Knot Just A Stomach

La Zeppa is a cozy bar with fresh Mediterranean-inspired tapas and the most divine fruity desserts. Its intimate atmosphere and lights make it the perfect place for a casual evening date. I was pretty excited to be invited by Zomato to try their new menu by executive chef Chris Scott and join some other invited foodies in scoping out the best La Zeppa had to offer.

This review is half a year late (eek!) because my SD card decided to take its last gulps of breath at the end of 2016 and it has taken me this long to recover those photos. However, my experience at La Zeppa was so outstanding that I still vividly recall each of these dishes.

We started off with olives and a flatbread that was made in-house and accompanied by the most divine pumpkin hummus. The flatbread was thinly chewy and browned perfectly.

After that came a series of tapas to share: the pork cheek croquettes with slices of apple and radish,  the Spanish deep dish omelette with shaved Parmesan cheese, and asparagus wrapped in proscuitto. Each were executed exquisitely. The croquettes were crispy with a light crust, and the only improvement I could think of would be if the apple and radish were julienned and sprinkled on top of the croquettes for a more cutting flavour combination. My favourite of the tapas was the Spanish omelette, which was flaky cheesy goodness in every slice. It is so difficult to find good vegetarian food in the city sometimes, but this Spanish omelette is sinful enough to satisfy anyone.

As there are limits to our stomachs, we shared the mains as well. There were braised short ribs, lamb rump with yoghurt sauce, baked celeriac with mushroom and crunchy kale, and a surprisingly mushy seafood paella. 

The short ribs were expertly done and so tender they fell off the bone. They were so delicious that some of us were tempted to lick the plate. The fact that the ribs sat on a mound of smoky mashed potato which absorbed a lot of the gravy made the dish even better. 

The lamb rump was not to my liking because it was a bit rarer than I liked, which made it seem like immensely chewy sashimi that tired my jaw out a little. The accompanying eggplant and yoghurt sauce was interesting, but not a particularly flavourful combo. 

I was also not won over by the baked celeriac, but I am a little biased because I don’t particularly like the taste of celeriac. If you like the taste, you might enjoy this because the celeriac was strong on the palette, with some mushroom and kale bringing some variety to the texture.

The last main was the paella. I loved the presentation and the generous amounts of seafood, which definitely lent the paella its flavour. However, it was rather mushy. It was more risotto than the dry pan-fried paella I am used to having. It would be great for a hearty winter meal though.

The whole meal was accented by their excellent sangria. With different flavours being a frenzy of colour in generous jugs, and plenty of fresh fruit slices bobbing in the drink, this is one of La Zeppa’s standouts in my opinion.

Finally, I somehow made room for dessert which was probably the most outstanding part of an already excellent meal. We tried two desserts: Meyer lemon curd topped with strawberries, and a milk chocolate cremeux with cocoa nib and mandarin. The cremeux was rich and silky, with the mandarin helping to break up the strong chocolate flavour. My favourite though was the strawberries and lemon curd. This was a joy to have: a pile of fresh strawberries and tart lemon curd in creamy fruity mouthfuls. I definitely recommend the strawberries and lemon curd dessert.

Papparich is a chain of eateries dishing up Malaysian cuisine, the latest of which to open is the Sylvia Park branch. It’s nice and roomy, with plenty of wooden and marble tables, and if you go further in to the back of the room you can sit at a table where you get a glimpse of the kitchen.

They have an interesting order system where you write the numbers of your orders on the sheet, and then press a button to call the waiter or waitress. I think it’s a really good idea because there’s less chance of mishearing your order and getting you the wrong dish. You also don’t have to keep asking the wait staff for a bit more time if you haven’t decided what you’re going to get yet. They were always super punctual whenever the button was pressed, and were more than happy to accommodate whatever request we threw at them.

I ordered the Mango Mania drink to start, which was topped with lychee meat and full of watermelon balls and jelly. It was delicious. I loved the sweetness of the mango juice with the different textures of jelly and fruit and found it very quenching. My only quibble is that it was kind of thin and so it was very quickly finished in a few gulps. I wish it came in a taller glass. I could probably have two drinks quite easily with such large plates.

