Lauraine’s blog
19 December 2012
We’ve seen the opening of a number of good restaurants and cafés during 2012 but the very best is The Oyster Inn. Everything has come together perfectly to capture the essence of all that makes New Zealand a special place. On one hand it’s the stunning simplicity of the surroundings, décor and food, combined with the magical setting. But then sitting on the deck, overlooking the ocean, you realise that owners and hosts Jonathan Rutherfurd Best and Andrew Glenn have delivered it all with a great dollop of sophistication and careful thought.
In the process the pair considered the local population, setting out to entice them in, and the number of Islanders rolling up to feast or simply have a drink attests to this. Best and Glenn spent childhood years in New Zealand, and more recently worked in London. The boys may have left the country years ago, but their passion for the lifestyle and culture has been retained and they’ve come home. Hurray!
It shines through in the collection of artefacts, maps and old photos that adorn the Oyster Inn’s walls, and in the sympathetic decoration of both the restaurant and the three very comfortable rooms for guests to stay in. Lots of white painted wood, with touches of a beautiful colour ‘Sea Foam’ reflect the colour of Oneroa’s beach and sparkling water. In those rooms there’s a touch of luxury with spacious bathrooms, Aesop toiletries and superb furnishings.
The Oyster Inn’s masterstroke is the chef. Cristian Hossack had been away from NZ for fifteen years, cooking most recently as head chef for Peter Gordon’s Providores in London. He delights in using the island’s bounty- fish, oysters, olive oil, and the lovely wines. He has put his own personal stamp on the food with a simple menu, befitting the surroundings, yet with some quite quirky dishes like a tender octopus salad with barley and herbs, or crunchy crumbed fingers of lamb belly with mint vinaigrette that makes for interesting eating. Most importantly, it’s very affordable; $22.50 for fantastic fish and chips (line-caught fish, triple cooked fries) and a range of ‘bites’ like tarakihi sllders with burnt butter and crispy capers $18 and an enamel bowlful of salt and pepper squid with coriander cress $16. I loved his Very Green Salad, a tangle of lots of green things with a crunchy finish.
There’s another deft hand in the kitchen too, making a stunning range of desserts; pictured above are the chilled vanilla rice pudding with poached peaches and jelly (harking back to everyone’s Kiwi childhood) and the panna cotta with cherries which is made with the Waiheke Ewe’s milk I’d tried a few weeks before at an Island showcase.
The Oyster Inn is about 20 minutes walk from the Matiatia Ferry, and you can be picked up in a restored Kombi van that captures the quirkiness of the place. I’m picking this will be the place to be this summer, as it’s close enough to the city to take the ferry over for lunch or dinner, so be sure to reserve a table if you’re headed to the island.
The Oyster Inn, 124 Ocean View Rd, Oneroa, T 09 372 2222 www.theoysterinn.co.nz
4 December 2012
The best part about my job is I get to share the inside stories of the food world. Last week I was privileged to get a sneaky preview of the new Ebisu menu.
Ebisu is my first choice of restaurants in the smart Britomart precinct (although Hanoi is a pretty close second.) Also I need to add here that I cannot believe once again Aucklanders have been duped. That 'smart Britomart' is not nearly as appealing now the centre has been filled in with permanent buildings - a wonderful open space once again lost forever. Shame on the Auckland Council planners' stupidity and the developers' greed.
But on with the food; Ebisu has a sushi master, Yokio Ozeki who has joined chef Murray Wiblin in the kitchen. I can't tell you more about him yet, but I can report his 'new style mixed sashimi platter' pictured above would do itself proud in a top Japanese restaurant. I consider myself qualified to say that as I have just returned from two weeks of top-end eating in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Yamashiro.
Like so much of the feasting encountered on my Japanese epicurean adventure, the food on this new Ebisu menu is elegant, beautifully presented and tastes oh-so-light and delicious. Don't miss the wagyu dumplings in a spice sauce with roasted almonds, the tiny square of very authentic tonkatsu pork belly, the scampi tempura with ponzu which almost floated up from my plate and the yakitori lamb fillets with spicy miso that may be the most tender lamb I've eaten anywhere.
To finish there's a stunning sesame ice cream with cherry macaroon - perfect food for seasonal eating as all rightful Japanese chefs will offer. Don't miss this experience. And here's a tip; Ebisu's new shochu bar opens very soon - in the place where Precinct was.
Ebisu, 116 Quay St,(an entrance off Tyler St, too) T 09 300 5271
5 November 2012
You had to be there. There’s no way my words can do justice to the brilliant picture that was painted on Gather & Hunt’s blank canvas in the Nathan Club at the artDEGO last night. Provocative and pretty, sensory and spectacular, colourful and clever, and above all, delightfully delicious.
