It just doesn't get any better.

Saturday, July 30, 2022, was one of those rare days when everything worked out perfectly. We had blue skies and about 65 degrees. Jeanne's knees are the best they've been in years, so she was up for some walking.  We decided to attend Maison Vauron's red wine market day.  Who doesn't like free wine after all?  

The wine tasting was just one part of our perfect day however.  We decided that instead of returning, after the tasting, to the train station at Grafton, the one nearest the Maison, we would instead walk over to the Newmarket Station, and take the train home from there.  Although it is nearly twice as far as walking back to Grafton, it is all level ground; no steep hill like there is when you approach the Grafton station.  And, there are other incentives along the route to the Newmarket Station. I'll tell you more about them shortly.

But let's start at the wine tasting.  I've done a number of posts about this subject. I've been going to them for years, but this was Jeanne's first time. She had however, had lunch at the Maison several times when we lived with Allie and the boys, so she is very familiar with the place. 

When we walked in the front door, we discovered that they had remodeled it, greatly expanding the deli section.  I heartily approve. It had always been a little frustrating when I had  to worm my way back to the cheese display cooler.  Now there's three times as much room.  

Practically the first thing we did was to buy a couple of their ham/cheese sandwiches and stash them away in Jeanne's purse for later.  

Several times now, Jeanne and I have gone to the Auckland Mint, the official site where New Zealand's precious metals are sold in coins, rounds or bars.  We even took the grandboys once, and got to hold a kilogram of solid gold. Didn't buy it of course, just salivated over it a little.  

I bring that up here because I think I got just about as much satisfaction admiring these huge wheels of French cheese as I did looking at the gold. (How would you like to be allowed back there with a cheese plane in your pocket?) 

Below are a few more shots of the café portion of the Maison.  

Here are just a couple of shots of the tasting.  

And below are a couple of pictures of the shelves of wine.  

Here is the first of those incentives I mentioned earlier.  After we left the tasting, and as we walked toward Newmarket, we decided to take a short break. We are sitting here at a table on the sidewalk outside a Chinese Restaurant and waiting for our snack of prawn wontons.  They were wonderfully fat prawns.   

And here is incentive number two.  We're at Number One Chicken.  This tiny Korean place never, ever stops. I have been here at least a dozen times over the years and it is always busy.  It's been ages since Jeanne has been here though because of her knees and Covid, so this was another real treat for her.  We took away a cup each of their plain and saucy popcorn chicken.    

Finally, I have to explain why I named this post as I did.

You can tell that we've had a great day so far, right?  Well, when we got to the Newmarket Train Station, the train pulled in just as we descended the escalator.  No waiting at all. Then, half an hour later when we arrived at Henderson, we walked to the bus stop and discovered that our bus, 14t, was ready for us.  No waiting there either.  Who needs a car?     

Here is the picture of what we brought home.  The sausage at the bottom came from Maison Vauron.  We had tried a few pieces of it while sipping the wine earlier and Jeanne decided she had to have some.  I swear that you could almost drive nails with that piece. It is that firm.  It's the kind of sausage that you cut paper thin and then let it dissolve in your mouth as you roll your eyes with delight.  I think it is not only smoked, but air dried.  

Jeanne thinks the thing looks like a sweet potato.  And yes, the white stuff is mold, but a good kind of mold. Fancy, rock-hard smoked and air-dried sausage mold. Probably hung in the dark in some French cave for who knows how long?

I'm pretty sure there is a law on the books in France that makes it a crime not to drink a glass of beer of wine with it, whenever you eat that sausage. There are severe penalties if you don't, although happily, the guillotine no longer figures into it. 

I've always considered myself to be law abiding and will therefore do my best to comply.  However, I think I'll be bending the rules just a little since I just bought a half-case of Spanish Rosé that we really like and think would taste great with the French sausage. (Let's just keep that between ourselves, okay?  No need to mention it to the authorities.)     

Thanks to all of you who have come along with us today on Doug and Jeanne's most excellent adventure.     -djf

Oh, just in case any of you want to learn more about Maison Vauron, here is its website. 

https://www.mvauron.co.nz/

   

Samoan food

 

A couple of times recently, I have highlighted Kiwi food on my blog; commonly eaten foods, and those particularly pleasing to Kiwi palates.  