The crispy egg noodles were my favourite. In the centre was a thick egg soup with prawns and meat and some noodles already soaking in the soup. The outer ring was dry and still crunchy. So you could mix them up in your bowl for a bit of crunch with your normal noodles, or soak the crunchy noodles to your liking. They really soaked all the flavour, so I found it worked best to let the crispy outer noodles sit for a bit as I ate from the centre. I was really impressed by the size of the plate too and barely finished it. If you’re looking for less crunch and a smoother texture, there’s also the ipoh kuay teow, which was broad flat rice noodles in the same soup. 

I was less impressed by the roti (which was kind of dry and hard within a few minutes) and the rice (which was typical of what one would expect, although again the portions were sizeable for the price). I felt that they do noodles a lot better, but that’s my personal preference.

Dessert involved some interesting selections. The ABC shaved ice was quite reminiscent of Taiwanese desserts in my opinion, with red bean and corn and peanuts and lychee. The black sesame ice cream that came with it was rich and added an extra dimension to all the textured sweetness. It was nice, but not particularly unique.

I was more impressed by the banana fritters, which were bananas wrapped in a thin deep fried shell. It was kind of like having a really comforting warm banana split. It’s the perfect dessert for winter because it isn’t too cold.

The first thing I noticed about Vikki Lane Bar & Kitchen was that it had a really nice spot. In the centre of the city that was a short walk from Queen St, it had the benefit of convenience yet peacefulness because it wasn't in the centre of all the traffic. I spotted many people having after work drinks and group chats. The leafy decor is also very nice, adding to the casual ambiance.

They separate the bar and meals dining quite clearly. We were off in another section which made it feel more private, but it was kind of open still so that we could see the bar and not feel left out. I was surprised it was not more packed on a Friday night, but it was good for us because it meant that we felt very comfortable making conversation.

We were spoilt for choice. I think one of their strengths is the huge array of dishes they do, which caters to all sorts of tastes.

We started with the local artisan breads with dips and a small plate of mushroom and mozzarella risotto balls with plum sauce. There were three dips: a jalapeno chutney, cream cheese and sun-dried tomato, and beetroot with feta cheese. My favourite was the cheese-based dips, which were melt in the mouth and went well with the selection of crunchy toast. The risotto balls were also delicious, with a crunchy outer and a smooth cheesy centre. The stretchiness of the mozzarella was not as obvious as I would like visually, but its flavour was apparent. The plum sauce was like ketchup in consistency and was an intriguing addition. I think of the entire night’s food, the entrees were the most outstanding.

Our mains were the lamb shank with crushed potatoes and roast vegetables, and the slow braised pork belly with a crackling skin with hoisin style sauce, crushed potatoes  and a salad.

The lamb shank was as good as homemade, with the meat dropping off the bones. It had a very rich flavour and was incredibly filling. When they say big plates, they really do mean big plates. I was also a fan of the crushed potatoes. It was like mash, but chunkier so that none of the consistency of chewing on potato was lost. I now want all my mash to be crushed potatoes instead.

The pork belly was okay, but not their strength in my opinion. It was rather dry, so I was drowning it in the sauce for long periods of time to make it easier to chew. The sauce is a bit thicker than hoisin sauce, but that worked out quite well because the pork was so dry. The dryness meant it was also very difficult to cut and I found the best way was to turn it upside down and cut that way. The crackling skin on the pork belly was delicious, but it was the most difficult to cut into and also softened very quickly. I think this dish would be better if the pork belly came in several slices to make it easier on the eater. Again, there were the rave-worthy crushed potatoes, and a drizzled salad tasted very similar to the salad we had with the entrees.

For dessert, we chose the ice cream terrine (strawberries, mango, chocolate and hokey pokey crumbs) and a chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream and berry coulis. They were beautifully presented, but also almost identical in presentation. I personally would prefer a bit of variation. They were beautiful though!

The brownie was as expected: rich, smooth and chocolatey. The berry coulis tasted a little syrupy, and so this was a very rich dessert. I wouldn’t recommend it after a heavy dinner; it would perhaps be a better choice for when you’ve had a lighter main like fish.

