Twelve go mad in Thorndon

Wellington on a Plate is a great festival of feasting and this year I gathered 11 of my dearest together for a truffle-infused fine dining experience at Le Canard in Thorndon. The Wellington on a Plate set menu of $55 for 3 courses and tea or coffee was the order of the day for about half of us, including me. The other half had the Menu Tradition at $65 for 3 courses, coffee and a glass of wine. Both were highly recommended after we indulged.

Both sets of diners started with Gratinee Duck Truffled Onion Soup. This was a luscious French onion soup made with what must have been duck stock and a touch of truffle. Gruyere croutons topped it off, as is traditional. The soft waft of the truffle lifted this peasant food to another plane. Sorry, no picture as we all woofed it down so fast!

After entree, the table diverged, though we shared around so everyone got to try the dishes. Those on the Tradition menu enjoyed confit duck with cepes (mushroom) sauce and what were described as rustic potatoes, which seemed to be cubed and fried until crisp. Pav reckons the potatoes were good, but prefers a smoother starch with duck prepared this way. Another at the table commented that the duck needed more pepper, but none was on the table. The skin of the duck was crispy though, which is a key test to my mind.

Boudin Blanc

The remainder of us were served a far more subtle dish of chicken boudin (white sausage), with chestnut and olive sauce and a kumara “mousseline” (which looks like a puree, frankly). Again, there was a truffle flavour to the boudin which we discovered was enhanced by breathing in through the nose across the sausage while it was in the mouth.

In France Boudin blanc is traditionally made with pork and milk. Its name contrasts with the more well known boudin noir, or blood pudding. I'm not sure if our boudin included milk, but it was certainly smooth and subtle and rewarded slow and curious eating.

Creme Brulee

Both desserts were perfect ways to end the meal: the largest crème brulee you've ever seen and a delicate selection of mousses. When you order crème brulee, you want as much brulee as possible. And brulee this delivered! A flat shallow pan filled with smooth, creamy custard and a wide crackling of brulee that everyone took great pleasure in smashing with their spoons. The murmurs of delight slowly spread along the table.

Eucalyptus mousse with chocolate and orange

My eucalyptus mousse was a winner. The promise of this dessert enticed me to the restaurant in the first place and it was a delight. Although not a common flavour, the mousse was an excellent vehicle for the subtlety of the tree gum. It was accompanied by chocolate, biscuit crumbs and a orange sauce. These elements all joined into a tour de force of dessert.

As you can tell, I was pretty happy with the night out. The service was welcoming and efficient and the food was gorgeous. This was my second visit to Le Canard, the first having been for my mum's birthday. That was a great evening too.

Lasting impressions:

service: feels family run and welcoming

food: Perigord/South-West French with a few twists and excellent execution

groups: encouraged and well handled. They have several set menus available for groups – including a degustation menu which kicks off with foie gras terrine, if that's your thing.

atmosphere: small, intimate and warm on a very cold night

parking: plenty in the evening. Less likely during the day I guess, unless you risk the supermarket!

deals: they're in the Entertainment Book – complimentary main course with another main course

Le Canard

10A Murphy St

Thorndon

Wellington

04 499 5252

I see that Le Canard has a “fairly-priced” lunch menu. It's the wrong side of town for me, but I might have to wag and go some time, anyway! Don't tell my boss.  

In other news: I saw Cowboys vs Aliens at the Roxy. The pre-show nibbles were excellent. The film less so. I also went to the Hog's Breath for steak. My mum always told me that if I have nothing nice to say, say nothing.

Chocolate Festival Round Up

I went choco-mad at the inaugural NZ Chocolate Festival last weekend.  Here are some of my personal highlights.

Super chocolate

A couple of the chocolate companies are now making what they say is chocolate that's even better for your then we all think chocolate is already. Schoc's offering is called Active and they tell me it's cold pressed and made in a vacuum to make sure that it retains as many of the flavonoids (a type of anti-oxidant) as possible. They say that you only need two squares a day to get your daily suggested anti-oxidant dosage. No explanation of what happens if you don't stop at 2 pieces. Schoc also suggest you eat it before exercise to increase the benefits of exercise. Gets the blood pumping apparently. They make it in both dark and milk and, surprisingly for me, I think the milk was better. To me the dark had an aftertaste I didn't like.

Bull Rush do a couple too called Fix72 and Fix Cacao Nib. They reckon theirs lower stress and have aphrodisiac properties. Even more reasons to eat chocolate! 

Bohemein

Bohemein has shops in Hataitai and Featherston St and their little, formed, filled chocolates are a delight to explore. Best one was the Balsamic Vinegar and Honey Ganache filled dark morsel of deliciousness. Then there's the wasabi cream. Go on, you know you want to! It was certainly worth gently elbowing the other chocolate lovers aside to try. Slightly makes you want sushi afterwards, which is a bit startling. I have other flavours at home I'm still working my way through.

