A Meal in Brief: IKA Seafood Bar and Grill *CLOSED*

[Added 25 April: IKA has closed to transform into a "very special new restaurant"]

We came here because we had read good things about this seafood restaurant, including in Metro magazine's 50 Under $50. The previous restaurant O'Sarracino was a favourite of ours, and it took that kind of encouragement before we could bring ourselves to try the new place.

The menu had plenty of seafood, as you would expect, but also steak, ribs, and vegetarian on request. It offered a couple of dishes from some very different cuisines (Malay sambal stingray, for instance), which made us hesitate, the way we are generally filled with scepticism when we see a menu with a split personality (though we approve of the Vietnamese and fish and chips place in Wellington).

Seafood on display by the front counter.

The setting was trying to be casual, with handwritten blackboard signs, brown paper over the tablecloths and felt tip pens on some tables, but there were still ornate light fittings and other incongruous bits in this former funeral parlour.

Interior of the restaurant.

The service was warm and helpful. We knew Laila Harre was involved in the previous restaurant, because she helped bring in a living wage to O'Sarracino, but we didn't expect her to be taking our order at the table. She let us know that there was a persimmon mocktail not listed in the menu, and that a main dish would probably be enough to feed two because it comes with a selection of sides.

Fresh persimmon mocktail, and pot of felt tip pens behind the salt and pepper shakers.

What we ate included:

• Warm Italian flatbread with garlic, herb, olive oil and rocket ($10) - this was hot and crisp, fragrant with plenty of garlic.

Freshly baked Italian garlic flatbread.

• Scallops with mixed leaf salad and lemon herb dressing ($14) - fresh and flavourful, beautifully seared.

Scallops with lemon herb dressing.

• Charcoal grilled flounder with potatoes and greens ($30) - who knew such a plain and simple dish could be so tasty? The fish was cooked with skill, the potatoes crisp; the seasonal greens were unexpectedly made up of choi sum, Shanghai bokchoy, green beans and bean sprouts.

Grilled flounder, skilfully cooked.

Overall, we can highly recommend the simple yet flavourful cooking we sampled. Chef Brendon Peterson clearly knows what he's doing, and we look forward to trying some more from the menu.

Restaurant Details

IKA Seafood Bar and Grill
3 Mount Eden Road, Mount Eden, Auckland
(09) 309 3740

Review: Sun World Chinese Restaurant (新世界海鲜酒家)

According to the Cuisine Magazine, Sun World was one of the first places in Auckland to offer yum cha. It is certainly still very popular, with queues going out the door during the busy weekend yum cha rush. As a Chinese seafood restaurant, it also has an excellent a la carte menu, and plenty of live seafood for you to look at while you wait, from lobsters to paua (abalone) to geoduck to clams.

Kids checking out the lobsters by the front door.

The restaurant's Chinese name 新世界 actually translates to "new world", but the word "new" in Cantonese is pronounced "sun", and presumably they didn't want to call themselves "New World" to avoid confusion with the supermarket chain. It has apparently been in Newmarket since 2000, and every time I go I wonder what used to be there before that, because the Roman gladiators on the side glass doors don't seem entirely in theme.

Roman gladiators on the side doors.

Yum Cha

The restaurant's website says that they have been offering yum cha since 2007 (fellow blogger Her Worldly Pleasures has documented some dishes from this time). Perhaps that is true for their Newmarket location, but friends remember having yum cha at Sun World when it was still in town, and yum cha has been available in Auckland for at least 25 years, if memories serve correctly.

At Sun World, as with most restaurants of this type in Auckland, yum cha is still offered in the traditional way, with someone pushing trolleys or carrying trays around, although you can, of course, also order a dish rather than waiting for it to appear.

Trolleys with a variety of dishes, from dumplings to spare ribs.

We found the options at Sun World to be varied and plentiful, so it was easy to select different dishes without waiting a long time for what you want. All the usual delicacies were available, including the various steamed dumplings, congee, ricesheet rolls, pork spare ribs, turnip/taro cake, and BBQ pork buns. For dessert, there was also plenty to choose from, such as egg tarts, jin deui (fried sesame balls), various buns and bak tong gou (steamed "white sugar cake").

