It is hard to believe it is already December, and that it is only 3 weeks until Christmas Eve. Sunday was the first Sunday in Advent, so we lit our first candle and slowly began to think of Christmas. There is a lot to do before we can relax for the summer (Including a work trip to Auckland for me), but it now feels like we are heading towards the festive season.
Eating out
This week we ate out at Apache, a lovely restaurant in town with the food a modern take on popular Northern Vietnamese hawker street food, with a touch of French influence as it says on their website. We enjoyed pork and prawn dumplings and imperial fried pork rolls, served with an amazing sauce and spicy peanuts to start, and then shaking beef and poulet au caramel, a dish of chicken in a salted caramel sauce, with kumara, green beans and shiitake mushrooms. Both were gorgeous, and in fact the whole meal was incredible, full of fresh, bright flavours.
Sandwich hit and miss
I seem to have got in a habit of featuring ‘this week’s sandwiches’ on this post, so to keep up the ‘tradition’, here we go. On Wednesday I had Maude’s Chicken Sandwich at favourite cafe, Squirrel. Named after the owner’s dog, this is gorgeous chicken based sandwich with lots of rocket, almonds and other good things. I made a big mistake choosing the turkey and cranberry sandwich from Dough Bakery though and actually wonder what was going through my mind when I bought it as I dislike that combination. If you do, you would probably like it as it was a well made sandwich with added cheese and greens. Anyway, I made up for it with their egg sandwich today.
In the basket (and delivery box)
In the Wonky Box this week: a lettuce, more radishes and capsicums, potatoes, broccoli, bok choy and a welcome head of garlic. I topped it up with more asparagus because I just can’t help it, peas, lemons, oranges, blueberries and tomatoes. We ate one lot of asparagus and the peas on Saturday, the broccoli on Sunday and the other lot of asparagus with some salad on Monday. No idea when we will eat the bok choy though as I am travelling for work this week as I mentioned.
Thorndon Fair
The Thorndon Fair is held on the first Sunday of December, and we like to go each year to wander about the stalls, maybe pick up a few things, grab something to eat and just enjoy the atmosphere. Unfortunately this year the weather was not in the event’s favour, with drizzle and lots of rain. We did pop up for a short while though, enjoying an excellent burger from Babicka’s Table with whipped feta, house made pickles, salad, mustard and wasabi mayo, and mangaging to catch the morris dancers. I picked up a crocheted cup warmer and some Pimped Pepper from Spicecraft.
Simple things
- Reading this good news about kiwis.
- Baking a cake in advance of my name day (yes 4 December is St Barbara’s Day) – more of that on Wednesday.
- Going to the end of year performances at the New Zealand School of Dance.
- Listening to, and watching, kākā flying around.
- Enjoying beautiful peonies, bought on Wednesday (see featured image)
- Wondering at the simple beauty of a bowl of tomatoes.
So those were my highlights of the week. What were your small pleasures this week? Here are some other blog posts from a few fellow bloggers looking at the good things in life.
Also entered in the weekend coffee share hosted by Natalie.
- Tootlepedal’s Blog watches the birds and luckily doesn’t have lots of snow.
- Ju Lyn over at Touring My Backyard shares more memories from Japan.
- Popsicle Society’s Monday Motivation is a good one today,
- Something Over Tea ruminates on drink combinations.
- There are feasts aplenty over at Brookford Farm Diaries.
- There is a peaceful gathering over at Deb’s World.
- Lisa over at Southern Patches shares a coffee on Sunday morning.
- You know there is always a good cup of coffee over at Trent’s.
- Donna over at Retirement Reflections had a good November.
- Natalie shares what she is grateful for in November.
- Green Dreams is also grateful and shares wintery scenes and a tea Advent calendar.
- .…and all the other lovely bloggers out there. Sorry if I have missed anyone…..
Also entered in the weekend coffee share hosted by Natalie.
Thistles and Kiwis is a Wellington, New Zealand based blog written by Barbara, who likes cats, summer, good food and pretends to garden.
You can find Thistles and Kiwis on Facebook, and also on Instagram @thistlesandkiwis. If you want to get in touch, email me on thistlesandkiwis@gmail.com or lofgren@thistlesandkiwis.com
Thistles and Kiwis 
Excellent news about the kiwis! Thank you for including that link. I enjoy popping over to some of the blogs you mention and must thank you again for including mine in your list. I also enjoy your featured sandwiches – some interesting combinations there.