Damsom Bomb

The Damson Collection had their damson chocolate in attendance. The woman at the stand advised to pop the whole thing in my mouth and break it up. It was a magnificent little bomb of damson, gin and chocolate. Get you hands on one at any cost!

Hot Antidote

With any festival, by a few hours in all I want is an antidote of some sort. For Toast Martinborough, it's beer. At the chocolate festival, turns out it's cheese. The lovely man from www.firedragonchillies.com was there with his chilli chocolate, cheese and sauces. I looooovvvveeeeee chilli chocolate and these were the spiciest I've ever had! Bhuty Dark Chocolate. Available online and at various specialist stores around the country, including the beloved Moore Wilson's. 

 Another antidote to chocolate overload is beer. Andy from Renaissance Brewing was giving tastes of his artisan beers. He's a charming fellow: “I wouldn't hurt you with Porter,” and maintains that taxes and water quality have been the greatest influence on beers styles. Avoiding the first, and coping with the second.

He hosted a chocolate and beer matching session late in the day and it was eye- and tastebud-opening. Andy says that his Craftsman chocolate porter matches gorgonzola; a claim I am prepared to test. As Andy says “try this at home”, just make sure your beer is cool, but not cold. As a general rule, darker chocolate with darker beer. Try the Stonecutter Scotch Ale, made with 9 different malts, with or without chocolate! Wooop.

This festival was described as inaugural, I hope that means there will be more!

Round the corner, out of sight = heavenly ribs

It's basically compulsory when traveling with me to seek out the local dish made by the local people in a tiny shop hidden out the back of a residential tower block.  Love it.  Luckily when we were in Tianjin, China recently, Banker Man was able to take us to just such a place.  He's a Kiwi who has lived in Tianjin, so knew the place well.  I promise this wasn't my idea, but it all turned out spiffingly anyway!  Twenty odd of us piled into this tiny establishment and ate whatever was placed in front of us.

The restaurant is called the Li Family Restaurant.  Here's the map so you can go there too:

 They Li family are famous amongst those who know for their pork ribs.  They are astonishing.  Ribs is probably the wrong word for Westerners as that would make us think of those spare ribs you have to gnaw at to get the meat off.  These are more like chops, cut about 2 inches (in old money) thick and meaty with it. 

The meat on these ribs was so soft that you could pull it off them with an elegant "grab and twist" chopstick movement.  The Li Family won't tell you how they make them – why would they?  But I'm guessing they're marinaded for a good day or so in a very sweet (brown sugar and molasses or treacle is my guess), lightly spiced (but not chilli or pepper, more like aniseed and coriander seeds, though it's really hard to tell!) mix. Then I'm surmising that they're cooking (with smoke?) over indirect heat in a moist environment in a barbeque equivalent for 6-12hours at a really low temperature (maybe around 100C?).  Basting every few hours.

Here's the kitchen!

No sign of the ribs here, unfortunately. 

I'm probably completely wrong about this method of this, of course.  But I'm still going to have a go at recreating it.  I've never seen anything like these ribs in NZ, but I would think that the southern Americans famous for their barbeque (Memphis, St Louis etc) might have.  I guess that the sweetness of the Li family's recipe would appeal to those Southerners – from what I've seen of their recipes with all the molasses and sugar and treacle and apple juice.  They go for moist, long, low cooking, often adjusting the temperature throughout the cooking to achieve their desired outcomes. 

Another pic, from a different angle (and a strangely romantic filter effect!):

Southern barbeque is where I'm going to start hunting for ways to replicate the dish.  I'll wait until after Pav's back, just in case I make so much I can't hide the disasters by myself!  My traveling colleague reckons they were so good he can still conjure up the taste, so he'll have to be a taste tester as well.  I'll let you know how I get on.  If it's any good. 

Photo credit: 2 photos courtesy Brett Tompkins

Chocolate Puddle Biscuits

Baking is one of the best things you can do with a Sunday, or indeed any day. Because Pav and I live alone, a whole batch of biscuits or cakes can be a challenge to eat before they expire. So sometimes my lucky work mates get to experience our culinary experiments.

 This one's not really an experiment as I've made it quite a lot. For me, it's one of the ones that I can make without a trip to the supermarket, as I usually have all the ingredients on hand. That's so long as there is butter. I'm not happy with the way that butter ages so fast in the fridge. It takes on a nasty dark yellow layer around the edge too quickly. Some say it's the crappy wax paper. I'm not sure as I've given up keeping it in the fridge and now we chop it into cubes and free flow freeze it. Not perfect, but better than throwing the butter out cos it's awful.

