25,000 guests? – Of course, come right this way.
Martinborough had its twice annual Rotary fair last weekend, and for the first time in a while the Wairarapa delivered decent weather. So rather than donning galoshers and a storm coat, we headed out in shorts, t-shirt & a lather of sun block.
The first time we went was exciting and an early start – a two hour drive from Wellington to get there before many of the crowds, so that we could get a BBQ’d steak sandwich breakfast and not have to park in Featherston.
We have a slightly more relaxed approach to the fair these days. It’s still a special breakfast at home in the morning, but now only a 15 minute drive to our side of town. You can tell there’s something special happening in Martinborough, on account of seeing more than three other vehicles on the road as you drive there.
Still I get the impression the fair is unofficially starting earlier & earlier each year. I was over hearing someone in a café during the week say they intended to be there by 7:00am, and be all done before 8:30am so they could go home and have breakfast. If it gets any earlier, they’ll have to turn it into a Christmas fair. By 2pm some stall holders were packing up. While that’s not a surprise from the food stalls who have run out of stuff to cook or sell, it was a surprise for other stalls. You might have thought they had something more important to get to, like the rugby sevens back in Wellington.
The fair is less crowded of an afternoon. It’s hot, it’s dry, the pub beckons, as does the beach, the wineries, the ice cream stall or anywhere with air conditioning really. So it’s easier wandering around all the stalls in the afternoon. You can tell some of the stall holders are wilting a little though, as you politely cough and they wake up from an afternoon nap in the deckchairs. Which is perfectly fine, since by the time we get home, it’s either time for a nap ourselves, or a dive in the pool to cool off. All told it took about three hours to work our way round everything. I tend to walk around the event in circles (well, squares actually), since the whole town centre is symmetrical and I just can’t get my sense of direction stable. Circles is less confusing.
There’s normally something new to discover, so this years hot tips are;
‘home made’ fudge (looking identical & in identical packaging, so I don’t know whose home it came from!) is out. Only three stalls selling it this year instead of the 50 there seemed to be last year.
Hats are still in – of course. But then I’m of the ‘I have a hat and one head, how many more hats do I need?’ school of thought.
The BNZ bank has really good air conditioning – although they’re only open until lunch time for you to get cash out.
The (small) supermarket doesn’t jack up its prices because it’s fair weekend. Unlike many of the cafés who charge an extra 15% – 20%. Still, given that it was Waitangi day and Bank Holiday surcharges apply I don’t think they won quite so much this year.
We’ll be back next weekend, time to sample some new local wines in the village winery. We’ll park in the square, take all of ten minutes to visit every open shop, and just appreciate how nice it can be to wander round Martinborough on it’s usual tranquil day.
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Cadburys – it’s not a Kiwi Icon.
I got a tweet today regarding the takeover of Cadburys by Kraft saying “Cadbury no longer a kiwi icon??”
Errrm – it never was. It may be popular in New Zealand – but it’s British. As in started life in 1824 in Birmingham.
Cadburys in New Zealand may produce some iconic kiwi sweets – but could we possibly keep Cadburys itself as a “British Icon” please? It’s not even as if New Zealand Dairy Milk bears much resemblence to the real thing.
There’s an article here about what the takeover means for the Dunedin Factory – with some interesting comments.
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The issues of Christmas cookery.
If like me – you think Delia Smith’s Christmas is your bible – you may find you need to make one or two changes to your usual Christmas cooking. I still insist of cooking a proper UK style Christmas dinner – rather than the more traditional Kiwi Ham – but that’s just a taste thing. The problem comes with stuffing, turkeys and gravy.
I can now get decent sausage meat from my amazing butchers, who use a UK seasoning in their sausages – so I’m not overpowered by the addition of ginger. Chestnuts are not in season – but thankfully you can get vacuum packed tins of whole chestnuts. (Try Deli’s or Moore Wilsons). However, as far as I can see – if you want to make Delia’s Giblet Gravy – you are stuffed.
Over the past few years I have fought to get fresh turkeys at Christmas, and finally gave up because I just cant be arsed to deal with the snotty comments from shop staff anymore. So this year I have a frozen 1.4kg Turkey Breast. But no giblets. In fact – none of the fresh turkeys had giblets either. So I thought I would wander round a few butchers while doing my last minute shopping, and ask if I could get some separately.
Oh Dear.
