Eat, drink and be merry…or more holiday eating

Regular readers know I love food. I enjoy cooking (for me, chopping vegetables is an exercise in mindfulness), reading about food, listening to podcasts on the latest in nutrition. It isn’t just about eating, it is about trying new things, enjoying old favourites, being happy with the simple and appreciating the art of good cooking. There are times when nothing beats a cup of tea and a biscuit, to dunk of course. Other days I want to sit in the sun and sip sparkling wine and oysters. Mostly, it is trying to fit in pulses, extra vegetables and oily fish into weekly meals.

When on holiday, it is time to enjoy things to the full. When we go up to Hawke’s Bay we usually stop in Woodville for lunch, enjoying ham, cheese and tomato toasties with a side order of chips at Wood Farm Cafe. Just the perfect thing for a road trip. We had excellent toasties too in Havelock North at Maina, with me opting for the roast beef (when did I last have a roast beef sandwich?) and Karl the classic ham and cheese.

When we are up in Napier, we try to go to a great little local cafe for breakfast. Nothing beats someone else making you post eggs on toast and a pot of tea to start the day.

On the night we arrived, we headed out for dinner at Hunger Monger, the fish restaurant in town. I had oysters, because I just could not resist, and Grilled Aussie Banana Prawns, Noodle Salad, Peanuts, Beans, Thai Mango & Herb Dressing as the menu states. These were excellent and just the right size plate. Karl had prawn dumplings and fish and chips. Good food all round.

At the end of our short trip, we had another fine dining experience at Central Fire Station Bistro. We were welcomed with a glass of sparkling wine, and decided to go for the Trust the Chef menu, which started with some lovely sourdough bread and butter and snacks of tempura oysters and little puffs with cheese and ham. As Karl does not eat oysters, I had to eat both of them – what a treat that was! I can still taste them.

We then had a raw fish dish with avocado, mandarin, daikon, shallot and ginger ponzu. The citrus was a wonderful burst of contrast to everything else that just worked well. The excellent sauvignon blanc was a good match. We then had duck breast served with chicken sausage and vanilla parsnip cream and cherries, another beautiful dish, served with a local pinot noir.

The main dish was beef fillet with rosti potato, mushrooms and black garlic mayonnaise which was another flavour bomb (as they say) with perfectly cooked beef. This came with a wine from Jenny Dobson (it was the one called ‘Doris’). Dessert was the dark chocolate cake with a sherry cream and raspberry sorbet. This was just so good, chocolate and raspberries go so well together, and served with port.

So….now we are back to normal with 0% beer and cider, sausages and potato salad, and even sardines on toast for Tuesday lunch. Ah well….

Thistles and Kiwis is a Wellington, New Zealand based blog written by Barbara, who likes cats, summer, good food and pretends to garden. Also on Facebook and Instagram @thistlesandkiwis