A Debt To Pleasure: June 2021

Sunday 27 June 2021

An Italian Bite at The Mount's Alpino

ALPINO

Cuisine: Italian

Address: 16 Pacific Ave, Mount Maunganui

Phone: 07-827 5595

Website

Drinks: Licensed

Reservations: recommended weekend evenings

I must confess right up that I've only ever previously eaten at one Italian restaurant at The Mount. And it was this one, a couple of years back when it was still called the Clarence Test Kitchen, a "warm-up" operation while Clarence Bistro and Bar Centrale, now inhabiting the old post office building in Willow Street, were still under construction.

It is still owned by Noel Cimadom, the man behind Clarence, who also has the original Alpino in Cambridge. There are obvious crossovers with the menu here and at Centrale though the food here is a little more straightforward.

Since I'm a big fan of both Clarence and Centrale and happened to be over at the Mount I popped in for a quick bite. Amazingly, despite the generally rainy times, we struck the one sunny day in June and found the place packed and humming. We even got to sit outside (hence the washed-out looking pics. Apologies for yet another failure by me in the photographic department!).

Not my pic! It was packed when we were there!

(also not my pic - great reflection - very clever!)

The menu is quite concise (see the bottom of the page) - half a dozen snacks, half a dozen entrees and half a dozen "secondi", plus pizzas. The mains give an idea of the general direction - eggplant parmigiana, pappardelle with a beef ragu, spaghettini with clams, porchetta - though there are also some modern twists. There is an impressive list of Italian wines, but I chose:

The Landing Vino Rosso, Bay of Island $13 (150ml)

It's the house blend of the Northland winery and was excellent, firm-bodied, well-rounded and smooth without being too fruity. Very good. I note with interest that they offer two glass sizes both here and at the Mount's newest wine bar Solera. Except at Solera the two pours are 100ml and 150ml while here they are 150ml and 250ml. I can't help thinking that at a full third of a bottle a 250ml pour is a serious-sized glass of wine!

We got taking to Chef Scott who was kind enough to offer us a couple of "specials" that he was preparing for evening service, and we had a couple of starters from the menu. Since I was being treated by my generous son I didn't note the prices (or the names) of the new dishes - the others are from the menu.

Snapper Crudo - Pickled Kohlrabi, Oyster Mayo, Green Apple, Bush Fennel $22
Carpaccio Di Manzo - Seared Beef Carpaccio, Rocket, Swiss Brown Mushroom, Shaved Pecorino $21
Deep-Fried Gnocchi, Aioli
Mozarella & Herb-Stuffed Tortellini, Pumpkin Puree, Crisp Sage Leaves

And the difference from Centrale was immediately obvious, with a more rustic approach to presentation and simpler flavours. But they were still spot on. Case in point: the crudo was less sophisticated than the current offering at Centrale but the sweetness of the apple chimed beautifully and the tiny dusting of fennel (invisible in my crap pics of course!) lifted the whole thing without overwhelming the fish - it was a small touch but just brilliant.

The carpaccio was reliably good, very thin, a proper carpaccio rather than just some sliced seared beef which is often the way. And the tortellini was terrific - always good to enjoy well made fresh pasta - the pumpkin puree silky as all get-up.

But the real eye-opener was that gnocchi. Talk about great beer-drinking snacks! Or wine-drinking snacks since these seemed a bit flash for beer. Just great. Apparently they're coated in some rice flour before being deep-fired but I don't know why everyone doesn't do this to gnocchi. I can see a whole trend arising with differently-flavoured gnocchi and different dipping sauces. This could be the new Italian food wave!

OK. So obviously I didn't try very much of the menu. But I'd be happy to have a crack at everything there. The service was efficient and friendly, and the small wooden room has a great intimate vibe and the food and wine are effortlessly everyday Italian. I like it.

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Tuesday 22 June 2021

Master Kong arrives at The Mount!

MASTER KONG

Cuisine: Pan-Asian "street food"

Address: 2/217 Maunganui Rd, Mount Maunganui

Phone: 07-572 0698

Website

Drinks: Pan-Asian-inspired cocktails, wine, beer etc

Reservations: Probably for weekend yum cha lunch...

Pan-Asian "street food" is the flavour of the day. The trend became fashionable in Auckland and Wellington at least 5 years back so it's about time it reached Tauranga. Macau, still on The Strand, got on board immediately. Now, years later, everyone is following...

Even Frosty & Fox, only opened recently at the Mount, has already dropped most of their signature "hot dawgs" for Asian "street food". I put that in inverted commas because I've spent a lot of time on Asian streets and the way the term is used round here is pretty random. Adding the word "street" to your Asian food style is currently great for marketing - presumably it makes everything sound more "authentic" - though not necessarily for accuracy.

