island. (Yeah, I don’t know what that’s supposed to mean either.) I snapped this Australian gannet taking off after we got too close and disturbed it.
This is at the Port Arthur Historical site. Port Arthur was established as a convict settlement and soon became Australia’s largest, in operation from 1833 until 1877.
As mentioned previously, our weekend was spent in New Zealand for my father in law’s 60th birthday. Alastair’s sisters had organised the weekend, and had kept the fact that we were coming along a surprise. Malcolm was very moved when we showed up, which made the trip completely worth it. 🙂
View from a random winery
Alastair’s sisters had booked Macolm’s birthday lunch at a local winery – Wairau River Wines in Blenheim. Blenheim is located near the top of the South Island, in the Marlborough region, which is the largest wine area in New Zealand. Marlborough produces about half of New Zealand wines, with (surprise surprise) Sauvignon blanc being the predominant wine produced.
Lunch was a three course meal with two choices for each course. For entree, Alastair had the Marlborough mussel chowder and toasted herb bread. I stole a taste (as per usual) – it was creamy with chunks of fennel, potatoes and of course, mussels! But I thought that it was just a touch on the salty side.
I had the cauliflower and blue cheese soup with toasted herb bread. Ooooh boy, this was good! It was definitely the better of the two soups. It was super creamy, with a lovely smooth texture, and just a hint of cauliflower and blue cheese. I completely cleaned my bowl!
For mains, Alastair had the individual chicken, leek and tarragon pie with a mixed green leaf salad. Under the pastry lid were large chunks of chicken in a pale sauce. Does anyone else think that the best part of a pie is that skin between the lid and the filling? When Alastair pried off the pastry, he found that skin! Yummo.
I had the smoked fish and potato cakes with a soft boiled egg, proscuitto, caper and parsley salsa and watercress. The fish and potato cakes were soft inside, and slightly crusty on the outside. There was a distinct “smoked fish” flavour and I particularly liked eating the fish cake with a bit of boiled egg.
The desserts were a rhubarb and apple crumble with vanilla ice cream or a crème brulee with poached plums. Both Alastair and I had the crème brulee. It was perfect – the caramel on top cracked under my spoon and the custard underneath was smooth and creamy with specks of vanilla seeds.
Strangely though, other people found all the vanilla seeds all at the bottom of the custard while mine were scattered through the custard. The poached plums were very tart, but good eaten with a bit of custard. I noticed that most people left their plums behind (I ate mine because I’m a glutton).
It was a very pleasant lunch and very filling. So filling that there was no need to eat dinner that evening. And I’m not usually the type to skip dinner (glutton).
Blenheim seemed like a nice town and I’m astounded that I lived in NZ for 20 years and had never been there before. Isn’t that always the way – seeing the country you live in isn’t as attractive as seeing other countries? Fortunately some of Alastair’s family live in Blenheim so I’m sure there will be reason to visit again in the near future!
Wairau River Wines Rapaura Road, RD3, Blenheim, Marlborough, New Zealand Phone: +64 3 572 7950
We got back yesterday from a very brief three day visit to New Zealand. We were there for a special occasion – to attend Alastair’s father, Malcolm’s, 60th birthday party.
We flew Jetstar (a budget airline) so there’s no plane food to show you, but I do have some random bits from our trip. The flights were okay, but the plane felt very, very cramped. Fortunately it was only a few hours across the ditch and I had freecell and ABC vodcasts to entertain me.
We flew to Christchurch on Saturday morning and had breakfast at Melbourne airport. Once you pass customs, the food options are very limited. It was rather disappointing.
I had a bacon, egg and cheese foccacia ($6.50). Not a very healthy breakfast but it tasted okay and was reasonably priced (for airport food, that is).
Alastair had a chicken pie ($6.50). A pie for breakfast!
Once we reached Christchurch, we picked up a rental car and headed to Blenheim. On the journey there, we stopped in Kaikoura for a late lunch/early dinner.
It was 5.30pm when we reached Kaikoura – and the town was dead. Admittedly, it was wet and cold, so perhaps it was quieter than it would normally be. We decided to eat at a pub called The Whaler, as it was the first one we came across. There was no one in there apart from us and the staff! I imagine that it would be much busier in the warmer months. It was quite a nice place – all dark wood and a blazing fireplace in the middle of the room.
Alastair had the lamb shanks which were braised and served with a sweet pea potato mash with caramelised onion, green beans and jus ($27). It was a whopper of a meal, with two large shanks that had been cooked until the flesh was falling off the bone.
