Feast Your Eyes

Our first event of this year’s Wellington On A Plate is a variation on the Roxy Cinema’s perennial favourite, Eat The Film. This version has been rechristened as Feast Your Eyes. This time we’re seeing Hunt For The Wilderpeople, the New Zealand cult film from last year. Sounds like fun!

We arrived at the Roxy in plenty of time for the 2pm start, and waited patiently in the upstairs lounge…because this is being shown in the main cinema. How are they going to serve hundreds of people food and drinks in the main cinema? Well, they’ve changed up the format a bit: instead of serving individual foods at opportune moments in the film, they decided to serve a hāngi at the beginning, and allowed us to help ourselves to beers and soft drinks from the bar throughout the film. As we had to drive and/or sing later in the day, we didn’t overindulge on this.

The film was introduced by Ray Letoa, barman and mixologist at The Roxy. He explained his concept for the event, and we were watching the film though a screen of freshly-picked leaves and bushes.

If you’ve not seen HFTW before, well, you really should. It’s a film about an urban Maori boy in foster care, who, for reasons that will become apparent, goes on the run in the bush. It’s very funny. It’s also the highest grossing New Zealand film to date (LOTR and The Hobbit films don’t count as they’re not defined as New Zealand films).

Beef Béarnaise

And they’re off! Wellington On A Plate is upon us again, and in time-honoured fashion, I kicked off with a burger from Boulcott Street Bistro on the first Friday. I went with a bunch from work, and, although ostensibly there for the burgers, three of our group pivoted when they read the menu and went for the crayfish tail instead. This also looked very good and if I get a chance I’ll see if I can get to this as well.

My avowed intention this year was to visit places that I’d not been to before. So not  a great start, as I’ve been to BSB pretty well every year since they won with the T Rex Burger back in 2012. I may have to revise my criteria to “places I’ve not been to before, unless they’re past winners” which lets me off the hook for Monday as well, when my best-laid plan is to go to Ti Kouka.

BSB’s burger is the Beef Béarnaise and, as you’d expect, béarnaise sauce is a key component of this entry. The description is: Angus beef patty with béarnaise sauce, caramelised onions and rocket in a housemade herb bun, with double-cooked handcut fries. It looked like this:

The bun was a brioche-style with herbs, and the beer match was Garage Project’s Loral Royale. This is an American-hopped (loral is the variety of hop) IPA, and very drinkable it was too.

What was my verdict on this burger? It was a generous and deep patty, which meant it was cooked medium-rare. The sauce made it a bit wet and dripped down my fingers a bit, but it didn’t suffer from burger collapse syndrome, and bun integrity held up until the end. If I was to criticise (and you know me!), I’d question the bun real estate ratio: the bun substantially overlapped the burger, and in the end I left part of it as I’d run out of meat. The twice-cooked fries, of which there were four, were served upright in a cup with a delicious gravy at the bottom. Now, four fries may not seem like a lot, but frankly they were enough – I don’t think I could have finished them if there’d been a plateful.

Overall, a promising start to this year’s burger shenanigans. I scored it an 8. 

The Marriage Of Figaro

Classic Mozart opera The Marriage Of Figaro (performed in English) is on at the Hannah Playhouse. On a chilly Saturday night, we set out to watch it.

We stopped first at a new-ish place that we’ve (I’ve) been meaning to try for a while…we’ve been going to much the same-old same-old for a while now, so we’re looking to break out into new venues. This has included recent jaunts to Apache and Bambuchi. Tonight’s venue, Slim Davey’s Friendly Neighbourhood Saloon, is based around an American 50’s style diner, with faux-wood plastic tables, the classic stainless steel-framed chairs, and a décor to match. The food is authentically American, but fortunately the drinks are not. We hit the cocktail menu and ordered a couple of cheeseburgers. I found the cheeseburger too wet and bun integrity failed even with the help of a cardboard widget, which was disappointing. The drinks were good though. I think this is more of a bar that does some food, than a restaurant.

We crossed the road to Hannah Playhouse in what we thought was plenty of time, only to find a queue from the box office to the door with one harassed-looking ticket clerk. Apparently a lot of people were collecting tickets on arrival, and I think her ticket machine had just run out of blank tickets. Anyway, there was a bit of delay, and it took us a while to get in and seated. We weren’t the last though, and they started the show once everyone was in, about 10 minutes late.

This was the first night, so the performance wasn’t fully polished, but nevertheless it was an enjoyable rendition. As it was in English, there were no surtitles, and the libretto was well-enunciated so I could follow the plot easily. As you’ll know, the story is a bit silly, but it all works out in the end.