Now the Mount has swapped one Pan-Asian eatery for another. Bamboo has gone, Master Kong is here and looking to be bigger, bolder and better. Given how exciting Bamboo promised to be at the start, we'll wait and see how it works out but first signs are good: the new operators (the Wellington Hospitality Group who also own Latitude 37 at the Mount) have smartly tweaked the courtyard that joins Master Kong to the adjoining restaurant/bar Madam Sunset and have created a very cool under-cover space with huge potential. This could well be the Mount's hospo hot-spot for summer...

the courtyard as seen from outside Madam Sunset

more of the same as that other one...

Madam Sunset, next door, is Tiki bar-themed and you can order food and drinks from both places anywhere in the courtyard. We had a couple of Madam Sunset cocktails later and had a look at what looked like a relatively short but fascinating Polynesian-and-beyond menu (Spiced Roasted Duck Nachos anyone?). But we stuck to Master Kong food - there is much to try and despite wanting most of it there were only two of us so we settled on three small and one larger plate. And, before that, a couple of cocktails.

Crouching Tiger
Tokyo Thyme - Roku gin, Mandarin Napoleon liqueur, watermelon, melon & thyme syrup $18.5
Crouching Tiger - El Jimador tequila, yellow chartreuse, raspberry and mango puree, Vietnamese mint and lime juice $16.50

Tokyo Thyme

Both were interesting and slightly unusual (I say that as definitely a Good Thing). And surprisingly subtle. They did not taste noticeably alcoholic and I would call both of them "pleasant" rather than anything that would knock your socks off. I notice both bars also do "Taptails", cheaper pre-mixed cocktails on tap. Word is that they're pretty strong...

RARE BEEF TATAKI truffle ponzu, rice crisp, furikake (gf) $15

POPCORN PRAWNS Taiwanese spices, yuzu mayonnaise, cured egg yolk (df) $16
CHEESEBURGER SPRING ROLL parmesan cheese, burger sauce (df) $15
FIRECRACKER CHICKEN sizzling lemongrass chicken in firecracker sauce, compressed pineapple with steamed rice (df) $30

This was a really interesting combo of things, very varied in style. There is a three chilli heat rating guide (light touch / punch to the guts / KO) of which the chicken was rated the full three. Others not at all.

The star for me was the Tataki. It was a noticeably more delicate dish as the picture shows but the flavours were sensational, the beef lovely, the truffle ponzu really redolent of truffle and the crackers a great accompaniment. 10/10.

On the other hand, the prawns and spring rolls were simply enjoyable deep fried snacks. Of course we had to try the combination of cheeseburger and spring roll. Some things you just gotta do. And they're exactly what your mind imagines - a meaty burger patty and cheese inside a crisp spring roll wrapper - junk food at its finest! And they did indeed come with "burger sauce" (and a chewy parmesan wafer). The popcorn prawns were crisp, not at all greasy, and slightly plain; a good snack while drinking.

And the chicken? Three chilli heat? They warned us and bloody hell it was hot. To my surprise it was more of a stew/stir-fry with green vegetables and mushrooms. I was expecting something crunchy. Behind the blinding heat there was a definite hint of Sichuan spicing but the chilli heat was different, a dry heat which suggested somewhere else - Indonesia maybe? The iron plate was also deceptive - it looked modest but was quite a large portion. Frankly it was too hot for me and I'm pretty good with this stuff; I'm glad I tried it but once was enough. Maybe if you were drinking a lot of beer? Perhaps it will become a challenge for those young and foolish enough to be so inclined...

After that we thought we should check out the cocktails at Madam Sunset since the bar already comes with good word of mouth.

Lava Guava - Lusty Lovers Larios gin and St Germain imbibe overproof rum and sacrifice guavas and passionfruit to the volcano gods $16
Banana Daiquiri - Hold on to your bananas! Havana rum, banana syrup and demerara throw some fresh limes and bananas around at a party. It's a slippery slope. $16

I can't speak for the Lava Guava since I didn't try it but after some initial issues with the crushed ice I believe it was good. The daiquiri was lovely, a beautiful balance of lime sour and banana sweet with a solid underpinning of rum. I liked it a lot.

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OK. There we go. I obviously need to try more of the food. I don't see the menu on-line yet so I've run it off below, plus the cocktails one too. Why not? I suspect these two joints are going to go off in a major way, with lots of good ideas: the shared yum cha approach at weekend lunches is one of the winners, while both restaurants also have dishes that are lit on fire (a burger and a dessert in case you were wondering!). I'm looking forward to my next visit already...