I choose a smaller meal and had the baked catch of the day served on an onion potato cake with a blue cheese and avocado sauce ($15). I don’t know what the fish was (and I didn’t ask) but I wasn’t that taken with it – it had a very firm, heavy flesh, which wasn’t overcooked or dried out but still really solid. It had a strong fishy flavour. Now I wish that I had asked what it was so I can steer clear of it in the future! Anyway, the avocado and blue cheese sauce was good, creamy and with only a hint of blue cheese flavour. The pink stripey thing in the salad had me stumped, but the little salad was good with a sweetish, tangy dressing. (Oh! Google tells me that the pink stripey thing is a Chioggia beet. Gosh I love the internets.)
The Whaler 49-51 West End, Kaikoura 7300, New Zealand Phone: +64 3 319 3333
The next day was Malcolm’s birthday lunch at a winery (post to come), so Alastair and I only had a small breakfast. We opted for a savoury muffin, which was full of bacon, capsicum, cheese and corn. Mhmm tasty. It was pretty good, but would’ve been even better if it had been warm. The red sauce on top was a tangy chutney.
The coffees came with a little biscuit mushroom. Cute!
Giorgios 71 High St, Blenheim, New Zealand Phone: +64 3 578 3828
We left Blenheim the next day, getting up early as we had to drive back to Christchurch. When we got into the car at 7ish, the temperature was -2°C. Brrrr! We went into town and had breakfast at the first open cafe we came across.
Alastair had the open omelette with tomato, rocket and mozzarella ($15).
I had the scrambled eggs with a corn fritter and bavarian sausage ($16). The eggs were fairly light and not overcooked.
The coffee was really very good – the initial taste was quite sour, but it had a aftertaste that was smooth and very pleasant. I had two….
After breakfast we headed back to Christchurch. The road out of Blenheim was quite twisty, and as we drove back on the inside of the mountain I felt the effect of the windiness more than the drive in. The winding road, along with the coffees, and a full stomach from breakfast meant that soon I was feeling a lot less than average. After fighting it for a while, eventually I asked Alastair to pull over – and let’s just say that breakfast tasted a lot worse coming up than it had going down!
It was a shame I was feeling so car sick because the drive back to Christchurch was beautiful, with snow capped mountains and ocean views along the way. We stopped in Kaikoura briefly on the way back to Christchurch. Not a great pic – I blame the car sickness. I was obviously feeling better though because I wanted to take a photo!
On our last evening in Wellington during our long weekend there, we met up with Alastair’s father, Malcolm, for dinner. He booked Zibibbo, located on Taranaki Street in the old Police Station building.
Alastair and I rocked up a bit early, and headed upstairs to the restaurant. There was some confusion about whether it was too early for us to be seated. We offered to go downstairs for a drink, but were told somewhat vaguely that it was fine.
Our table was located just beyond the entrance and in front of the kitchen. It was a rather draughty position to sit in, and I felt cold the entire evening!
Alastair and I shared one of the specials for our starter – Bluff oysters ($25 for 6, $45 for 12). We opted to have them natural (the other option was battered and deep fried) and they came with a bowl of tangy thousand islandish sauce and buttered brown bread. The Bluff oyster season starts around March each year, and it is eagerly anticipated by oyster lovers. I never liked oysters when I lived in NZ, and I think it’s because of Bluff oysters. They just don’t seem to excite me! They were very popular though and these were okay, although unexciting (to me) – I saw many, many plates of oysters leave the kitchen.
For mains, Alastair and I both choose lamb. This was a brioche crumbed braised lamb with salsa verde and thyme jus ($29.00). It was an interesting way of serving lamb. The very tender braised meat was shaped into a log, covered in brioche crumbs and baked (I think). The tenderness of the lamb was very enjoyable, but I found that the meat and the jus were a touch too salty. The creamy mashed potato on the side helped with the saltiness though.
For desserts, I had the vanilla bean pannacotta with poached apricots ($14) and Alastair had the blueberry crème brulee with lemon financier ($13.50). The pannacotta was great – creamy and silky with little specks of vanilla seeds, and the poached apricots were a nice fruity contrast.
Alastair’s crème brulee was mostly good too, although I noticed some spots on the top had gone past caramelisation and were actually burnt. He ate his blueberries but left behind the lemon financier. I took a bite, and found it light and zesty. Malcolm had the chocolate fondant cake and he said that it was one of the best chocolate cakes he had eaten. High praise indeed!
All in all, it was a mostly good meal. Service seemed a tad distracted, and we found it hard to flag someone down to order coffees after our desserts were cleared.
When we left, I realised why I had been so cold the entire evening. The weather had completely changed from when we had entered – there was a bitterly cold wind blowing and whipping the heavy rain sideways into us as we walked to the car. Ahh yes. This was the kind of weather I had been expecting during our visit. Wellington, I love you, but I sure as hell don’t miss the weather.