The terrine was by far my favourite. It looks unassuming, but when you cut in you taste the mango and chocolate strongly in its centre. The focus on the smooth texture of the ice cream rather than rich flavour made it a really nice end to the meal. 

On a stormy weekend, I set out to McDonald’s Greenlane to create some monster burgers for some warm comfort.

We each get a Create Your Taste burger combo. You can create your burger on the touchscreens they have instore, which was good because I can only imagine how hangry people would get waiting in line while I hesitated over which cheese to put in. It was mostly easy to navigate; my only gripe would be that when it came to selecting the drink for our combo the pricing of the drinks wasn’t transparent until you selected the drink. It would often indicate +80c for some coffees and nothing else for the other drinks on the drinks menu, but when you selected the drink it adds 50c to your combo price. You then had to engage in a mini dance to remove the drink and pick another if you weren’t happy with that.

There’s a bit of a wait after you’ve paid and you can sit at your table watching the Create Your Taste people at work in a separate kitchen. They’ll also bring you your order, rather than you standing out eyeing the screens for an order number, which I thought was rather fancy.

I opt for brioche buns with a Angus beef patty, 2x rasher bacon, 2x Swiss cheese, 1x tasty cheese, 2x grilled pineapple, and some lettuce, cucumber and grilled onion. With it, a basket of fries (surprisingly large!) and a medium lime shake (which was an extra 50c). It came to a grand total of $20.

I love the brioche buns. The surface was super smooth, with a soft centre that smelt of fresh bread. I was pleasantly surprised, because McDonalds has served me some seriously limp greasy buns before. I expected the pineapple slices to be quite large, but actually two was just right for even distribution within the burger, so I would go for at least two rather than skimping if you want some pineapple. The cheese was also amazing! I would highly recommend going for the full three cheese (it’s no extra cost, unlike some of the other customisations) because it sort of pulls the burger together. The Swiss cheese was especially excellent with the beef and bacon, and was super stretchy like mozzarella when I bit into the burger.

The other combo was a brioche bun burger with 2 Angus beef patties (113g each according to the receipt), 2 grilled pineapple, mushroom, 1x tasty cheese, beetroot, grilled onion, lettuce and tomato and onion relish. With it, a basket of fries, and a medium coke zero (free), which came to $19.50 all up.

The burgers are a bit of a struggle to eat because they were so huge. It’s definitely a messy affair, and the wet wipe and small serviette they provide don’t really help so next time I would be prepared by grabbing a few more serviettes beforehand. However, unless you had come up with a truly weird combination, it’s definitely very satisfying to eat a combination of flavours you created. I think cheese definitely improves the burgers heaps (especially because you can’t normally get good cheese on the other McDonald’s burgers), and being able to load up on the patties is a winner. It makes the burger instantly be a bit more meaty and perky.

They also have the option of having bunnuce (lettuce as buns!) and Big Mac sauce, which I’m curious about trying next time.

They have several areas depending on the atmosphere you want, with an outdoor garden area and bar, and a more intimate indoor restaurant. We dined upstairs and I loved the quiet ambiance in the early evening, and how it wasn’t as dark as downstairs thanks to the windows. Downstairs has a few tables too, and I went on a Wednesday evening, which I was told was their quietest night, but there were actually quite a few groups of girls having a nice night out together from 7pm onwards upstairs with us. The tables have enough space between them that you still feel like you’re in your own space though, which I really appreciated, and the service is impeccable here. At first, I thought maybe the service was perhaps only reserved to special bookings, but it was evident as I sat and watched throughout the meal that their attentiveness was constant for everyone.

As a starter, they brought out some beautiful bread and a buttery spread with a hint of black garlic. This was standout and easily one of the best things I had here. I couldn’t taste any black garlic, but it was just this thick melty spread that soaked into the bread and was just so heavenly. I want to know the recipe for this stuff. We were secretly disappointed when they took it away but we had already eaten all the bread so that was that.