Yum cha favourites including siu mai, pork spare ribs, chicken feet, and chicken tail buns.

The food was fresh and tasty, and even when we picked the special (more expensive) dishes like deep fried crab or vegetables in oyster sauce, the bill came to a surprisingly small number. Sun World definitely offers one of the best yum cha experiences in Auckland!

Steamed things, fried things, baked pastries - all are available and delicious.

The only reason we don't eat here as often as we would like is that the place is almost too popular. The crush of people and the long queues can be off-putting. Sometimes the waiters are so rushed that they forget to bring your tea, or you find that you have to wait for some time before you get all your crockery. But hey, it is all part of the fun, and did I mention that the food is good?

Dinner

Dinner at Sun World is less frantic than the lunchtime yum cha sessions, so you will have better service and a more relaxing atmosphere to go with the excellent cooking.

Free range chicken with garlic ginger paste.

As with all Chinese restaurants that are not cheapie eateries, you should go with a group and order a variety of dishes so that you can share a balanced meal. (It sounds ridiculous saying this, but one knowledgeable person should do the ordering. I have seen customers unfamiliar with the cuisine attempt to get each person to pick something they like, and it always ends in disaster, even if there are no duplicate dishes, e.g. no one orders vegetables. In case of doubt, ask the waiter for advice.)

Stuffed tofu.

The menu is large, but everything we tried was of a high standard, both well-presented as well as having great authentic flavours.

Steamed fish and roast meat.

Sun World is a popular institution in Auckland with good reason!

Restaurant Details

Sun World Chinese Restaurant (新世界海鲜酒家)
2A York Street, Newmarket, Auckland
(09) 520 3218

Opening hours:
Mondays to Fridays 11am - 2:30pm, 5:30 - 10pm
Saturdays to Sundays 10:30am - 2:30pm, 5:30 - 10pm

View Nom Nom Panda in a larger map

Auckland Lantern Festival 2014

For one weekend every year (last weekend this year), a part of Auckland transforms into a bustling celebration of Asian culture and commerce. Lanterns are clearly the highlight of the Auckland Lantern Festival, but there are also performances, trinket-sellers, and food, glorious food. Every year, the event gets a little bigger, and for the first time this year, it was even split out into two different locations. Most of the attractions were in and around Albert Park as usual, but this time, there were also outdoor movies and family activities on Queen's Wharf.

Advertising for the Auckand Lantern Festival on a bus.

We didn't even look at the programme before heading in to town, because we were mainly there for the food; the lanterns were around the whole weekend anyway. This did mean that we missed some great shows, including sand painting, a kite making demonstration, and the grand finale fireworks. We did however manage to eat, take pictures, and immerse ourselves in the crowd, albeit one which was not used to coping with the sheer amount of people. We even caught the lion dance, in which one of the three red lions somehow managed to turn a gold and a silver one, while moving to the rhythmic beating of drums.

The lion dancers somehow managed to make it past the crowd by the food stalls.

Food

Although some of the food at the festival consists of things you can get at restaurants or takeaways anyway, there was also a lot of street snacks (plenty of things on skewers), as well as items you don't normally see, like the toffee strawberries below, or freshly pressed sugar cane juice. The volume of people not only added to the atmosphere, but ensured food was freshly cooked where appropriate.

Fried dumplings and squid on a stick.

Hardest to get: Toffee Strawberries

People kept walking past with strawberry skewers held up high, some with up to 6 or so sticks in their hands. We found the source of this delicacy and placed ourselves in the shortest queue, salivating with every step forward. Unfortunately, once we got to the front, we discovered that we were in the wrong queue. They were only selling meat jerky from our line, despite being one and the same shop.

We left for a couple of hours and looked around before attempting to join the queue again. This time, after we had waited for a few minutes, they called out that they had sold out. At $3.50 for four little toffee-coated strawberries, the skewers were not cheap, but people clearly loved them!

The very popular toffee strawberry stand, which also sold beef and pork jerky.

We returned the next day, and went straight to this stall before purchasing the savoury components of our meal. We finally got to try toffee strawberries, and they were indeed delicious, with a sweet, crunchy outer shell that gives way to a warm, fruity explosion.

Most tempting food we did not try: Fried Pork Buns and Dumplings

It was really interesting watching the buns and dumplings being cooked by Chinese Dumpling King Restaurant (shop in Mount Albert). While the bottoms of the products were frying on a hot pan, the tops were being steamed under a metal cover. I imagine the food would have been hot and fresh and delicious, and good value too ($5 for 6 buns or 10 dumplings), but the queue was a deterrent, and we figured that we could simply go to the restaurant after the festival anyway.

Fried pork buns and dumplings being cooked.

Most expensive item: Grilled Crayfish Tail

The most expensive dish we saw for sale was the grilled crayfish tail from Oceanz Seafood. On Saturday night, it cost $18, marked down from $20. The next night, however, the price was down to $15, so we decided to spoil ourselves. There's supply and demand in action for you.

Grilled crayfish tail from Oceanz Seafood.

This was actually a good choice, as the crayfish was delicious in garlic butter. You also got a bit of seaweed so it feels more like a meal.

Cheapest items: meat kebabs, deep fried things

A number of stalls were selling meat skewers for $1 per stick. For $1 you could also buy deep fried things such as durian rolls and taro cake.

Durian rolls, taro cake, spring rolls and dumplings at a vegetarian stall.

Most represented cuisine: Taiwanese Food (runner up: vegetarian food)

The range of food on offer at the festival included such cuisines as Chinese, Malaysian, Filipino, Vietnamese, and Thai, but we were surprised by how strong the Taiwanese representation was. From pearl milk tea to Taiwanese sausages to popcorn chicken to rice tube pudding, we saw maybe 10 stalls selling Taiwanese food, and that's not including the stalls that sold pearl milk tea along with other things like Hong Kong Curry Fish Balls.

Taiwanese fried chicken.

In comparison, we only noticed one Vietnamese stall, and a couple each of Thai and Malaysian ones.

The other type of stalls we saw a lot of were the ones promoting vegetarian food, often run by Buddhist organisations. They seemed to be more intent on proving that ethical vegetarian food can taste good, rather than providing any healthy offerings. As such, there were very few salads to be seen, but plenty of deep-fried snacks and imitation meat.

Oily vegetarian food.

Most disappointing item: Tofu Jelly

One of the stalls offered tofu jelly or tau fu fah, which is not something that you often get to eat here, unless you make it yourself or go to a fancy Chinese restaurant. Although there was an attractive picture shown on a wooden pail, however, the actual dish offered was nothing like it. First of all, it didn't come from the pail, which actually only contained the sugar syrup for the dish. Secondly, the jelly had the wrong texture, somewhat curdled and grainy, rather than being silky smooth. Then came the flavour, which had a slightly bitter aftertaste, as if they had added too much gypsum. Finally, the syrup was not golden brown as shown in the picture, but a clear and colourless sugar water. What a waste of a perfectly good $5.

Syrup for tofu jelly and bottle of black soy milk.

Best food for having later: Fresh Fruit

Most of the food at the festival was intended to be eaten straight away. We took home some deep-fried coconut buns from a vegetarian stall, but we wished we had remembered to purchase some cherries, lychees and longans for later too.

Fresh fruit and young coconut water for sale.

Most attractive non-Chinese food: Ice Cream in a Fruit Cup

For those who do not care for Chinese food, there were still plenty of options at the Lantern Festival, from gourmet food trucks like Urban Escargot selling pork belly burgers, mussel fritters and snails in green curry, to the standard vendors of hot chips, hot dogs and kebabs. The seafood mentioned earlier, including the grilled crayfish tail, would appeal to all, but perhaps the most popular non-Chinese food was in the dessert category.

Mini donuts flew like hot cakes, children walked around with candy floss, and ice cream in watermelon (which you find at many festivals including Pasifika and the Grey Lynn Park Festival) was jazzed up to include paper peacocks and served using a variety of fruit, including rock melon and pineapple.

Lanterns

After you have eaten your fill and the darkness of night takes over, it is time to enjoy the lantern displays!

Turtle orchestra lanterns.

Dragons around a post lanterns.

Tips

• Avoid driving. You have better things to do with your time than sitting in traffic, or going round and round a parking building very slowly. Walking is a good option, as is riding a bike. Trying to catch a bus may be problematic if you are at one of the last stops, and all you see are full buses that just keep going past.

Gridlocked cars in parking building.

• Go with friends so you can share, when you are forced to buy food in larger quantities than you want to eat. Failing that, be prepared to take food away, so that you can try more items.
• For even greater variety, come back on multiple days. Not only will you have more stomach space to play with, you might see some new stalls too.
• Don't go right towards the end of the evening. The more popular items might be sold out, and they turned out the lights at 10:30pm (in the food area, not the lanterns in the park) even though the place was still buzzing.
• Relax and enjoy. This is particularly important because someone is bound to be in your way, or accidentally bump into you, in the crowd.

Europe Eating: Seaside Dining @ Sole Bar & Restaurant, Rapallo, Italy (or, a Taste of Spontaneity)

For our trip to Europe several months ago, we decided not to plan too far in advance.  We would enjoy it so much more if we didn't lock ourselves down to staying for a certain number of nights in a certain place.  The end result was that we had to pay through our noses for what accommodation was left after the best hotels were booked out, especially in the four cities where, we discovered later, our visit had coincided with Radiohead concerts (in fact the band followed us back to New Zealand and had a concert in Auckland too!).

Someone trying to sell a Radiohead ticket.

In the spirit of adventure, we also hired a car for part of the journey. Driving in Italy was certainly an experience! Before we even managed to get into the traffic, we had to wait "15 minutes" (this is Italian for an hour) for the rental vehicle to arrive, because we had requested an automatic and they had given us a manual replacement without warning, which meant they had to send yet another car over from the airport, a larger, more fuel-guzzling and expensive one.

We were terrified of driving in the cities: even without having to operate a clutch, it was too much trying to dodge pedestrians, remember to stay on the right side of the road, and worry about possibly damaging the Audi A5 with 300km on the odometer (that's right, 300km, not 300,000km!). Once we made it to the autostrada though, it was smooth sailing—our journey from Bologna westwards, along the coast towards Nice, was mostly on toll roads, where bridge after tunnel after bridge meant no mountain was an obstacle.

Our first day of driving also coincided with us having absolutely nowhere to stay.  Up till now, we had generally booked accommodation at least the night before.  This time, not having found the time, crossed with not being sure how far we could get in the car, meant we were in the wild without a plan.  Perhaps we thought we could sleep in the car in the worst instance.

After failing to find a parking space in Florence, and giving up on visiting the touristy Pisa, we had a horrendous lunch at an Autogrill (restaurant at a service stop on the side of the autostrada), before reaching the beautiful walled city of Lucca.  We did some research over drinks, and decided to push on ahead.  Our target was now a hostel in the mountains of Moconesi.

It was a good thing we aimed to get there early, because we had underestimated how difficult the narrow roads would be.  By the time we made it to the hostel, it past 6pm, and we were hungry.  Unfortunately, there was no one at reception.  Although we met a guest while waiting, there was still no staff there over an hour later. Trying the ring the hostel's number failed miserably. It was now dark, and we decided to give up and go elsewhere. There was no obvious other place to stay in Moconesi, so we selected a hotel at Rapallo, a half hour's drive away on the Ligurian coast.  As you can see, this meant making our way down crazy, windy roads, where we were tail-gated by impatient locals (who had much more practical cars) and nearly had a head-on collision with a bus heading up the mountain!

This gives you an idea how windy the mountain roads were.

It turns out it was a good thing the hostel owner in Moconesi never showed up, because we would never have experienced one of the highlights of our trip otherwise.  Our hotel in Rapallo (we just managed to check in before they closed for the night) was a mansion compared to the run-down and more expensive apartments we found elsewhere.  Our suite in the 17th century building had a sea view, a fully functional kitchen complete with dishwasher, plenty of wood-panelled cupboards and a dining table, a separate bedroom opening out onto a private courtyard, a sofa bed in the lounge area, and a massive bathroom.  If only we could have stayed for longer!

What's more, it was just a few doors down from a couple of bakers (where we bought our breakfast the next morning, including a chickpea-based thin pancake which is a local specialty) and just a short stroll to the water.  There, we had a very late dinner while looking at the impressively lit Castello sul Mare, a castle in the sea built in 1551 to fend the residents against frequent pirate attacks.

Beautiful seaside castle setting for our dinner.

There were actually a few restaurants along this strip, but we were glad we chose to eat at Sole.  This restaurant not only had impeccable service, a huge drinks menu (including a delicious range of granitas), and a good Ligurian vegetarian option, their seafood was simple and stunning.

The tuna tartare was fantastic, but the most memorable dish on the table was the taglierini al granchio, translated on their blackboard as "fresh spaghetti with crab".  We had come to expect great pasta everywhere in Italy, but this surpassed our expectations.  Even before we tasted this exquisite dish, our breaths were taken away by its presentation: served in the crab's shell, with a pair of pliers so we could crack the legs open and suck out every last morsel.

Special of the day: crab spaghetti in the shell, and a tuna tartare.

The desserts, too, did not fail to impress, with the waiter coming out with a blowtorch to create the sugary crust on our crème brûlée.  Sure, we've seen this done before, but it was a fitting end to a what turned out to be a beautiful evening.  Thank goodness for the missing hostel staff.

Crème brûlée for dessert.

Restaurant Details

Sole Bar & Restaurant
Via Montebello,14, Rapallo Province of Genoa, Italy
+39 0185 50241

Opening hours:
Tuesdays to Fridays 10am - 1am
Saturdays 10am - 2am
Sundays 10am - 1am

A week of surprises

It's been an exciting week for me, being able to try a number of different items I've never had before.  Who knew Auckland had so much to offer?

Mountain Caviar and Piko Piko @ Cocoro Degustation Dinner

I'd heard plenty of good things about the degustation dinner at Cocoro, so when Valentine's Day rolled around, it was the perfect opportunity to give it a go.  I usually find that such dinners present far too much food for one person to eat, and this was no exception.  The problem is, the dishes taste so good you don't want to let them go to waste.

The seafood, such as the blue fin tuna (sustainably farmed in Japan), was exceptional, but I was particularly happy to be able to taste some ingredients I have never seen before.  On top of the beautifully light and crispy courgette filo tempura, which looked like a bird's nest, there was some "mountain caviar".  The waitress assured us this was vegetarian, and the menu called it "belvedere fruit".  I didn't even know such a thing existed.  It didn't taste like much, but I guess it's used as a garnish (the Japanese call it tonburi and it's apparently a delicacy of the Akita prefecture) because of its caviar-like texture.

One third of the third course: Courgette filo tempura, Worcestersire sauce, egg tartare, belvedere fruit or "mountain caviar".

While Cocoro is a Japanese restaurant, the chef also uses plenty of New Zealand ingredients, from the karengo seaweed sprinkles to the whitebait in the chawanmushi.  For the first time ever, I was also able to try eating a piko piko frond.  This Maori fern shoot tasted like a bitter green bean or asparagus.

From the vegetarian degustation menu: Summer vegetable tempura of courgette flower, piko piko, eggplant and baby carrot with micro mizuna, karengo and cauliflower in white vinegar dressing.

