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).

MINISTRY BACKS INDUSTRY

Today we read with dismay a press release from Green Peace gloating over the fact that some international retailers have stopped stocking Orange Roughy. 

Retailers pull orange roughy

Greenpeace says the Government must stop fishing orange roughy, after two more major international retailers confirmed they have dropped the fish from sale due to sustainability concerns.

“The rest of the world is saying “no thanks” to our unsustainable seafood, but our Government insists on continuing to exploit it,” said Karli Thomas, Greenpeace New Zealand oceans campaigner.

Last week Trader Joes, a USA chain with over 300 supermarkets, confirmed it had discontinued sales of orange roughy "based on customer feedback and in support of work to source sustainable seafood."(1)

Last month Canada’s largest retail chain, Loblaw, confirmed it had stopped stocking orange roughy and Patagonian toothfish for similar reasons. Since the start of 2009 four Canadian supermarket chains have stopped selling orange roughy and one has removed hoki from sale.

This is a growing trend and one that the Seafood industry needs to counter. A PR offensive to counter this disinformation is critical before its too late. 

However we were delighted that  the Ministry of Fisheries defended the nations management of fish stocks. This is a new and welcome phenomemon. The Ministry is responsible for the integrity of the fisheries management system but has been slow to defend it in the past leaving that to the Seafood Industry. We  have never heard of Mr Lockwood before  but sounds like he has the sort of integrity and balls the Ministry has needed for a long long time. 

 The ministry today said fish stocks were carefully managed to ensure sustainability, using a world leading quota management system.
"Bottom trawling is the main fishing method for catching orange roughy. It takes place within New Zealand's comprehensive fisheries management system," ministry deputy chief executive Gavin Lockwood said.
"New Zealand bottom trawling is very closely managed, we know which fishing vessels are bottom trawling, we use satellite monitoring so we know exactly where they are fishing and we require detailed catch reports so we know how much is being caught."
Seventeen areas have been closed to bottom trawling, providing protection to an area of seafloor equal to 1.2 million square kilometres, or an area four times the landmass of New Zealand, Mr Lockwood said. These were the largest closures of their type anywhere in the world, he said.
"One point two million square kilometres of pristine, un-fished seafloor is protected to ensure that the natural bio-diversity and eco-systems are preserved," Mr Lockwood said.
New Zealand's Quota Management System was internationally regarded as one of the world's best fisheries management systems, he said.

Love that man!  Give him a long free lunch at Shed 5.

JAMMY BUGGERS

Someone got a bit sniffy about our comments on Shed Five here the other day and sent us some cryptic info about a jam eating competition featuring the man who started our favourite Auckland restaurant Euro , Simon Gault.

Well our good mate Mrs Ring Ding a Ling set us right with this link to the event at the Old Bank today.

Well all we can say is that Busted should have had an invite. We only have one jar of our hedgerow jam which contained, elderberries, greengages and rhubarb and plums. It is sublime....

It might just have won..

SHED FIVE= BELOW PAR

We managed to squeeze in a quick lunch at Shed 5 today.Its owned by Simon Gault of Masterchef NZ fame. We were with some mates , one of who was a very well known and highly respected Wellington chef.

He had a big problem with his steak.. It was not good.

Now we are seriously big fans of one of the Wellington dishes we think all food lovers should try - Snapper Pie at Arbitrageur. Comfort food at its finest.

Today we had the crab and prawn pot at Shed Five - it was crap. We do a better fish pie on a bad day with cheap fish.

However we have to say that since Stephen Morris is running front of House the service is impeccable. And the French waiter was superb.

Shame about the food.

AHH WHAT MASTERY

We went to a superb event tonight. It was a birthday party.. Bril it was... There was a low brow affair over at Dockside and some Totty do at the other end of Shed Five but it was the Green Room that was the place to be seen. Wall to wall blondes and a peppering of politicos and diplomats. Power was the perfume. Everyone was gold elite..

And the queen of PR and schmoozing, the luscious LM, was the goddess of good times we happily paid homage to.