What I learned – is that they don’t actually know what giblets are. Now fair enough – I wouldn’t use them for anything (I think that Offal has no place on a plate of food I am actually going to eat) – except it’s the recipe for Delia’s Gravy, and its actually very nice. Not that I’m bad at making gravy without them but hey – this is the way I like to make dinner. So just in case I do need some stock (I usually have enough juices from roasting meat so that I don’t need it) – ive made some chicken stock form left over carcasses of roast chickens.
You also of course have to watch out for the fact that most Turkeys sold here are in fact not 100 turkey – they are injected with brine to make them more moist. As I’ve never roasted a turkey yet that came out dry – and I refuse to eat meat that is stuffed full of sugar – I think this is a travesty. Avoid Tegal chickens and turkey if you too think that there is no need to inject meat with all sorts of guff in order for it to taste edible.
This year – we have also had to make our own Christmas chocolates – because Dorothy’s in Wellington has closed down. They used to sell Sugar Free Chocolates (we cant eat sugar in this house), and that’s very rare indeed. We can get bars of the stuff from Schoc, but although they do fabulous chocolates – none of them are sugar free. So we spent large sums of money on some of the bars, and spent yesterday merrily making truffles with it (Using Delia’s Recipe modifies to take the sugar out).
And I can heartily recommend that you get a tin of Schoc’s Cocoa Powder. I’ve just made a low carb (also Gluten free) chocolate cake out of it (with Splenda and ground almonds instead of sugar and flour), and its come out the richest, chocolatiest cake I’ve ever made. I’m about to use it to make the chocolate custard to add to the cake (Nigella’s Black Forest Trifle – modified). It’s better than Green and Blacks – and that is saying something.
Right – now off to clean the pool – its a glorius day out there, and the pool says its 26 degrees – so we may be going for a dip later.
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And talking of christmas trees…
On Saturday night we went to Cuckoo in Greytown - home of the best pizzas in the Wairarapa (and a cook who doesn’t mind making the wonderful Eggs Napoli breakfast dish – minus the bread and with an extra egg- at any time of day because I can’t eat Pizza!).
Cuckoo has recently been taken over – the owners Tim and Chelsea having skipped off to Melbourne - so no more visions of Tim frenetically running round the place. But the menu remains the same and is well worth a visit. Most people visiting Greytown go to the White Swan because its well known. However its pretty crap – so forget that and go have a decent meal at Cuckoo.
Getting back to the point – while in there – we took a photo of thier christmas tree. The New Owners (Brian and Janine) certainly have a great sense of humour. For all those people who like are a fish out of water doing a southern hemisphere chistmas – I thought you might enjoy it:
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Toast Martinborough 2009 – the aftermath.
Bloody hell I ache all over today.
It’s a good ache mind you – it means I had a great time and went dancing – not something you get a lot of chance to do in the back of beyond.
Toast Martinborough is one of the three days a year that the tumbleweed strewn streets of Martinborough become packed with people. In this case, 99% drunken people staggering from vineyard to vineyard in a pretty spectacular “Pub Crawl”. It is a truly brilliant day out, and I think it’s one of the “most do’s” for anyone living in the lower north island.
The Wairarapa is a major wine growing area in New Zealand – and Martinborough is the epicentre (though it has to be said that some of the other wineries in the region are definitely better than some of the Martinborough ones). That being said – it was the town of Martinborough that decided to have the festival – and they do it exceeding well.
11 Wineries this year – we skipped 3 cos the bus drivers went the wrong way or missed stops which was a bit annoying. This year the biggest problem was gale force winds – which made getting around a bit tricky (and was pretty miserable for those not tanked up on masses of alcohol – I was driving). Every time we have been before the biggest issue of the day was getting out of the scorchin sun. Yesterdays issue was finding some space out of the wind.
Elvis at Alana Estate
My favourites of the day:
Best Food:
Salute’s Lamb Croquettes at Palliser winery
Best Band
The Jedi Knights playing at Tirohana, and of course The Beat Girls at Palliser for giving us something to really “boogie-oogie” to (that is NOT my word!)
Best Coffee
Ripe at Martinborough Vineyard – because it was there when I needed defrosting the most.
Most Outrageous food rip-off
The Crayfish at Alana Estate. It is a mark of how sorry hubby felt for me that he (unknown to me) swapped enough Festival Franks for a small piece of seafood to have allowed our group a glass of wine each.
