3/27/2011 Fonte, Seattle WA

i haven't forgotten you, but we're experiencing some growing pains with our blogger site, so we're looking for another home. i'll be able to post all the different meals from NZ once we have that up and running. in the meantime:

i'm going to jump ahead a few weeks here because this post has no photos. i know i know, this is a blog heavily weighted in photos but today i had a lot of other things on my mind and food was not 1 of them. for those of you dying of curiosity, matt and i had a concert at benaroya hall this afternoon but our call was at 10:30 this morning for our stage time. i was trying to make sure i didn't forget music and instrument and that we got there on time. so the camera got left behind.

however, for lunch we went to fonte, which we've eaten at before. it's been maybe a year or at least 6 months since we've been there. 1st thing we noticed is a couple tables were removed and replaced with coffee-table types and a couch. ok, makes since. something else that was new - breakfast is now being served all day. there are also quite a lot of new items on the menu, and something i really enjoyed is now off. alas grilled ham, cheese and caramelized onions i knew you well....

they have a nice selection of salads, pizza, sandwiches, and egg dishes, a couple soups and there might've been the odd dish type but i don't remember.

matt had the garde manger sandwich. it had some sort of charcuterie, peppers i think and something else on an artisinal bread. he was expecting it to be hot but it wasn't - not that that is a bad thing. he said it was pretty good.

i had the charcuterie omelette. when i asked what the charcuterie consisted of i was told they take some of all their meats and grind them together. so i'm thinking they make a sausage out of it and then chop that up and put it into the eggs. not quite.

they might grind it all up together but the consistency was more like a jerky that had been shredded. matt said it tasted like it had been left in the fridge a little too long. i admit it wasn't quite as good as i had hoped for. it was also extremely salty. i had 4 glasses of water just for lunch. overall as far as an omelette goes it was a nice yellow color - i like my eggs a little brown but all the chefs will tell you that's a no-no.

we shared a chocolate chip cookie and it was quite good.

so while it looks like a plus to have all those new items, some of them might be better off left off. only time will tell, and as fonte is still young i wouldn't be surprised to see a few more changes over the next couple years as they really find themselves.

2/21/2011 Wai, Queenstown, New Zealand

there doesn't seem to be a dress code in NZ. if there is queenstown didn't get the memo. but that worked in our favor. we spent the afternoon on the zipline and when we were done a little after 6pm we were famished. we had hoped to get a table at wai, a nice restaurant we found. we decided to walk past and reserve a table on the way back to the hotel where we would shower, change and then return for dinner.

the hostess appears and said yes there was availability that night. then she asks me when we were thinking of eating. i grinned and said "if you'll take us looking [and smelling] like this we'll dine now if you have a table." no problem! she took us in and gave us a table. i know we must've been a bit stinky along with being a bit dirty after ~3hrs on the zipline. but if they don't mind we don't mind.

i think that was the grubbiest i've ever been when dining in a nice place.

we chose to have the tasting menu with wine pairings. and it was the right choice.

we started with a sparkling white for our pre and amuse courses:

beetroot tartar wrapped in a sesame cone with goat cheese cream

this was pretty good. the goat cheese cream made the entire thing sweet which surprised me a little bit.

pea and watercress soup topped with paresan foam

i'm not fond of peas and this definitely tasted like peas. but overall was quite nice.













 course 1:

scallops:
scallops wrapped in pancetta with cauliflower foam, potato croquets and caper viniagrette

this was actually a special the eel (next) was on the menu. when described this sounded so good we asked if we could have it as well. then matt and i split both plates so we each got to have both.

this was pretty durn good. yummy, one might even say. :) the scallops were properly done, the croquets were wonderfully crunchy on the outside and creamy on the inside (unlike the ones we had all over spain), and the cauliflower foam actually tasted like cauliflower so i left most of it for matt

smoked eel:
smoked new zealand eel mousse wrapped in cured salmon, served with seared scallops, corn, tarragon and pancetta salad

this was the dish i was most hesitant about. i wasn't sure just how 'eel' it would be. and i was surprised, i really liked it. it was a cold, not hot component of the plate. the corn salad was a little too reminiscent of creamed corn but had a nice sweetness to it. and the scallop was of course wonderfully seared.

served with:










course 2:

bouillabaisse:
seared northland snapper and banana prawn with crispy baby octopus, accompanied by a saffron creme fraiche jelly and garlic crumbs, finished with a rich crayfish and tomato jus

i wasn't able to eat the octopus. it was left 'whole'. had it been cut up into pieces i think i'd've had no problem. i have had octopus in the past, mostly in asian dishes, and both chefs holly and ethan's served it to us, and i've enjoyed it. but i have issues with the entire thing. maybe part of it is the fact that different cultures clean fish out and some leave stuff behind. personally i'm a clean it out type of gal and i had no idea which this was. the crayfish was pretty much emulsified so it gave the flavor but other than reading the description you'd never know it was included. the prawn was wonderful as was the snapper. while being a fish soup didn't seem to be a fishy soup.