Traditional chefs, mainstream artists, conventional event managers, I have a message for you all - Move Over! Quickly! The fun and new direction for Auckland food starts here with this energetic team.
Dominique and Courteney run the Tasting Club as part of their terrific Gather& Hunt website. Last night, as part of Auckland Art Week, they harnessed the talent of Mink Boyce to bring five dishes from fine young gun chefs together with five young gun artists. Each course was a collaborative between the pairs, and each was an experience to behold.
Even before we were seated, the fun began. Two different cocktails from mixologist Cam Timmins of Mea Culpa were served with finger food from Ed Verner of Sidart. Playing on the art theme, he’d created broad brushstrokes of colour and taste on a charcoal palette, and we swept a cacophony of flavour into our mouths. And a trick; it looked like an oyster in a shell, but it was a shell fashioned from rice flour (I guess) filled with jelly, wasabi and more. Sensational and that almost stole the show of the night for me.
The artists’ works were on display around the room for one night only, providing the inspiration for the food. The opening dish was sensational. Nick Honeyman (The Commons) set our places with a small artist’s palette, brush, a paint tube of dressing and a wee plastic bottle of turpentine (turned out to be our wine to drink) to accompany his spring Ora King salmon and coconut pannacotta entrée. Inspired by artist John Dwyer.
Then Stephen Smith (Tin Soldier) co-operating with Tiffany Singh and her colourful works, sent out a dainty little decorated cup for the Warkworth clover honey mead that accompanied his brilliant platter of carrot, almond, chilli and turmeric, all set on a wax dipped puka leaf. “Most amazing carrots I’ve ever eaten,” said one connoisseur at our table.
Mark Southon (The Foodstore) was inspired by Liam Gerrard’s graphic charcoal drawing of a pig’s head and served “this little piggy went fishing” with a surf and turf combo of pig’s cheek, John Dory, squid crisps and caviar butter. (Yum, yum, pig’s ***, I thought.) The Pyramid Valley Rose Savagnin was delicious too.
Both Elliot Collins (a handle-bar moustachioed artist) and Hayden McMillan (Tribeca) worked so hard on their course. The meltingly tender masterstock glazed beef shortribs were cloaked in a lovely prawn blanket, perched on a board Collins had painted with random adjectives. Mine; ‘Absurd & Chivalrous’, my husband; ‘Mundane & Ominous’ and the divine Ms Emerald Gilmour; ‘Avid & Odious.’ Appropriate? Maybe, but at least this got everyone at the table talking about the art!
The finale was the crescendo. Brian Campbell (due to open a dessert bar in Britomart) emulated Alex Bartleet’s textural work with a construction of chocolate and raspberry. Everyone was silent as we devoured what must be the ultimately perfect combination of flavours.
We were entertained by Courtney Sina Meredith and there’s so much more to tell. Most importantly, you should have been there!
2 November 2012
What do you serve for guests who have paid thousands of dollars to come to your place? It's a scary dilemma and very stressful. But once the table is set, and the menu decided it becomes fun.
This week I co-hosted a dinner that John Hawkesby and I had donated at this year's 'Ten' Mercy Hopsice fundraising brunch. Four generous couples had won the dinner and they showed up filled with expectation.
The wine was no problem; Hawkesby's cellar is legendary and he brought fourteen bottles of superb French wines (see them in the Wine To Drink section of this blog.)
I served the cured salmon above to start. It's a superb recipe I got from Jimmy McIntyre at Otahuna Lodge in Canterbury and it's filled with the citrusy aromas of lemon, orange and lime. (The recipe is on the Listener website and at the great new food site; the FoodHub.co.nz)
Next up, a duck salad. I love duck salads and this time I made a variant on my famous duck and honeyed walnut salad, as I used baby beetroot, fresh green beans, some hand made mozzarella from Whangaripo Buffalo Cheese company, fresh field greens, mint and seared duck breasts.
The main course was rare eye fillet of beef with rich mushroom sauce accompanied by asparagus, and the first of the season's new Red Rascal potatoes from a farmstand on the Omaha Flats Rd.
To end we had choclate raspberry brownie (recipe on the Listener and Food Hub websites) with vanilla bean ice cream and fresh raspberry puree.
Special thanks to Shona in the kitchen and the lovely Hawkesbys for their company. (And Murray Jacobs who washed all the glasses by hand next morning!)
It was a great success and I hope the guests loved it as much as the Hawkesbys and the Jacobs did.
