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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