Jul 9, 2019 What's On
Metro brings you a round up of the best of what Auckland has to offer for the coming week in our city’s diverse and exciting food scene.
Forest x Kokako breakfast pop-up – Good Morning
Forest are setting up at Kokako HQ in Mt Eden to serve breakfast sammies and fresh Kelmarna OJ along with hot Kokako coffee. And it won’t be any old sammie either: think transformative textures, pickled plant stalks, bitter wild weeds and ingredients sourced from urban farms within the city. Only from 9am-12pm, $15 for a sandwich and your drink of choice.
13 July | Kokako Coffee Roastery, 9 Charles St
A Taste of Oaxaca
For only $50, experience a night of Oaxacan food, mezcal and handcrafts; tickets include a handmade ceramic piece to take home with you. A collaboration between Poco store (selling homewares from Mexico) and Snickel Lane bar La Fuente .
13 July | La Fuente Wine & Mezcal
Saan’s new meat-free menu and wine list
In celebration of the Eat Drink Ponsonby festival, Saan is offering a brand new $40 three course meat-free menu (available to groups of two or more) and a consciously pocket-friendly vegan wine list. The Thai inspired vegetarian feast is aimed to illustrate that going meat-free isn’t just for vegetarians. “Demand for meat-free dining is growing,” says Saan co-owner Krishna Botica. “Customers are looking for healthier and more planet-friendly options and ways of living, including when dining out.” The menu includes a wok-seared Eggplant & Tofu with straw mushroom and lemongrass and our pick of the wine list is the Hawkes Bay Paritua Stone Paddock Chardonnay.
15 July onwards
Royal G degustation evening
Royal G’s very first degustation evening will plate up food matched with drinks curated by Deadshot . Over six courses Javier Carmona and the team serves an edgy and thoughtful look at Indian food. Tickets are $60 for food and $50 for drinks – email info@royalg.nz. Also look out for their food truck popping up in front of Deadshot every Friday and Saturday for the month of July.
15 July | Deadshot
What We Ate This Week
Jean Teng and Alex Blackwood
Subway Ultimate Cheesy Garlic Bread
A sandwich but on cheesy garlic bread. It just makes so much sense. – AB
Fox Denton Winslow Plum Gin Liqueur
There’s a hint of gin in there but this tastes more like port. Plummy and sweet but not so sweet that you can’t sip it daintily from an aperitif glass, feel fancy and probably want more. – AB
Paua and Kumara Gratin at FISH restaurant
There’s something hugely attractive about the idea of these two ingredients together – they’re almost patriotic in their very New Zealandyness – and I am pleased to report that the combination works. The kumara gratin is heavier than a potato gratin but there’s a hint of green curry flavour that makes that weight necessary. It’s a little dish, but it’s hearty and the perfect accompaniment to a view of the harbour on a grey day. – AB
China Hong Kong Restaurant
I’ve been coming here since I was about six years old; it’s probably the first restaurant in Auckland I remember being a regular at. Curiously, new Cantonese restaurants are a rare find on the North Shore, where new Chinese restaurants favour Sichuan and other mainland food, obviously a reflection of what migrants are making the area their home. People will often come here for the Peking duck, but this week I had a whole deep fried blue cod for a whopping $35. It comes lying on a pool of very oily sauce, but damn – the fish was actually fresh, and, for its size, $35 was a steal. Honourable mention to the Loquat tofu. – JT
Pork ramen at &Sushi
With winter comes ramen. Slurping down a few bowls of these a month is an inevitability when the temperature drops, and I’ve certainly put away my share of them. On Thursday, it was absolutely pouring down with rain, so &Sushi in the City Works Depot complex was one of my only lunchtime options, and thankfully it was a good one. Jammy egg yolk threatened to slip into the broth more than once before I could wrangle it onto my spoon, and it was absolutely steaming. I would have loved the broth to be less garlicky, though. – JT
Pho at Ha Noi Corner
Tasty, but too oily. But I love eating alone at Queens Court . – JT
Pho at Mr T’s Baked Goods & Eatery
Mr T’s has pho and bun bo hue on their winter menu, both full of that warm umami flavours I’m constantly craving. I had the pho, more delicate than my usual at Try It Out with less obvious flavour; this is one which builds as you sip down more broth. The slices of beef were generous, a good textural contrast to the slippery rice noodles. I also had the matcha éclair here, which you should most definitely get: the matcha cream was everything. – JT
