This week I have to men­tion Hashigoza­ke, Ti Kouka’s win­ning WOAP bur­ger and Newtown’s Can­can.

Hashigozake and pieThe first find was a long-sought New York Crème Bru­lee stout at Hashigoza­ke, yip­pee!  After a year’s with­draw­al from said nec­tar (yes you do need a sweet tooth), it went down nicely with goat pen­ang pie and left one hap­pily dan­cing home in last Wednesday’s down­pour (although it might be fair to con­fess that my New York exper­i­ence of it with deep-fried chocol­ate brownie might just pip the post as the ulti­mate creme bru­lee stout exper­i­ence).

Hashigoza­ke are one of the ori­gin­al Wel­ling­ton craft beer bars, and remain free from big­ger brew­ery bond­age.  They are also lin­ing up anoth­er craft beer and food match with Tat­sushi (Japan­ese res­taur­ant on Vic­tor­ia Street) on 1 and 2 Octo­ber, so that might be worth a go if you’re avail­able (be in quick giv­en Tatsushi’s size).

Also in the be-in-quick cat­egory is the re-run of the 2013 WOAP win­ning ‘All About Long­bush Pork Bur­ger’ at Ti Kouka from 9 – 21 Septem­ber.  I under­stand they’re only doing a set num­ber per day, so book dur­ing the week and be in early on Sat­urdays (no book­ings on week­ends).

The All About Long­bush has Wair­ar­apa large black pig bacon, roas­ted pork belly and pulled pork shoulder, with pickled cucum­ber, hoisin may­on­naise and ice­burg on a steamed bun.  I haven’t man­aged to get my jaws around one yet, but it’s cer­tainly rated by all who par­take.

Cancan pastriesAnd lastly for this week, I had a very pleas­ant sunny Sat­urday stroll to the French Can­can at New­town.  A gor­geous range of pastries and cakes tucked away down the back of the Lychg­ate mall, what a delight!  I appre­ci­ated being greeted by the French staff with a Bon­jour and thanked at the end with a Merci, and can highly recom­mend Can­can as a place to tuck away with the news­pa­per, a magazine, or a catch up with friends.

The metro-males among us will need to pre­pare for the amount of pink that comes with the exper­i­ence, and I defy you to go there and not exit with a take home bag as well.

Bon appétit.