I first learnt about The Food Store as I was fast-forwarding through the ads on the Food Channel.  Up pops a tattooed bloke, gesturing wildly (I was fast-forwarding) with the viaduct in the background.  I rewound, sat through the whole ad and said to The Man, “We have to go there” and 5 days later we did.

The Food Store is the brain child of Julie Christie (CEO of Eyeworks) and was open for its 30^th night when our dinner group passed through its groovy red doors into a chic, modern, white restaurant, with hip young staff and gorgeous views of the water.  The ‘piece de resistance’ which caused us to pause and gape is the open kitchen that runs along the back of the restaurant where the chefs prepare your order, completely accessible and transparent to us all.  If that isn’t a good enough view there are TV screens covering their every move so you can watch your culinary masterpieces being created. This place and oozes COOL.

Victoria and Mark

The two stars of the show are Wylie-Dean Hodgkinson – (tattooed bloke) who has a long illustrious career including a stint in LA as Chef to the Stars.  Some previous clients include Sylvester Stallone, Ashley Judd (The Man was impressed) and Mickey Rourke (pre-plastic surgery Mickey, that is).  And Mark Southon who trained in several Michelin Star restaurants (read impressive) in Europe and worked in  the  Melbourne scene before coming to New Zealand.  Here, he is better known for his time at The French Cafe.

The menu and the wine list celebrate all things New Zealand.  It’s a very balanced and exciting menu where all dishes can be ordered in starter or main size.  The five of us ordered 10 dishes to share and chose our own wines (I had the Moet).   We gobbled our way through smoked venison, octopus Carpaccio, Akaroa salmon, pan fried haloumi cheese and aged rump steak to name a few.

The surprise winner

We ‘oooed’ and we ’ahhed’, we loved every dish but the unanimous ‘surprise winner award’ (an award we made up of course) went to the Potato & Goat’s Curd Gnocchi with cherry tomato, basil, pistachio and rocket.   This dish was deeply tasty; the gnocchi was light and worked well with the pistachios and rocket.  There were also some delectable crumbed baby artichokes on top but the cherry tomatoes were a winner … sweet, smoky, slightly dried and made my mouth zing.  How can you take something I have in my fridge and create such flavour?!

We also had every dessert on the menu including a huge cheese board (I love cheese).  Again we ‘ooohed’, we ‘ahhhed’, we ‘ooohed’ some more (probably a bit louder this time as the wine was kicking in) and all were dee-eee-lish!

Wylie-Dean and a satiated Victoria

Wylie-Dean gave us a tour of the kitchen including detailed descriptions of every shiny contraption we laid eyes on and, along with Mark, spent time sharing with us their vision for The Food Store.  These guys are passionate and quite evangelical about what they are creating here.  We were almost swept away by the tsunami of their excitement (thankfully we were held down by our full tummies!).

Pop this link www.thefoodstore.tv in your Favourites as the guys have some innovative projects about to be released.

Firstly, Home Meal Replacement: This will allow you to select anything you like from the menu. The food will come pre-prepared and gorgeously packaged but not completely cooked so you can finish off at home and ‘abracdabra’, you have gorgeous restaurant quality food on your table.  What a great idea for an impromptu dinner party.

Secondly, The Interactive Cooking Table: This is where you and your friends can join the chefs in the kitchen and can cook anything you’d like.  You can choose from The Food Store menu or even bring in your own recipes.  You then get to dine on your own creations.

As I watched Wylie-Dean on the Food Channel, he said “We are not in the business of cooking dishes, we are in the business of creating memories.  If you do something right, it’s the memory of that dish that lives on in someone’s mind.  That’s how you know you’ve hit your mark.”    Well, The Food Store team, you have certainly hit your mark.

