Lauraine Jacobs

Food Writer and Author of Delicious Books

Lauraine’s blog

5 November 2014

EATING WITH RUTH REICHL IN AUCKLAND AND CHRISTCHURCH

And now for something completely different. Everyone always asks me what’s new, where’s good to eat and what my favourite places are. But when the world’s most well-known food critic arrives in New Zealand what am I to do and where should I take her?

Imagine being charged with the responsibility of eating around the town with Ruth Reichl. Reichl is an author, an editor, a blogger, is deeply caring about the future of food and was here in Auckland to speak at events organised by the Auckland Writers Festival and to attend WORD, the literary festival in Christchurch. She’s the ideal dining companion; gracious, witty, erudite and loves food.

“I want to eat as much as I can,” she told me a month before she arrived, and so it was agonising to have to make the decisions where to eat, especially as we have so much good food in Auckland. I decided to avoid fine dining, even though I would happily have led her to The French Café, Sidart, Michael Meredith’s, The Grove and Clooney – all exemplary restaurant around our city. I would love her to have had the simply delicious food at The Engine Room, but it was closed for a winter break. And call me a chicken, but I was a bit too scared to invite her to my house as my last attempt to cook for an American celebrity, the late and revered Charlie Trotter had seen some very tough lamb on the table. I did not want to risk a country’s primary industry with the former New York Times food critic.

So the first night Ruth was in town we went to The Depot in Sky City’s Federal St. Al Brown ate with us and I can affirm he is a generous and gracious host. As the oysters and clams arrived immediately from the raw bar, he plied us with champagne and explained his aim for that restaurant was to recreate the feeling of the Kiwi bach. And he has. It is casual, unpretentious, lively and the food never seems complex or fussed around with. I would go as far to say that he has distilled the essence of New Zealand.

The oysters won Ruth over immediately and oysters became a theme in almost all our meals. “I love your oysters!” she said, “they are briny, firm and taste of the sea. They are the only oysters I have ever had that you really want to chew.”

We ate lots. We drank lots. Ruth loved Al’s pastrami, carried in from his Federal Deli next door, and high points were the sticky seasoned lamb ribs, a fabulous cauliflower salad and tuatua fritters. And that lovely Millton chenin blanc. It was the sort of good night that you go home very happy and then have to plumb the depths of your mind next morning to remember everything you ate and drank. Such fun and so good.

Next: Lunch on the deck at Soul, on a calm, sunny day. It doesn’t get much better than this and the sassy owner Judith Tabron completely charmed Ruth Reichl. Jude really knows restaurants and the pair shared tales of the food scene in both Los Angeles and New York. Oysters again, of course. Amazing kingfish and amazing scampi. All sweet and so ocean fresh they almost swam to the table. But for Ruth, it was Soul’s pasta dishes that really knocked her out. I was in heaven with the rags of pasta garnished with scampi and an intense scampi bisque, while Ruth was still talking about the pumpkin filled pasta pockets five days later.

Our final Auckland dinner will come as no surprise to Ponsonby residents. As I collected Ruth from The Langham she told me she was exhausted. (I was too.) But a welcoming glass of sparkling sake at Cocoro proved to set the world right. Chef Makato excelled himself with his degustation menu.

Oysters to start. A Bluff oyster freshly shucked sat beside a Kaipara oyster. A wonderful contrast and just the ticket. Sashimi of alfonso and FARMED tuna. (My capitals there as had we been served ocean-caught bluefin tuna Ruth would have been embarrassed. She eats ethically, wherever she goes. So this fish, flown in from Japan impressed our guest.) Another nice touch on the sashimi course – the freshly grated wasabi grown in our South island.

I knew Ruth was a fan of Japanese food and had recently been on a very swish trip to Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, as I had followed her eating adventures on Twitter. (She has reinvented the art of the tweet with her imaginative and evocative tweets that almost always use the maximum 140 characters.) So I had confidence that this Japanese dinner, cooked by the effervescent Makato would be superb yet simple. It was.

The freshest of fish from Leigh Fisheries, some superb organic foods from Japan, a stunning chawanmushi, and perfect kingfish and pikopiko tempura served with seaweed, buckwheat soba grains and an intense miso scented broth.

The meal, with a couple of well selected sakes was the perfect end to Ruth Reichl’s (and mine for a while) eating adventures in Auckland.

But there’s more! Her next stop was Christchurch. I was there too, as I had been invited to interview Ruth on stage at WORD. Post-earthquake Christchurch moves forward like a snail but at least there are no longer any ‘no go’ zones. The Transitional Cathedral where our session was held is very impressive. Our conversation was a delight as we ranged through our worlds of food which hold many intersections.

And ta-daa! We had three good meals together. I include them here as it is always good to know just where to eat in another city.

King of Snake is a trendy Asian fusion restaurant very close to the city centre in Victoria St. Spicy dishes are the boost you need when everything around you seems chaotic or even depressing. I am happy to recommend the platter of oysters, sweet clams with XO sauce, spicy prawns in a stunning sauce and a fresh vegetable stir fry accompanied by, as Ruth remarked, ‘a bowl of excellent proper rice.’

Two new places we ate at embody the spirit of the city as it renews and reinvents itself. The first is an intriguing use of a recycled brick building in High St, known as Brick Farm. Surrounded by urban gardens to supply the kitchen, it is open for a simple breakfast on weekends, and offers delicious dinner in the evening. It is charming, rustic and personable.

And cannot speak highly enough of Shop 8 in New Regent’s St. The brainchild of Liz Phelan and chef Alex Davies, it is a tiny place with an impressive fit out using furniture and art from Rekindled. All the materials are recycled from material found in the city. The wooden tables were decorated with flowers foraged from abandoned nearby gardens. We ate the ‘taste of everything’ on the menu, including pig head ramen, chicken liver pate and hearts with radishes fried in duck fat, and a sustainably caught terakihi with oyster and shiitake mushrooms in an intense broth. And three perfectly ripe pieces of cheese to end as Davies confessed he does not like making dessert. Ruth’s comment, “This young chef has a huge future.”

A compliment like that from the queen of food doesn’t get any better. And how lucky was I to share those meals, and how lucky are we to have fine New Zealand fare like this to share with visitors.