A stomach explosion…

And not as a result of the Cook­ing with Ice: Liq­uid Nitro­gen demo.

Yes this mid­dle of the night post is a direct result of WOAP week­end eyes-big­ger-than-stom­ach issues.  I some­how man­aged to have three events this first week­end, and to squeeze in a burg­er as well (plus observe oth­ers squeez­ing in more).

So to the burg­ers first since you can still get your chop­pers around those:

• The Ti Kou­ka Dou­ble Beef Burg­er —  a beef dou­ble-down with buns (unlike the Duke Carvel­l’s Dou­ble Down pure a’la’K­FC being tack­led by a work col­league — report to come).  TK’s rat­ed as very very good, with Shep­’s usu­al touch of mag­ic.

• The Jim­my’s Bee Pig­gy (pic­tured) — deli­cious on all fronts and not too meaty for the non-dou­ble-down­ers. Also very very good, oth­er than the bor­ing shoe­string fries (and kin­da cool among the the­atre ambi­ence).

• The Spruce Goose’s Bait and Tar­ragon — the burg­er ver­sion of a white­bait sand­wich.  Rat­ed as good with impres­sive doorstop fries.

And to the events:

• Fri­day evening’s Butch­er, Bak­er and Can­dle­stick Mak­er — a classy evening mar­ket among the BMW’s of Boom­rock­’s sup­pli­ers (Mojo, Bor­deaux, Zany Zeus, Oli­vo, Ora King Salmon pre­sent­ed sev­er­al deli­cious ways by guest chef Glen Tay­lor of Tay­lors on Jack­son, Har­ring­tons, Tuatara, Carel­lo del Gela­to, to name just a few).  A good reminder of the impor­tance of sup­pli­ers and the won­der­ful ones we have local­ly.

• Sat­ur­day evening’s Cook­ing with Ice: Liq­uid Nitro­gen demo — The most fun ever in a kitchen.  Lots of smoke, bub­bling liq­uids, OMG sto­ries and even some hands on cre­at­ing. The swan song being a tiramisu show­cas­ing all the tech­niques from the evening.  And these folks are Welling­ton-based with more events in the plan­ning (keep your ear out for some­thing at the Malaghan Insti­tute or con­tact Caitlin at Caitlin Le Hariv­el).

• Sun­day evening’s Han­nahs Laneway Ban­quet — sim­ply stun­ning.  Set­ting, dec­o­ra­tion, food, ambi­ence, logis­ti­cal coor­di­na­tion, smooth­ness of deliv­ery, weath­er.  The four ‘cours­es’ were real­ly four series of dish­es, hence the explod­ing stom­achs (sor­ry K, I just have to show the donut tree finale!), col­lab­o­rat­ed by the won­der­ful arti­sans from the lane (Leed Street Bak­ery with the TK folks’ mag­ic touch again, Welling­ton Choco­late Fac­to­ry, Pomodoro Piz­za, Gold­ings Dive Bar, Welling­ton Choco­late Fac­to­ry, Fix and Fogg peanut but­ter, Six Bar­rel Soda, Red Rab­bit Roast­ery, and the Cater­ing Stu­dio soon-to-be-the-new-Egmont-Street-Eatery behind WCF — check out progress here).  And again, keep your ear to the ground as there were whis­pers cir­cu­lat­ing about a sum­mer re-run…

Bring on the rest of week one.