16 October 2012
The picture tells a story. 39000 Yen for 6-7 wild matsutake mushrooms equates to about $600. Ouch. These are the first of the season and I spotted them in the Nishiki market in Kyoto.
We'd had some as part of a kaiseki meal, served in a clear broth the night before. The soup was wildly savoury and delicate at the same time with a touch of lime to push the flavours to the forefront. Yum. Perfect seasonal eating in Japan...that’s what food is all about here.
It was a superb meal, and at the conclusion, after the rice course had been served, I presented my card to chef Ikeda of the Kyokabutoya restaurant. On the reverse side of my card I have a photo of my duck, beetroot and honeyed walnut salad. The chef became extremely animated.
It seems he loves duck more than anything and so even though we were 'complete' as they say when describing that very satisfied feeling, he produced a magnificent vacuum packed duck breast from the refrigerator. It was about twice as large as any I have seen in New Zealand, and amazingly meaty.
He cut three neat slices from it, fired up the grill again and quickly seared it for us. He then cut each slice into two, served with a little sweet sauce and we were in heaven. I never believed a business card could have such effect!
29 September 2012
I have just put some artichoke hearts on to poach. I bought them at the Matakana farmers’market this morning and hopefully my purchase is going to get 11 year old Remo a step closer to accompanying his parents to Viet Nam. He’s growing vegies at home to sell. These artichokes are going to be served to some visitors tonight as a simple entrée. I intend to serve them with vinaigrette, some toasted pine nuts and a few herbs. That’s all.
I am encouraged into such simplicity by a ‘chef’s dinner’ I ate at Ima Cuisine in Fort St, Auckland. Owner and chef Yael Shochat had just returned from Israel, and created a six course menu of utter simplicity. It was pure inspiration for me. From the first bite to the last the emphasis was not on any smart new tricks, just new ideas and combinations – minimalism springs to mind, and yet I know lots of thought and careful preparation had gone into our dinner.
We started with a single perfect strawberry. Yael had tossed it in balsamic and herbs, it was rolled in crushed sesame seeds. That got our taste buds working. It’s spring of course, so next up, asparagus. Everyone should be serving asparagus whenever they can now it‘s finally in abundance. We were served just two spears each (see what I mean about minimalist?) They were magnificent, wrapped in warqua pastry and served with fresh green basil oil. Warqua pastry is that paper thin, crunchy pastry that’s also used in making another middle eastern specialty, brik. Yael’s was a triumph.
Passionfruit and citrus ceviche came after that. Delightfully refreshing flavours with tiny strips of Hapuku, although the little hints of chilli almost but not quite, overpowered the delicacy of the dish. Yael showed me her new gadget acquired in Israel, a carrot-hollower-outerer (if you’d asked me I might have said it was an abortion instrument) and so had stuffed her spring carrots with something she called Arab beef. It was presented on a root vegetable soil as is the current trend, but her ‘soil’ was quite identifiable with lovely hazelnuts crushed to create added texture. Delicious and so unusual.
Not enough use is made of terakihi in restaurants and a lovely piece of fish, still sporting its skin, was pan-fried perfectly, sitting on a dollop of perfect potato puree with rich reduced shellfish saffron sauce and a garnish of slithers of the sweetest young snowpeas. We loved that course.
One lamb cutlet doesn’t sound much, but this one, coated in herbs and spices and sitting on a generous bed of rice, lentils, pinenuts, almonds and pistachios, and complemented by a totally delicious Moroccan beetroot salad, was a perfect size at that stage of the evening. We stripped the bone clean, as we should.
The final note, dessert, was quite dreamy. I am not a fan usually of halva but the halva parfait with a nugget of pistachio baklava and a round scoop of brilliant orange mandarin sorbet had me almost licking my plate. What a treat the evening was. $70 for that menu! And I forgot to say, we were thrilled to be looked after by Dominique from Gather & Hunt. How good is that?
Ima Cuisine, 57 Fort St, Auckland City, T 09 300 7252
19 September 2012
I'm trying so hard to meet deadlines. There's a ton of work to be done and my editor at Random House should probably chain me to my desk.
Today I could not resist getting into my kitchen to deal with some lovely thin-skinned lemons a good friend had sent home for me. So now there's an enormous jar of preserved lemons sitting in the kitchen and we will have to wait a whole month before we can try them.
Here's the recipe, adjusted from Greg Malouf's lovely book, Moorish.
- 1.5kg thin skinned lemons
- 350g sea salt
- 1 tbsp lightly crushed coriander seeds
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tbsps honey
- 250mls lemon juice
- 750mls warm water
Wash and dry the lemons. Cut them lengthways into quarters, from the point of the lemon to three-quarters way down. Leave them joined together at the base.