served with











course 3:

southland pork belly:
slow roasted belly of pork on a toasted walnut, apple ball and celery salad with cinnamon doughnuts and a sour apple puree, finished with walnut brittle

uh yum! matt's belly was prepared a little better than mine. i think mine was left in the pan just a wee bit too long as it was quite difficult to cut through. turning the piece over i discovered a slightly darker than what was probably intended by the kitchen, but the flavor was fantastic.

served with











course 4:

quail spaghetti carbonara:
hand rolled spaghetti, braised quail, marsala and sicilian olives wrapped in parma ham and finished with a quail yolk

when i was looking online at their sample menu this dish was on it and as matt will tell you i said 'wow' when i looked at it. i was thrilled to see it was on the actual menu. and the dish did not disappoint. it was divine! WOW! the pasta was perfect, the quail was perfectly cooked, the ham was not to thick. even the olives didn't offend. i wanted another one of these but sadly wasn't able to get it.

served with










cleanser:

red and green grapes, grape granita under (remember the consomme at comerc 24? this was the same thing) a 'balloon' of pinot

overall i did not like this. the grapes were ok, and the shaved ice was ok, too, but the ball of pinot was bitter. thankfully this was the cleanser










course 5:

grain fed ribeye of beef: with onion ring, mustard, ketchup and mayo aiolis, a dark grain crouton and salt/pepper

deconstructed hamburger. that's right, if you want to know what it's like to have a hamburger at a very high end restaurant, this is perhaps the best description. the beef was perhaps not rare enough for matt but was a little redder than i usually prefer. the onion ring was great.

served with











course 6:

strawberry shortcake:
fresh strawberries and home baked shortbread with strawberry and vincotta jellies, strawberry caviar, lemon creme fraiche and honeycomb crumbs

this was pretty good. the strawberry sorbets i think is the 'caviar', the jellies were fine but not really my cup of tea.

served with















mignardise:

petit fours:
(L to R) indonesian spice cake, pine nut and chocolate caramel, grapefruit pastil with lemon sherbet

not a bad ending to a really nice meal.

2/20/2011 Kaimata Retreat, Otago Peninsula, New Zealand

i'm going to combine our last 3 meals at kaimata in this post.

when booking we chose the '3 night nature package' which included a picnic lunch on 1 of the days. sadly it was overcast or windy enough that we changed that up a bit. instead of a picnic chef dani prepared a 'bacon and egg pie'. we had the morning on our own and when we returned it was in the fridge waiting for us to heat it up.

think quiche. there was also mushrooms and tomatoes on it. i hadn't thought about that but i just moved the mushrooms off.

it was ok as far as quiche go. we weren't able to finish it off on our own so i hope 1 of the other couples took us up on our offer to eat the last portion.







for dinner that night we had:

crackers, olives, sun dried tomato, cheese and pestos

fresh caught moki (thank you again kyle) skinned, sliced and marinated in a soy garlic sauce and served.

i tried it - it was a little on the mushy side for me. texture thing again. but the flavor was pretty nice.

instead of salad we had soup - salmon, monkfish, tomato, pepper celery, carrots, potato in a cream sauce

this was pretty good.

 the wine we had for dinner that night

wild roast boar with both sweet potato and roasted potato and carrots. YUM!

we also had tomato in balsamic

for dessert we had roasted pineapple with chocolate sauce and blueberries in a custard.













the next morning we just grabbed a quick breakfast, not waiting for the hot portion. there was a huge rainstorm moving across the otago region in the early afternoon and we wanted to miss as much of it as we possibly could by getting back to queenstown.

2/20/2011 Kaimata Retreat, Otago Peninsula, New Zealand

our 2nd breakfast was prepared by a different chef - chef Dani de Vinck, took over the food duties.  we're starting to gather, waiting for the fire to warm the place up and coffee to be ready when kyle comes in and asks if anyone wants brill for breakfast. "sure". matt and i weren't about to ask 'what the heck is brill?'. it's a flatfish, like flounder. kyle had caught some earlier.  that's a picture of some freshly caught brill (by someone else).

all the same goodies as yesterday. including orange or grapefruit juices, yoghurt, and those wonderful little croissants.

for our hot meal chef dani did a light bake on the brill. a not quite soft-fried egg and a bit of pesto on the side.

when it got to the table i had to admit i didn't know what to do with it. chef was real sweet, i have to admit. (she might've been thinking 'who are these crazy americans?' in her head). she took my knifie and fork and showed me where to cut into it -just off the center spine, and that i gently fold the skin back to the edge, and then gently scrap the meat off to the almost edge. if you go to far you end up getting the row of little bones that are the frilly fins and those are not good eats. so up and down, then turn the thing over and do it again.  it's very light and flaky. a teeny bit of pesto was all it needed.

i have to say it was quite yummy. i wish i could have this dish every monday for breakfast. ok, maybe not every monday. how about every wednesday instead?

yes, i have issues with food that comes to me with a head on it but i sucked it up and gave it a try. i still have issues with my food having a face on my plate, but i'm getting better.