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Yes the kiwi news is excellent – a lot of hard work has gone into making this possible,
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You ate your way beautifully through the week! Enjoy your trip, and spring vegetables!
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Thanks Dorothy! 🙂
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Great food — can’t say I ever thought about a caramel sauce and chicken in the same sentence. All your sandwiches look so good. I hope your work week away goes well. Bernie
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I did wonder when we ordered the chicken what it would be like but it was so good!
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Oh my goodness, I love that you went to Apache! And what a coincidence as I just tried to recreate one of their recipes because it was so divine (I remember it four years later)! Your Wonky veg box simply sings of late spring! It must be beautiful over in Wellington right now
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Oh great that you’ve been to Apache too! Fabulous food. It is a bit mixed weather wise just now, but getting better! What dish did you try to recreate?
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Those tomatoes look good. I was amazed to see the Morris dancers, I didn’t know that they were among our exports.
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Yes it is funny to see them here!
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Yikes! Christmas Eve is only 3 weeks away. How in the heck did that happen?!
Good call on adding more asparagus to your food basket. I would have done that as well.
Thank you for the shoutout. It is greatly appreciated!
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Yes we are loving asparagus season!
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Again all of the food looks so delicious. I went to the Apache website just to ogle the menu. And those tomatoes look so nice. We are at the time of the year here, that tomatoes have sort of a pinkish color. I miss those red ripe ones for my husband, I have never liked tomatoes.
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Apache was excellent and we must return. Tomatoes aren’t always good…sme are tasteless but a good tomato to me at least is a delight!
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Is that really a troop of Morris dancers waving sticks and jingling the bells on their legs? I had no idea this traditional English folk dance had spread beyond our shores!
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I’m not sure there are many Morris dancer groups here!
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Time is flying by Barbara! I also can’t believe there are Morris dancers in NZ we watched them earlier this year in a pub in Somerset and they always intrigue me! I agree a bowl of tomatoes is a simple pleasure.
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The Morris dancers her are such fun to see. Celebrating their own whakapapa!
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Sorry – heritage – I’d been thinking and involved in something at work and the Maori word seemed more apt!
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That meal from Apache looks and sounds incredible. I have never had any Vietnamese food before. We don’t live in an ethically diverse area so our food choices are pretty limited to pub foods and pizza and that’s about it.
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It was excellent food I must say. We have a big choice of different places to go where we live – we are so lucky,
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That sandwich looks AMAZING!! Great shot of the Maori dance (? Are they throwing the sticks to each other?) #WeekendCoffeeShare
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Oh gosh no! Morris dancing is English. This is just a group of enthusaists, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_dance
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As usual your food photos look good enough to eat. I would have added extra asparagus to the basket also, as it’s a favourite. Thanks for the NZ link. I found it interesting
https://bestbookishblog.com/
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Thanks!
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I love eating at our local Vietnamese restaurant. One of my favourite things to order are the shrimp salad rolls with peanut sauce. I always like visiting your post to see the food pictures; thanks for sharing. I think I’m going to make egg salad sandwiches for lunch.
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I think egg salad sandwiches are one of my favourites – enjoy!
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With a name like “Apache”, “Northern Vietnamese hawker street food, with a touch of French influence” would be the last ting I think of – the first is a Web Server (I’m a computer nerd) and the second would be a native American people. But the food does look good!
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It could also be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Apaches#:~:text=In%20the%20early%2020th%20century,newspaper%20seller%20mockingly%20called%20%22attention!
And apparently in French it can also mean a gangster! A word with multiple meanings.
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Ah, that is most likely where the name came in. yes, a flexible word.
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The soft pink peony at the top of your blog is gorgeous. All the food and produce you featured look delicious. Great news on the kiwis, too (150 years, wow!). Thank you for the mention and for your weekend coffee share.
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Yes the kiwi news is so great to hear.
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Peonies are such a beautiful flower and great to see as a reminder summer will come again! Your food pics are always so inspiring.
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Thank you! And yes peonies are gorgeous.
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I devour your post as I often do when I visit your space; so very many delectable goodies as always. I have to agree you with re the gorgeous bowl of tomatoes: artistic, warm & very inviting.
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Oh thank you Ju-Lyn! Yes the tomatoes were good to eat too!
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What a beautiful produce box. I’ve always wanted to grow peonies.
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Peonies are lovely aren’t they?
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