It ran over time somewhat, and we didn’t get away until quarter to eleven. Look at us, out late on a Saturday night!

Bambuchi

Hataitai is one of those places that we always seem to drive through, or past, without stopping. This is logical, as it’s between where we live in Miramar and the CBD. Until recently, there hasn’t been anything there that would have made us stop.

Last weekend, the washing machine broke down. It would appear that our nearest laundromat is in Hataitai so, until the engineer can come and fix the machine, we need to do some laundry the old-fashioned way…not beating it on rocks, but by putting money into a machine.

Serendipitously, a new restaurant has also opened in Hataitai, a suburb mostly known for its takeaways. The new place is called Bambuchi, and it got a rave review form David Burton recently. What better way to while away the time whilst the laundry washes? We booked a table for 6:30.

Bambuchi does food in the modern style, of shared plates of various sizes and cuisines. Whilst there are hints of Asian flavours to some of the dishes, most of them are updated versions of kiwi classics. We started with brussels sprouts and torched salmon from the entree menu, then continued with beef cheeks and the game fish of the day, which was marlin, cooked with a laksa sauce and pickled vegetables. Although we didn't order it, we had spotted that one of the dishes on the "raw" section included wild fennel pollen. This was an ingredient we had previously encountered at The Press Club in Melbourne, and we were anxious to find out where the chef had got it, as I'd been unsuccessful in my forays into Moore Wilson's and Bel Mondo in Lyall Bay. The chef came out and discussed his wild foraging with us, and told us that he'd personally shaken it locally from a fennel plant. 

All the food was delicious, and we followed the mains with a couple of puddings - poached tamarillos and baked camembert with saffron pear. All washed down with the inevitable sauvignon blanc for Nicola, whilst I tried their 2012 Nelson riesling. Nice to see a reasonably aged wine on a wine list.

So Bambuchi gets a thumbs up from us, and we'll definitely make it our business to return and try some more of the menu.

Weed

Should cannabis be legalised? For medicinal use, or for general use? In a country with a professed target to be smoke-free by 2025, is it a good idea to be legalising a product which is mostly consumed by smoking it?

None of these questions is answered by the comedy Weed, but with cannabis back on the political agenda big-time, Circa Theatre has revived Anthony McCarten’s 1990 play.

The backdrop to the original production in 1990 was the removal of agricultural subsidies, and the need of farmers who had previously carried on with a loss-making farm to diversify into new areas to turn a profit. This has mutated into a more nuanced critique of the pitfalls of marginal hill farming in modern New Zealand.

It’s quite a long play, so with a 6:30 start we had only a short window of opportunity for some dinner. We decided to give Eva Street newcomer Shepherd a try, as it’s had some good reviews and also its pedigree, being the love child of Ti Kouka café and Golding’s Free Dive. The menu is an eclectic mix of flavours with an emphasis on Korean and Japanese fusion-type dishes. As were in a bit of a hurry we ordered a selection of dishes to share: steamed milk pikelets with mushrooms – theses turned out to be like steamed buns; confit duck porridge; cured salmon with kimchi; and fried rice with kale and kimchi. This all turned out to be very flavourful, and also plenty to eat! Unfortunately we had to rush out without a chance to try their desserts but I think we’ll be back when we have a little more time to give them another go.

I’d already picked up the tickets so after a brief pause at the bar, we took our seats. The play is a four-hander, focussing on the two main characters, the farmers Henry and Jack, looking to diversify into growing weed; Jack's nephew Hugh, who has some hands-on knowledge about the subject; and Terry, an artist who had befriended one of the farmers at a conference in Wellington – the point at which the play opens – and is totally enamoured of an idealised rural lifestyle.

The premise of the play is that the bank is about to foreclose on Henry’s loss-making hill sheep farm. With the help of his neighbour’s lawyer, he manages to get an extension of six months, and between them the two farmers devise a plan to grow cannabis to pay off the mortgage. Their initial calculations go awry as they discover the realities of the pot-growing business. Henry is increasingly taken advantage of by the manipulative Jack, and as the six month deadline approaches is desperate to wash his hands of the whole affair.

The whole thing makes for two hours of comedy, angst, and a plot twist. Great fun!

The Evolving Universe

The Expressions Gallery in Upper Hutt is currently showing the Smithsonian Museum’s exhibition of The Evolving Universe. This is a series of astrophotographs, taken using a variety of wavelengths and technologies, and relate what is happening in our universe as part of the timeline of Earth. The time it takes for light to get to us from distant parts of our galaxy, the Milky Way, and galaxies further afield, are related to the Earth’s development and general information about astrophysics and telescope technology. It’s all fascinating stuff and the pictures are, of course, very high quality and detailed.

