Thursday, July 24, 2014

Burgeration

A week ago, I blogged about how Charley Noble’s Burger Wellington entry seemed to closely resemble their everyday burger on the menu. I sent a link to my blog to the organisers of Wellington On A Plate, who have replied to me with this information:

" We've been in touch with the team at Charley Noble to get the low-down on what burger they're entering in this year's challenge and can assure you that their burger will be different to the burger currently listed on their regular menu. They didn't have the finer details of their entry ready when the Visa Wellington On a Plate brochure went to print, hence the description in the programme sounding similar to the burger you enjoyed when you dined at Charley Noble recently. The waiter who served you at lunch was a new team member and therefore not completely up to speed yet with the Visa Wellington On a Plate DINE Wellington menu.

We're happy to share their burger with you now:

Introducing the Charley Noble Caribbean Pirate Burger!
Featuring a beef patty, grilled pineapple pickle, Monterey Jack cheese, crispy bacon and smoked chilli relish, and served with a side of "smoke and rum" punch. 

Arrrr, blow me down, that sounds like a right beauty. "


As the man in orthopaedic shoes said: I stand corrected.

Anyway, it’s nice to know that comments and feedback are given due attention by the organisers. Whether I’ll be trying their burger is still debatable, as competition is fierce to get on my shortlist and I want to try some of the more exotic burgers as well as the standard ones.  More on this once the event gets under way!

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Tell Me More


Thirty five years after its original release, Grease has finally arrived in New Zealand. OK, not quite true. There’s a new production of Grease at the Wellington Opera  House, so we decided to go along on a Friday night.

We stopped in at a new place on Courtenay Place for a bite to eat. Basque is a tapas bar, and they’d done the obligatory GrabOne deal to tempt people in – four pintxos and two drinks for $15. The pintxos are bite-sized tapas – canapés really – and we then went on to order a whole lot more, and called that “dinner”. Very good they were, too.

The show followed the plot of the film but without the outdoor locations. The car race was scrapped completely – probably a bit unfeasible to try and reproduce that on stage – but all the other key elements were there, and, of course, we knew all the songs. It was very well produced and sung with a cast of around 40 or so. As well as the big set pieces (Summer Nights, Greased Lightning, Grease Is The Word, You’re The One That I Want) there were particularly good solo renditions of Beauty School Dropout and Alone At A Drive In Movie by the two leads.


Thursday, July 17, 2014

A Bit Of A Cheat

The Wellington On A Plate Burger Wellington competition kicks off in less than a month’s time. Today, at lunchtime, we went to Charley Noble Eatery & Bar, where I had their burger. I asked the waiter about whether they were entering the Burger Wellington competition, and what their entry would be. “Oh, I don’t think it’s been finalised yet” was his reply.

I am deeply suspicious. All the burgers are listed on the Wellington On A Plate website, so I checked out what theirs was. It’s described thusly:  

Shooting Charley's Burger - $24
Taylor Prestonʼs beef patty with On Trays Monterey Jack, bacon and pickles, with house cut chips.

This sounds suspiciously like what I had for lunch, so I checked their menu online. It says:

HOUSE BEEF BURGER 26.00
Monterey Jack, bacon, pickles, house cut chips

That sounds like the same burger to me.

Now, it was a good burger, but I’m deducting marks for laziness. Also, I know that I can cross them off my shortlist during the WOAP fortnight.