Food price guide:  Starters $21.00 – $25.00, Mains $32 – $38.00, Dessert $12.00 – $14.00

The Food Store, Market Square Viaduct Harbour, phone 09 3770125

Most New Year’s resolutions are about losing weight, getting that dream promotion or giving up some unbeneficial habits.  But my husband and I (gosh I sound like the Queen) and some fab friends decided that in 2011 we are going to eat our way through all of Auckland’s degustation menus.  Maybe a resolution for 2012 will be losing weight??

We started with gusto at Meredith’s on Dominion Road, Mt Eden Valley.  This is not the first time I have been to Meredith’s, and I love it.  The black exterior hides an intimate and subtly classy restaurant, separated into three dining rooms.  The restaurant seats 40 people, which makes one feel like one of the lucky people who got in.

Meredith’s opened in October 2007 and is the creation of the blushingly cute, Michael Meredith, who made his name at The Grove.  (See review of The Grove here >>>)

On Saturday and Sunday evenings they only serve their degustation menu and there’s normally a waiting list.  Tuesday to Thursday they serve a limited a la carte menu as well as two different tasting menus that look divine and we will be back to try.

Course 1: smoked duck & beetroot meringue

We arrived and were warmly greeted and seated by Anna where our waiter for the evening, Brad, took over.  Brad is professional, delightful, very knowledgeable about the menu and the wine and never seems to stop moving.

Meredith’s degustation is 7 courses starting with smoked duck and beetroot meringue perfectly paired with Chateau Belingard Monbazillac 07 from Bordeaux.  It’s not usual to have a dessert wine for an appetiser but it perfectly complements the sweet meringue.  When I see beetroots at the green grocer and ponder “What to do with them?”  I do not see this dish!  The light and fluffy beetroot meringues become the hamburger buns of the dish with the duck filling in between.  This was Michael Meredith’s personal pick of the menu, playing on the “traditional Kiwi experience – just like eating a hamburger” (in his own words, of course!).

Victoria’s favourite: hen’s egg, ham & pea.

My personal favourite dish was described as ‘Hen’s Egg, Ham and Pea’.  I was excited to see what they would do with such simple ingredients and was not disappointed.  Out comes a large white dish with ham-hock stock and tapioca floating around the bottom, topped with a boiled egg.  And not just any boiled egg, this egg is boiled for 50 minutes at a precise temperature of 66˚C … such love for an egg.   On top of said

egg are freeze-dried peas (apparently there is only one bloke in New Zealand who has the technology to do this – who knew!), crispy ham bits and pea shoots.  The flavours were deep and rich and made my palate sing.  The 09 Valli Old Vine Riesling in its dry style was a contrasting pairing designed to cut across the saltiness of the dish, which I personally liked.

Course 7: dark chocolate, banana, cashew & coconut.

We then journeyed our way through five more savoury dishes (including a gorgeous cerviche) before the menu concluded with a loud crescendo described as ‘dark chocolate, banana, cashew and coconut’, such an understated description.  This dish is sublimely matched with the  Milton Clos Samuel Viognier 07 from New Zealand’s first certified organic wine maker, James Milton of The Milton Vineyard.  This creation comes out on a wee rimu board designed by Michael (is there nothing he can’t do?!).  It has a coconut reduction swished over the bottom, topped with peanuts, chocolate and more chocolate gorgeousness.  It is accompanied with a banoffe foam,  banoffe ice-cream and other artistic creations .  The banoffe foam is like a banoffe pie wrapped up in a cloud – de-ee-vine!

If the food, wine, ambiance and professional staff weren’t enough, Michael came out to meet us and have a wee chat  – crikey he really is cute.  The entire evening was delightful from beginning to end. We ate for over three hours and left completely stuffed and content.

Degustation for two $220.00 and wine pairing for two $140.00.

Meredith’s Restaurant, 365 Dominion Road Mt Eden Valley.  Phone 623-3140.

