Jon got a group of us F&P folk to dress up and go out to watch the latest James Bond film Spectre. Don't we look fancy?
Work had an environmental fair at lunchtime and in addition to the booth on how the company handles recycling, they also had a free sausage sizzle and brought a Mr. Whippy soft serve truck. Certainly brings back some fond memories of my small kid days!
Another November = another Movember. This year, I had a couple of teammates (Newton and Dugan) who helped me fundraise for Men's Health!
Speaking of mustache...my mo and I in front of Auckland's great cookie shop Mustache!
With Christine in town visiting from CA, the great food tour of NZ continues! Next on the list: Al Brown's Depot.
Obligatory Oysters. Three kinds, I can't remember which, but all came from different areas in NZ. Verdict: two excellent, one just a bit too briny for my taste.
I ordered this baked fish that had a pleasantly surprising spicy taste to it. Not pictured: Henry's Turbot sliders (yum) and Christine's squid ink pasta (double yum).
After dinner, I took the guests to try Giapo's for the extravagant gelato creations. Pictured: my awesome strawberries and cream gelato. It tasted unbelievably fresh!
Henry & Christine inside one of Rangitoto Island's Lava tubes! We carefully squeezed into the narrow entry before crawling into this much more open center section. Thanks to the friendly family who pointed us in to the right entrance!
Post-hike reward: Lunch @ Ortolana (my lemony crayfish pasta).
And our post-lunch indulgence: Dessert at Milse. Yet to be disappointed by this fantastic sweets shop.
For their last dinner in NZ, Christine chose Cocoro, a Japanese Restaurant in Ponsonby. I'm just gonna start out by saying it has taken the top spot as the best meal I've had in Auckland so far. Take a look at the dishes that made it so:
We started out with a sashimi sampler and a delicious oyster.
Then we got surprised by what might be the best dish of the night: "Sansho-Pepper miso" cured Salmon confit on top of asparagus with some hollandaise sauce and olive oil snow. Wow. Just couldn't get enough of this.
And then, Whitebait Chawanmushi. A kind of delicate, savory egg custard (traditional Japanese) with some tiny whitebait fish embedded within (more of a typically Kiwi ingredient). Very lovely combination.
And then a very cleverly constructed "fish & chips" adaptation using local Snapper cooked tempura style with a artichoke/potato puree and potato chips. Another excellent combination.
Next up, charcoal grilled NZ Beef on Asian veggies. A very proper, Kiwi "meat and veg" type of dish, but with some really nice, subtle flavors coming through from the two sauces: Japanese Cabbage & turnip puree and Manuka Honey garlic teriyaki.
Christine & I chose to include the optional nigiri platter which featured a fish I can't recall, Bluefin Tuna Toro and Shrimp (ebi). Definitely worth the addition.
With all the main courses complete, we moved onto dessert: Mint Green Tea ice cream (who knew that combination would work so well?!?!) and a truly awesome Green Tea cheesecake. Amazing.
And lastly, just a little sweet good bye in the form of some delicious ganache (dark chocolate, milk chocolate and salted caramel). Surprising and delighting all the way through to the last bite! Christine, I can't think of a better taste to leave NZ on and I hope you'll be back for another visit soon!
Onward to more food! In honor of the great American Tradition of Thanksgiving, I decided to share that with my family in NZ. I started with a "local" touch of Spam Musubi just because.
With some help from Liz, I procured a turkey (not the easiest to do as NZ doesn't typically bring them out in full force until Xmas) and cooked it as I've done for the past few years (including the same dry brine I used last year).
And voila! Turkey success!
Don't take my word for it, take a look at these happy faces! We had an excellent spread thanks to the other contributions of my family. Thanksgiving in NZ #1 in the books!
On that note, I bid NZ a fond farewell for 2015. See you in the new year!
Due to the midnight departure, I boarded the plane only half awake and had to fight off the urge to sleep until after the initial meal service: roast beef sammie and a really yummy caramel slice!
I had 2 window seats to myself and therefore got to spread out a bit and get a little rest. Subsequently, I had a bit more energy come breakfast time.
A view of the West coast of Oahu on approach. I'd be back on this side of the island in a few days...
Karissa & I finally got to do some indoor rock climbing in Hawaii! Hopefully we can climb outside next time!
And then straight over to Sushi Sasabune for lunch with Cat & Claudia. After hearing about the Eastern Menu (more shellfish centric), we all opted to try it out. Prepare yourselves for more food pictures:
Abalone 3-ways.
Miso cod? It almost goes without saying that it tasted delicious.
One local tuna (Big Island) and one foreign tuna (Mexico?).
I need to start taking notes, because I don't remember what fantastic tasting fish I ate.
More amazing fish. I can't remember these ones either.
