This week’s small pleasures #400

Thistles and Kiwis

Gosh! The 400th small pleasures post, the weekly round up of fun, nice and good things that have happened during the week. The original idea came from A New Life Wandering back in the day, and I have just run with it. Anyway, here are the small pleasures this week – and yes there is a lot of food featured!

NB – the featured image at the top of the post was taken at lunch time when it was warm and the sun was shining (Jo of And Anyways…knows exactly where it was taken…). Then the Southerlies came in and the temperatures dropped…and the skies darkened….

In the basket

The wonky box deliverd a couple of staples – onions and carrots – some greens – broccoli, baby silverbeet (something new to me – I used two big handfuls in a pasta bake instead of spinach) and kailan or Chinese broccoli. Then there was the lovely surprise in the middle of winter, fresh tomatoes, and yet more avocados. I am storing last week’s delivery under water in a box in the fridge on the suggestion of a friend. This was topped it up with a couple of grapefruit, tamarillos, rainbow chard, fennel for Sunday’s pasta bake, pears, mushrooms and some pasta.

Wellington on a Plate 2024

On Friday, I had my first burger on Burger Wellington for this year. Burger Wellington is a sub section of the annual food festival, Wellington on a Plate, where venues all over the city compete to find the best burger. I decided to try the Hop Lobster at Concord, a Garage Project Beer battered lobster and shrimp patty, cos lettuce, American cheese, and pickles in a brioche bun, with a caviar butter dipping sauce (Garage Project is a local brewery). This tasted good but was very crumbly. The sauce was as exceptional as it sounds.

On Saturday, we headed over to Chaat Street for their WOAP menu, Dastarkhan. The menu suggested three kebabs per person and a biryani and bread – well, that was a lot of food and we should have just ordered perhaps 2 kebabs each. Anyway, we ate biryani-e-khas, which was made with goat and was really delicious and spicy and a cucumber raita topped with crispy chickpeas. The kebabs we ordered were: boti (x2), paneer gulnar, lucknawi seekh, tundey, nimbu mirch ke tikke – see the menu here, but there was a mix of lamb, chicken and some delicious paneer. A veritable feast!

Other eatings

I ordered up some gorgeous fig, walnut and fennel bread from Shelley Bay Baker which was excellent, and reminded me of a bread I sometimes got in Denmark. I made a long standing favourite pasta bake for Sunday dinner with left overs tonight (rainbow chard as a side on Sunday, broccoli on Monday). This week’s sandwich? Chicken, pesto and lots of salad from a place near work.

NZIFF

As well as Wellington on a Plate, the New Zealand International Film Festival is on right now. Unlike Laurie of Notes From the Hinterland, I only managed two films this year. On Wednesday morning I went to see the German film The Teachers’ Lounge at The Embassy cinema (pictured below). As the blurb says When one of her students is suspected of theft, teacher Carla Nowak decides to get to the bottom of the matter. Caught between her ideals and the school system, the consequences of her actions threaten to break her. I would highly recommend this film, even if some bits were a little predictable.

On Sunday, we went out to the Roxy in Miramar (the screen in cinema 1 below) to see American Stories: Food, Family and Philosophy, a restored film from 1989. I thoroughly enjoyed this film, with its montage of monologues, humour, and moving stories telling the tale of Jewish-American identity.

Simple things

  • Knowing spring is round the corner.
  • Hearing that one of my cousin’s grandson is now a double bass player in the Sinfonia Varsovia
  • Getting the ironing done – no – not really – but nice to see an empty ironing basket!
  • Receiving some great pictures of my brother who seems to be settling in his new place of abode in Washington DC.
  • Seeing the medals table from the Olympic games – New Zealand got 10 gold medals and ended up 11th in the table. Not bad for a country of 5 million people.
  • Enjoying a lovely sunrise this morning on the way to work.

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.

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 lofgren@thistlesandkiwis.com

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Published by Thistles and Kiwis

Loves summer, sunshine and cats. Beginner gardener, likes eating, cooking and reading about food

47 Comments

  1. What a lovely fun post Barbara and congrats on 400 Small Pleasure posts. I love the idea and you always share such great small things and posts from others.

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  2. Lovely post, first time I’ve heard of this challenge, something to add to my list. Lots of very healthy looking food shown and all looks delicious
    There is a book called Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers which you would enjoy I think

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  3. These posts of yours are uplifting for your readers. I empathise with your ironing pleasure – my baskets are leering at me! My greatest pleasure today is the sun shining sans wind and meeting a dear friend by chance while I was buying the week’s groceries 🙂

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  5. Many thanks for featuring me twice. While it was fun to see 31 movies in 9 days, it was also exhausting, and I am thinking that 2 might give you a better appreciation of each movie. 😉 That bread sounds delicious, and the anticipation of spring is so sweet. Finally, those gold medals are indeed an accomplishment for a country of 5 million.

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    1. I was thinking of your marathon film run when I booked our tickets 🙂 A colleague at work saw 5 films in one day…. The bread is so good and despite some stormy weather yesterday afternoon, spring is coming.

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  7. That does look like a lovely week of yummy eating! We had a very rainy week so it was extra nice to see the shining this weekend.

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  8. I do enjoy your small pleasures especially seeing what is in the wonky box. Can’t you request no more avocados for a while? As usual your dining out makes me drool “caviar butter dipping sauce” really? And that bread sounds delicious. All the flavours I like. Thanks for linking to my site Barbara. Hope you have a good week.

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    1. A friend who also gets the box is feeling the same about avocados. The harvest this year must have been good. That dipping sauce was the best bit really, but it went so well with the burger. Enjoy your week and summer!

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  9. Thanks for the movie reviews, I think we would like The American Stories, but The Teacher’s Lounge might be too close to the bone for me as I am a teacher… 😁😊

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  11. Hi, Barbara – Congratulations on your 400th ‘Small Pleasures’ post. That’s very impressive! I remember your ‘Wellington on a Plate’ posts from previous years and am happy to see this year’s version.

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  12. Canada and NZ kept trading places in the gold count! Yes for 5 M that’s a fabulous result. I recognized that first photo from Jo’s Instagram post but still don’t know much about it.

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  14. Dear Barbara — Happy 400th Small Pleasures post! What an auspicious occasion for me to return to your lively, informative, delightful blog. As always, I love hearing about your cooking, restaurants, movies and other cultural activities (and admiring your photos). As always, I love feeling how you embrace life. It’s nice to be back in this lovely blogging community again! Fondly, Carol Ann

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  15. How kind of you! Yes, I have so much news and photos and delights stored up in my fingers. I’ll start sharing again soon. In the meantime, being back in touch with you is certainly, for me too, a very big small pleasure

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  16. Woohoo! Congratulations on your 400th Small Pleasures Post! What a milestone! Here’s looking forward to many many more!

    As always, the contents of your Wonky Box (and your additional hauls of produce) never cease to fascinate me. I had to look up silverbeet – I was expecting silvery coloured bulbs, not these lovely leaves!

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        1. I think in the UK you will find it under Swiss chard and it will have a white stem – the baby version we got in the box didn’t have the stem. It is a bit like rainbow chard, but bigger leaves and a white stem.

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        3. Yes – here silver beet refers to the large, dark green leaves with white stems. Rainbow chard has smaller leaves and coloured stems. I think I might have mentioned, but it was miniature silver beet which I had never seen before – something new.

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        4. Got it! Appreciate our conversations about produce, which as you know, I am fascinated by. Particularly regional difference in nomenclature, as well as the unique things that can be had.

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  17. What a gorgeous old theatre that is. How lovely! And did you catch up with Jo? I don’t know if I read that bit right (pre coffee here – makes me stupid) THat would have been fun.

    My highlight? A family dinner so we all had fun with the kiddo that moved out of home again….Always my fav. #WeekendCoffeeShare

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  18. Looks like you had a wonderful week Barbara. Your wonky box looks great this week. I would have been able to use it all. Congratulations on your 400th Small Pleasures post. It’s a fabulous idea.

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  20. So many small pleasure posts! Wow, that is impressive.

    Your Wonka box looks tempting. I love the idea of having a subscription of fresh veggies. I’d like to start something like that in my area one day, being the one providing the veggies. That would be a fun business.

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