Best Customer Service (in the end).
Ruth Pretty Catering. I ordered a Coq Au Vin pie (had them before – they are delish) and got a steak and kidney. Took it back and they replaced it – with a steak and \Kidney. Took it back again and they finally worked out they had mixed up some trays – so they took a fresh tray our and got me a piping hot Coc Au Vin pie. They were lovely and apologetic and took the time to sort me out even though it was a huge event and they were really busy.
Best Wines (from the general view of the group)
Alana Estate. (Which is up for sale if you have a few million lurking under the sofa cushions).
All in all – as ever it was a great day out. Despite the vast quantities of alcohol consumed – its always a friendly event. No fights, just fun. I do have some tips for people thinking about going though.
- Become a Friend.
Friends get to buy 6 tickets before they go on general release. It’s a must if you really want to go. It costs $120 for the first year, and $75 a year after that. With tickets at about $60 it makes it expensive if there’s only 2 of you, but when you know there’s a group going – it’s worth it.
- Buy Festival Franks in stages.
You cannot get refunds on your Franks. Only franks are taken on the day- you buy them with real cash or EftPOS. Each of the vineyards has “banks” so its best to remember to take out small quantities and then you are not left with unusable money at the end of the day. You can always buy bottles of wine back at the square with any leftover – but why should you?
- End up at Palliser.
This should always be your last stop – its where the Beat Girls play and its the best for a good party atmosphere.
- Don’t be stupid and Drink & Drive.
Drink Driving doesn’t always have the same bad rap here as it does back home – here many people think its acceptable. It’s not. And every road out of town has a breathalyser stop on it. Don’t be an arse. If you are the driver – don’t be tempted just soak up the atmosphere and make notes about the antics of your drunken companions.
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The French Bistro Martinborough **
Martinborough: home of the day long vineyard crawl Toast Martinborough, Martinborough Fair and tumbleweeds. A great place to go if you want peace and quiet – and wine. Because there ain’t much else.
So we spent a really lovely evening there staying at the Martinborough Hotel (highly recommended), but decided to go for dinner to The French Bistro.
That was our first mistake.
The second error was not turning round when we discovered that the name had changed to “Wendy Campbell’s The French Bistro”. I’ve been wanting to go there for years – but never got round to it. Then in 2007 the Bistro won an award – Best Restaurant – from Cuisine Magazine. At that point – it became known that the bistro was owned by John Campbell’s mum. John Campbell, for those who don’t live here yet is the presenter of a TV current affairs program: Campbell live. I guess it’s a marketing buzz to trade on the name rather than the food.
Well we went in anyway and asked to see the menu. And thus we come to our third mistake – not walking out at this point. For some reason I cannot fathom, the menu was a photocopy of a handwritten sheet, with crabbed writing we had to squint to read – and even then we had to ask for help in deciphering it. I’m not suggesting that all menus being computer designed – but it does help if the diners can actually see what they are about to eat. It was even hard to see the prices – but you are looking at about $36 – $40 for a main – which is about the price for Boulcott St Bistro – where you can actually read the menu.
I really wish I had taken a photo to show how bad it was.
We stuck at it, and Hubby order “Duck a l’orange” (we think) and I ordered the lamb in a Mint Jus.
What we were presented with was identical bowls of brown meat in brown “gravy” with vegetables. Call me thick but shouldn’t orange sauce look a little distinct from watery gravy? And I swear I could have counted the flecks of mint in the “mint jus” which was more the consistency of stock, and tasted like it too.
In fact – in the whole meal – the only thing that was nice was the meat – which was really nice. But hubby could do that on our barbie at home – for considerably less than $40.
I was so disappointed. All that time waiting for a chance to go – and the meal was crap. And I had given the restaurant at the Martinborough Hotel a miss in order to go there – and I know the food there is stunning.
So while I recommend a night in Martinborough anyday – skip The French Bistro. I’ve also heard that Est Wine Bar is brilliant for food –so there is some choice without having to settle for brown gloop.
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Crisp Spring Mornings and the Hum of Helicopters.
If you ever thought countryside living was peaceful and quite – think again. It never has been. With a cacophony of animals, trucks and tractors and the general noise of farm life around.
Ah yes, spring is the air, and the early frosts turn the landscape into an eerie whiteout on the ground underneath startlingly blue skies and clear mountain vistas. And hell on earth for all the winery owners who are about to lose their harvest to the frost.