Salmon (from Scotland) and Scallop (hotate from Japan).
Two delicious things (?) and an oyster (from the Pacific Northwest) with a sea water granita (nice touch).
More yummy fish which I can't recall.
The fish on the left had a lovely, homemade "Uni-sauce", crab (kani) nigiri in the middle and a forgotten seared fish with a slightly smokey flavor.
The real deal Uni (sea urchin gonads!) and tako (octopus).
More crab. Because you can't get enough crab.
Oh, still eating? Okay, have some tamago (omelet) and geoduck (huh, I didn't know you pronounced it "gooey-duck").
We finally tapped out on the negi-toro handroll. Yummy in my (full) tummy. This place still serves the best sushi I've had in my life so far.
I came home in order to witness (and participate in) Darren & Priscilla's wedding! The special day started with this amazing view out of the hotel room where much of the important pre-wedding prep work began at the crack of dawn.
And culminated in a wonderful ceremony out a Lanikuhonua (out in West Oahu, where my arriving flight flew over just a few days prior!). Congrats Darren & Priscilla!!!
We returned to town for the reception and partied the night away. Wedding Party Selfie! (PC: Jess).
The next day, I hiked up Diamond Head with Darren and Priscilla's family. What a lovely place to call home.
And then onto a plane and over to the Bay Area for the next stop on my whirlwind tour. Day 1: Sushirito lunch (yum, but possibly a bit overrated), chilling in Berkeley with Brent, Mary & Owen and dinner w/Mum at Fat Wong's (always good).
Day 2: Cali Burrito lunch and afternoon adventures w/Irene. We also dropped by to catch up with Angela!!! Also dropped by Prometheus for a WoD, had a beer with Amy and caught dinner with Nick & Jessie!
Day 3: Lunch at Backayard with Koji, Patricia & Delia, another WoD and dinner at Cusinett with Jason, Susanna, Ed & Imran. No pictures unfortunately :-(
Day 4: Brunch with Steph, hanging out in Mt View with Brent, Owen & Elise and AYCE Korean BBQ at Beque with Brad, Patty, Travis, Dorothy, Jason, Susanna and Kevin. No pictures here either :-( :-(
Day 5: Lunch with Chrysbe, Nicolette, Harman, Margie, Annie & Tim! Laulau making with Daniel, chilling with Daniel, Karen, Oli, Julie, Richard, Kaylee & Devin, Happy Hour with Santosh, Jacob, Tanya & Koji and dinner (and MJ) with the FB-day folks.
Complete with Cindy's amazing Ice Cream!
Day 6: Began with Brunch @ Town. Phil always manages to bring people together when he visits (coincidentally at the same time as me).
The day continued with a trip to the Village in Capitola where I helped to move a fridge and rode in the 3rd row of seats with a tired Buster.
And then the side trip to the Bay Area ended. Thanks so much to Troy, Lori, Thomas and Logan for letting me stay with you guys! And here, I'm on approach to HNL -- one of my favorite airports to land at, but not one of my favorites to spend time in (*cough* please renovate *cough*).
Plate lunch! Garlic chicken and spicy bbq pork.
Doing my part to support United's Flight attendant union's informative picket at HNL.
Plaza Club Holiday Party with Dad. Hamachi poke, ahi poke, tako poke and pipikaula!
Pearl's Korean BBQ: Meat jun (obligatory), kalbi & bbq chicken.
Fried chicken 2-ways (garlic and spicy) from Kakaako Kitchen.
At the top of Koko Head with Elise. We missed out on meeting President Obama by a mere few hours (He hiked earlier that day)!!!
Mele Kalikimaka from Hawaii!
Lunch at Agu Ramen with Phil. Delicious.
We had our Annual Family Holiday Dinner at Alan Wong's this year. As always, excellent food:
Seafood cakes and fried goat cheese salad.
Lobster agedashi and "Da bag" (kalua pig and clams with taro leaves in a light broth).
Excellent Japanese style salted salmon (with salmon bacon bits!) on rice.
Dessert! Coconut sorbet and chocolate "crunch" bar.
Christmas Dinner at the Fukunagas'. Plate 1 of too many.
Liz had a less than 24 hour layover in HNL so we had to eat as much as possible in that time:
Shoyu poke from Tamura's (my favorite from the day).
Spicy ahi poke from Ono's.
All gone!
Next stop on the poke tour: Yama's.
I've had too much food at this point, but I'm eating more because of Science.
Shoyu poke from Don Quixote.
A brief respite from the poke: Coco puffs from Liliha Bakery.
And then onto Safeway.
Finally: shoyu ahi poke from Foodland.
Hope you enjoyed the pics! Happy (belated) Xmas and roll on 2016!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment