NZ Food Odyssy Part 2

To round up my NZ South Island foodie tour I must mention a few CHOICE destinations for anyone who heads to this most magnificent part of the world.

Fleur’s Place - South of Moeraki Boulders, Omaru:

Rick Stein put this little restaurant on the map a few years back, by stating that it was the best place for seafood in NZ!  Aside from that, lots of our Kiwi mates also pointed out that we should not miss the opportunity to eat at Fleur’s place. So we decided to book 3 weeks in advance to ensure a table during our south island road trip.

The day we drove down was a very wet and windy day with very little visibility on the roads. As we slowly wound our way towards this remote place at the end of a jetty, we realised that it was a good job we booked as the car park was jam packed and people were being turned away even in the horrible weather and there was nowhere else to go for lunch!

Despite the weather and it being a weekday lunch time, the place was heaving with tourists and large groups of local families. The menu was simple and dependant on what the fishermen caught on the day. We decided to go for a scallop and mushroom starter to share followed by a whole blue cod for me and a whole lemon sole for the hubby.

Scallops with mushrooms

Blue cod

Lemon sole

I was so excited that I was salivating at everything that sailed past our table to the other customers.  After the agonising wait my fish arrived slightly underdone. So unfortunately, I had to send it back to be flashed under the grill. Nevertheless, when it did arrive again, it was incredible. The veg was simple steamed fare and the sauce was just garlic butter but the fish stood up by itself. You could see fishermen outside pulling up to the jetty in their little boats, with handfuls of line caught fish, which they delivered straight to the back door of the kitchen. You can’t get fish any fresher than that!

They do desserts - if you like that sort of thing!

Fleur at her place

Fleur was roaming about the place chatting to people at the front of the house and signing her new book. In fact when we were leaving she asked if I wanted her to sign her book – and I had to admit that I had not bought one – which was rather embarrassing!  Maybe the fame has gone to her head!

Anyway after that massive feed, I went into a fish coma and passed out in the car. Hubby aka designated driver managed somehow to get us to Queenstown through the perpetual rain and so we went onto the next part of our food adventure!

Botswana Butchery in Queenstown:

Queens town = party town as far as I was concerned. Driving in land towards the mountains cheered me up no end, as the Central Otago region is famed for its Pinot Noir wines. It goes rather well with Venison which was lucky as there were plenty of fields with deer on route to Queenstown!  At the very 1^st opportunity to eat in a lakeside resto I had to go for Venison rack. This place had really funky decor, sleek waiters and smart service. The view out to the blue lake and snow tipped mountains added to the romance of the event. I was delighted.

Venison Rack with Thyme jus

After such a treat I could only manage a cheese platter while hubby went for chocolate desserts...

Miles Better Pies at Te Ana:

Well known and loved for being the best gourmet pie shop in the South Island, this foodie destination was mentioned by friends with nostalgic eyes and a knowing sigh. I am not a big pie fan – too stodgy generally. BUT as this location was on route to the Milford Sounds, Fjordland and the perfect distance for an over-night pit stop, I could not miss the chance to try this NZ institution.

Venison pie for breakfast – it was delicious, meaty with thick gravy and crumbly pastry. Worth it – and kept us full till tea time! Ideal as there was a poor choice of foods at the tourist cafe in the Sounds itself – loads of room for improvement there! I say Miles better pies should open a branch there instead!

South Island Venison Pie

So that's it. My round up of all the memorable food I have sampled in NZ. I will always carry these food memories and the flavours in my mouth and in my heart for as long as I live. It was the best trip of my life and I will leave you with some non foodie photos of breathtaking views in this far away land ... NZ I will always love you, your people and your food.

NZ South Island Food Odyssy 2012: Part 1

Cray fish - poor mans lobster but just as delightful

You can't beat a good Kiwi Platter

I planned my south Island NZ trip not just around catching up with old friends & seeing some of the most amazing naturally beautiful spots in the world but also around foodie destinations. Through the power of the internet and with the help of Cuisine magazine [NZ’s answer to Delicious] I hunted down the best and award winning restaurants along my route. The South Island offers some of the best quality produce I have ever come across and it was incredible to be able to sample these along the way.