Zibibbo 25 Taranaki Street Te Aro, Wellington 6011, New Zealand Phone: +64 4 385 6650
On our recent long weekend in Wellington we flew Air New Zealand. With a flight time of approximately three and a half hours, just a short hop across the Tasman, a full meal wasn’t served.
On the way over to Welly, we were served a light dinner. We were right at the back of the plane and it took SO LONG before we got food. I was starving and the food smells wafting out of the kitchen at the back didn’t help!
One meal choice was shepherd’s pie and potato salad, and the other wasn’t memorable because I can’t recall it! The shepherd’s pie was a cottage pie (beef mince rather than lamb mince) and was actually rather good. The pastry was light, and the filling was adequately seasoned. There was, naturally, a packet of tomato sauce provided. The potato salad was less successful and needed a bit more zing (some mayo would’ve been great!) – and I did wonder about serving a potato topped pie with more potatoes on the side. Carb city!
Dessert was a slice of cake, wrapped in plastic. I wanted to wait until I had a cup of tea before eating it, but, just like when getting our meal, tea and coffee took aaaaaaaages. I never have been good with resisting when the food is right in front of me! The presentation of the cake slice was rather average, but happily it tasted better than it looked. It was moist and light, and nicely vanilla flavoured.
The flight went pretty smoothly, apart from the descent into Wellington when the wind buffeted the plane. It was all rather familiar. The runway in Wellington is quite short, being sandwiched between two areas of sea. Along with the frequent gusts of wind, landing there can be rather unpleasant! I have had some horrible landings in Welly, but fortunately it was relatively smooth on this trip.
On the way home, the flight left at the ungodly hour of 6.30am. On the up side, this meant that I was tired enough to sleep most of the way home! I did wake up for breakfast though. The choices were between a warm breakfast, a ham and egg croissant, or a cold continental breakfast. The croissant was passable – flaky, but a tad dry.
There was also a small chocolate chip muffin provided. It was just okay, and despite appearances it wasn’t as nice as the cake slice on the trip over.
There was also a small fruit salad of pineapple and orange.
All in all, the food was average but it was perfectly fine for the short flight. The planes were looking a tad tired, but we arrived home safely – and in the end that’s the important thing!
After drinks and cheerios, we felt a bit peckish. Since we were already at the Southern Cross, we took the easy option and decided to eat there.
We asked for a table in the dining area, and unfortunately got seated in the darkest corner of the room, so excuse the shite pics! The “stone grilled” section of the menu intrigued us – you choose your desired meat/s, plus chips/potatoes and salad/green vege. The meat comes out on a slab of volcanic rock, letting you cook it to your liking. Gimmicky? Probably…. but we are suckers for a gimmick!
Holy moly!
Alastair and I shared the “A Taste of the Cross” ($58, serves 2). My eyes widened when our petite waitress appeared carrying our meal – a plank of wood about one metre in length, on top of which was bread, dips, a bowl of nuts, a bowl of olives, the volcanic rock, potatoes and vegetables, smoked salmon, avocado, salad and a cup of pulled pork. On top of the slab of heated rock were two pieces of completely raw rump steak, two mussels, two oysters and two spoons holding scallops.
The meat sizzled away on the extremely hot rock and the seafood sat quietly cooking. Unfortunately I was overcome by the novelty of the big plank being plonked on to our table, plus was um… taking pictures, and only noticed the oysters after they had been on the hot rock for a couple of minutes. It was long enough for them to cook. Gak. While the meat was cooking, we ate the mussels and scallops. Well, I ate a scallop. Alastair dropped his one on the floor!
The rosemary roast potatoes were okay (although I must confess that I very rarely dislike potatoes!) but didn’t have much rosemary flavour. The green vegetables were okay too, although a couple of the green beans had some brownish spots.
We only nibbled at the bread and dips. I think one dip was capsicum and despite appearances one seemed to be blue cheese. There were also olives that were marinated with preserved orange. I wasn’t really a fan of the preserved orange and left the olives after trying one. I did eat most of the bowl of mixed nuts though.
The pulled pork came in a ice cream sundae cup, and it was spiced and smokey. There was a bit too much food though, and we didn’t eat much of the pork.
When we had finished eating, the rock was still hot, so we sat and chatted and plonked random things on the slab. Naturally we had to ask about the rocks, and found out that they are heated in a kiln for several hours. They can cook for 30 minutes and stay hot for an hour and a half!
It was a fun meal and definitely a gimmick worth trying at least once.
The Southern Cross 35 Abel Smith Street, Te Aro Wellington, New Zealand Phone: +64 4 384 9085
Alastair and I flew into Wellington on Friday morning for a long weekend. It was a very busy one – we attended a wedding, had a couple of drinks with friends, had dinner with Alastair’s dad, and went to a wedding lunch, a wedding dinner, a day after wedding lunch, day after wedding drinks, plus many, many walks (in high heels) up the stupid hill to our hotel on the Terrace.
