New Zealand: the 2025 edition

Every second year or so Andrew and I go to New Zealand to catch up with my family. This time we went in late May and early June, and have made a mental note to go earlier in the year next time, as several tourist attractions had closed for the winter already. Anyway, there's not much to report. Apart from spending time with family, the trip was largely about eating, drinking, and walking. Some highlights:

Wellington coffee @ Lazy Juan

Chilli oil eggs @ Kind Wish Café, Kelburn

Whanganui River (at a rare, non-raining moment)

Tram ride! Whanganui

Virginia Lake, Whanganui

Lunch @ Tasty Indian Restaurant, Whanganui

Double decker bus in Whanganui

Dinner @ Tasty Indian Restaurant, Whanganui (yes, we went there twice)

Coffee @ Jolt Coffee House, Whanganui

OMG! Deconstructed lemon meringue pie @ Union Square

Bistro & Bar, Martinborough. A revelation :-)

Nasi lemak @ Little Penang, Wellington

More Wellington coffee!

Lunch @ Curry Heaven, Newtown, Wellington. We used to go to

their CBD branch but it closed so we tracked them down to the suburbs

The Wellington Cable Car (funicular railway)

Thanks to Andrew for (most of) the pics. He thoroughly documented the trip.

Farewell, NZ. See you next time.

Feijoa smoothie

It's feijoa season! The feijioa – sometimes nicknamed pineapple guava due to its pineapple-y flavour and guava-ish texture – is well known and easy to find in New Zealand but not so common here in Australia. I have two feijoa trees but, sadly, they've never produced fruit. Our neighbour has a large tree that presses up against our fence, though, and I gratefully receive any fruit that falls over the fence or rolls underneath it :-)

Mostly I eat the feijoas simply by halving them and scooping out the flesh, but today I experimented and made a smoothie. Four small feijoas, a couple of tablespoons of coconut yoghurt, and some iced water. Delicious!

We're off to New Zealand in two weeks and I'm hoping feijoas will still be available there. NZ feijoas are gigantic and plentiful. Fingers crossed ...

What we ate this year

I've been keeping a spreadsheet recording what I cook for (ahem) sixteen years now, and every year I tally up the most-eaten meals. Our diet (at home, at least) has become almost vegetarian along the way. This year's star performers were:

spinach and feta triangles, served with veges
scrambled eggs with feta and crispy chilli
creamy tuna pasta
kimchi and cheese jaffles
vegetable curry (Indian, Thai or Sri Lankan)
pasta and sauce
macaroni cheese
vegetable and barley soup
spinach and feta quiche
Sri Lankan cashew and pea curry
tomato fondue

Most of these things are cooked from fresh, simple ingredients, though a couple (such as the pasta sauce, and the tinned tomato soup that forms the base of the fondue) have some unpronounceable ingredients. I've just finished reading Chris van Tulleken's book Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn't Food … and Why Can't We Stop? and am feeling very aware of the environmental and physiological harms caused by the modern food system. I expect I'll spend more time thinking about what to eat in future.

No, I didn't cook this! But isn't it beautiful? We spent a week on Lord Howe Island last October and ate this meal at Driftwood. Something with noodles and chilli and tofu and peanuts and coriander. Sublime.

Choley bhature may be addictive ...

The choley bhature at Bharat International in Belconnen is amazing. Chickpea curry, salad, pickles and two gigantic puffy hunks of bread. There are many other things on their menu, and it's all good, but I can't resist ordering this dish every time I go.

Bharat is at 1/17 Oatley Court, Belconnen, ACT 2617 and comprises both a restaurant and a South Asian supermarket.

Brekkie @ The Lott Café, Cooma

Last week Andrew and I spent three nights in Jindabyne, at the base of the Snowy Mountains. We've been there many times before. A great little town! It gets crazy busy in winter, due to the nearby ski fields, so we like to visit in autumn and spring when it is quieter. Anyway, en route to and from Jindabyne we stopped at The Lott in Cooma for coffee and breakfast. Delicious.

