Another wander through Ponsonby

The last time I rode a bus through Ponsonby, I noticed a bakery I had not seen before. It's a German bakery. (Ohhh, I'll bet they make pretzels. Those great big ones with lots of coarse salt on them.) I planned to come back when I had the opportunity and investigate.  

Well, today's the day. I've taken the bus in and here I am in front of the bakery. Their sign confirms that there are indeed pretzels to be found within. Let's go.

I took these pictures before Christmas.

 There it is. When I tried a piece just moments after taking this picture, I realized that this is the real deal. A proper pretzel. 

(There is a tiny hole-in-the-wall pretzel and churro shop on Queen Street in Auckland, but the pretzels they make are nothing like these.)

 Since the bakery is on the corner of the Three Lamps corner, I decided that I would walk down some of the side streets that come off Ponsonby Road and see what other interesting things I could find.  I found that there are some very nice homes here.

I also discoverd that there is a beach nearby. I walked down to it and took some pictures, and will bring you those in the next post. 

On my return to Ponsonby Road, I came across a place that grabbed my attention. Check this out...

 Morepork is a play on words here. There is a small nocturnal owl here that the Maori call a ruru. It's English name is the morepork.   

 And look at what the sign says. Low and slow American BBQ. I've got to check this out.

 It's just a little place but it sure smells right.  

This is on one wall.  

I found that the chef is from Massachusetts. She was interested to learn where I was from and when I placed a combination platter takeaway order, she threw in a free container of pickled vegetables for us. 

I chose beef brisket, jalepeno sausages, ribs, and chicken for the meats and burnt-end-bacon beans, cole slaw and corn bread for my sides.  

Allie, Jeanne and I enjoyed all of it that evening, although I think we would have liked it all even more had we been eating it fresh from the grill, rather than reheated five hours later. 

I especially liked the beans. They're the best beans I've had in NZ, but not as good as those Jeanne, Kim, Fred, or even I have made.  

(I think they used the wrong kind of dry beans. ) 

Still, they're good enough that I'd like to take Jeanne there sometime for lunch. 

This last photo is one taken on the street that leads down to the beach. Those are jacaranda trees (native to Brazil) along the sidewalks. Stay tuned for the next installment....         djf