Cray fish in kaikora:

After a stomach churning stormy ferry ride from the North Island we landed in Picton  in the South, where we picked up our hire car. It was wet, cold and miserable weather and we decided to get the hell out of there asap. So our South island foodie trip really started down in Kaikora. In Mauri this actually means Cray-fish. Kaikora is reknowned for amazing seafood and the local speciality is, yes you’ve guessed it, crayfish.

It is cheapest and often freshest bought at road side caravans by the beach. Nins Bin is the one made famous on the internet but it is 30min drive north of Kaikora. It is just as good and possibly cheaper to stay in town and drive down to the end of the beach for a breakfast treat! You get to choose your cray out of a chill bin and they will simply grill it for you with garlic butter. It was an amazing experience. I loved it!

The spectacular seafood in this region also invariably included NZ Green Lip Mussels - famous all over the world and gigantic in nature ...

Recommended restaurants:

1.The White Morph:

This seafront resto delivered quality posh nosh from a room with a view. It was fairly expensive but totally worth it !

Kaikora

NZ Lamb



2. Pegasus Bay Winery: Winner of Best Restaurant in a Winery

This gorgeous place gave us some of the best meat I have ever tasted and spectacular views of their art adorned gardens. Generally NZ lamb tends to get exported to us in the UK and it is actually more expensive to buy it in NZ. Some clever places however keep some of the best cuts for themselves and boy oh boy was it was mouth wateringly good..

Beef carpaccio

NZ lamb chops on a bed of Aubergines

We were blessed with great weather as we made our way down the west coast. We stayed with old friends in Christ Church and they took us to Akaroa for some of the best Fish and chips down south!

Akaroa

3. Riverstone Kitchen: This won the best casual dining awards last year and was further south of ChCh near a place called Omaru. The chef here has become famous for his use of simple local ingredients and associated recipe books. I therefore had very high expectatiions and I am happy to report that I was not disappointed. It was a family friendly venue i.e. lots of noisy children running around in the gardens and creche area and lots of harassed designated drivers/parents, but nevertheless the atmosphere inside was relaxed and friendly. The food was sensational!

More NZ lamb!

Steak!

When you drive around NZ there seems to be more cows, sheep/lamb and venison in fields than there are people or cars. It was just great to get to eat the incredibly tasty meat from the next field in these locally sourced resto's. You don't need to do much to food if it tastes that good to start off with and the meat in NZ has so much flavour!!UK butchers do have amazing produce but let's face it, how many of us can always afford meat from the butchers? Sometimes the budget can only stretch to supermarket quality - which I believe is improving in the UK but not always this good.   Luckily we have NZ lamb available to us in the UK supermarkets for a lot cheaper than they have it here!! Hurrah!

Sugar and Spice and all things nice

Battered and Deep fried chicken wings with sweet chilli dip

Singapore was extremely hot, unbelievably humid and very wet all throughout December and my experience was thwarted by the constant sweating and inevitable fatigue that followed. The heat was exhausting to the point that it inevitably reduced my usually insatiable appetite.  However eating out is a national past time here & so it was difficult to say no to meals out!

The number of options for restaurants was overwhelming but having had my fill of Chinese in Hong Kong, I was happy to go for more Indian/European places where you could try and choose some low carb, low fat and low sugar options! It was hard to choose healthily in most places in Singapore as most menus had fattening food combinations. Somehow I managed to stay away from their beloved Chicken Rice and Laksa Noodle based combos but it did not mean I lost any weight – if anything my muffin tops grew more muffin tops and I felt I was walking around with a ring of middle fat that could keep me afloat in a swimming pool.

In this city, people tend to move from air con mall to mall through an underground labyrinth network taking them from designer shops to food halls throughout the town centre. These food halls are a head ache inducing bombardment of cuisine options from all around the world and it is near impossible to make a choice as there are so many counters. I was however NOT spoilt for choice as invariably none of them were actually very healthy. Lots of things were deep fried and most dishes were loaded with sugar.