We started with coffee:

then he had:

A Bit Irish (Colcannon potatoes, poached eggs,

black pudding, white pudding, plum sauce)

and I had:

Avo Rosti Stack (smashed avocado, potato rosti, feta,

beetroot, snow pea shoots, chimichurri and mixed seeds)

Nom nom.

A sunflower maze in Canberra!

This blog has mainly become my online recipe book. I barely post anymore, though I often pop by for recipes. Just lately it's been pumpkin bread, rice paper rolls, peacamole and carrot and coriander soup.

Anyway … we recently spotted a story on Canberra's news blog, The Riotact, about a local sunflower maze. It's only open for two weeks (closing on 16 March) so Andrew and I bought some tickets, grabbed a picnic lunch, and headed out there today. Delightful.

Thanks to Andrew for the photos.

Brekkie @ Highroad

Well, well, well. I'd never been to Highroad in Dickson before. Not for any deep and meaningful reason, but simply because Canberra has soooo many fabulous eateries it's hard to try them all. Anyway, my friend Michelle invited me to Highroad for breakfast today. What a treat. It was delicious. We started with coffee and hot chocolate then Michelle had:

Tropical chia pudding with coconut milk, rhubarb,

dried apple, pineapple, citrus peel and strawberry foam

and I had:

Tzatziki eggs: fresh cucumber, poached eggs,

radish, sumac, evoo*, chilli oil and focaccia

Nom nom! My dish was reminiscent of the Turkish Eggs served at Stepping Stone (another wonderful find in Dickson). We ended the meal with (ahem) more coffee and hot chocolate, to give us an excuse to keep sitting there and chatting. Nice to catch up. It had been a while. Anyway, recommended! Thanks Michelle.

* yep, I googled evoo. Turns out it means extra virgin olive oil :-)

Snickerdoodles!

We kept hearing snickerdoodles mentioned on American TV shows. What are snickerdoodles?! A little bit of googling suggested that they're soft, fluffy cinnamon cookies. The recipe I tried is here:

https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/soft-thick-snickerdoodles-in-20-minutes/ 

Turns out they're both easy and delicious. Enjoy!

Brekkie @ Café Momo

Bruce, a Canberra suburb about 2 km from our place, used to be quite sleepy on weekends. It's home to the University of Canberra and various government departments so much busier on weekdays. That said, lots more apartments have appeared there in recent years so the range of eateries, services and shops is growing. Recently Andrew and I enjoyed a delicious Sunday morning breakfast at Café Momo in Thynne Street.

Coffee to start (of course)

Karin's choice: corn and haloumi fritters with beetroot

hummus, poached eggs and avocado salsa

Andrew's choice: apple cinnamon porridge

with maple, granola and fresh fruit

I'd visited Café Momo on a few previous occasions, for coffee or lunch with friends working in nearby offices, but it's also a great choice for a leisurely weekend brekkie! There's plenty of outdoor seating too, if you (like us) are still trying not to catch COVID-19 (again).

Brekkie @ Stand By Me (the vego reboot)

Stand By Me café at Lyons is a long-time favourite, though as it's on the south side of Canberra and we live on the north, it's more distant than most of our Sunday haunts. We started going there when it first opened about ten years ago and it's had (at least) three sets of owners since then. Happily, my favourite dish ful medames (Egyptian breakfast beans with yoghurt and chillies) is still on the menu. We noticed today that, since the latest (quite recent) change of ownership, the café seems to be fully vegetarian.

Today, we started with coffee:

then Andrew had:

Apple crumble French toast

and Karin had:

Ful medames (surprise, surprise)

Still a delicious spot for a leisurely Sunday breakfast.

Tasting Singapore with Singapore Foodsters

We recently spent four nights in Singapore, at the conclusion of our Java tour, and signed up for a five-hour walking tour of several foodie neighbourhoods before we left Australia. (In hindsight, maybe this was a bit ambitious? We ate a LOT of food in Indonesia!) Anyway, the tour was run by Gerry from Singapore Foodsters, and it was the second time we'd done one of his tours. They're a great introduction to the many, varied cultures and cuisines of the city.

We were collected from our hotel and the group's first wander was around a fresh food market in Little India:

Followed by generous tastings at an Indian restaurant …

… and in a hawker centre in Chinatown:

We also enjoyed gelato and coffee (not pictured, forgot to take a photo) in Kampong Glam. Our tour (on foot, MRT trains and a double-decker bus) took us to various fascinating places and Gerry's informative commentary explained many aspects of Singapore's history.

Since our previous trip to Singapore in 2018, a bunch of huge murals had appeared!

An excellent way to explore Singapore with a local. Recommended.

Battle of the egg tarts

I really like Chinese egg tarts. They're hard to find in Canberra, which is handy, as otherwise I would eat far too many of them. After our recent journey through Java Andrew and I spent four nights in Singapore. We've been there lots of times in the past – it's one of our favourite cities – but hadn't been back since 2018 due to the pandemic. On our final full day in Singapore we set ourselves the frivolous task of tasting and ranking various different local versions of egg tarts. Having googled 'best egg tarts in Singapore' we set off on the MRT in search of our snacks.

According to the internet, the best egg tarts in Singapore were at Tong Heng Confectionery in Chinatown. By the time we arrived they'd almost sold out of egg tarts so we tried one egg tart and one coconut tart.

The next taste test was a bit random … we spotted a Hong Kong-style bakery on our way back to the MRT station. I think it was called Leung Sang and they offered both traditional flaky and 'Western' style egg tarts. We opted for the traditional version :-)

Our third taste test came from Tai Cheong Bakery in the basement of Takashimaya in Orchard Road. They had both egg tarts and pandan tarts so we tried (shared) one of each!

All three were on this list of the best egg tarts in Singapore. The ones we tried were numbers 1, 5 and 2, respectively, on the list. And our favourite of the three we tried? The middle one! The pastry was ambrosial. But all were delicious. Thanks, Singapore!

Breakfast fit for a king (or sultan)

Black [purple] sticky rice is one of my favourite desserts. I thought it was Thai but we saw it on heaps of breakfast bars in Java. Yum! The breakfast buffet at our Yogyakarta hotel was amazing – in fact, ALL the hotel breakfasts were spectacular – and included both sticky rice with coconut cream, and people dispensing (left) magical elixirs and (right) traditional music:

Anyway, to the recipe! 

 

Purple rice pudding … the home made version

While the rice is called 'black' when you buy it, it turns a lovely purple colour when cooked.

1 cup glutinous black rice
800 ml water
piece of pandan leaf
1 tbsp palm sugar
coconut milk
small pinch of salt

Wash the rice and place in a saucepan. Add the water and bring to the boil, then simmer gently with the pandan leaf, covered, for 40 to 60 minutes. Stir occasionally, and more frequently as the mixture thickens. After about 30 minutes, start testing for softness. Add extra water if necessary. When the rice is pleasantly soft (it will still be a little chewy) add the sugar and continue cooking for about five minutes. Remove the pandan leaf, pour into small bowls and leave to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature with lightly salted coconut milk, or ice cream. Slivers of fresh coconut add flavour and texture.

Notes: glutinous black rice, pandan leaves and palm sugar are available from many Southeast Asian grocers. This freezes well. Despite the name, glutinous rice does not contain gluten.

Java was superb!

Despite having done introductory courses in Bahasa Indonesia (ahem) four times over the past 28 years, and having visited numerous other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, I'd never been to Indonesia. In many Australian minds, Indonesia means Bali … and Bali conjures notions of drunken Australians offending locals and being jailed. So Bali had never been on the wish list, and you hear far less about tourism to other parts of the vast archipelago.

So, when Andrew and I saw an ad for a rail and bus tour from one end of Java to the other, we jumped at the opportunity. The tour, run by Railway Adventures, was just over two weeks long and included both well known Javanese places and experiences (Borobudur Temple, volcanoes, Prambanan Temple, puppet workshops, coffee plantations, mosques) and less obvious activities (musical instrument workshops, railway museums, architecture, rural villages and markets). The transport spanned the gamut, from trains (fast, panoramic, standard and steam) to coaches, mini-buses, becaks (motorbike taxis), jeeps and golf carts, to a ferry.

It was a fabulous introduction to a country I'd long wanted to visit. We'd like to go back to explore some of its other islands one day.