Stuff the centre of each lemon with a heaped teaspoon of salt. Arrange them neatly in a 2 litre jar, sprinkling each layer with more salt and crushed coriander seed as you go. Stuff the cinnamon sticks and bay leaves into the jar.
Mix the honey and lemon juice with the warm water until the honey dissolves. Pour into the jar so the lemons are completely covered. Screw the lid on and out the jar into a large pot on top of a piece of cardboard (this stops the jar vibrating.) Pour in enough hot water to come half way up the jar and bring it to the boil slowly. Boil for six minutes, then lift the jar out and store in a dry cool place for at least a month before opening. Once opened, keep in the refrigerator.
31 August 2012
Three chefs; three courses; three wines. A perfectly balanced meal, just as you’d expect when the heroes of the city’s premier restaurant strip get together to give Auckland a ‘Taste of Federal Street.’
Sky City makes some audacious moves and populating their three lead restaurants with internationally recognised stars, at Depot, Al Brown (Wellywood), The Grill’s Sean Connolly (Sydney) and dine by Peter Gordon (London but mostly sleeping on AirNZ) has been an unqualified success.
Al kicked off our dinner and introducing his dish, showed us you can take the boy out of Wellington but you can’t take Wellington out of the boy. He was 'Apprehensive About Auckland', but is pretty relaxed here now. So much so that he called the current restaurant promotion ‘Auckland on a Plate’ rather than ‘Auckland Restaurant Month’. Well, yes, maybe. That’s what we should be doing here anyway; emulating the capital city’s capital food event, but right now it’s limited to the CBD.
Anyway on with the food. Taking inspiration from the oyster pan roasts he loves in New York’s Grand Central Station Oyster Bar, Al Brown dished us up an oyster and fennel stew topped with a tangle of fennel and apple. I have been to GCSOB and know that Al’s was so, so much better and more modern than anything served there in New York. The Tio Points were lightly poached, the scampi was ever so sweet and fresh and the sauce divine. I hope this dish makes it onto the menu at Depot soon.
Sean Connolly amazed me. Twelve hours earlier he’d been cooking Alpine Merino lamb at Lake Hawea Station out of Wanaka while I’d watched and now here he was, neat and trim in his whites dishing up a melt in the mouth wagyu fillet steak with a tender potato fondant and cress. The posh version of steak and chip he called it, and it was top notch fare.
Peter Gordon is always so lovely. Nothing about him or his food, he just stood there singing the praises of all the staff who had helped with the evening. We should thank him for no-one has done as much for NZ food internationally. His dessert tasting plate was a study in contrasts. A bowl of his signature coconut tapioca with mango and passion fruit and avocado yuzu sorbet – I could eat that every night. Beside that a peanut butter parfait with salted caramel, chocolate delice and hazelnut parfait and a mystery sauce. Three ingredients only – sugar, cream and soy sauce. Now that’s fusion!
A very smart evening in Dine and what a nice touch, the menu signed thoughtfully for every guest. Mine’s hanging on my wall already.
Depot, The Grill, & dine by peter gordon. All on Federal Street, Auckland City.
23 August 2012
What a privilege! Last night I ate at The Grove. Monica Galetti of Le Gavroche restaurant was here to cook in ‘Auckland Restaurant Month in the Big Little City.
It was a flawless performance; superb food that show off the food and style of the London three-Michelin-starred restaurant owned by the Roux family, a lovely bevy of wines to match, and service that didn’t miss a beat by Michael Dearth and his skilled front-of-house team.
Many of Auckland’s restaurant supremos turned out which indicates the respect this Samoan lass, a former young star apprentice in Wellington, has earned within the industry. And the food didn’t disappoint.
The first course, a duck consommé with a tiny horseradish custard, was sublime. (I wish I could make my duck that tender.) The next course was a show stopper. A ragout of poached oysters with fresh truffles sat in a sauce so good I actually licked my plate clean – as did a few others around me. This wondrous sauce was a variant on beurre blanc, albeit made with pigs trotters and perfumed with New Zealand’s finest seasonal black truffles. I could have happily waltzed home at that point and been very satisfied.
But there was more in store. Amazing octopus with a broth of barley and dominated by saffron appeared, perfect with Trinity Hill Chardonnay ’10. The Grove’s staff really worked overtime on those first three courses. Each required attention at the table. The consommé was poured hot at the table, and then there was a lot of grating to be done. Fresh truffle over the oysters and fresh lime over the octopus - very efficient and rather grand, this makes for great food theatre.