6-course degustation dinner ($80) at
Cocoro
56a Brown Street, Ponsonby
(09) 360 0927
Sundays and Mondays closed.
Tuesdays to Saturdays 12 - 2pm and 5:30 - 10pm

Exotic Fruit @ Bhana Brothers

While wandering around the streets of Ponsonby, I found myself in what looked like a well presented dairy, with fresh flowers outside and spacious aisles inside.  It had no sign on the door, so it wasn't until I bought something that I discovered this was Bhana Brothers, a family business that has existed for over 70 years now.

Apart from the handmade tortas de aceite (Sevillian olive oil wafers) which Anna from Eats By Anna had raved about, and other upmarket products like Clevedon buffalo cheese, this shop has fruit I haven't seen for sale before, not even at my local Nosh Food Market.  I call them exotic for this reason, though plenty of New Zealand families have figs and cape gooseberries (I first knew of them as "physalis") growing in their (grandma's) backyards.  Presumably figs aren't often sold because they don't transport or keep well, and I had never come across the very sweet and green little spheres called greengages before.

Greengages, fresh fig and cape gooseberries from Bhana Brothers.

Other fruits on the shelf which I was impressed to see, but less excited by, included pomelos, kiwiberries and horned melons (or kiwanos), as well as fresh blueberries, raspberries and blackberries.  Not your average dairy, that's for sure!

[Added 3 March 2012: Found cape gooseberries and greengages slightly cheaper at a grocer called Kumeu Produce Market (407 State Highway 16, Kuneu) as well today.]

Bhana Brothers
129 Ponsonby Road, Ponsonby
(09) 376 5329
Mondays to Sundays 8am - 7p

Nettle Goats Cheese @ Crescent Dairy Goats

Someone told me about a little farm not far from central Auckland, where they make their own goats cheese, so I naturally had to check it out.  To get to Crescent Dairy Goats, you basically drive to the end of the Northwestern motorway and turn left before you get to Taupaki (turn off before Kumeu).  From there, it's pretty well signposted.

The softest cheese they had at this time of the year, which they called "Flat White", was delicious, creamy and mild.  They have a whole range of goats cheeses, including blue cheese, and I chose to try their "Farmhouse Sting" next, so named because the cheese is marbled with nettle leaves, which is apparently safe to eat in the cheese, though you shouldn't go around munching on fresh nettle.

Two of many varieties of goats cheese for sale at Crescent Dairy Goats.

They offer a tour of the farm for $15 (minimum of 10 people required), where you get to meet the goats, have a tour of the milking and cheese making areas, then sit down for a taste of at least ten of their cheeses with tasting notes and commentary from the cheesemaker.  I haven't got around to it yet, but I am definitely planning to round some people up for this!

Crescent Dairy Goats
177A Taupaki Road, Kumeu
(09) 412 2074
Mondays closed.
Tuesdays to Sundays 10am - 5pm

Molecular Gastronomy @ FISH

If you thought FISH was just a simple seafood restaurant, any such illusions are immediately dispelled when the waiter brings out ciabatta rolls with what looks like a pale green mousse on the side. This turns out to be a very soft and light spread made from olive oil emulsified overnight using the enzymes from some kind of tree sap.

From this beginning, the mouthful of brocolli soup served in a flat glass tube, or the oysters with balsamic and chilli sauce in eye droppers, or even the fish and chips with what looks like rice bubbles in the batter, should no longer be a surprise.

They really turned up the heat though, or cold, rather, when I ordered the nitro toffee & coffee mousse, which became a full scale performance.  A side table was set up so that we could see the swirling mist from the liquid nitrogen cooling a ball of mousse, injected with the filling before our eyes.  The outside of the ball solidified, while the inside was still gooey.

Preparing the nitro toffee & coffee mousse.

Mousse ball ripped apart.

Yes, it's gimmicky, but the flavours are right up there, and it's nice to try something like this at least once.

In related news, the first issue of the International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science is out (you can download the electronic versions of the articles for free), and celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal has been asked to cook the first synthetic meat burger later this year.

FISH
Hilton Auckland, Princes Wharf, 147 Quay Street, Auckland Central
(09) 978 2020
Mondays to Saturdays 12 - 11pm
Sundays 12 - 10pm