Like the film reviews, putting an index up at the start of each month seems like a good idea. Just in case anyone wants to delve into the past a little. As of this index, all the restaurants are in the Tauranga region...
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Friday, 4 December 2020
RESTAURANT REVIEW INDEX
Thursday, 3 December 2020
FILM REVIEW INDEX
BEGINNING OF DECEMBER...
I thought it might be a good idea to have an index of film reviews so you can find what's here. At the beginning of each month I'll post an updated one - that way it should be visible on the front page at all times in case anyone wants to delve into the archives.
I feel there should be some easier way to do this but since I'm relatively new and know crap about how blogging here works, this is the best I can think of. PLEASE someone, tell me if there's a better way!
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A quick bite at Sugo
SUGO Cuisine: Italian
Address: 19 Wharf Street, Tauranga
Phone: 07 5714138
Drinks: wine, beer, vermouth
Reservations: probably for dinner
Both Jan and I happened to be in town at 6.30pm one evening last week so we met up at Sugo for a quick bite. Sugo is the new Italian restaurant on Wharf Street where American restaurant Rye used to be. It opened a couple of weeks back to a town suddenly awash with Italian restaurants.
Well , maybe "awash" is exaggerating, but with the return of Volare on The Strand and the arrival of the most excellent Bar Centrale, the CBD is not exactly short of choice for Italian cuisine.
Sugo has done what looks like a simple refurbishment of the space that was Rye, freshening it up a bit and adding a few subtle Italian touch. It looks bright and airy.
The menu - slightly different from that currently on-line - is split into Snacks (6), Entrees (6), Main Plates (6), Neapolitan Pizza (3), Sides (3), and Dolce (7). The snacks include a couple of pizza crust options and a couple of olive dishes; the entrees are mainly salad-based; mains are five pastas plus Chicken Saltinbocca; all in all, as you would expect, very Italian and there is also a smaller vegan menu.
So, we started with drinks...- Madam Sass Pinot Noir 2019 $13
- Akarua 25 Steps Pinot Noir 2018 $15
- Bloody Gin Sour (4 Pillars Bloody Shiraz gin, whites, sugar, citrus) $15
The Gin sour was well made, with a nice head on it from the egg white. The sweetness of the Bloody Shiraz gin worked well with the citrus of the sour. And the Madam Sass Pinot was fruity and smooth. The Akarua Pinot was much drier and probably a bit young; it was much better with food.
And the food. We just wanted to try a few snacky things so had:
- Italian Charcuterie, coppa pelata, salami finocchiona, prosciutto, pickles, garlic pizza crust $26
- Clevedon buffalo ricotta tortellini, pumpkin, burnt butter, sage, parmesan, pine nuts $20 v
- Flash pan fried arrow squid, Romeso sauce, orange, rocket, almond, rosemary $16.5 gf/df
- Fries, aioli $7
It was all very pleasant. You can't see the Romesco sauce in the photo but it was under the squid and was very nice. The squid dish was essentially a little fried squid with the other ingredients comprising a raw salad. It was refreshing if unexciting.
Unfortunately I found the ricotta in the pasta filling grainy and under-seasoned. Again that dish had a component you can't see in the photo, a pumpkin puree under the pasta, which was rich and smooth and worked well with the chunks of sweet pumpkin and pine nuts. It was an interesting comparison to Volare's take on the same dish.
As to the charcuterie we were both a little disappointed. I have charcuterie when I go out to a restaurant because I assume they can get better quality products than I buy at the supermarket or deli. That wasn't the case here and the prosciutto was particularly average.
Admittedly we didn't try any of their main dishes, all of which sound and look very good indeed. But I can't help thinking that with the Italian competition in town right now Sugo has got its work cut out to stand out both from a drink and food perspective, as well as the staff, who seemed young, helpful and friendly, but not exactly the Italian specialists you find at the other rival eateries.