We were her servants and waited and feted her as was fitting for the queen of plonk and prawns. As this picture shows our Indigo Lord of Blogs himself was happy to ensure that she was kept perfectly coiffured.

The great mystery of the night is how did he gain such expertise in perfectly applying lip gloss?

VERY FISHY LUNCH AT DOCKSIDE

We were lucky enough to be invited out to lunch today - only trouble is it was at Dockside. Now we haven't had many good experiences there lately. The venue is undoubtedly one of Wellingtons finest but boy has the food gone down hill.

Today we had fish and chips. Now normally they do lovely crumbed terakihi and shoestring fries. Today it was poor mans shark - Warehou and boy it was older than Neptunes trident. We were very polite because we were the guest of a good mate but we only ate about a third of the offering. It tasted like it smelt - fishy. And it was overcooked and the one thing you cannot do to Warehou is overcook it. Its a firm , large flake fish that needs to be slightly undercooked in our opinion.

Anyway our mate got called away and our old lunch buddy Spaz decided he needed a change of venue. So it was off to Shed Five. He had a taster of crab and we had one of those volcano chocky puds - all crispy on the outside all slurpy liquid inside... it was one of the finest desserts we have had in ages.

And it was rugby day at Shed Five. Website boys wooing the Rugby Union and Leon Grice lunching with two of the most beautiful men we have seen in a while. Leon is doing some big time rugby stuff for Minister McCully.

Cactus is a firm believer that the best eye candy is always to be found in the best restaurants.

She is right. Todays beefcake offering would have had her insides turn to the same consistency as our chocky pud.....

DAM FINE FOOD

We had lunch at Shed Five late last week. It was interesting to compare it with its sister restaurant Euro. The maitre de at Shed Five is a lovely Basil Faulty wise cracking laugh a minute man who knows food and wine. We started with Southern Glory Oysters. They are huuugggee! They are Bluff oysters farmed in the sheltered waters of Big Glory in Paterson Inlet. We had a dozen between three of us.

Even BB, known for her ability to open throat beer faster than anyone she has been pitted against, could not swallow these buggers whole. They are stunning. We texted Cactus and I swear we could hear her scream of outrage across a couple of oceans. We matched the oysters with a lovely Yealands, Sauvignon Blanc. Then we had a flounder for main. It was simply the finest flounder I have ever had at any restaurant in NZ. I eat a lot of flounder, I buy it about once a fortnight so I reckon I am a bit of a connoisseur. It was in a light asian styled broth. We will endeavour to get the recipe.

We then asked for a stinky, hard and blue cheese board.. It was fantastic - all smelly and rich . We could go into the descriptions but you can find them on the menus here

And we have no relationship with Shed Five or the Nourish Group. We just like their food.

CREDIT CRUNCH LUNCH

We dined at our favourite Auckland restaurant last week with Whale and we were joined by a journalist and an commentator so it was rollicking, piss taking, information sharing, few hours.

Anyway to the food. Euro does good food - it used to do sublime food but its gone back a bit. We started with bubbles - as you do. And then their bread and dips which were good. We had salt and pepper prawns and Whale had the melon and ham. For mains we had Peking Duck. The duck was little greasy for our tastes and the pancakes were on the Tony's Tyres side of tough. Now we have had the best Peking duck ever at a Melbourne restaurant called Flower Drum, which is without a doubt the best purveyor of Peking duck in the Down Unders. So the bar is set fairly high. Euro failed to come close to that memorable meal.

However, Whale had an interesting experience with his steak. He ordered the sirloin - blue.
As you do when you are a militant carnivore like whale. No- says the very chatty waitress, who proceeded to recommend that he get the filet steak as it was much nicer Blue. So he got the free upgrade. Whales had a big grin as the blue steak folded onto his fork, he chewed with his mouth closed and he didn't spill a drop of the Nicolas Feuillatte . He was obviously brought up good and proper. He and the commentator who also enjoyed his filet steak both devoured the blue cheese mash. BB didn't even get a teaspoon full to try.

