Otago Orchard

Cromwell 1

Sea Fresh Oysters

Hothouse

Chillies in the hot house at the Winter Gardens in the Domain.

Paprika

Paprika is one of Budapest's top products. Unfortunately biosecurity measures in New Zealand make it difficult to bring food back from overseas. But I did sample some local paprika in a catfish soup - very tasty.

Snacking in Singapore

Sticky rice dumpling stuffed with bitter gourd... Mmm...

We covered a lot of ground in our two hours in Singapore airport - who needs stopovers?

Goose-neck barnacles

We found these pelagic goose-neck barnacles clinging to a fragment of pipe at the waterline on Bethell's Beach. A commenter had kindly identified them for me when I posted a picture of another variety in 2009.



They were alarmingly active, waving around in a tortured fashion with little tentacles emerging from the shells every so often.


Apparently the foot (or neck?) is edible and tastes of crab claws but I wasn't tempted.

Crazy for Coffee

The Colour Purple

A few weeks ago, I took a trip to the French Market in Parnell. Fortunately, I managed to resist the over-priced imported goods - cheese, cider and chocolat - and returned with some fennel and these purple carrots.

Oddly, they didn't taste any different - just not very carroty. The rabbits munched down theirs just the same and we boiled ours up with some barley.

The Olive Harvest

We headed out for lunch at an olive grove the other weekend and enjoyed some delicious olive oil with homemade bread.



It was a misty damp day but the birds were singing and the views were tranquil.

Kumeu Show VI

Quite the most unusual classes of crafts ever imagined.



From novelty animals and vehicles from fruit and/or vegetables...



...to "Sand saucer - no sand to show" and "Petal pattern on vaseline covered saucer".

Kumeu Show V

Beautiful blooms, prize squash, juicy jams and giant pumpkins.

Shrove Tuesday

We're hoping that next Shrove Tuesday, we'll be making pancakes from our own eggs...

Kiwi Classic

We attempted a kiwi classic last night - the whitebait fritter. Quite different from their European namesakes, New Zealand whitebait are tiny and not fit for individual consumption. Traditionally caught using nets strung across rivers, whitebait are now the subject of extensive regulation designed to protect the stocks of adult fish.

We took the responsible approach of purchasing ours from the supermarket. Here they are looking rather unappetising in their frozen state.


Here's the pancake batter in the pan with the whitebait mixed in and lots of parsley and butter...


And here's the finished article - success!