The lamb course was oh-so-pretty - a tiny lamb double cutlet with black garlic, tiny nuggets of fennel and an olive sauce. I loved the master touch of a garnish of pea shoots and the tiniest nasturtium leaves I’ve ever seen. Then a blue Leagram cheese pannacotta with pear balsamic. I must confess I’m not a fan of composed cheese courses; they always seem like they’re laboured, rich and should belong in old-fashioned restaurants, but this was the exception. Soft and creamy, it was the perfect play on the wonderful combination of pear and blue cheese, and piquantly matched to Mt Difficulty Pinot Noir.
To finish, a classic from Le Gavroche, palet au chocolate amer. Melt-in-the-mouth bitter chocolate mousse. Divine stuff to end a divine and seamless evening. It cannot be easy to step outside the usual comfort zone of your own kitchen and give it over to another chef, but Ben Bayly and his team did a splendid job and Monica was a charming, confident cook. Now I want to know, when’s she coming home to NZ?
16 August 2012
If ever there was a perfect meal, this was it. Sid Sahrawat has been cooking a Tuesday test kitchen all year with eight experimental courses for $80, so that’s about 170 dishes to date. The clever girls from gather&hunt.co.nz asked Sid to choose his top eight dishes for their Tasting Club and that’s where I was last night.
Sidart restaurant is a little gem, dark and intimate with great views of the city from the Ponsonby Rd ridge. An ideal setting for a wonderful meal. Dominique and Courteney of Gather & Hunt commissioned a keepsake booklet for the menu with lovely hand drawings, yet still kept secrets to be revealed as the dishes arrived.
Each course was perfect; innovative, sometimes daring and perfectly balanced so the flavours and textures played out to create a feast for eyes and mouth. The first course, ‘cucumber olive and buttermilk’ was a brilliant start. Paper thin slices of crisp apple, cucumber ribbons, buttermilk sorbet and ever so slightly crunchy olive dust. With eight courses stretching ahead, every little mouthful refreshed and surprised. A tiny mound of ‘mushrooms, sago and almonds’ followed. Sago chips (!) shaved and purred Jerusalem artichokes, crunch almond and almond skin, three mushrooms; enoki, shiitake and oyster mushrooms topped with truffle foam. What a taste and texture sensation.
Then a little preserving jar. ‘snapper, lychee and nim jam.’ Coconut puree underneath, a chunk of nim jam marinated ocean fresh snapper in tempura, a tangle of bean sprouts and spring onion, all topped with a bright flavoured coriander and chilli sorbet. Who ever thought of putting snapper in a jar? This was a veritable masterpiece, and of me, the absolute standout dish of the night.
At this point my husband declared Sid is the Tetsuya of New Zealand, and he also thought the meal better than the degustation we’d had several years ago at El Bulli. He’s not often wrong, my husband.
‘Salmon, butternut and octopus’ came next; salmon skin chips, aloe vera foam, beet sprouts, pinenuts, crème fraiche, a tiny mound of grated fresh butternut and salmon confit. Everything was so intensely flavoured and so amazingly delicious. ‘Free range pork, walnut and leek’ was a knockout combination, and the pork and walnut sauce had me wondering if all those prize pigs in Spain that eat acorns might be better off munching on walnuts. Imagine that!
The final savoury course, ‘milk fed veal, oxtail and celeriac’ was a brilliant combination of puree of smoked celeriac, urenika potato chips, some hearty braised oxtail, tender veal and coriander puree. How does Sid think of all this? With every course we had thoughtfully matched wines, and took a wine trail around the world to Italy, France, Marlborough, Portugal, South Africa, Waipara and Perigord, France. What a trip.
To conclude, two refreshing and never cloying desserts. ‘White chocolate and raspberry’ is a divine experience, a white chocolate bavarois, orange segments drenched in sauternes, freeze dried raspberries and a little coil of snap frozen raspberry puree. We were still eager eaters at this stage as everything had been perfectly portioned so we loved the finale, ‘licorice, chamomile and five spice’ licorice in a frozen parfait with freeze dried rhubarb, Italian meringue, five spice marshmallow and ta daa! some amazing chamomile ‘spaghetti’.
One of the BEST meals of my life. Sid Sahrawat is one exceptional chef, innovative with a sense of amazing balance in every dish. Everything on the plate made perfect sense, making for magical and totally enchanting eating. I know there are a couple of places left for tonight’s repeat performance. I may even be tempted to return myself!
Sidart, Three Lamps Plaza, 283 Ponsonby Rd, Ponsonby T 09 360 2122