For entrees, we tried the special that day which was a whitebait omelette, and also the shared beginnings of baked brie and truffle honey. The waiter uttered something about there being a substantial amount of bread when we asked if there was bread accompanying the brie and honey, and he really wasn’t kidding. This has got to be the biggest entrees I’ve seen, and could probably be comfortably shared between three, or two people who really like bread. The baked brie was in a little dish that looked like chawan mushi, and once you got past the congealed layer on top it was the perfect texture for dunking the bread into. I loved the baked brie so much in terms of presentation and taste. I was not as keen on the truffle honey, simply because I find truffle really strong, but the honey was beautiful too. They have excellent bread here, which seems strange to compliment, but very few establishments do bread well.

The whitebait omelette was excellent also. The whitebait was clearly very fresh, and thicker and juicier than how most others cook them. This made for a very flavourful experience, and I particularly like how they chose to keep things very simple for the omelette to let the whitebait’s flavours and textures shine through. A little more texture to the egg, or perhaps a little more egg, so it did not feel like just a mouthful of whitebait, would have been perfection. The candied lemon accompanying it was also delicious, and a welcome dash of sweet citrus against the whitebait.

The mains were not as outstanding, but still very good. I suspect that the chef is more accomplished with meats rather than fish, but I will have to go back another time to confirm that. One main was hapuka with cockles and brown butter fumet. The hapuka had been slightly overcooked, making it very tender but also a bit coarse, and I found the cockles had very strong tasting juices. It did help to focus on the texture, but I would have liked for the sweetness of the cockles to come through.

The other main was roast king salmon with confit leek and ricotta and capers and parsley. The salmon was cooked well, and was creamy as a result, but the ratio of salmon to ricotta and capers was a bit much for me, and there was nothing particularly distinctive to stand out from other eateries. I finished the salmon with plenty of ricotta and capers to spare. One thing I thought was genius about this dish was that the salmon lay on a bed of lemon slices and confit leek, which meant every time you were cutting a morsel of salmon your fork would release lemon juice into the salmon and leek, which was a beautiful accent on the flavours.

The waiter had helpfully let us know approximately how sweet each dessert was, and we chose the boysenberry trumpet, which was presented all on one side of the plate. I have noticed a growing trend of doing this for dessert. It was a mix of meringue, boysenberry yoghurt, thin shells of burnt sugar, and vanilla ice cream. 

For those who don’t know, Taste of Auckland is an annual food fest where you can sample iconic dishes from Auckland’s leading eateries, learn from local celebrity chefs, and also buy tons of goodies from local producers.

It was super fun, although can get a little pricey. Expect to bring about $30-50, or even better try team up with friends, to try as much as you can and also feel decently full. Portions are small because they want you to try as much as possible!

One really interesting thing this year was that they had a Maori hangi on site. It tasted really good and brought back memories of visiting maraes when I was younger and the feast that was held to welcome the schoolchildren.

I was also impressed by the new pockets of happenings throughout the day. There was a stall extolling the virtues of avocado (and making the most delicious avocado and salmon toast canapes) where if you were fast enough to answer their quizzes you can get a bag of the biggest and freshest avocados I’ve ever seen and a Sistema lunchbox, which was pretty useful.

The Fisher & Paykel Social Kitchen was also a highlight, and much better than last year. They rearranged the seating to be cozier, and I think overall more people could sit down and really enjoy the sessions. The collaboration with Dr Feel Good Ice Pops was my favourite session, where we all learned to make a watermelon-inspired summery popsicle as pictured, and at the end they handed out popsicles for everyone to try. So good.

Better Burger is a great place for affordable fast food that’s actually tasty. Sure, there is nothing like classic McDonald’s, but I also get really tired of their bland and limp options.

They do amazing cheeseburgers and hamburgers here, where the pickles taste fresh, the lettuce is crispy, and everything is wrapped up in their adorable doodly paper. You can even get a combo of burger + fries + shake for way under $20.

Speaking of fries, their fries are AMAZING. Crispy and with the skin on, they make me forgive the small wait for my meal because they actually fry it up when you order and don’t leave the fries sitting around all day. I did a taste comparison with fries from other fast food places, and the difference was noticeable. They also do this poutine-inspired mess of fries and gravy and sauce that I really want to try sometime.

I also quite like the meat burgers with a lettuce wrap instead of the buns. Sometimes it just feels too oily and coarse with buns, so my new go-to order for the meat burgers is a lettuce wrap. It adds more crunch and freshness to balance the cheese and meat, and also looks really awesome, and adds a smoother texture because the honey buns are a bit grainy in the mouth.

