Wellington – The Foodie Post

I’m a day late for What’s On Your Plate, but what’s a day between friends, right?

Anyways, here it is, Wellington, the foodie post. I hope you’ve eaten.

Wine and Food Matching

One of the key events for this visit was the inaugural wine and food matching night hosted by the friends I was staying with and involving her book club friends and their partners.

The idea was simple: every couple (plus me) was responsible for providing wine and a matching small course of food—sufficient for all 11 guests (I was the odd one out). The wine was presented “blind,” i.e., in brown paper bags, and the rest of the guests had to try and guess what it was.

We began with prosecco and chocolate strawberries and went from there (the main pic shows the order of the wines).

Everyone made a fantastic effort and while there was so much food, surprisingly there wasn’t that much leftover.

I took along a bottle of Tumbarumba Gamay and served it with pigs in blankets with a cranberry glaze.

Wellington on a Plate

Burger Wellington

Burger Wellington has become a big part of the annual Wellington on a Plate festival and this year 194 burgers were (officially) entered into the competition.

We tried a few …

My fave was the one from Zephyr which, incidentally, came second overall in the competition. Not sure I want to see another burger in a hurry.

Pravda Cheese Scones

Cheese scones are a big deal in Wellington – actually, they’re a big deal throughout NZ – and Pravda’s are said to be the best in Welly. How could I resist an opportunity to get my hot little hands on their recipe and join in a scone-making class?

These are made slightly different to the scones I’m used to making, and while I haven’t tried it yet at home, I will.

We were given two scones to enjoy at the end of the class, but they’re massive so I dropped one off to my friend to have at work.

Maumahara

Another Wellington on a Plate event, the blurb for this gave us few clues as to what to expect:

Incredible edible memories are formed in childhood, which is exactly where Kārena and Kasey Bird and Kitchen Takeover will take you as they explore what it means to grow up in Aotearoa, the flavours that helped shape their tastebuds and the way Te Ao Māori has influenced their lives. 

The talented siblings (Te Arawa, Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Manawa) will draw on their own childhood memories, growing up in the coastal village of Maketu, to bring diners six courses of edible nostalgia. Their earliest memories are of digging for pipi in the local estuary, and cooking the delicate molluscs on an old cake rack over on open fire on the sand. They will fuse these memories with the envelope-pushing culinary techniques they’ve amassed in their creative careers, alongside strong family traditions and long-held Māori cooking techniques and flavours. 

Each course was introduced with an audio-visual accompaniment intended to invoke the memories of the flavours.

Some courses were amazing, but a couple fell flat. Overall, it was a great experience.

High Tea at the Bolton Hotel

A real treat …

Cicio Cacio

Finally, one of the best Italian meals I’ve had in ages. It reminded me of this little place in Narrabundah (Canberra) that Grant and I used to go to when we were first dating – Piccolo Mondo … It’s probably not there anymore. It was probably not that great, but it just seemed special because we were young and it was a treat to eat out. This place, however, is great.

Linking up with Min from Write of the Middle for Wednesday Whimsy and Donna from Retirement Reflections and her co-host Deb The Widow Badass Blog in their #whatsonyourplateblogchallenge.