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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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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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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Just a reminder - the A Debt To Pleasure Facebook page is up and running, with lots more (shorter) food things than here, and even a Song of the Day. Come Like and/or Follow it - all sorts of groovy stuff is planned!

1 - 100

88 Chinese Restaurant

B 

Bar Centrale (1)

Bar Centrale (2)

Bar Centrale (3)

Bar Centrale (4)

Bluebiyou

C

Casual Kitchen

Chidori

Clarence Bistro (1)

Clarence Bistro (2)

Clarence Bistro (3)

Craggy Range Restaurant (Havelock North)

D

Dumpling Delight (1)

Dumpling Delight (2)

Dumpling Delight (3)

G

Great Spice Tauranga

I

India Today

Izakai 

M

Malabar (Taupo)

Mary's (Havelock North) 

Miss Gee's

Mudan

N

Norris & Bell

O

Oscar & Otto (1)

Oscar & Otto (2)

P

Palace

Pasture (Auckland) 

Pho Vina

Piku (Havelock North)

R

ReBurger Tauranga

Rice Rice Baby

S

Sichuan Style

Solera (1)

Solera (2) 

Somerset Cottage (1)

Somerset Cottage (2)

Sugo (1)

Sugo (2)

T

Takara

Te Puna Deli

The Barrel Room

The Chook Nook

The Cider Factorie

The Falls Retreat Bistro (Waikino)

The Melting Pot 

The White House (1)

The White House (2)

V

Vine (Taupo)

Volare (1)

Volare (2)

Z

Zozo

 

 

Cocktails at Piku in Havelock North

PIKU restaurant & cocktail bar

Cuisine: Modern Japanese Izakaya

Address: 15 Joll Road, Havelock North

Phone: 06 8779 400

Website

Drinks: Fully licensed, Japanese-inspired cocktails 

Reservations: definitely a good idea

Last time we were in Havelock North we had dinner at Piku and loved it. Great service, great food, everything you'd want of a Kiwi Izakaya. And we went next door afterwards and drank many a cocktail. This visit we ran out of time for food but made sure we popped in for more of those cocktails. 

15 Joll Place in Havelock North is actually a bit of foodies dream, what with the one address containing both Mary's and Piku. At Piku the restaurant is around one side and the cocktail bar on the other, opening into a small courtyard. We sat in the courtyard. The young cocktail team are both knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the large and varied list ranging from classics to complex gin and tonic combos, dessert tipples and signature cocktails, many of which have a distinct Japanese influence.

 

I completely lost track after the first couple but amongst the various things we tried were: 

• Lemon Meringue - Skyy Vodka, Limoncello, Amaretto, Lemon & Egg White     $19
• Kaistau Sour - Feijoa Skin Infused Haku Japanese Vodka, Aperol, Lemon, Feijoa & White Chocolate Cordial     $17
• Not As It A Pears - Furikake Infused Havana "Especial" Gold Rum, Dow's Tawny Port, Walnut Bitters and Pear Juice     $18
• Shiso Tasty - Shiso Infused White Vermouth, Yuzucello, Disaronno Amaretto & Yuzu Curd     $17     

I'm not going to do a rundown of each cocktail, but now I want to try everything else on the list! They were all excellent, unusual creative combinations using bespoke ingredients, many of them created in-house, each garnished imaginatively. It was a pure joy to rediscover the place and enjoy the skills of their expert cocktail-makers.

 

 

One special note, for the last of our drinks - Homemade Baileys ($10.50). Now I know there was a time when everyone made Baileys at home. And it was always awful. It never tasted quite right or - particularly - got the texture right. Some were too thin, some were too thick, some were too eggy, some were just "claggy" and coated your throat...

 

Not this one. The flavour of the week was Matcha & White Chocolate and it was outstanding! There was even a slight green tinge from the matcha. Or perhaps I was imagining that; we had several. 

 

OK. One of the pics is the signature cocktail part of the current menu which seems to change regularly. Expand it and I think you can read it. And if you're anywhere near Havelock North and feel like a cocktail, Piku is well worth a detour. Of course there's food too... Kudos. 

