Short bits
1. If, like Tom, you’re planning on making the month of August all about whisky, there are worse things you could do than sign up for Wineseeker’s Whisky Tasting on August 21. Sure, it’s $45, but it sounds like very good value for money.
2. While we don’t consider the Wellingtonista to be an exclusively hetrosexual site as such (you don’t have to have a particular kind of sexuality to love bars and hate the bypass, and who you’re doing doesn’t matter nearly as much as where you’re doing them), and I haven’t done a straw poll of how each contributor identifies, we don’t have very much (or in fact any that I can think of) coverage of specifically queer culture. And it’s Proud 07 right now, so in the interests of wider coverage, we’d like commenters to fill us in on the various scenes a little more. Who goes where? What’s hot and what’s not? Are there still monthly lesbian nights at Blondini’s? Is the ‘Lebanese’ restaurant beneath Spicehammer really just a spelling mistake? Enquiring minds want to know!
Porcine Holocaust
When it comes down to living the good life, you don’t have to spend up large.
One of my favourite things about having been a dishpig or assorted-kitchen odd-body for a number of years is that you soon learn that the most expensive foods are often the crappyest.
So, to help you all out, here’s a few pointers about surviving on a partial-gourmet diet in Wellington. Now, all of these photos were taken at gourmet and sometimes 4x4 central, Moore Wilsons.
Fact Number One. Pork is good for you. To prove it, here’s a great example right here. 
A kilo of pork belly for a miserly $12. There’s a bit of fat on there, but nothing you can’t handle.
Of course, you don’t want to go overboard. Too much pork makes Che a rather fat boy. But everything in moderation, no?
So, I mention the pork belly because it’s a main ingredient in cassoulet, something I’ll be discussing in more length over on Object Dart. Sooner or later.
Probably later.
But, there’s heaps of stuff you can find at Moore Wilson you can’t find easily anywhere else. So here’s a few more
What’s for lunch?
Remember when we asked you for hot tips about where to eat on Lambton Quay? Well, the Wellingtonista Towers has opened up yet another branch office, this time temporarily on Mercer Street, so we want to know where to max out our expense accounts. We’d also like to know where the best coffee is, keeping in mind that our definition of best coffee generally includes the ability to purchase something yummy like a muffin or a scone to have with it. And, because we always Push Play and have managed to find a branch of our gym up this end of town, hurrah, we’d also like suggestions for takeaway lunches, because we’re really really going to miss Kapai.
Entertainment Book Review: One Red Dog
At the Wellingtonista we don’t often give props to less consciously hipster places like One Red Dog, even though their continued success shows they have a devoted following. Today we discovered one of the reasons why this devoted following might exist.
Review after the jump.
Turning Chinese
Longxiang Restaurant, on Dixon St opposite the cowboy (or where the Cowboy
And if real Chinese people from China like it, it must be good, authentic, and tasty, right? I decided to test it out for myself, having previously only tried takeaways that suffered from long delays before we got to eat them, which is hardly a sporting chance.
So after the Beckon VIP night, I grabbed my constant restaurant buddy/sister Karen, as well as the Wellingtonista’s Hadyn and the delightful Amy and set out to give it a go.
Review after the jump.
The Wellingtonista Socialite Part I
It’s been a banner week here at the Wellingtonista Towers for drinking networking opportunities. Yesterday was the VIP night at Beckon, tonight was a Ponoko showcase at the Paramount, and tomorrow we’re meeting up to discuss our evil plans for world domination.
Find out what we’ve been up to after the jump.
Taking the Good with the Bad
Although Tom beat me to the chase on posting about the Waitangi Park Markets I thought I would supplement his post with a few secrets from the markets he may just have overlooked.
What I’ve enjoyed about the markets, apart from hauling my sorry tuckus out of bed at 8 or 9am on a Sunday, is the way it’s something of a little community.
Mind you, it’s a community made up of people whose names I don’t know, and there’s even a few I forgot to photograph. But you get the gist.
Vension guy here, for example, sells some pretty good salami. They’re brought in from some wholesaler called BaseCamp. We’ve got one hanging in the pantry gradually aging. It’s covered in a white mold and is starting to get properly stinky. Will probably use it on a pizza, or maybe in an antipasto of some kind.
This guy on the other hand might look like the fishmonger from the Asterix books, but he actually makes a pretty good variety of rustic breads.
We call him, “the nine-grain man”, because makes this fantastic bread. Keeps for about a week, and takes a whole lot of eating. It’s not delicate and refined like Moulin Bakery, but… who cares! You need to be making doorstop sandwiches? Get on down the market.
Soup’s up!
Apparently it is National Soup Week, and since we of course believe everything that marketing people tell us, we’d like to know where the best soup in Wellington can be found. Is it served in bread at Kapai? Whatever it is at The’Ho that Gemma from Texture obsesses over? Something from the ever-expanding Wishbone? Or is there really no better soup than Continental Cream’o Vegetable cup’o soup served in a mug under a duvet on a couch to fight off a hangover?
Entertainment Book review: Medina
Once again, I had left my book at home somewhere, so it was another gold card restaurant that was needed. Since my other sister decided to gatecrash our party, a total discount venue, rather than a two-for-one mains was desireable. And because it was cold and I was lazy and didn’t feel like walking anywhere, somewhere on the bus route home was needed — preferably somewhere that I could get a big plate of heartiness at. Medina was decided upon, as it seems to have beaten the curse that made other restaurants in its location at 18 Cambridge Terrace close down very rapidly. The review is after the jump.
Food! Show!
Hurray, it’s finally here. You know how we feel about the Food Show, so really, nothing more needs to be said except for what better way to drink off your hangover from Country Club: England?