Then came desserts, they are best described as chemical concoctions. Fascinating, complicated and exquisite. The boys ordered warm chocky pud and we ordered the line of chocolate. It was huge and extravagant and the boys whined that we got the best deal. We did . There were chocolate bubbles that exploded in your mouth, marshmallow with the texture of hokey pokey. It was an Alice in Wonderland plate of cocoa concoctions. Noice.

We liked the fact that the Euro lunch menu is called the Credit Crunch Lunch. Its not the four page bible of old but a concise list of neat treats.

So today we are off to Shed 5. Same company that owns Euro. We will have fish and bubbles.

SHED FIVE NEEDS A NEW CHEF AND THE DANCE OF TANGAROAS BUTTERLFIES.

A trio of us went to Shed 5 today for lunch. We had a good table- good enough to watch some nubile topless boys jump off the lower wharf at Dockside and emerge - rippling muscles glistening. The guy candy was so good that we contemplated paying them to do it all again.

Anyway, back to the food. We had breads to start - nice rolls - marscapone laced with truffle oil, and good Olive oil and reduced balsamic. Excellent - 8/10

Next Snow crab on a wasabi pea puree - very very moist -maybe just a hint too much salt but that was balanced by a lovely Spy Valley Sav Blanc 2008. crisp - The crab entree at $26 was a treat.

Sadly the main of steamed terakihi was not up to scratch. It was terakihi with a gazpacho carpaccio jelly , sweet kumara cubes and a very light chilli dressing. It was way too firm. No spring, bordering on dry. We were hungry so we ate it but it was far from Shed 5 at its finest. At
$34 - we expect perfection.

We shared a cheese platter - strong and bold was the theme, so it was Gorgonzola picccante, Gorgonzola dolce, Italian provolone, and an Aussie Tarago triple brie- the heart stopper. They were sublime and we moved to a thicker, spicy Cental Otago Bannockburn Akarua Pinot Gris , a wine that is much more sophisticated that the early vintages.

The company was fantastic, the weather sublime. The bill was $434 for the three of us. We did drink a bit.

And on the way home past the Frank Kitts lagoon, I introduced the Aussie Rock to one of Wellington's best kept secrets. The dance of Tangaroa's purerehua ( butterflies). Large stingrays come in and swim right up to the edges of the lagoon and feed. On a still day people line the lagoon mesmerised. They are simply extraordinary to watch as they glide through the shallow waters. They should be marketed as a Wellington attraction.

THE ECONOMIC TSUNAMI IS BUILDING

We are off to lunch at Shed 5 today . It is hard to grasp that our world is going to be impacted by the growing global economic crisis when its sunny, most people you know still have jobs and you have money in the bank, but the story in the Herald today clearly shows the impact the recession is having on export earnings and the news is real bad. Its the biggest drop in 20 years. We reckoned it will be June before the first cold chill of the Tsunami really hits our fair shores. We hope that everyone is getting ready - it aint gonna be pretty.

PESCATORIAL HEAVEN - SHED FIVE

When I had a lot to do with the seafood industry on a daily basis, Shed Five was one of my favourite restaurants to take visitors from overseas and it still is a favourite for a special night out or a languorous long lunch.

My Auckland haunt remains Euro.

Simon Gault is one of the best and I will always remember an extra fine dish of Moonfish washed down with Dom Perignon, with my cousins from Bluff, at Euro , on the day they left to fly out for the Tua fight in Las Vegas... many years ago.

It was one of those days. They are crayfishermen, but the moonfish that day is a meal they still talk about.

I also remember a couple of great lunches there with the media Lothario, the late Rod Pederson - he knew food, wine and good times intimately. He introduced me to Te Motu of which I have a few bottles tucked away for drinking in the far future to remember him by.

So I was delighted to get an invite to a night out at Shed Five next week, which is part of the Gault stable the Nourish Group. The evening is called Aqualine 08 and it promises Gaults finest and champagne..

My favourite entree there is West Coast Whitebait with blond asparagus and aioli. Bliss!

And they do a nice turn with Alaskan King Crab for main.

so no blogging next Thursday ...