Crème brulee, a winning burger and the cancan

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

The 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.

And 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.