Web www.merediths.co.nz

- Victoria Davy

Arty view of Perth - from Ken Hodge

I’ve just been away on a travel writing trip to Africa with Rob so picked his brains about the best his home town has to offer the breakfast/bruncher. As it happens the 2011 Good Food Guide has just been released but it’s not online so here’s his pick for Top 5.

1. Van’s at Cottesloe. He says it’s in the wealthy leafy suburbs, but is buzzy and clearly the place to be seen. The coffee’s great, they do fresh fruit juices and his favourite item on the menu would be their boiled eggs with soldiers and dukka. Mmm, I am picturing that. I reckon that would work!

1 Napoleon Street, Cottesloe

2.  Aubergine at South Fremantle. This has a different vibe, it’s hippier and gritty. They do innovative breakfasts as well as the classics. Rob’s fave would be huevos rancheros with fresh beans, chipolata, bacon and tomato with 2 eggs broken and cooked on top.

21 South Terrace, South Fremantle.

3. The Café at Subiaco Hotel. This is a posh old 1950s pub with beautiful modern architecture that punches through the old lady, says Rob. The primo spot to sit here is on the balcony overlooking Hay Street watching the beautiful young things and cool cats strut by.

465 Hay Street

Cottesloe Beach - pic from J Stuppy

4. The Blue Duck in Cottesloe. You don’t come here for the food, says Rob. It’s perfectly adequate bog standard fare “indifferently cooked” but the coffee’s good. It’s the views to write home about though, over the North Cottesloe Surf Life Saving Club.

151 Marine Parade, Cottesloe

5.  44 King Street. He took a while musing over the last of his Top 5. How about a place for a 50^th birthday, I helpfully suggested. This place is in the fashion precinct (Gucci and Louis Vuitton are an egg-throw away) and it’s set in an old red brick, former rag-trade building with the original steel beams. It has and open – and innovative – kitchen which churns out homemade bread and interesting combos.

44 King Street, Perth CBD

Looking for the best of Perth for dinner? Check out Rob Broadfield’s faves here on this Yahoo post >>>

My dad is a classic example of this: when he and mum are on holiday, woe betide my mother if dad finds the perfect steak on the first night for they will eat there for the next six!

So it’s with relief that Metro Magazine’s (no doubt lardy) writers have done the hard yards and (anonymously) tried and tested every eating establishment within cooee of the Sky Tower, presenting a comprehensive list of Auckland’s 50 Best Restaurants for 2010 – so we can venture off the safe plate and into something already acclaimed.

The Supreme Winner is The Grove, knocking Michael Meredith off his perch. They also take out the Best Formal award. The Grove has had it tough with the renovations of St Patrick’s Square virtually stopping access to their front door, but owners Michael and Annette Dearth are clearly good enough anyway. (You can read my dining review here – Pork Belly get in ma Belly).

The Best Smart Casual is Cibo, hidden in the Axis building in Parnell. Personally I find this very smart and would equally choose here or The Grove for a posh night.

Best Hotel Dining goes to Peter Gordon’s Dine at the Sky Grand Hotel. Peter was home only last week on his quarterly menu-change visit and I got to eat my way through his five-course wine-matched degustation menu. (The highlight was the haloumi).

Best Local Bistro went to The Engine Room at Northcote Point which I am yet to try. I hear one must book to get in (which is true of all these top places actually).

Best Bar Bistro: Winehot
Best Asian: Soto
Best Italian: Toto
Best Rural: Te Whau on Waiheke Island
Best Value for Money: La Cigale
Best New Restaurant: Cable Bay
The Best Dish and Best Wine List went to Clooney

Bon appetit!

Wellesley Street’s Little Mexico Cantina does a ripping trade in real deal Mexican grub – not to mention stocking over 50 different brands of tequila. The waitresses have mastered the genuine South American Sashay and they’ll give you a good once-over before recommending the spicy dish option. It’s the best place to head for a pre-gamble tipple before heading across the road to Sky City; a little Mexican courage and all that.