SO they have to organise a way of stopping the frost settling on the vines. The Vineyards here use one of two methods. The quiet version is a small windmill, which circulates air over the vines. The Alternative is to get the helicopters in, which fly over the vines circulating the air so the frost doesn’t settle , and we get our scrummy wines next year.
I’ve been hearing them through the night. I don’t envy the pilots and I don’t envy the vineyard owners who are paying around $2000 an hour to get them flying.
Ahh, but the wine at the other end is so good. And a frosty start means glorious days for us. A bit of countryside noise is an incredibly small price to pay to live in such surroundings. I wouldnt change it for anything.
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How difficult is it to get proper orange juice in NZ?
Quite difficult it seems if you start by calling it Simply Squeezed, when it isn’t squeezed juice. This is something that has always bugged us since we got here: just how difficult can it be to get proper squeezed orange juice in a country that can grow oranges. Simply Squeezed is a brand of juices you can buy in the supermarkets here, and they are in court for misleading advertising (and about time too!).
Apparently what has got them in trouble is that they advertised on TV last year that 100% of their orange came from Hawkes Bay, whereas they actually use fruit from Pakistan as well. They are also in trouble for advertising to hotels that their juice is “100% squeezed juice”.
We haven’t bought Simply Squeezed, because we tend to read labels, and the nutrition label actually shows that they also use concentrate. Instead – we buy Charlies – whose labels show that it is really, honestly proper orange juice without any of this concentrate rubbish.
Simply Squeezed is quoted in the paper as saying “we pride ourselves on delivering to our customers the best-tasting chilled juices”. They do not however seem to pride themselves on honest labelling.
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Wellington Eats – Boulcott St Bistro *****
This is one of my favourite restaurants in Wellington – I actually prefer it to Logan Browns which is the one most people associate with being the best in Wellington.
For a start – it is housed in the lovely old building – which looks so stunning amongst office high rises and car parks. It’s like a little jewel.
The food is just amazing. I always tend to be a bit boring – and order the Fillet Béarnaise. (If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!) They always cook it perfectly, and they are happy to swap the chips for whatever veggies you prefer. (And I have to get them swapped because the chips look way to good not to eat if I ordered them). I had a side of Cauliflower Gratin which was heavenly. I could have happily eaten that all on its own. The great thing is that the food isn’t too poncey – but flash enough to make you feel that you have had a real treat. The menu isnt full of the lates fasionable foody stuff – but brilliantly cooked, really elegant food that tastes just how it should.
I don’t eat puddings – but I’m reliably informed that the Crème Brulee is to die for. Hubby rather enjoyed tucking in to an apple crumble – but it didn’t look that “crumble-y” to me – mostly because Kiwis seem to make crumble topping with Oats rather than out of flour butter and sugar.
The only “problem” with Boulcott St Bistro is that they do not take bookings, and it can get noisy. But we just deal with that by going for an early dinner.
Prices are actually pretty good – the Fillet Bearnaise was just $36.00 which is about average for a main course in a decent restaurant. Compare that with Logan Browns where the mains are about $40-$45. And even better – the entertainment guide always has them in – and you get a Buy One Get One Free on a main course. I always look forward to getting the new guide because it means we can go back.
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99 Boulcott Street
Wellington
New Zealand
Ph: 04 499 4199
Fax: 04 499 3879
E.mail: info@boulcottstbistro.co.nz
Please Note: Bookings are accepted for lunch only. Dinner is casual dining so just come along.
Opening Hours
Bistro Lunch : Monday to Friday : from noon
Bistro Dinner : Monday to Saturday : from 6pm
Wine Bar: Monday to Friday : All day
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Coffee Art.
Thanks to the magic of Twitter (yes – it does occasionally have it’s uses) I got a heads up on a post at Webdesigner depot about the stunning art you see on coffee.
Now most people outside New Zealand may never see this. I certainly didn’t until I came here. And it has to be said that we DO love our coffee here – so making your morning flat-white or Latte into a statement is a sign that you REALLY love yoru coffee.
This is a Picture of a Flat White that I took at the now deceased Chocolate Fish Cafe at Setoun in Wellington. Apparently this is the “Rosetta” design – though here we tend to think of it as a Silver Fern.
Right – Im off for a coffee.
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