The Taste of Auckland is basically a foodie festival celebrating Auckland eats. Be sure to bring a lot of money to sample all the specialty dishes pop-up restaurants offer. I really enjoyed the food despite the poor weather. 

Bracu, under Mikey Newlands’ magic touch, whipped up a charcoal-kissed yellowfin tuna with chorizo and potato and lemon bolognese for me (second image). The tuna was beautiful, with a sashimi texture and so much flavour.

There were also assorted tidbits to sample for free. Stalls were selling cookie mix mason jars, Divinity Olives was also offering strawberry and balsamic jelly tasters, and pomegranate balsamic jelly and cheese skewers

Acclaimed chef Josh Emett (sixth image) made an appearance over the weekend too, demonstrating how the cheese roll with salad and honeycomb and truffle dressing (seventh image) was made at his Rata Dining restaurant.

My favourite sample in the entire festival was undoubtedly Vogels NZ’s pear and Camembert bake recipe (eighth image). It’s a mouthwatering combination of layers of Vogels bread, pears, bacon, rosemary and Camembert cheese that led to a delicious golden-brown result only made better by the dusting of nutmeg.

Something that came up in conversation with other bloggers last week was the different ways cultures had of approaching the relationship between children and food.

A part of this is what you feed them. Mysteriously, many restaurants have “kids’ menus” where the fare consists of items like fish fingers and small fries. Nothing at all like the sophisticated mains that the adults were having. It’s seen even in school lunches. Earlier in the year, people were showcasing meagre American school lunches (a chocolate chip cookie, a dollop of frozen peas, a tub of fruit salad in sugary syrup, popcorn chicken and ketchup, mashed potato) and contrasting them with French school lunches (a small steak with a ladle each of beans and carrots, a hunk of cheese, several slices of apple, and three kiwifruit halves).

I was brought up eating whatever my parents ate, so it’s a mystery for me that children be served such sub par food, sub par in terms of health and in terms of taste, and be expected to enjoy the experience of eating at all. In fact, I really admire how the French parent with regards to food. Meal times are set by parents, which is essential for forming good eating habits. Allowing your child to snack all day is of course going to result in your child not having any appetite at dinner. Be firm about the three meals a day with one afternoon snack, and don’t let them eat any other time. It’s okay for a child to feel a little hungry between meals. They’ll be less likely to refuse your vegetables (because they’re so hungry) and it teaches them to deal with hunger and keep to meal times instead of eating at the first sign of feeling peckish.

As well as them eating at the same time as the adults, make sure they are eating the same thing as the adults! In Asian cultures, as soon as children can chew they’re put on a diet of rice accompanied by assorted dishes, just like the adults. In fact, my mother merrily tells anyone who will listen how I was so keen for solid food even when my teeth weren’t fully formed that I would refuse the congee and try angle myself for some of her rice. Children really like being included, and it’s also much healthier to be feeding them smaller portions of your roast pork shoulder and veges than giving them nuggets and fish fingers.

That applies for when you eat out too. At yum char, we eat the exact same stuff as the adults. There’s no kids’ menu per se, although the adults understand we gravitate towards the sweet stuff more than them, and you’ll see little kids gnawing at siu mai and steamed pork ribs and beef tripe just like the adults.

Very closely linked to what you feed them is then what happens at the dinner table. As I mentioned before, make sure to include children at the dinner table. If I was lunching with friends and they just ignored me the whole time and talked of subjects I had nothing in common with, I would be bored at the table. Same goes for lunching with children. When eating out, adults would periodically include me in conversation to maintain my interest at the table, such as by asking about school, or chatting about topics we had in common.

Encourage your children to at least try things. I think very few people enjoy being pushed around and made to finish things they don’t like, so I would apply that to children too. Don’t force them to finish the dish if they really dislike it, but do encourage them to at least try some of it so they grow up willing to try and learn to not just only eat foods of a certain colour (thinking of Aaron Swartz here) or develop other picky habits that can have a detriment to their health in the long-term.

Teach your children to live to eat and eat to live.