Little Mexican Cantina, 29 Wellesley St W, Ph +64 9 366 7001

- Luke Oram

Mmmm curry

But if it’s dinner I’m after, my latest find is Indian Affair on the corner of Ruapehu and Tuwharetoa streets. If you’ve read my blog about Auckland’s best Indian (Oh Calcutta all the way!) and you agree with me, then take my word for it, Indian Affair is Taupo’s best-in-the-world. They also deliver free to all hotels and motels in Taupo if you’re staying over.

The best way to eat Indian food is to get a few dishes and play sharesies so since there were 3 of us we chose a Butter Chicken (for this is the ultimate best-in-the-world test), the Chicken Tikka Massala in lashings of spicy gravy, and a spicy rogan josh. Sopped it up with roti and naan and washed it down with a cheeky red for the girls and an Indian beer for the bloke.

Where’s your favourite Indian restaurant in New Zealand?

So there I am in Singapore on my way to London staying in a very basic hotel near pretty much not much at all. The reservation girl was going to give me a single bed but in the end found a room with 2 beds. Lol, at least one was a double so I didn’t have to fear falling out. Ugh, my room was just on the cusp of not completely clean (how much do we HATE finding another human being’s hair in the bathroom!) and the WiFi was flippin pricey. However I sucked up the cost and logged on to check email and send a Tweet out to lament my dire circumstances when Small Luxury Hotels in Australia picked it up.

Oh you should be staying at Sentosa Resort, they tweeted back. Yes I should, I replied quick smart. Then suddenly, after a couple of emails and a phone call from the swanky resort on Singapore’s Sentosa Island I was packing up my things, telling the receptionist “something had come up” and jumping in a cab. Here’s my blog with the before and after pics.

The Pavillion at Sentosa Resort

Sentosa Resort & Spa sprawls over 11 hectares of lushness where peacocks roam the grounds, sometimes wandering past as you sip a drink with an umbrella in or eat your morning buffet waffles. Cheeky monkeys try and cadge a morsel but are shooed away by attentive staff before you find yourself negotiating over a banana. It’s only ten minutes away from the hustle and bustle of traffic and the endless building works going on over the Bridge, but is a million miles away in feel, ambience, tranquility and poshness.

Feathered pool boys

Ohh how long must I wait for a snack??

I had a 3-course lunch at one of their 3 dining spots on the grounds, The Garden. Expect quirky twists on famous Singaporean dishes like Chicken Rice which is presented in this fancy-pants way with organic chicken and a crisp rice cake. Since we can’t buy trout in New Zealand I had to try the Trout Tartare for the entre – which comes with caviar – and was completely delicious. Then my host insisted there was room for dessert (I always knew the pudding stomach was separate from the dinner one) and recommended her fave – the organic Soy Milk Pannacotta with fresh raspberries.

The Garden's Chicken Rice

Mmmm - trout tartare

After heaving myself out of the restaurant a spa treatment was waiting (oh Twitter how do I love thee? Let me count thy ways…)

I arrived over an hour before my treatment at Spa Botanica and highly recommend coming early – in fact spend the whole day. Spa Botanica is an award-winning spa built on a heritage site at a cost of S$10.5 million, the 6000-square-metre facility has 21 treatment rooms, 15 of them indoors. There are 6 outdoor pavilions that come with private gardens and spa baths.

They have two duplicate outdoor garden areas – one exclusively for women as the Middle East market is huge and as they have a No Men Allowed (unless wearing the full body Burkini) view, there is a 2nd outdoor area for girls. Both have a pool complete with cascading waterfalls, a meditation labyrinth (which is a quiet circular area surrounded by bamboo and with bricks embedded in the grass to walk around in a spiral, then unwind and walk back again). But my favourite thing was the Mud Pool. I was told it was geothermal mud from New Zealand (! – I cannot find any reference online to such a thing) but wherever it comes from, it’s basically an enormous cauldron of wet clay that you slather all over your skin then go and lie on a deck chair until your full body-mask hardens. Then you return to wash it off in a specially designated pool. My skin felt great afterwards! Rotorua: if you’re not into this yet you should be. Singapore a stealing our thunder – and mud!

