Fluid

The process of restoring all the photos on this blog is, as expected, tedious. Nevertheless, I will endeavour to restore them all before the end of the year. 

In the meantime, if you're in the mood for sandwiches, go to Fluid. There, in the humble opinion of a sandwich disbeliever, you will find the best of them. Pictured above is the Bacon & Brie - lovely chewy bread filled with beautifully fresh lettuce, delicious, savoury grilled bacon and mild, creamy brie, rounded off with a sweet, fruity spread/chutney. The mouth-watering, intoxicating aroma of bacon and bread that permeates the plastic wrap alone almost makes it worth it, but rest assured, it tastes just as fantastic as it smells. I really want to try all the other sandwiches, rolls, etc there, but I succumb to my weakness for the Bacon and Brie every time. The Chicken in Lemon Aioli is also good, but does not pack the same punch.

Fluid

138 Union Street East

Dunedin 9016

Ironic

It irks me when the dining experience at a place that I intend to review is neither good nor bad. It's just uninspiring. I find it difficult to get motivated to write about it and then when I force myself, it inevitably turns out to be a dull exercise with boring results. That is why I am only writing about Ironic now, when the brunches that I will be talking about actually happened months ago. I just want to get it out of the way, so this is going to be quick and dirty.

Fresh pancakes with bacon, banana & maple syrup (sorry, no pic): Nice hearty serving of pancakes drenched in maple syrup, with lots of banana and bacon. Nothing extraordinary, but good nonetheless.

Garlic Loaf: Nice and buttery and garlicky. Very tasty, but I am not crazy about hard breads, so this was a tad too hard and dense for me.

Ironic handmade prime lamb burger, smoked cheese, spicy tomato relish & aioli in toasted olive & rosemary bread with hand cut fries: The juicy, succulent patty covered with melted cheese, accompanied with lettuce, fresh slices of tomato, bright tasting relish and tasty aioli was excellent. The over toasted, rock hard bun was definitely not and marred what would have been a thoroughly good burger. An awful let down. The fries (on this occasion) were decent.

Pappadelle chicken pasta with spinach, served in a stunning tomato cream sauce finished with roasted pine nuts & freshly shaved parmesan cheese: S's comments - "Good, liked the flavours of the chicken and the pine nuts. Sauce was just okay." ...and not so stunning after all.

Mushroom Soup (of the day) - This was S's dish and I don't remember her saying anything memorable about this. I am sure that if I am mistaken, she will correct me when she reads this.

Fish of the day in a light speights beer batter served with hand cut fries & salad: The fish was unremarkable and the pieces were way too small for $25.00. The salad was somewhat soggy, but the fries were the absolute worst. Under seasoned, undercooked, dense and chalky. Shockingly bad and categorically the worst fries that I've had in a long, long time. 

Ironic Cafe and Bar 
9 Anzac Avenue 
Dunedin

Eat

NB: Apologies for not posting anything in the last two weeks. The internet service where I live has been disrupted because of the earthquake in Christchurch. Apparently the servers are in a currently cordoned off area and service may be restored…next month. So until then, posting may not be as regular as I would like. Sorry.

If there is one word I would use to describe the food at Eat it would be 'pretty'. I know that for the majority of us, prettiness is not the first thing we look for in our food, but nonetheless, presentation is important. Everything about Eat is visually pleasing - from the display of freshly baked goods, tiers of friands, the simple, classic wooden chairs and tables, down to each artistic plate of food - it appears as though attention, thought and care has been poured into every last detail. Even the two (differently flavoured) pain au chocolates that we ordered were served on individually decorated plates, when they could have just served them both on a single plate.

Perhaps at this point some of you might be a little concerned that I have yet to say anything about how the food actually tastes. Rest assured, the food is as good as it looks. It isn't quite the best of its kind, but the combination of the beautiful plating, the comfortable, casual-chic, well-spaced dining area, and the excellent, warm service makes eating at Eat a treat for the senses and a large part of its appeal.

The meal that I am writing about is a brunch that we had in October last year, so as one would expect, my memory of the finer details is a little fuzzy. My feelings about an experience, however, is something that I can remember quite clearly, for a very long time. And that afternoon, I remember that we really enjoyed the food, the ambience and the great service. My pancakes, with beautifully charred bacon and grilled bananas, was very tasty and the unexpected strawberries, papaya, passionfruit and grapes accompaniment not only brightened the plate, but also my palate. It is these little surprising extras that definitely heighten one's experience. S was also delighted with her prosciutto (I think?) croissant. The pain au chocolates were both filled with decadent, dark, rich chocolate with elegant flavour twists - one with hints of some berry and the other with hazelnut (I think?) undertones.

I left Eat feeling like I had just been spoilt and pampered - something akin to how you feel when you leave a spa. I think that it must be the same soothing of the senses and special attention that you get that leaves you feeling happy, relaxed and with that elevated hum about you for the rest of the day. Whimsical, I know, but that's what Eat is like.

