Sunday, April 29, 2012

A Dollop of Goodness.

Keeping it simple. Fresh berries, whipped cream and Dollop?

Saucey!
Berries
ah, Bliss!
Just discovered these cute wee bottles of happiness from Dollop. Chocolate ganache and berry compote.

Apart from the slight effort of whipping some cream up, it made dessert time very easy and delish! The chocolate ganache needed to be slightly melted first from running it under hot tap water and because I was on an easy mission (the whipping of cream already used up my energy), decided to flag it. Tried it the day after though, and like the berry compote, it was very good. Great when mixed together, and with yoghurt... oh the options?!

Luckily for me, they are not stocked at every supermarket so I can at least have some kind of restraint and not over indulge. They're not cheap but definitely worth it.  

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Brunch at Strawberry Fare

Decided to grab a quick snack at Sushi World while doing a bit of the groceries the other day with my sister. They're a lot more expensive than the packs of sushi you get at the mall and takeaways but it's fun to be able to pick what you want. Their teriyaki chicken sushi is yum! none of that salty chopped up stuff you normally get. Rice was a bit hard this time, but it happens.

Snack Sushi!
About an hour later, after much pondering of what to have for lunch, we ended up at Strawberry Fare for weekend brunch! Yay!

Smoked Salmon with Avocado, Poached Eggs and Croissant
Vegetarian Pancakes
I'm not a vegetarian but bacon with pancakes have never sounded appealing for me. Love bacon, but with pancakes, waffles and french toast?! I just don't get it. So for the vegetarian option I got extra fruit. Fruit = healthy. It was a delight, the pancakes were so fluffy! and according to my sister, her meal was equally nice.

I think we were both a little bummed at how filling brunch was though, because we really wanted dessert. You don't go to Strawberry Fare and not get dessert! To be fair though, mine was a bit of a dessert so I was still very satisfied.

Maybe next time we won't grab a snack an hour before... or, maybe next time we just eat ourselves silly?! good idea.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Birthday Dinner at Sakura

I turned old the other day. To "celebrate" we went to Sakura for dinner because Kinji does not open on a Sunday, unfortunately...

Shabu Shabu Pork Salad, Fries and Assorted Tempura.
Assorted Nigiri and "Premium" Sashimi
Takoyaki, Takowasa, Soft Shell Crab and Croquettes.
The food was alright. I'm not sure if they are over confident or in over their heads, and I hate to compare but for the price they charge for each dish, the quality does not exactly equate. I do love fries and it has always been a dream that I could get good sushi, fries and cake all in the same place but sadly they could not deliver. You can't just sprinkle a bit of seaweed on generic supermarket frozen chips to "japanify" them and expect us to take you seriously. I was expecting some effort put into the dish, I mean, I would have been a bit less grumbly had they hand cut their own fries and failed because at least they tried... Overall, the company and day was lovely and I can go on about the food but I won't let that ruin my birthday memory. I aged. That was depressing enough.... 

Happier if it had been at Kinji. oh SNAP!

The good thing is, next year my birthday won't be on a Sunday...
Thursday, April 19, 2012

Oh Akaroa, What happened to you?!

My favourite fish and chip shop burnt down a while ago and it was very sad for my stomach, despite that though, I thought it would still be awesome to go to Akaroa and try something different for a change.

When we got there I was starving and a bit iffy from the drive and settled quickly for the nearest restaurant. After being told to take a seat and that we would be served soon... yeah that didn't happen. We waited and waited and when we went to find someone after waiting for so long we were told that the kitchen was closed... so that was frustrating to say the least.

We walked up and down the main street to look for food, and seriously, without the fish and chip shop it's like a ghost town. Why is everything closed on a Tuesday?! It was cold and I needed food, something warming. L'Escargot Rouge was our saviour. It's a tiny, tiny cafe and we had to wait a bit for a table to clear before we could sit inside but it was perfect.

Tomato Soup
Salmon Pie
Bacon and Egg Pie
They don't have a big selection of food but at least there was some effort put into it for a small cafe/deli. Prices weren't ridiculous for the location and a little salad and tomato relish on the side, they make me pay for that at my normal cafe. Anyways, when I'm trying to be healthy (yes I know pies are bad but I wanted something warm!) I always pick the fish choice which is not always a good idea when you are feeling weird but I kept it down, go me! I didn't eat the lemon on top of my pie though. I wasn't sure if it was decoration or if it had a purpose, either way, not a fan of lemon skin.

Cloudy and Boring...
I love Akaroa and I'm sure there is more to it than fish and chips! I know there is. Maybe it was the weather, the bad service from the restaurant I shall not mention and me being unwell, but seriously, this is the first time ever in my life I have been so disppointed being there. sigh. Akaroa, despite all this, I'm not giving up on you just yet!

See you when the fish and chip shop rebuilds....

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Choc-o-lait

I've been spying these chocolate sticks for months now. Truth be told, I can be a bit of a tight ass when it comes to food/drinks while I'm at work and/or "simple" food/drinks. So even though it does work out a little cheaper than going to a cafe for a cup of hot chocolate, it is still a lot cheaper if I dissolve cocoa powder in hot milk, and for $6.90 I can have a whole tin of cocoa powder, not the best, but for a few dollars more, something pretty decent and convince myself it's spectacular as opposed to two sticks of chocolate. Hazelnut flavoured by the way... just a hint.

