À la carless — The progressive dinner by e‑bike

Welling­ton on a Plate is near­ing it’s end for 2016 but there’s still a good week­end’s worth of time to get out and about and try the things you’ve been mean­ing to, but haven’t got around to yet. I was lucky enough to be able to do that on an elec­tric bicy­cle and it’s one of the most fun din­ners I’ve had.

Frocks on Bikes organ­ised the pro­gres­sive din­ner, À LA CARLESS, show­ing off just how fun and easy rid­ing a bike can be. Frocks on Bikes aim to help more women of Aotearoa enjoy every­thing that bikes have to offer; the con­ve­nience, fun and sus­tain­ability, with­out the need for spe­cial cloth­ing or extreme lev­els of fit­ness and despite being out­side their tar­get mar­ket: I’m on board.

Ryan from  Switched on Bikes walked us through using the bikes, which but­tons did what, the impor­tance of brakes and tak­ing it as easy as we need­ed. Ryan start­ed Switched on Bikes just last year. He hires out e‑bikes to any­one who wants to get around Welling­ton on 2 wheels and even runs guid­ed tours for those that want to see Welling­ton from a dif­fer­ent view­point.

We got to test the bikes out on the wharf and being a reg­u­lar non-lycra wear­ing cyclist I was well impressed with the elec­tric motors. All it takes is one ped­al rev­o­lu­tion and the motor kicks in, boost­ing your speed to the lev­el you set the com­put­er at. One touch of the brakes and the engine cuts out, slow­ing down to your ped­alling speed as need­ed. Wind became an irrel­e­vance!

After Kath and Leah of Frocks on Bike talked us through the safe­ty brief­ing the 14 of us head­ed off in a snake like fash­ion on our mys­tery pro­gres­sive din­ner. Not know­ing exact­ly where we were head­ed but already hav­ing fun with our assist­ed ped­alling we rolled along the water­front, bells ring­ing with obnox­ious glee, and up Tory street to our first stop at the Nam D con­tain­er.

After find­ing space for our bikes (ANZ did not appre­ci­ate the idea of them being left any­where close to their court­yard) we were treat­ed to grilled King Prawns coat­ed in spring onion oil and skew­ers of five spice beef wrapped in Betel leaves, both of which were won­der­ful and warm­ing for our next mys­tery des­ti­na­tion, on the way to which we would meet our first ‘chal­lenge’ — The Brook­lyn Hill.

I know!! We all biked up the Brook­lyn Hill to enjoy a meal AND we arrived with­out being short of breath or need­ing to pan­ic-strip. You know that feel­ing. When you check Met­ser­vice and see it’s going to be as cold as spend­ing time with the Night’s Watch. So, you put on sev­en lay­ers of cloth­ing to leave the house but, by the time you’ve been sat on the bus for 30 min­utes, heater crank­ing and sur­round­ed by the oth­er 200 peo­ple who thought catch­ing the bus would be great, you arrive at work and can­not shed lay­ers fast enough. For some rea­son that fore­cast­ed bit­ter souther­ly has­n’t even­tu­at­ed and you’re now far too over­dressed, look­ing a lit­tle more than rosy cheeked.

Well, there was none of that!! We just tapped our elec­tric motors up a notch and made sure to ped­al at a steady rate, pass­ing a few reg­u­lar cyclists on the way, cruis­ing up the hill with sur­pris­ing ease. I bike to New­town every­day and you may not have noticed but Ade­laide road, between the Basin and Count­down, has an incline. It’s not huge, but it’s there. I notice it. Every­day. BUT THIS! The Brook­lyn Hill became mar­vel­lous­ly insignif­i­cant and there was the ben­e­fit of arriv­ing at Salty Pid­gin.

Here we sam­pled their Dine Welling­ton menu where I select­ed the Chick­en breast with whole rice and crispy shal­lot and rock­et sal­ad. It was crisp and suc­cu­lent with the sweet shal­lots and pep­pery rock­et pair­ing nice­ly with the Choice Bros Strung out on Lasers Gose I had along­side.

The filo pressed beef cau­li­flower was a hit with the rich beef and bacon emul­sion bal­anced by the crisp pear and bit­ter­ness of the wit­loof. We fol­lowed up the main cours­es with the Arma­gnac choco­late bub­ba with sour apple and licorice creme fraiche. No pho­tos of that as I’d inhaled mine before paus­ing to remove the lens cap. The bub­ba seemed to be a minia­ture muf­fin, soft and sweet with the slight tart­ness of the sweet licorice creme fraiche and the crisp apple being a great com­bi­na­tion.

We then set off back down the hill through Cen­tral Park stop­ping for pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ties and the essen­tial zip on the large fly­ing fox. Fly­ing through the dark to where the line runs out and being sent rush­ing, tilt­ing upwards result­ed in many whoops and squeals of delight. Many of the locals on the ride had no idea it even exist­ed — I tell you it’s worth a vis­it!

From there it was a love­ly cruise down the hill with the city lit up and laid out in front of us. We then wound through the side­streets and laneways to the water­front, with plen­ty of peo­ple stop­ping to wave as the 14 of us rolled by.

Return­ing our bikes to Ryan at Switched on Bikes we then made our way across the road to Charle Noble Eatery & Bar to fin­ish the evening with their Sage at Sea cock­tail. The whisky based con­coc­tion, along­side the Dar­jeel­ing mar­i­nat­ed figs and Zany Zeus lab­ne (greek yoghurt), was a won­der­ful, warm­ing end to our night.

Thank you to Frocks on Bikes and Switched on Bikes. I had a thor­ough­ly enjoy­able evening mak­ing my way around the city with ease. No lycra or flu­o­ro cloth­ing required, just a warm jack­et, a pair of gloves, a hel­met and the oppor­tu­ni­ty to see Welling­ton from a two-wheeled per­spec­tive. I’d high­ly rec­om­mend get­ting to your next Welling­ton on a Plate event on a bicy­cle!