Wellington from the Majestic Centre
Somewhere in the middle of all that stuff, we managed to have a quick walk around Wellington. I hadn’t been back in almost four years, and wasn’t terribly surprised to find that not much had changed since my last visit. Most of the shops and restaurants were still the same, the bucket fountain was still there, and it was still windy.
On Friday, after a quick sleep, we met up with mum and dad to give them some tech support. They had especially brought their laptops down from Auckland, and Alastair patiently answered all their questions (sucks to be the IT guy, huh?). Alastair needed a bit of strength first though, so we walked down the road to get a coffee. We walked into a place that looked cool and hip, and Alastair went up to the counter to order us some coffees. I’m not sure what the problem was, but he had issues ordering a latte – maybe it was the accent, or perhaps the guy was new, but eventually Alastair had to flag down someone else to place the order!
The picture above wasn’t from the place in question. This coffee was at Old Bank Arcade on Lambton Quay. We had a quick bite to eat there before going to the wedding ceremony. The coffee was good and we returned on Sunday morning. I felt like a soy latte on that morning and although I didn’t take a photo it was the BEST soy latte I’ve ever had. It tasted like chocolate, caramel and soy. Yum.
At the Old Bank Arcade, I had a smoked salmon and rye bagel for breakfast. I did take the pickle out and eat that first though.
On the soy latte day, I had a mushroom croissant. Alastair had a danish on both days.
On Friday evening, we caught up with one of my friends for a drink. She suggested the Southern Cross. Later that evening, we met up with one of Alastair’s friends. He made it super easy for us by suggesting that we meet at Southern Cross. And where was the day after wedding drinks held? Yup, the Southern Cross!
While there we wanted something to nibble on before dinner. Normally we would get a bowl of hot chips, but then we discovered you can buy a bowl of cheerios – so cheerios it was! It made me think of birthday parties that I attended as a youngster where cheerios and tomato sauce would always be served.
Speaking of being a youngster, we went to the supermarket so I could buy some supplies to take back – sour cream and chive Grainwaves, Chocolate fingers and Aprioot and chocolate CookieTimes. While there, I saw a bottle of Mello Yello, and had to buy it for the nostalgia factor. And…. it was sickly sweet and icky. What a disappointment. Some things should remain in the past!
These photos were taken from the 28th floor of the Majestic Centre, Wellington’s highest building. There’s no public viewing facilities in the building – we were there for the wedding cocktail luncheon. The view from up there is gorgeous. The room that the function was held in appeared to be a meeting room – what a waste of a view!
Newton Food Centre is a major food centre that was first opened in 1971, and is widely promoted by the Singapore Tourist Board. Apparently it has a reputation for being touristy and expensive. We went there for dinner on our last night in Singapore, solely because I discovered that our hotel was just down the road.
The food stalls are set up in a horseshoe configuration, around a plaza full of table and chairs. We were obviously tourists, so pretty much as soon as we entered stallholders descended upon us, showing us pictures of their food. It was fairly confronting, but no match for some of the souvenir markets that we perused in Africa. For example, when we were at Victoria Falls, market holders kept putting items in our hands, almost begging us to buy them. “I haven’t sold anything in three days!” was a common plea. Annoying, but kind of funny, were the stallholders at Victoria Falls who asked, “Have you got anything to trade? Your shirt? Hat? Pens?” They seemed desperate for anything, to the point where one of our group traded his socks for a souvenir – socks that he had been wearing at the time.
After doing one lap of the centre (brushing off touts the whole time), it was time to decide what to eat! So we decided – and boy, did we get sold. I blame Alastair and his weakness for seafood. Seafood was a lot more expensive than everything else, and subsequently, it wasn’t a cheap meal. But what the hell. It was our last night and we enjoyed it!
Out came 2 HUGE garlic prawns. These prawns were beasts! The green balls near the head of the prawns were little limes. The prawns were nice and garlicky, and we washed them down with a big mug of beer.
We had chilli lobster, which were the smallest lobsters I’ve ever seen. They were about the size of the prawns! The chilli sauce wasn’t particularly spicy, and had a touch too much tomato sauce, but otherwise good.
We also had a $4 plate of char kway teo, because I wasn’t going to leave the country without eating some! Traditionally, char kway teo is fried in pork fat, and it tasted so fatty and delicious I would be surprised if pork fat wasn’t used.
After all this, Alastair still wasn’t done eating, so he bought some chicken and beef satay. When he returned to the table saying that he had to order a minimum of 10 sticks, I was worried that we wouldn’t be able to eat them all. Fortunately, they were just little bite size skewers. Nicely done too, smokey and a bit charred. Mhhhmm.
Oh, Singapore, so much food, so little stomach space.