It was nice... but She Chocolat do a better chocolate stick and they give you cream. I'm too lazy and unstocked to make cream. Nevertheless, it was easy to make and somewhat fun so you never know... Choc-O-Lait, we may meet again, perhaps next time, I'll bring some cream.

Choc-O-Lait
Melting goodness

Vietnamese for Lunch

I shouldn't blame the iPhone because you are as good as your camera, though in saying that my other cameras do take much better pictures and the iPhone isn't really designed to be a proper camera...

I guess my hunger plays a part in the low quality of photos. I'm sorry, but when food comes to the table I don't have time to play around with apertures, changinging lenses and rearranging things around to look perfect, I barely even have time to tell Jack to stop making stupid "v poses" in the background, I just want to eat. To be fair, this is not a food blog... I just haven't found anything else to write about yet ha...

Vietnamese Spring Rolls
Vietnamese Pancakes
Thick Noodles in Crab Soup
The Special Beef Noodle Soup
The only reason Jack would want Vietnamese food is if he is craving the fresh spring rolls. The last Vietnamese restaurant we went to had decent spring rolls (it's very hard to screw them up unless you've never eaten them before and still try to sell it *cough Jamaica Blue cough*) but the service was appalling. I know not to expect great service from cheapish Asian eateries but still, half an hour before taking an order when it's not busy is NOT cool.

Five Star Vietnamese fortunately was much more efficient and the food was awesome. They even had different sauces for the entrees (there were three sauces but I was too busy eating entree number three to take a photo)because every other place I've been to so far it's been the same sauce for every single thing. So that was a bit of a novelty for us (easily impressed). They didn't have many pictures in the menu and because of their efficiency in taking our order :) and my hunger (damn you stomach?!), in panic I randomly picked the crab noodle soup even though I wanted a rice dish but was too scared to order "broken rice". What is that?! Nevertheless it was great but Jacks beef noodle soup was the star dish (five star? ha... don't encourage me). The beef slowly cooked itself in the broth so it wasn't freakishly raw and ended up so tender and flavourful. The beef serving was plentiful enough for me to keep picking at his bowl for him to still be full. When I say picking it was more putting my food on hiatus until his was gone and then back to mine. There isn't too much competition, but Five Star Vietnamese, you may just have become our favourite Vietnamese restaurant in town!

On the subject of tender beef, I know New Zealand is famous for their beef, but the best beef I've ever had was in Japan. The shabu shabu place was all you can eat so it wasn't even super expensive high class grade A stuff but man did it melt in your mouth. I can't wait for the day I'm back there... sushi what? beef!!!

Shabu Shabu and Kobe Beef
After lunch I let Jack have his time with his ducks. As the photo will depict, I stayed well away! We ran out of cereal and bread, they didn't like his cookies... he lost his charm...
The loyal few ducks...
Monday, April 2, 2012

Yay date day!

I love dates! Jack has been sooo busy since uni started. Apart from sleep time, I've probably spent less than an hour with him alone.

Plan for the day, lunch then movie. There was suggestion of going for a walk in the park and feeding ducks but I shut that idea down.... damn ducks.... Lunch choice was originally Sakura but they don't open on a Monday?! Then I remembered the eatery opposite North and South and thought it would be interesting and different from our usual haunts.
 
Chicken Wings and Sausies
Dolmades and Rice Paper Chicken Wrap
Spanish Salad, North African Spring Roll and Pastries
Yum! But before I go on about the food, slight complaint about how confusing it was to order and know what everything was. There were three different display counters of food and a big menu that you can't order from until after 5pm, very limited space and for people like me who want to eat everything, it was very hard to order everything especially when it is also such a busy place. Other than that it was delightful and will definitely go back to try the other food... the meatballs looked very scrummy! I loved the sausages and the sweet pastries were bursting with flavour.

Cute Jug of Water
The owner (I think?) was lovely, I had a slight freak out moment that I would not be able to carry all the plates and break something because I do that when I try not to, but he asked where we would like to sit, carried a jug of water, set our table and carried all our plates for us. Awesome. Then Jack had a weird episode where he was convinced they put something in the water to make it taste different something like a berry... I could not taste it but played along, he even asked the owner what was in it and he gave a confused look so now it's a conspiracy or something that the water tastes good. If you are ever at Mosaic by Simo please try the water.

After lunch we had time to kill before the movies so we went for some chocolate and a drink at Theobroma Chocolate Lounge. The guy serving us was overly enthusiastic and below are two pictures of what we ordered and how they should have been displayed as opposed to how they were displayed.

Nice Display
I ate one but you get the idea...
After the brief chat at the counter I am very sure the dodgy threesome was not a coincidence... the yellow frog was the best by the way... felt a bit uncomfortable eating them though.

I had a wonderful day! Can't wait for the next date day baby... next year maybe? :(
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