It’s been my favourite for over 10 years and last night I went back after a long time (I moved out of the ‘hood and Parnell seems so far away now…). Meena, the gorgeous owner and creator of the fabulous dishes, still remembered me and our table of 5 were mightily impressed.

Chicken tikka masala - mmm

We started with tender tandoori lamb cutlets with little silver foils on the bone to eat them from. And onion bhajis that come in a large plate to consume by fork rather than as individual balls. Great sauces to accompany each.

Then comes the reason we are here: Oh Calcutta’s Butter Chicken is to die for. Seriously, if you are about to order your last meal before you go to meet your maker, make it Meena’s butter chicken! It’s rich, tomatoey and creamy and the tandoori spiced chicken is always tender. There is so much sauce that sopping it up with a roti or naan is my most favourite thing to do. (Note to self: never come here on a date. It’s not a good look)

On the menu is a Lamb Nawabi, but as I prefer the tender chicken pieces, I ordered it with chicken – and they are always happy to oblige. This is a mild curry with onions, tomatoes and fenugreek in a spiced coconut sauce.

We also had the Lamb Roganjosh which was pronounced the best he’d eaten. He’s been away from Auckland for about a year and reckons he forgot how good Oh Calcutta’s Roganjosh was.

Our Weight Watchers companion dined on Tandoori Chicken which she enjoyed – but was clearly robbed by not being able to sop up the copious and delicious sauces with a freshly made Roti. The other dish on the table was Chicken Tikka Masala – tender chicken pieces smoked over charcoal and finished in Meena’s classic rich tomato, onion and coriander sauce.

A bottle of wine, an extra glass and a beer and all up we paid less than $45 each and rolled out of there chewing a Minty from the cashier (trying not to wreck our dentures) and all agreed Oh Calcutta is the best curry house in Auckland – if not the world!

151 Parnell Road | Auckland | ph 09 377 9090

Ewan MacDonald at the NZ Herald gave it 5 out of 5: “If you want to be entranced, stimulated, challenged, this is a restaurant that is about food, cooking, possibilities rather than inevitabilities. I want to eat anything from this man’s kitchen.”

365 Dominion Road, Mt Eden, Ph 09 623 3140

Price guide: entres around $20, mains $35

So just in case you have pots of cash sitting about and can’t think of a single thing to spend it on, or if you’re pressing your nose on the glass trying to just catch a whif of these burgers – this one’s for you.

1. Can you believe that Burger King does a US$186 burger??! It’s made of wagyu beef (cattle that are grain fed and apparently massaged instead of exercised so they have loads of fat!) This one comes garnished with white truffles, then is prepared in Cristal champagne and Pata Negra prosciutto of Italy. It’s available on Wall Street (for those high-flyers who didn’t invest in property or cars, clearly).

2. Again on Wall Street (nice to know someone’s making money!), the Richard Nouveau burger only weighs 10 ounces and is topped with black truffles, seared foie gras, aged Gruyere cheese, wild mushrooms and flakes of gold leaf (ahh there you go) served on a brioche bun. Expect to part with US$175.

3. This one was created at Old Homestead Steakhouse in Boca Raton, Florida in 2006. It’s a combo of 3 kinds of beef: American Prime, Japanese Wagyu and Argentine. Enjoy this baby with Chipotle ketchup made with truffles and champagne and be satisfied knowing that $10 of your US$125 goes to the Make A Wish Foundation.

4. The FleurBurger 5000 is whipped up in a French restaurant in Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay. It is made of wagyu beef and foie gras (the often banned liver of a goose or duck). It too is topped with black truffles and is yours for the bargain price of US$75.