And we always have chocolate in the house. Dark Ghana from Whittaker's is our chocolate of preference. This recipe was originally passed on by a friend, but I've adapted (of course!):

Preheat oven to 175C and line trays with baking mats or baking paper. Two trays should be about right.

Beat 140g of softened butter and 175g of caster sugar until smooth. Then beat in one egg and half teaspoon of vanilla essence. Then sift in the bowl: 175g self-raising flour and 110g cocoa (yes, lots). Use a fork to work it into a firm dough. Keep going, it will be fine.

Make balls (about 20-24) in your palms.

 Arrange on baking tray (leave room for spreading) and bake for 15 minutes or so.

When you pull them out of the oven, use a teaspoon to make a dent in each biscuit. This is where the chocolate will go, so generosity is rewarded. Leave them to cool.

When the biscuits are cool, melt 85g dark chocolate, 1 tablespoon of golden syrup and 1 tablespoon of butter together. Best to do this in a double boiler – boiling water in a pot with a bowl resting on the rim of the pot. Don't let the bowl touch the water and don't let any steam get in the chocolate mixture. When the chocolate mixture is smooth, carefully drop teaspoons of it in to the dips in the biscuits.  Leave to set.

These can be adapted into the most impressive Afghan biscuits with the addition of a handful of cornflakes in the mixture and walnuts before the chocolate sets.  Over to you!

When I took these to work, even my boss broke his diet temporarily to try one. They're that good!  I hope you impress your friends and work mates too.

Banqueting in Beijing

I bet you've always wanted to know what the Mayor of Beijing serves for dinner. Well, now I am in a position to tell you! Pictures and all.

Recently, while in Beijing with the Mayor of Wellington on a Wellington business delegation, I was honoured to be invited (well, we all were, to be honest) to a banquet with the Mayor of Beijing. You might have heard of Chinese banquets, or you might not have.  Either way, they're something you should try and get in on at some point.  If only for the photo opportunities. I learned a few things:

• you can't possibly eat it all, it's just so plentiful. For those of you who eat with me, you'll know that's a hard lesson for me to learn.
• the Wellington Mayor's vegetarian bent saved us from several other possible scenarios (goose foot anyone?)
• they serve the wine in small portions so you can't get too rowdy in the short time that the event takes (they've met Kiwi business delegations before)
• when the host stands up to leave, it's all over, fetch your coat, outta there, even if you haven't finished
• “gan bei” is how you challenge someone to the bottom of the glass (apparently it translates as 'bottom's up') – and it's very polite to comply, and quite rude to refuse. Usually this is done with China's very own brand of firewater, but wine will work too.
• they sure know how to dress a table
• they actually serve Peking duck in Peking (well, Beijing actually)
• when toasting someone, which is polite to do, you should tap your glass rim below theirs to show them respect (acknowledging their higher status). This can sometimes result in 'races to the bottom' as each person tries to show more respect to the other.   Or, obviously, the opposite, as each tries to stamp their importance (more common among mates, no doubt).  Also after you have toasted, you tip your (likely empty) glass towards the other person as a full stop. 

The lovely 'top' table after the meal

Here are the photos of the courses in order. And the menu. Captions are as per the menu (with some explanations where I feel the need).

Assorted Cold Combination

Mixed Mushrooms Soup

Sauteed Prawns in Two Kinds of Style

Sauteed Asparagus

Braised Tofu in Brown Sauce

Beijing Roast Duck (after some assembly by me)

Noodles (not mentioned on menu)

Baked Cod with Cheese (a little like a fish pie, not sure if this is traditional Chinese, or a nod to our tastes)

Iced Pea Mash (you and I would probably call this soup, this was the most unfamiliar dish on this menu)

Dim Sum and Snack #1 (red bean paste and rice, sweet)

Dim Sum and Snack #2

Seasonal fruit platter (love a bit of dragon fruit, check out that colour!)

Note that each arrived within about 5 minutes of the previous one and sometimes I wasn't ready.  Too bad, the next dish just sat and waited for when I was ready.  It was magnificent.  I true sign of generous Chinese hospitality.

My grandfather was on the very first NZ trade delegation to China in 1973 or 74. He's not around any more for me to ask about the food, but I wonder if it was like this. No reason to assume it wasn't. But imagine how strange it looked to a bunch of Kiwis from 1970s NZ when there were barely restaurants, let alone 'ethnic' ones. I heard told recently that one of the others on that trip was carrying a fruit cake lovingly prepared by his wife in case he had nothing to eat in China.  Even then, no chance, I reckon.

I have more stories of Chinese food in China which I will post over the coming days/weeks. In the meantime, if the Mayor of a major Chinese city invites you to a banquet, accept!