WOP: let’s hear it for the Floyd

I have clearly timed career moves badly, because in the hungry wait for Wellington on a Plate I was unemployed and spent large parts of the day dreaming about where and what I would eat, but now it’s on, I have a temporary job and it’s not in the CBD. Disaster! However, it turned out […]

WOP: Give me shelter

So, Wellington on a Plate – it’s quite good, yeah? While Joanna is a (deliciously) seasoned pro, this is my first year sampling the culinary delights of the festival of nomz. So I figured I should share my findings. Here are my first two experiences – Martin Bosley’s and Foxglove.

WOP: Eating the other cheek

Miss Hungry & Frozen said the other day “I think cheeks are the new shanks”. Reading various Dine menus for Wellington on Plate, they are indeed everywhere. You won’t hear a complaint about that from me. Instead, you get to read about how I had beef cheeks for lunch and then dinner on Thursday. Atlanta […]

WOP: A deluge of dreadfulness at Monsoon Poon

Our mouths have been working overtime this week, with all the Wellington on a Plate action going around. Of course Tuesday had the aborted attempt at Lagerfield and then eating off the regular menu at Fratelli. Tonight we’ve got reviews of Monsoon Poon, Atlanta and Bettys for you, which to sum up were DREADFUL, decent […]

Some Italian jobs

1. The Mediterranean Warehouse in Newtown has undergone some renovations taking out the wall separating the pizzeria from the warehouse, so now there’s an extended deli counter and you dine among the shelves. The price of an individual pizza may have gradually increased $4 over the past couple’o years but now you can get a bowl of […]

Wellington on a delicious plate

It has been a couple of weeks now since the launch of the Visa Wellington on a Plate programme, and we have been very remiss in not telling you about it. Your credit card, however, will thank us, as many of the events are now sold out. The launch was held in Mojo’s roasting premises […]

TAWA5 Best Event

There’s always something to do in this town we love, but these are the pick of the crop, and are circled in red on our calendars. We’re counting the sleeps until next year’s events!

WOP Review: the $35 lunch at Foxglove

 Sometime last week I took my sister to lunch at Foxglove. We both started with the caramelised onion soup in a cob bowl with gruyere cheese and white truffle, which was less liquid than we expected, but it was delicious. Just look at it:

It was pretty filling just by itself, so I was anticipating a small portion for my main. Instead, I got two glorious bits of beer battered market fish with green pea gribiche (which is pretty much just tartar sauce) AND then they brought out fries and salad to go with it. Yum!

My sister, meanwhile, had confit chicken leg with crayfish ravioli and mushroom cream.

What I tried of it was tasty, with a surprise citrus zing. Our Magrain Sav was delicious as well, full size portions served in full size glasses (take note, Finc!). Service was great, until we tried to pay, and were left floundering for about ten minutes while we were also waiting for our coffees to go, because lunch had taken about an hour and twenty minutes. Others have complained that the ferns by the door are smelly, but we were on the other side of the restaurant so we didn’t notice.  Based on the quality of the food, and the generous servings of it, I would definitely return to Foxglove, as long as I had plenty of time to spare. 

WOP: Cupcakes and Cocktails

 On Monday night my sister and I went to our first Wellington on a Plate event – the way sold-out (they added a couple more sessions even) Cupcakes and Cocktails at Martha’s Pantry. Given that neither of us is a slouch in the kitchen or bar, we weren’t sure how much we’d actually learn from the event, but since cupcakes and cocktails are two of our favourite things, we thought we’d give it a go. And when we walked in the door and saw that the McKenzie brothers were doing the mixing, we knew we were in safe hands. 

I figure I’ll do this post basically just a series of cupcake porn photos. You don’t mind, do you? Good. 

This was what was waiting for each of us at the tables – sandwiches to nibble on, cupcakes, icing and the cupcake recipe. We were also given Winter Pimms Punch to drink.

piping

We had a couple of demonstrations about different ways to pipe, and were let loose on our own cocktails. 

piping

You can see here that we had varying techniques and levels of success with that. 

Then, before too much icing could accidently end up in our mouths, Justin McKenzie, wearing one blue glove that was kind of creepy let us in on the magic formula for cocktails: two parts strong, one part sweet, one part sour. It’s so simple, I wasted all that money in Hooch and Hawthorne and Cuckoo for nothing!

cocktail ingredients

WOP Review: the $25 lunch at Finc

pork belly For my first Wellington on a Plate meal deal, I decided to go to Finc, with the delightful company of a friend I’d just seen killed twice on Saturday night. People have differing opinions about Finc, but for myself, I’ve always found it great in the evenings and very average at lunchtimes. For pork belly, I would take the plunge.