BLONDE ON HOLIDAY - BRUNETTE TAKES OVER

Bustedblonde has taken off for a while and left Roarprawn to me - the Brunette and the American Gardener. ( Incidentally I think he has increased the intellectual depth of this blog somewhat. )

So who am I? Well just a citizen of the New Zealand village. I dine out quite a bit and often with Busted and have a good cellar of NZ Pinot Noirs. So I will write about food and wine and leave the brainy stuff to the Gardener.

So today we were quite excited to see that the new but very charming and erudite Jessie Mulligan has linked his blog Auckland Food Blog to Roarprawn as a blog that contains some interesting information and insights on food and dining out in Wellington.

We notice that Jessie has posted Andrew Bisley's Wellington's " Best Of " so we thought we would do the same.


Here are Andrew's picks:

Best Brunch: Maranui

Best BYO Cheap Eat: Curry Heaven (Newtown)

Best Group BYO Cheap Eat: Ban Man Thai (with reusable entertainment card)

Best Café: Floriditas

Best French: Le Canard, Arbritageur

Best Hutt: La Bella Italia

Best (Wgtn) Suburban: The Larder (Miramar)

Best Italian: Maria Pia’s, Vivo

Best Indian: Great India

Best Malay: Serai

Best Dish: Trade Kitchen’s chicken risotto

Best Duck: Manon

Best Fish Tagine: Casablanca

Best Music: Lido (Jazz, pavement-side, summer Sat or Sun)

Best Pizza: Zibibbo

Best Seafood: Ortega Fish Snack Bar (especially crayfish butter sauce)

Best Steak: 88, Ortega Fish Snack Bar

Best Takeaway: Phoenician Falafel

Best Welcome: Ambeli

Best View: The White House, Scorchorama

Most Overrated: Flying Burrito Brothers

And here are ours
Best Brunch: Felix
Best BYO Cheap Eat: Tulsi

Best Group BYO Cheap Eat: Ban Man Thai

Best Café: Floriditas tied with Vista

Best French: Le Metropolitan, La Cunard

Best Italian: Zicos, Bella Italia on the Terrace

Best Indian: Tulsi

Best Chinese - Yangtze

Best Dishes: Duck pie at Zicos (only on request) Paua Ravioli at Logan Brown, Lamb Shanks at Boulcott Street Bistro, Snapper Pie at Arbitrageur

Best Duck - Yangtze

Best Fish -Anything that Franco cooks at Zicos ( let him decide - its always superb) and the Snapper Pie at Arbitrageur.

Best Music: Anything that isn't too loud and I like restaurants that don't play " doof doof" music.

Best Pizza: Scopa

Best Seafood: Fresh Bluff oysters
Best Yum cha - the Eastern Sunrise on Lower Tory St.

Best Steak: Boulcott Street Bistro

Best Takeaway: Daniels Kebabs on the Terrace,
Best Sushi - Blowfish on the Terrace

Best Welcome: Jo ex D4 now Green Man
Best Pub - Green man ( because Jo is there - however the food is nothing great).

Best View: Bach Cafe South Coast
Best coffee - Mixed Business on the Terrace

Most Overrated: Shed 5. ( food is too inconsistent)

Most Crazy good for no real reason but its cheap - Long Bar ( Malay).

THE BOB's

We had lunch today with the BOBs. - The Bad Old Bastards club. Trader Jack , Te Thorpe and Alister Holden and some young whipper snapper called Murray B who rents stuff to an awful lot of people and organisations here there and every where. And of course the grandson of Te Thorpe   - Thorpe the 3rd.
Alister  and Trader ( Jack Cooper )  have both been well known Wellington publicans in their day.  Alister had the Cricketers Arms and Trader had the St George and the infamous 1860.

The gathering was at the Boulcott Street Bistro and what a fine occasion it was. It has been 30 years since the Trader had darkened the door and then the place was known as Plimmer House.

The food was spectacular - it was easy to to see the Rex Morgan touch - we have have long since regarded him as the master of meat and todays steak clearly showed that when it comes to offering up a good bit of boeuf - he is king in the kitchen. Trader, who has spent far too much time in the tropics  - reckoned  his pork belly was very fine indeed. Starters were also exquisite -  most had squid but we had salmon. It was all smokey without a trace of bitterness and the celeriac will have us heading to Kings seeds next season to grow  our own.

We supped on a Urlar pinot gris from Gladstone . For a start it shocked  the palates of some but soon we all fell in love with its  rich complexity. Its all we drank and drank and drank.
Desserts were sublime  - mine was a rhubarb crumble in such a teeny tiny wee pot that it hardly seemed sinful at all. Trader and Te Thorpe  dined on  some exquisite cheeses which included a roquefort that was nastier than an unpaid dirty girl. And it smelled like one as well. Al had a line up of plump profiteroles pregant with cream all set about with chocolate. Trader inhaled one and Al hoovered up the rest before Trader could get another  look in.

It was a fine day, fine food-  great wine and great stories from some great Bad old Bastards.

And lucky  old us - the boys picked up the very sizeable cheque...

DISAPPEARING LEMON SUCKS

We hope it is not true but we fear it is. Citron is to go. It has been a stunning little haven of gastronomic delights lovingly tended by the big guy Rex Morgan. a man who has the admiration of the industry. Apparently he is off to rule the kitchen at Boulcott St Bistro. Phew.....

