Oct 4, 2024 Metro Eats
Kia ora,
It’s been a mighty week for wine at the Metro offices, centered around our annual tasting – a two-day grape-scented marathon administered by head judge Oliver Styles and a panel of eight fellow experts. The end result of those two days will be an exhaustive guide to the top 50 wines you can buy in Aotearoa, but it’s the process itself that I find most fascinating.
In the days leading up, the office transforms into a landscape of neatly lined bottles – like soldiers preparing for the battle of the palate. Throughout the two days of tasting, each drop is carefully sorted into flights, brown-bagged, numbered, and dispatched to the panel for judgment.
As someone who usually spends their days behind a laptop, I relish the return to this kind of hospitality-adjacent work – which I’ve learned, like many things, is far more enjoyable when it feels like a novelty (and when you’re not earning minimum wage for it). Repetitive, methodical, and all-consuming, yet oddly satisfying labour.
Admittedly, because of the way my brain is wired, to stay on top of things, I have to tune out a lot of the details of the goings on at the panel table. But there’s something captivating about the ritual: the quiet, almost reverent ceremony of swirling, sipping, spitting, and scoring. Between the seriousness, bursts of laughter and gossip sneak through, along with surreal wine metaphors that get stranger as the day progresses. At the end of each flight, the brown bags are removed from the bottles, revealing their identities – a moment often met with exclamations of “no way!” or “ah, cool!”
My personal mission was twofold: keep the office from smelling like closing time at a busy bar, by capping bottles quickly, and save as many bottles from the sink as possible. Tipping a $50 bottle down the drain feels especially wrong when you know the effort behind it. Fortunately, thanks to a steady stream of helpers taking boxes to redistribute among colleagues, flatmates, friends, and family, we saved almost everything and the final stragglers, populating a small corner of the office, are headed to good homes.
Hei konā mai,
Charlotte
Comings and goings.
Good news for the people of Clevedon! Hill House Cafe , which relocated from its original south Auckland home at Nathan Homestead to Pah Homestead earlier this year, is making its return to the south with a second location. Alongside their Pah Homestead spot, they’ll soon be opening at The Farmhouse in Clevedon.
Wheat House is a new Chinese-style bakery on Khyber Pass in Newmarket. From the looks of it they’re trading in all the staples – pork floss bun, coconut buns, custard tarts and so on – complete with the usual self-service style (featuring trays and tongs) of operation. They also make very cutesy looking cakes!
I’ve grown accustomed to the letdown of central city supermarkets, but I’m cautiously optimistic about Farro’s new branch opening in Commercial Bay later this October (or maybe November). After all, it makes sense that in a big(ish) city like this there would be a place to buy artisanal cheese and sourdough and nice tinned fish before boarding a train at the main train station.
In further supermarket news: Fresh Collective Alberton in Mt Albert, which closed last year due to damage from the Auckland Anniversary floods, is set to reopen next week as a revamped New World. Having recently moved to the area, this is great news for my neighbors and I, who have, until now, lived in a supermarket-less barren land.
Margo’s, which is located in The Thirsty Dog’s old site on Karangahape Rd, officially opens today (Friday). I know very little about it other than the fact that it looks very swish inside and seems to have a bistro-inspired menu. Watch this space.
Hot.
Eating the foods you’ve been saving for a special occasion.
The ‘nduja madeleines with gorgonzola spread and the Fijian fish curry arrabiata with South Island scampi on Sidart ’s new menu. (I tried these as part of a comped meal but I’ll be back again with my own money.)
This podcast about Elizabeth David.
Food served on transferware. Rhu, Roses and Cave à Vin get it.
Tokos Tacos in Avondale.
Wang Korea roasted peeled chestnuts from Wang Mart.
Onion weed.
The decor at The Nightcar. Wow!
Khyber Food and Spices in Wesley.
Not.
Mr Whippy prices. $6 for a sherbet fizz!!
Contrived nautical-themed restaurants.
Where we’re going.
On Thursday 17 October from 6pm, Candela will be hosting Dave Verhuel, the chef and owner of Melbourne restaurant Emba and maker of Saison Aperitifs for a one night only menu. Dishes will include Candela favourites alongside plates using Saison Aperitifs – like vermouth jello shots, sponge cake with clotted cream and vermouth drizzle and more. Book a table on Candela’s website.
Head to Britomart shop Wonder Journal. this Saturday between 10am-2pm for a mini pop up including tiramisu and banana pudding by Yumso, mini bun sandwiches by Gani’s Kitchen and vintage by Swade Vintage.
Onslow is collaborating with Black Estate for an event on Wednesday, 23rd October which will involve a five-course dinner paired with six biodynamic wines from Black Estate. Throughout the evening, guests will be able to interact with both the chefs and winemakers to discuss the stories behind each dish and wine pairing. Tickets are $195 per person and can be found here.
Local baker Fankery is hosting a series of events alongside Japanese gin brand Roku to celebrate the release of Roku’s limited-edition Sakura Bloom gin. The events on Saturday 12 October and Sunday 13 October (with sittings at 1pm & 4pm on both days) will include a curated Fankery menu including matcha yuzu tart, Sakura cheesecake with mochi and Sakura tiramisu – each paired with one of three Roku cocktails. Find tickets at Eventbrite.
Andoo Giveaway!
Win!
Spring has sprung and what better time to give your home a refresh? Metro has partnered up with Andoo to give away a $1000 voucher, to be used towards any item on their website. Enter here!
Additionally, for Metro subscribers only (that’s you guys!), if you reply to this email and copy feelgood@andoo.co.nz with the item you’d spend the $1000 voucher on if you’re the winner of the giveaway and the reason why, you’ll receive a $50 voucher to spend on purchases over $500 on Andoo’s website. Please note that the $50 voucher cannot be used in conjunction with the $1000 voucher if you are the winner of the giveaway.
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