2/19/2011 Kaimata Retreat, Otago Peninsula, New Zealand

we were really lucky to get dinner this night. we had a late 'tour time' at the albatross colony and didn't know if we'd make it back in time. as it turned out we showed up as the others were finishing their salad course, so chef fixed us salads while he did their mains.

clams our host dug up earlier that day.

and that's just 1 of the plates. there were 6 of them! that's a lot of clam.

potatoes, and baked fish

the top fish is blue wharry, the bottom piece of fish is monkfish. who said libby didn't like monkfish?

ok chef - i need your help! what the heck that fish really is - wharry is the closest i can remember y'all calling it, and i've no idea how it's spelled...

dessert was a rhubarb crisp with vanilla ice cream and fruit slices.

2/19/2011 Portobello Hotel, Portobello, Otago Peninsula, New Zealand

lunch was a quick bite at the portobello hotel. it was actually quite yummy.

crispy chicken wrap filled with tomato, lettuce and red onion.
mix in a mayo-type aioli sauce that was also pretty good.

2/19/2011 Kaimata Retreat, Otago Peninsula, New Zealand

breakfast at kaimata is no less a show than dinner. in part due to the wonderful views from the dining room. top that off with a warming lodge thanks to a roaring fire in the fireplace.

a nicely set table with croissants, juice, coffee, cereals, vegemite, toasts, eggs, and bacon

matt had 'the works' -bacon, egg, toast, tomato, mushroom

i just had toast and eggs with ham. 

2/18/2011 Kaimata Retreat, Otago Peninsula, New Zealand

i'm conflicted as i start to write this next post. i had such a good time and the food was so good - i want to tell everyone about this place so they will thrive and it'll still be there for us to stay when we go back to NZ. and on the other hand i want to keep it a secret - because if everyone knows about it we might not be able to book into it! but i guess that's a good rock and hard spot to be between.  (right: our 1st view of kaimata.)

they have a chef come in for breakfast and dinners, lunch is on your own. you can bring in your own groceries and stash them in the common kitchen's pantry/fridge and cook them yourself, or you can drive into town. portbello's the closest i think, and it's abut 30-40 minutes away, depending on your driving confidence on those 1-lane gravel roads.

we were met by a bottle of otago peninsula pinot noir and otago makes some fantastic pinots. every one i had was full bodied, with a robust nose.

dinner that night was wonderful. we had venison our host kyle had shot. dinner was with the 2 other couples that had booked into the retreat. 

but 1st we had NZ cheese and crackers, with a tomato pesto, a basil pesto and a jam-like spread i don't remember

prawns on the heat

salad: the prawns, avocado, salmon chunks and something that looks like cantelope but i'm pretty sure that's not what it was. sadly i failed to write down this dish in my notes :-(

the prawns were tasty once matt helped me off with it's legs, head and shell. the salmon was great. and long-time readers know i'm not a huge salmon fan, but these were grilled and firm pieces, not mushy.

main: the above mentioned venison. in this case deer, with brocolli, carrots, a potato well, it wasn't puree, and it wasn't mashed, chunky-mashed? a bit of garlic and a beet. i think.

dessert: was an orange foam kind of thing with zest and orange slices up top, probably a raspberry coulis and i think those are apple wedges.

chef chris harris at work in the kitchen. 

(note to chef: i apologize for not remembering everything, please feel free to correct or expand on anything here, chef!)

2/18/2011 cafe at Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin, New Zealand

we grabbed a quick lunch at the museum cafe before we went through their collection. we knew we'd have a big dinner that night at our retreat, and we hadn't had much breakfast so we needed some food.

we split the salt and pepper calamari with chilli, lime and coriander dipping sauce. it was well done but nothing special.

2/18/2011 Scenic Suites Hotel Breakfast Buffet, Queenstown, New Zealand

breakfast buffets are the thing in hotels in countries not america. they can be outstanding, as the resort on the isle of elba, or horrible. most fall into the mediocre middle and well this was no exception. if there are croissants or good rolls/bread, plenty of water and hopefully a good orange juice i don't complain. if they have 'egg dude' i bow down before them. LOL

i didn't take pics of the buffet here - as it turns out just about all our breakfasts could've been from the same place - but i took a pic of what we had to eat.

the little samosas were actually pretty good but could've been hotter. the 'cinamon' roll wasn't that great, the croissant was a croissant, as were the potato rosti or tater tots.

matt's breakfast.

VEGEMITE?!?!? we're in new zealand, not australia! where's the marmite?