And in other Wellington Bar news - St Johns has apparently been sold.. bugger, We hope the chef stays and Portofino now has a liquor licence.

We also lunched at Trade Kitchen last week - it was outstanding - we had meatloaf.. moist and tasty it was.

This morning we had brunch at Mecca in the Chancery in Auckland... superb it was.

LEFTIES ONLY KNOW THE TROUGH

We occasionally dip into the dark side to see what the left is saying. The Standard the blog of spotty boys is all agog at Wellington businessman and successful restaurateur Mike Egan telling a recent local economic summit that if workers didn't shape up they would find workers who did.
He puts it like this.

Mr Egan, who runs five Wellington restaurants and a service apartment business, told about 100 people at a regional economic and employment summit that industries such as his that relied on youthful workers were now more consumer focused. "Whilst Generation Y has been analysed quite comprehensively and we think we may know what makes them tick, we have to make sure their expectations are tempered to match our expectations."

Concessions had been made in the past to match the labour shortage, but "if some of our employees cannot adapt fast enough we will drag them out of the cave and leave them to the sabre-tooth tigers and find staff who can and will adapt".

Anyway the little spotty boys are calling for a boycott of Mike's restaurants. Yeeha we say. The lefty wankers are low brow arrogant diners at best and trough feeders who wouldn't know a pad thai from a bad tie, at worst.

We are more than happy to support any restaurateur who wants to ensure the highest standards for his guests and that in turn ensures more people will dine at his restaurants and then he will make more money and, god forbid, hire more people. Can any little lefty wanker tell me what the hell is wrong with that?

For the record we think that Egan's restaurants are very bloody good and there is a a range of them from the cheap and cheerful Monsoon Poon to the elegant and iconic Boulcott St Bistro. . And for the record, we have dined at his restaurants and been served by the owner himself. He is that sort of hands on bloke - he leads by example.Just the sort of bugger we need to get this country kick started again. So to the wee spotty boys - go chow down at McDonalds - its where you belong. You are what you eat.

FRIDAY ROUND UP ON A THURSDAY

What was with the vestal white outfit that Helen Clark wore at her "see you later"nz gig in parliament yesterday?Does she now see herself as an international angel for peace ?

Isn't the Tailor of Panama Street a very well informed read?

Why aren't New Zealand spooks as cute or as smart as the ones on the TV series Spooks?

Isnt it great that not many people know that Boulcott St Bistro serves half price Taittengers on a Monday night and don't they do a lovely tripe dish?

Will we see some good Maori appointments onto Government boards in the future?

BACCHANALIAN PARADISE

Today we worked for our lunch, not lots, but enough to get a fainter shimmer of perspiration on our brow and a dusty butt.

We were asked to come join in the harvest of one of the Wairarapa's top pinot noir vineyards. Wycroft. The owner and Bon Vivant is Lawrie Bryant. There were a few other guests of the harvest as well but in the interests of national security all names will remain anonymous.
Anyway the day was picture perfect , autumn sunshine, great company and a superb autumnal lunch of cold cuts, pies, pickles and bread and salad. And of course a drop of the hosts best.

Wycroft is seen and enjoyed in such fine eateries as Antoines and Boulcott St Bistro.
We could go on about how good it is , but to our untrained palate it's just bloody yum.

One of the things that Lawrie has crafted, which shows he is a man who thinks hard about how to reduce the impact of dirty and difficult work, is the slidy vine chair pictured above. It alleviates the need to bend over or scrabble along on your derriere as you clip the grapes from the low hanging vines.

But the highlight of the day was meeting a 95 year old airforce veteran. Sprightly he was, thoroughly entertaining, a true gentleman and a one our nations treasures. And he helped pick grapes along with us young 'uns. We could have listened to his tales for hours.

We will remember the Wycroft 2009 vintage, and the privilege of meeting a great New Zealand hero for many years to come.

ABOUT BURNT SPERM, BEAUJOLAIS, AND BOULCOTT STREET BISTRO.

Cactus Kate is in town - they tell me. And she reckons our Wellington coffee tastes like burnt sperm. For someone with extremely high class standards she swallows a lot. Come to think of it if they were burning it means they were travelling too fast, so she must elicit a quick conclusion to the down and dirty.

Anyway we have had a good week. First up was Arbitrageur. Stunning it was and Wellington is undoubtedly the Oasis in the desert of Recession. The bloody place was chocker and we were not the only ones drinking Laurent Perrier fizzy. The Pork Belly was tender, gooey and melty unlike the dry stuff we had at Dockside the other day.
Then last night we holed up at Duke Carvells - and we drank a lovely, yummy, bollocksy Pinot Gris from Alsace, which is always much more sophisticated than our ballerina light versions that dominate the NZ Pinot Gris Scene. We had all sorts of tasty morsels and apart from the squid which has been away from the Sea for just a little too long - they were great.

We also met some mates at Beaujolais for a quick glass of - you guessed it bubbles.

Today we were at an old favourite Boulcott St Bistro and we let the wise and very interesting Rusty guide us to the best selections. We had a stunning buttery tripe entree followed by a very meaty Duck confit . We were all girly again and drank a nice drop of Taittinger. Sweet stuff was a chocolate pot with cherries that exploded in your mouth.

We had forgotten how good the place was - we will save up our pennies for a return trip soon.

And for those who like a good fizz, Boulcott does half price bubbles on a Monday.