Wednesday, 2 December 2020
Mank review
MANK (2020)
Director: Davide Fincher
Starring: Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried, Charles Dance, Lily Collins
Runtime: 131min
People often say "they don't make them like that any more" and if they say that about Mank for a change it will be accurate. For the film is a thing of wonder and beauty, not only recreating a vision of Golden Era Hollywood but creating it in as close to the style of that era as can be attained. It is also dense and complex, crammed with brief glimpses of famous '30s faces and as the only other person in the cinema with me agreed afterwards, it's not going to make any money.
I know that's a kinda crass way to look at it. It feels like that scene in Inside Llewyn Davis where Llewyn plays a song for F Murray Abraham's music promoter - a beautiful haunting tune that could rip your heart out - and a stone-faced Abraham just says: "I don't see a lot of money here." That was a Coen Brothers film and the last time I had the same feeling was another film of theirs, Hail Caesar!. It finished and I thought "Damn, that was wonderful! No one's going to watch it."
But let's leave all that aside. Predicting failure seems cruel, especially when the object of the prediction is as extraordinary as Mank. As a devotee of Orson Welles with a fascination for the machinations of that Hollywood period I was happier than a monkey in a monkey tree. There is pretty much nothing that I didn't absolutely love about this film: it has remarkable cinematography, music, editing, acting, costumes, sets, and a great witty script from director David Fincher's late father, Jack.
But many of those things will be actively off-putting I would guess for a general audience...
The film's look is very low-contrast black and white. David Fincher said in a New Yorker interview that they shot in high resolution and then "took most everything and softened it to an absurd extent to try to
match the look of the era. We probably lost two-thirds of the
resolution in order to make it have the same feel, and then we put in
little scratches and digs and cigarette burns." Don't think that this looks something like Tarantino's Grindhouse experiment, but it is an extraordinarily "soft" black and white image. This still shows the unusual look very accurately:
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| Arliss Howard / LB Meyer Charles Dance / WR Hearst |
And the soundtrack is mono. No flashy super-surround effects here, but warm, slightly distorted mono with an analogue feel to it.
So on to the story. This is the tale of Herman Mankiewicz and his writing of Citizen Kane. It starts with him heading to a secluded ranch where he has been sent by Orson Welles with a secretary (Lily Collins - very good) and nurse, him to write, them to try and keep him off the booze. The film then spirals in many directions, much like Citizen Kane itself, confidently moving between flashbacks to explore Mank's relationship with the studio, his wife and friends, and the political climate.
There is just so much to enjoy, from testy sparring with Louis B Meyer (Arliss Howard) and Irving Thalberg, to his growing friendship with Marion Davis whom Seyfried's mercurial performance does a lot to rehabilitate, and of course William Randolf Hearst himself whom Charles Dance holds back from making a monster: it is a finely judged portrait, more three dimensional that one might have expected. There's also the relationship with his wife (Tuppence Middleton), carers
and brother (the famous Joseph Mankievicz, a solid Tom Pelphry) to take
in.
Where the film might lose people is the politics of the era, the rising "communist/socialist" menace and the studios' pushback against it. It seems a diversion, even if it contribtutes to Mank's increasingly fractious relationship with his studio masters.
Along the way there are more than a few delightful Citizen Kane homages, in the set-ups and lighting, all lovely little touches that are totally integrated. And playing Spot The Star is fun as famous names and faces pop into view, from John Houseman (Sam Troughton) to David O Selznick (Toby Leonard Moore), Josef Von Sternberg (Paul Fox) to Norma Shearer (Jessie Cohen). And of course there's Orson himself, very much just a walk-on but perfectly embodied by Tom Burke (actually I though he should have been taller but, otherwise, perfect). This is a film that will merit many many repeat viewings to spot all the subtleties.