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Saturday 19 June 2021

It's Cocktail Hour! The Garibaldi

It must be time for a cocktail and this one comes once again thanks to those good folk at Bar Centrale, where it features on the cocktail menu. With its Italian name you might think it originated there but in fact this two ingredient cocktail originally comes from the legendary Dante in New York, one of the world's most prestigious cocktail destinations.

And I say “two-ingredient” cocktail but it in fact requires three ingredients: Campari, orange juice, and a high-speed blender. Yep, enough of those health options, use that blender for something really useful – cocktails! The combination of sweet orange and bitter Campari is lovely but it's the blender that really makes a Garibaldi...

Who would have thought that simply aerating the orange juice in a blender would make such a difference? It's a thing of real beauty and oh so easy to make. Especially if you buy your "freshly squeezed” orange juice rather than actually squeezing it. I realise this sounds a little unlikely but, trust me, you'll never drink another Bloody Mary for breakfast after discovering “fluffy orange”.

GARIBALDI

Ingredients

60ml Campari
160ml fresh orange juice
5 or 10 or 20ml sugar syrup (50/50 sugar/water) (optional)

Method

Put the ingredients in a high-speed blender. Blend for 30 seconds.
Pour into an ice-filled glass.
Drink quickly since the orange will lose “air”.

NOTE: I add a little sugar syrup because most “freshly-squeezed” orange juice that you buy pre-squeezed taste a bit “pithy” to me and not quite as sweet and pure as one would like. A little sugar syrup helps. With that particular juice in the pic I use 20ml sugar syrup. Of course, freshly squeezing your oranges is the best solution, assuming you are less lazy than me.

FINAL NOTE: Yes, you can do this with a stick blender!

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Wednesday 16 June 2021

Solera: Truffle Cheesecake and more!

SOLERA Wine Bar

Cuisine: Modern New Zealand, sharing

Address: 165 Maunganui Rd, Mount Maunganui

Phone: 07-572 0246

Website

Drinks: Extensive interesting wine list, cocktails

Reservations: Recommended

Having just two plates of food to eat and a small glass of wine I'm not sure whether this merits a full blog entry or just a quick Facebook post but since the two plates were as good as anything I've tasted all year I decided to write it up here.

Solera has a new menu. It actually has a continually new menu since bits are being tweaked all the time. But since I went there last there have been substantial changes and, once again, I wanted to eat everything on the menu!

I was lucky to have half an hour to kill at the Mount so popped in because of a recent Facebook post of theirs about having a full range of Central Otago's Te Kano wines and, specifically, their Fume Blanc de Noir by the glass.

That's a Pinot Noir that's been made without skin contact (so is white, the "Blanc" bit) and then barrel aged (for the "Fume" bit). This was an experiment and they only made one barrel this year. And it was a lovely wine, smoky from the barrel and a complex mix of fruit spiky slightly citrusy fruit flavours, a million miles away from the red fruit of a Pinot Noir.

But it was the food that blew me away. The first thing I had was:

Cured Venison - paua, quince, oyster mushroom $20

All I can say is "WOW". Sorry the pic is a bit crappy - the colours were a lot better in real life! But the flavours... salty unctuous venison, smoky charred mushroom, perfectly chewy paua, and a quince gel just slightly sweet and slightly sharp. Add in a little orange flash and a couple of slightly peppery nasturtium leaves. In credible. Every single thing on the plate was delicious and together they were simply sensational. I can't rave enough about this - all I want to do is go and eat it again!

Then, on the recommendation of a friendly American woman who was also perched at a bar stool around the kitchen counter and who seemed to love the food and know what she was talking about, I had something I'd never have even considered, especially when I wanted to eat pretty much everything else on the menu - cheesecake! Or to be more accurate:

Basque Cheesecake - yuzu, truffle, parmesan $14

And it has to be a bout the ugliest dessert around, looking like nothing more or less than an oozy block of brie or camembert. But the taste... I can honestly say I've never tasted anything quite like it. There was truffle, heady strong truffle, so strong I could still taste it hours later ( yes, I say that as a good thing!), there was sharp parmesan, there was a hint of citrus from the yuzu and there was a sweet crisp layer of bruleed sugar, the sweetness of which was amazing with the truffle and parmesan. The cheesecake itself had a texture somewhere between a souflee and a cake, delicate and melting in the mouth. Incredible.

So that's it. Two dishes both of which astounded me. I want to go back immediately. Since the menu changes so frequently I'm not not sure the current one is on line. In case not I am happy to share it here. Click on it to enlarge. I can't recommend it highly enough.

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Friday 4 June 2021

RESTAURANT REVIEW INDEX JUNE 2021

AUGUST 2020 - MAY 2021

At the start of each month I'll post a current index of restaurant reviews. Some may obviously be a little on the older side. Nearly all the restaurants are in the Tauranga region (except where marked).

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