 

   

 

 

 

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Just a reminder - the A Debt To Pleasure Facebook page is up and running, with lots more (shorter) food things than here, and even a Song of the Day. Come Like and/or Follow it - all sorts of groovy stuff is planned!

Mary's in Havelock North - our new favourite "diner"

MARY'S

Cuisine: Posh playful diner

Address: 15 Joll Road, Havelock North

Phone: 06 650 7770

Website

Drinks: Fully licensed, Craggy Range wines 

Reservations: Yep - it's small and busy

 

Straight after lockdown, Craggy Range Restaurant chef Casey McDonald launched Casey’s Diner in the cellar next to the winery restaurant and found it wildly popular. He has transplant the concept to Havelock North with Mary’s, an upscale diner named for Mary Peabody, wife of Craggy Range founder Terry Peabody. It's a good-looking joint, reminiscent perhaps of a posh New York Diner from the thirties. An open kitchen and bar extend in a horseshoe into the room, with signature yellow highlights throughout. There's even a small outside area for a sunny day.

 

The food takes full advantage of the Josper oven, and there's a not unreasonably-priced Craggy Range winelist, as well as a few cocktails. After really enjoying a bite on the Craggy Range terrace during our last trip, five of us called in for lunch at Mary's during our recent weekend in Hawke's Bay.

 

There is a small menu - 3 Bites, 3 Entrees, 3 Mains, 2 Sides - and, yes, one of them is a cheeseburger. But that's about as close to a traditional diner as you get. This is tasty fancy food: we ordered most of it. The bread came quickly and the next thing we did was to immediately order a second serving. Both because it's not large and because it was simply fantastic, soft bread, charred by the Josper over, filled with a gooey cheesey Béchamel sauce. It was simply the best, most decadent bread we could remember! 

 

THAT bread!

THAT bread (close up)!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

  

BITES

• Mary's garlick-y, cheese-y bread (v)     $9

ENTREES

• Raw fish, horseradish cream, citrus dressing & black pepper (gf)     $22
• Coal roasted halloumi, grilled & marinated endive, sweet 'n' sour fig (v) (gf)     $23
• Grilled prawns, potato aioli, capsicum, garlic & chilli butter (gfo)     $26

MAINS

• Baked potato gnocchi, roasted tomato sauce, basil & mozzarella (vgo) (vfo)     $29
  
• Fish fillet, braised octopus, olive tapenade, lemon & burnt butter sauce (gf)     $37

SIDES

• Shoestring fries & aioli (vgo)     $9
• Rocket, parmesan, pear & walnut salad, chardonnay dressing (gf) (vgo)     $9 

    

Raw Fish

Halloumi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prawns

Gnocchi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In fact everything was top notch. The raw fish was a favourite: it looked pretty and the hits of citrus and slight sharpness of the radish made for a bright fresh taste in the mouth. Nearly had two of those as well!

 

The prawns leaned towards Middle Eastern flavours and Jan declared them the best prawns she'd ever eaten. She is pretty fussy about her prawns so this was high praise indeed! The bed of potato aioli nestled them and there was a scattering of crispy bits to excite the texture buds. The Halloumi - charred in the Josper - rode on a flavour bed of fig and apple which was lovely. Again, it was a light and refreshing dish and very popular. 

 

As for the fish, I didn't try it but it was Tarakihi and Russell declared it excellent! I also didn't try the gnocchi but our vegetarian diner gave it the thumbs up. The salad and fries were all you could ask for.

 

Fish...

...and Chips

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salad

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                     We were all seriously blown away. The staff, during a hectic and busy service, were nothing less than calm and efficient and we enjoyed a selection of Craggy Range wines, including some older ones from the list. There's a good range by the glass. In case you're curious, the wine list is here.

I can do nothing but recommend Mary's in the highest terms. We liked it so much we actually called back later for a sneaky cocktail. Havelock North is lucky to have it.

 

 

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Just a reminder - the A Debt To Pleasure Facebook page is up and running, with lots more (shorter) food things than here, and even a Song of the Day. Come Like and/or Follow it - all sorts of groovy stuff is planned!