Food & culture in Singapore is a melting pot of Indian, Chinese, Indonesian and Malaysian. They like their spicy chilli hot dishes but they balance the heat with sugar – so much so that it mostly left my teeth set on edge! I found that most meals were heavy carb based – huge portions of noodles or rice & the sauce to go with it had loads of palm sugar and coconut based ingredients like coconut milk/cream/oil etc. – saturated fats galore.

Fat Brothers Satay Stand at a Hawkers Market

Satays for example are an Indonesian creation where the meat is marinated with grated palm sugar and chopped chillies. The meat is then stuck onto skewers and grilled before being served with a sweet peanut sauce, again full of palm sugar.  Sambal is the main chilli paste that every household and kitchen in the country makes daily. This is a sweet and hot paste that accompanies many dishes as a condiment or is the basis of many a curry sauce. Again it contains tooth ache inducing amounts of palm sugar along with copious amounts of mind blowing hot chillies! No doubt Dentists will have their work cut out here!

Sugar and Chilli paste - sambal

The hawkers markets provided the cheapest and varied options. Most were based around Chinese influences with lots of Dumplings and Deep Fried foods. Some had everything from Indian to Thai to Pizzas – definitely more interesting than fast food joints but I am not sure they were any better for hygiene or health. I always wonder where they get their cleaning water from and how often the tiny kitchen counters are actually cleaned at these markets.  The best choices in these markets were the BBQ [even if the marinades or sambal sauces are sugar based] as the food would be char-grilled and hopefully all the microbes would be nuked before consumption!

After learning Indonesian and Chinese cookery, I decided that I would rather try my hand at some Malay cuisine while I was so close to Malaysia. I decided to try a cooking class that taught their most favourite dishes. Malaysian food has more Indian influences and is more curry based. Ask any Malaysian what their best ever meal includes and Beef Rendang always comes on top of the list! This king of curries is a rich delicious stew prepared for every special feast or celebration. 

Beef Rendang

Here is the recipe – I recommend that you make this if you have an excellent exhaust system in your kitchen/ can cook outside/ if it is summer and you can open all the windows of the kitchen AND if you have a pressure cooker.... Oh and you will need a morter and pestle OR a food processor/blender for the paste.

Ingredients:

•  8 – 16 dry red chillies soaked in water until soft or 6 – 12 fresh red chillies
• 12 shallots
• 3 garlic cloves peeled
• 1 inch ginger peeled
• 1 inch galangal peeled
• 1 stalk of lemon grass bruised [remove the hard outer layers]
• ¼ tsp turmeric powder
• 2 tbsp of Oil
• 4 tbsp of grated coconut dry roasted till light brown
• 5 Kaffir lime leaves torn up
• 1 tbsp of palm sugar grated
• 1 and ½ cup of coconut milk
• 500g of cheapest cut of Beef diced into bite size portions
• [Other optional items – may be difficult to get: turmeric leaves and pandan leaves – bruised and used as flavouring – not to be eaten]

Slice and then pound together  the chillies, shallots, garlic, galangal, lemongrass and mix in the turmeric powder or use a blender to make the paste

Toast the grated coconut in a dry wok until golden

Mix the coconut into the spice paste

Add a pinch of salt to the dry wok then add the oil

Fry the paste in the oil for 10 minutes until it becomes darker

Add the beef and cook for 5 minutes

Add the Kaffir Lime leaves, coconut milk, salt and sugar

Cover and simmer for 1 and ½ hours or for 1 hour in the pressure cooker

Adjust the seasoning once the beef is cooked and serve with Basmati rice

This rich dry and thick curry is a joy to eat and a special occasion dish. I also tried Chicken and Lamb Rendang out in Kuala Lumpur and I must say they were also pretty damn special. You can make the curry to your taste and reduce the number of chillies and up the coconut or sugar content to get a milder version.

Mild Chicken Rendang

Lamb Rendang