Auckland Food Show 2010 – Page 1

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Lots of great shows happening last Sunday!

It was such a great bonanza of lovely feasts of food to have around.  And that several people were there on the spot to enjoy the feasts of the day.

Said to be one of the biggest food show event in Australasia’s regions.  With thousands of food lovers and hundreds of food exhibitors to showcase their delish taste in this realm.  It’s hard to see what’s not great to love about one of NZ’s most beloved food festival this year!

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The good old New Zealand flag up flying up proudly there!^^

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First stop at the entrance, I nabbed myself some great treats of these fine Spanish olives in several tasting flavours.  As you can tell from the pictures there’s quite a few plates of free olive to go about sharing with the rest of the hungry crowds.  They do turn out to be quite a lovely treat!

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Feeling a little dizzy after taking few of those greenolives.. :p

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Gluten free hot-dogs anyone?

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I do notice that New Zealanders are very particular with wines and their fine selection of wines around the country, especially the fact that New Zealand is a nation of wine growers and you’ll find hundreds and hundreds of wine brands which I never heard of before! It’s a very COMPETITIVE market, even for a tiny population of 4.2 million + people in his country alone. I just learned that New Zealand’s wines are considered one of the best wines in the world, according to its source, saying Sauvignon Blanc’s is a major brand breakthrough in wine making history. With that little neat piece of info, I guess there’s plenty of good reason of me being proud Kiwi after all! ^o^

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That’s it for today.  More to be posted tomorrow!

First Culinary Food Post

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“Discover New Zealand Food”

That’s the title of the food book I have for a long while.  Well, correction, it’s a food encyclopedia.  A food encyclopedia of New Zealand’s great foods, that is.

And I randomly picked one of their great culinary delights and decided to give it a go for myself what it is like to prepare one of New Zealand’s finest restaurant mains you could have at home.  It’s called ginger honey crusted lamb. This culinary exquisite comes from a small town of Waimauku.  This dish was proudly made by a Kiwi lady entrepreneur who works on providing the finest quality of NZ’s honey (hence the dish’s honey influence).  She’s also a retauranteur as well, I believe.  BeesOnline Restaurant.  That’s what it’s called.

So I decided to give myself the culinary challenge/test of this great restaurant food design. 

Went out and bought several ingredients needed for this dish…. However I did run into some disappointments after I discovered that tamarillo is out of season! Tough luck.  Should have paid attention to those seasonal fruit pickings you hear a lot from TV or the supermarket communities.

Sigh. 

Nevertheless, I pressed on.  Bought them, came home, cooked them and here’s what I ended up making.

Ginger Honey Crusted Lamb

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Unfortunately, the result did not quite turn out the way I originally anticipated.  In fact it doesn’t even come out anything like the picture depicted.  As you can see I replaced tamarillos with dried pears, and have it pureed with the sauces I made on my own.  Which it didn’t turn out that bad really! Along with my six tiny duchesse, which you could easily mistake their identity for Chinese dumplings! Heh, bet the true chef wouldn’t like what I’ve done here to create such anomaly. -_-”

Anywho, I finished it up with the lamb rack smeared with honey-infused ginger and bread crumbs, and the verdict? It’s not bad.  For last-minute modifications with little or no regard of maintaining its true culinary originality. 

But I’m satisfied with it.  So I’m happy.  And I’ll look forward to making more of it.  If only I pay attention to the seasonal changes than I ought to.

Why that food is good?

Why is it that’s good? Well. It’s great new experience for me, cooking something like this. And since living in New Zealand half of my life (originally from Malaysia), it’s normal for me to try out various New Zealand’s special food such as this. Even though most of my early childhood life I spent time eating Asian food as my family is atypically Chinese, life’s a full of adventure and journey to try out several lovely foodbits my new home country best to offer! And I’m glad I’ve made the steps of getting it here.

Nice and Spice Salad

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It was a rather interesting experiment I made today.

The cookbook I have over a year has lots of lovely Chinese, Indian and Thai cuisines.  And I certainly love to try out this simple lovely salad called Spicy prawns with cucumber or in Indian, it’s called Masala Jhinga Aur Kakdi.

The ingredients turn out quite simple to make and follow whilst I was in my family’s kitchen, getting all the prep done.

After cutting all the onions, cucumbers, tomatoes and coriander done, I was still left with the disappointment that I never get the same end-result as shown on the cookbook’s picture.

My version of Masala Jhinga came out more of a stir fry vegetable than any else.  Something that was unplanned for really.  The prawns were supposedly pre-cooked, but I ended up getting the freshest raw prawns from my mother which she recently bought it.  So now they certainly look more like Chinese stir-fry vegetable food than anything else.

Masala Jhinga Aur Kakdi

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There’s plenty of spice in them for sure.  Just wasn’t sure about the salad part?

The prawns came out too cooked and you swear that the whole thing was pretty much another typical Asian stir-fry really…

Not one of my best food cooks to make at this point.  But still worth the while to try it out.

Why that food is good?

Chocolate Swiss Roll Encounters

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It was a while since I did any baking for the past couple of weeks.  So I decided to hit this bakery book “Essential Baking” and give this traditional Swiss bakery a go.

Chocolate Swiss Roll

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Well.  This turns out to be quite a surprise bakery challenge! The whole thing didn’t turn out to be as difficult as I was hoping it would be^^.  Who would have thought the long flat piece of cocoa-flour-powdered slab can be rolled that easily by using a tea towel as a manifold device!!! It’s so unheard of!

The whole learning process was very enriching for me and I gotta say I was left impressed with it^^

Why that food is good?

It’s good because it was new experience for me.  I love to try out new baking challenges.  Tastewise, it’s sweet and tender, sends a lot of sweet buds down your throat, leaving you impressions of mild indulgence and delights. Would I recommend making it again in the near future? Yes I would as I’m still far off from perfecting my swiss roll making capabilities.

Sweet and Sour Vegetarian

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This one’s an adventurous experiment for me.

My family have obviously been a big fan of sweet and sour foods which normally comes with the ever traditional blends of Chinese porks, beef or any other meats you can think of.

But never with vegetarian ingredients.

So this is a first for me.

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Main ingredients used

Chinese Tofu fried, red capsicum, green beans, carrots, green capsicums

Sauces

Tomato sauce, white vinegar, sugar, salt

AND THAT’S IT!  The cooking turn out straight forward afterwards, if you’ve prepared sweet and sour food like almost two million times!!

A very satisfying treat, indeed for the whole family.

Why that food is good?

It’s  a great treat for the family, even if they don’t come from vegetarian background.  Recipe comes out very simple, clean and less time-consuming when comes to preparation and cooking times, if you are a person who’s in a quick hurry for picking simple ingredients in making quick bites.