Eat
4 Dowling Street
Dunedin 9016

Drexels

On the morning we were to leave Christchurch (after the 'Robin Williams weekend'), S and I discovered Drexels. We were meandering around the Riccarton mall and were almost going to settle for dumplings when I suggested that we check the directory for other options. Nothing really jumped out at us and Drexels sounded like just another cafe/brunch place but we decided to stroll over to have a look anyway. The place was packed and there were at least 10 people waiting for a table. We took one look at the menu and the charming American-diner-like ambience and we were sold. Besides, a crowd is usually a pretty good indicator that the food is good (don't get me started on the times when this rule has failed me). We had to put our names down on the waiting list and were told to come back in about half an hour (maybe an hour), but hell, it was worth it.

When we came back, it was about 11am and the breakfast crowd had left - the place was still full, but there was a little more breathing room. We were seated in a large booth (for just the two of us, i.e. they didn't keep us waiting just because there were no small tables available) with little fresh pots of jam and butter and a little jug of milk already on the table. Everything was spotless, even the jug of maple syrup (which as anyone knows, is next to impossible to use without leaving some syrup on the spout) - I was very impressed. S pointed out that they clear everything off the table after each customer leaves and set it up again with fresh, clean jugs of maple syrup, sugar pots, butter, jam, etc. On top of all that, after you order, they bring you free toast that you can enjoy with the lovely fresh butter and jam. Being city folk, that thing on the table that looked like a scoop of vanilla ice-cream (pictured above) threw us for a while. I thought it was (whipped?) cream or something and thought it strange that I never heard of Americans spreading cream on their toast. You see? - Honest reporting, even at my expense. A few seconds later, S said that it was butter - of course! I was so busy enjoying the toast that I didn't even bother thinking about it. Stop guffawing for a while and try to understand - we'd never seen butter that looked like that. Hitherto, the only butter we've had experience with came in the form of bright yellow, hard, blocks, usually wrapped in gold foil. This butter was almost white and beautifully fluffy. Divine!

S had the Three Egg Omelette, Italian style (stuffed with ham, salami, mushrooms, tomatoes and cheese), which was perfectly cooked and delicious. It wasn't greasy (as omelettes can often be) and the tomatoes provided a burst of freshness and slight acidity to each mouthful. My fear of using fresh tomatoes in a dish like this is that they weep and turn the whole dish soggy - luckily this omelette was well executed and did not suffer that fate. S was also very impressed with the hashbrown, but I can't remember exactly why - something about "this is what hashbrowns are supposed to taste like". I was kind of focussed on my own plate.

My breakfast was the Full Waffle with banana and bacon (as advised on the menu) and it was sublime! Without a doubt, the best waffle dish that I have ever had. The servings were very generous - I got lashings of fresh bananas of the perfect ripeness (not too mushy or green) and perfectly grilled, lovely savoury bacon and the waffle was nice and thick, as proper waffles should be. It was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside and had that exact waffly texture and flavour. Beautiful! Any waffle lover will tell you that there's nothing quite like the sight of a real, authentic, thick waffle with lovely, large deep pockets to collect all that deliciously sinful melted butter and maple syrup. MMMM! The combination of the sweet waffle, maple syrup and bananas and the savoury bacon and butter was just heavenly.

As soon as we left, we were contemplating our next trip back to Christchurch just to dine at Drexels again. Nothing like a good, incredibly satisfying Sunday brunch to kick off your week, I say.

Drexels - Breakfast Restaurant

Westfield Mall 

Rotherham St 

Riccarton

Christchurch

Jamie Oliver's Brunch Breads

This week, for Tuesday's dinner, I managed to dupe S into making something I've wanted to have (i.e. taste) ever since I saw it on The Naked Chef. I'd been badgering E (my flatmate at varsity who, incidentally, loves to cook) to make it for the longest time! But it never happened. I don't remember exactly when I saw it and when I told her about it, but I think by then we'd graduated and were back home (or something like that).

Anyway it was the At The Beach episode and the bread rolls he made on that show looked SO damn good. The savoury one was stuffed with proscuitto, eggs, sun-dried tomatoes, cheese and herbs and the sweet roll was filled with bananas and Nutella. It was the savoury one I was after. It looked so simple, delicious, hearty and (possibly) immensely satisfying.
However, at the time, we hadn't found the exact recipe, so we had to settle for making it by someone else's guess at the recipe (found online of course). It looked pretty good when it came out of the oven. But when we actually ate some, we found that the bread was a little tough and dry and that made the stuff inside the bread dry too. It turns out, instead of drizzling olive oil on the ingredients before rolling up the dough (like in Jamie's recipe), this person's recipe incorporated the olive oil into the dough. Maybe that's why the whole thing turned out dry-ish. It was still okay though. Everyone tucked in quite happily and almost everyone had at least a second helping.

We (and when I say 'we' I mean S doing all of the real work and me just hanging around the kitchen or sitting in the lounge watching tv, occasionally offering to grate cheese or some other trifling thing like that) are definitely going to try to make it again, with Jamie's recipe, and we'll see how that turns out.