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| Tom Burke / Orson Welles |
Gary Oldman strolls through everything with drunken aplomb. His Mankiewicz gets to be a continual witticism machine, every utterance a gem of observation, insight or sarcasm, often all three. And he's really good, as good as I've seen him. There are beautiful subtle moments of stillness to balance the grandstanding; Oscar nomination no doubt on its way, and well-deserved too.
For all that, perhaps the ultimate criticism is that you never really get inside, never get to know Mank. He remains as much of an enigma at the end as at the beginning. But perhaps that's fitting. That was a criticism people made about Citizen Kane but it seemed to be missing the point: Citizen Kane deliberately questioned how well you could really know anyone from snippets of their life. Mank doesn't do that as explicitly but the underlying principle remains.
Tuesday, 1 December 2020
Spicy Thai Basil Beef (easy Thai food #2)
OK. Last week I was going on about the wonders of Thai Basil and since it doesn't last too long I wanted to get two dishes out of that bag I bought at Gilmours. And this is another favourite around here which needs fresh basil...
I reckon mince is pretty much the best comfort food there is whichever culture you happen to come from, be it a cottage pie or lasagna, moussaka or ma po tofu. And so it is with Thai food and this wonderful recipe which I should mention before we start has probably moved several steps away from authentic.
And like that last chicken dish this one should probably use Holy Basil rather than Thai Basil to be true to its roots. Who cares? I like it better like this and Holy Basil is harder to find than hen's teeth. It's a super-tasty and super-easy dish to make, just five minutes chopping, a couple of minutes to mix the sauce, and five minutes frying. You can adjust the heat level by raising or lowering the number of chillis. If you put the seeds in with them I'd say 3 was "medium" hot... (and do watch hands and eyes when chopping them - those little buggers can really mess you up.)
OK. Here we go. This should serve two people, three if you add a vegetable dish or salad.
SPICY THAI BASIL BEEF
(Pad Kra Pao)
INGREDIENTS 
- 400g beef mince
- 4 Tbs cooking oil
- 2 eggs
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 3-4 scud (bird's eye) chillis, chopped
- 1/2 medium onion or red onion or 2 spring onions, chopped (small dice)
- Big handful of Thai Basil leaves
Sauce
- 1½ Tbs Palm Sugar
- 3 Tbs Fish Sauce
- 1½ Tbs Kecap Manis (sweet soy sauce)
- 2 Tsp Oyster Sauce
- ¼ cup stock (chicken, beef, vege, or failing that water)
- Juice of 1 Lime (optional)
METHOD
- Mix sauce ingredients. (I grate the palm sugar.)
- Fry eggs in 2 Tbs oil. Set aside.
- Fry garlic and chillis in 2 Tbs oil, 1 minute.
- Turn up heat, add mince and fry at high temperature till it's brown, 3 to 5 minutes.
- Add onion and fry till slightly softened, 1 or 2 minutes.
- Add sauce, it should immediately boil, mix it all up.
- Add basil, stir in very briefly. Save some leaves for garnish.
- Sprinkle with lime juice (if using), garnish with basil.
- Serve over rice, topped with eggs. (Salt 'n' pepper them too...)
NOTE: Kecap Manis, or sweet soy sauce is, as the name suggests, sweet and also very thick. It is inexpensive and available at all Asian food stores. The lime juice is great for an extra kick but if you don't have it don't worry: I wouldn't bother to substitute lemon as it's not really the same, just skip it.
ANOTHER NOTE: You will notice that there are two eggs on that dish at the bottom. That's because I'm greedy and like an extra egg. One is traditional. The eggs are best fried quickly and hot so some of the white crisps up.
FINAL NOTE: I've used light palm sugar here but it could just as well be dark. It's worth getting some, either light or dark. It is inexpensive and really is different from regular white sugar, not as sweet for a start...
OH, AND ONE MORE JUST FOR LUCK: There are, of course, many variations on the Thai name for this dish in
case anyone wants to berate me for incorrect spelling. It could also be Pad Ka Prao, Pad Ka Pow, Pad Krapow or several other variations.
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