As it’s in Upper Hutt, I donned my wifebeater and mullet wig so that I’d fit in. If you don’t know about Upper Hutt, it’s the smallest of the four cities that make up the Wellington conurbation (along with Wellington, Porirua and Lower Hutt). I haven’t actually been to Upper Hutt town centre before, but I’d heard bad things about it. It’s not the most prepossessing of town centres, and has frankly earned the derision of most Wellingtonians, in much the same way as places like Croydon do in the UK.

After looking at the exhibition, we then had a look in another room, which had information about the Upper Hutt Blockhouse. This was built in 1860, at the height of the New Zealand Wars. For further information about the New Zealand Wars, see this. What was remarkable about this exhibition, however, was the text accompanying one of the photographs. It said that the blockhouse was built “after a series of squeamishnesses” – a sentence which had us confused. We eventually figured out that it was a spellcheck replacement for “skirmishes”. Really, someone should proofread these before pinning up huge boards with mistakes like this.

After a brief squeamish with the traffic, we headed back to Petone for some lunch. Our best-laid plan to dine at Bella Italia gang aglay when they told us there was a half hour wait for a table, so we ended up in café Chavi at the other end of Jackson Street.

Hurricanes vs. Lions

If you’ve been keeping up with current events, you’ll know that the British & Irish Lions rugby team are currently touring New Zealand. If you haven’t, here is the news…

They’re playing three test matches against the All Blacks, and in between they’re playing a number of other New Zealand sides. They have fixtures against the 5 New Zealand Super Rugby sides (that’s Blues, Chiefs, Crusaders, Highlanders and Hurricanes, in case you don’t know) as well as the Provincial Barbarians and Māori All Blacks. Whilst they were solidly beaten by the All Blacks last weekend, their record against the provincial teams has been somewhat better. It must be noted that both sides are fielding a less-than-full-strength team for these matches, as the All Blacks who normally play for them are mostly excluded, and the Lions are giving some of their second-string players a run out (the Lions squad numbers 49 players, so they’ve plenty to spare).

This week, the party comes to Wellington, with two games: one against the Hurricanes on Tuesday, and one against the All Blacks on Saturday. We scored tickets to the Hurricanes match. After work, I headed up the road to the stadium so that we could get in early and avail ourselves of the catering at the stadium. In response to customer demand, they have now improved the options from the previous pies/burgers/fish’n’chips with Tui beer, and now have a slightly classier mezzanine bar that serves a better class of take-away food, and also some halfway decent beers on tap. Sounds good, yes? When we got there…closed for a private function. If we’d known that we’d have gone somewhere else first. Nul points, Westpac Stadium.

We feasted on fish’n’chips and burgers, washed down with Steinlager.

The expected chilliness of a clear night failed to materialise, so we weren’t too cold – didn’t need hats and gloves. We were up in the gods at the Southern end, right behind the goalposts. The stadium management had maximised their revenue by providing more seating in areas usually unoccupied – the walkways around the top of the stadium, and on the pitch itself. So a full crowd of what turned out to be 38,690 people attended. A lot of them were wearing red, and they were very vocal.

So, to the match. The Hurricanes were beaten in the first half, as the Lions took full advantage of a couple of lucky breaks and bounces, and also collected points from penalties in the way that New Zealand clubs rarely do (penalties usually being seen as opportunities to get into a try-scoring position, rather than kicking for goal). Handling errors and a couple of turnovers were the pivotal points of the first half, and the Canes failed to capitalise on their position when they were in the 22.

But it’s a game of two halves, and the Canes came out roaring with a  try in the first minute of the second half. Further tries followed and although the Lions managed another try and penalty, the second half definitely belonged to the Canes. There were two yellow-card incidents – one per team – which stretched the teams and led to most of the point-scoring opportunities. In the final few minutes they were tied at 31-31, the was clock ticking down, the Canes were in the Lions’ 22 and going forward. Jordie Barrett was waiting in the pocket for the drop-goal pass to come back…but it never did, as they were unable to get clean ball back to him. The moves eventually broke down, and play moved up to the Canes’ 22, where the Lions tried exactly the same thing. The ball came back to Halfpenny, he went for the drop-goal…and missed. The Canes tried to keep the ball alive but it went back beyond the dead-ball line. Game over. Not with a bang, but with a whimper. The match was tied – an unlikely result, but probably one that the Canes would be happy with after their first half. The moral victory also goes to the Canes as they scored 4 tries to the Lions’ 3.