Today, I'd like to show you some foods that Samoan immigrants have brought with them to New Zealand.  I have found many of them to be delicious. I love walking into Samoan takeaway places.  I get the same sort of feeling that I used to get when I walked into Krienta's candy store as a kid with a dime in my pocket.   

One of the greatest joys of traveling in my opinion, is the opportunity to try new foods. If you travel, but refuse to try new foods, in my opinion, you might just as well have stayed home. 

I've said it before; my mother is the person I credit with instilling in us kids the pleasure of trying something new when we traveled. Even if we were only traveling around our area of Michigan, she would tell my dad to pull over here, or there, and she'd come back with a couple of pounds of some home-made bologna or other treat, that she'd dole out to the pack of ravenous wolf cubs in the back seat.   

I think that new foods are doubly exciting when you have to ask what the food is when you're trying to decide.  The Samoan ladies and girls who work at the Taste of Samoa have proven to be very kind and patient with me. Each time I come in, I have to ask; what is this, and how about that?  Then, I make a selection and go away pleased.  One more new treat to try.  

I don't always love the new food, but the adventure is in the trying.  And most of the time I do like it.   

Taste of Samoa, it's just a little place, but it has lots of selections.  Let's go in and I'll show you.  We'll start with the main courses. Starting at the top left and going to the right, we have potatoes, kumera, (like a sweet potato) green beans and rice noodles.  At the bottom left we have a large piece, about 1/2 of a tarakihi, (fish) which is smothered in onions,  then turkey tails, lamb ribs and corned beef.  Sorry about the reflections. 

On the top we have bananas and taro cooked in coconut milk/cream.  On the bottom left are two large pieces of baked fish and the stew-like dish is kingfish cooked in coconut milk, I think.  I may have misheard the server on that last one.  

Here are some turkey tails and lamb ribs I brought home, along with a dessert. It reminds me of the gingerbread that my mom used to make and cover with lemon sauce, although I don't think this cake has ginger in it and it's a vanilla sauce.  

these are turkey tails

The dessert on the left and lamb ribs, also called lamb flaps on the right. 

I don't know what's in the foil, but the other two  in the warming case are baked taro and breadfruit.  

There are lots of desserts. 

As you might expect, coconut milk figures in a lot of the desserts.  This one is also made with Samoan koko (chocolate), rice and tapioca.  

A cool thing about Koko is that it is not perfectly smooth like processed chocolate bars are, instead, there are little crunchy bits of the roasted cocoa bean in there.  

The pudding on the left and the Koko Samoa is on the right.  If you watch the video later in the post you'll see why it is the shape it is.  

This is pawpaw and tapioca pudding. I could eat that every day.  

I'm not sure if this is taro or cassava caramel delight. (my name for it)  If I had tasted this as a kid, I would have thought I was in Heaven.  

Bananas and tapioca in coconut milk. This one is okay, but not spectacular. 

I haven't tried that lower center one yet.  It looks like buns in coconut milk, doesn't it?  

Also, notice the top left item. Those are the bags of koko.  

A very dense coconut bread. Not anywhere near as sweet as I thought it might be.  This is great with raspberry jam on it and a pot of strong tea.  

These are also great. They're called panikeke, or Samoan pancakes.  They are like big 'donut holes,' but are more substantial, since they generally have banana in them.  Very inexpensive. Talk about a comfort food.  Sometimes they are topped with powered sugar or chocolate syrup, or almost anything.  

Made fresh during the day, every day, they are a pleasure to eat still warm out of the fryer.    

Finally, here are a couple more items I haven't tried yet.  I'll have to get back to you about these two. I should have at least bought a bottle of the Otai.  I'm very curious about it. 

I have included a video for you. It shows how to make hot chocolate from the raw beans grown in Samoa.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07nc_dIL2ow

And just in case you're in the mood for a stronger drink at the end of a long hot, stressful day, may I suggest one that I like. Try a shot of gin with plenty of ice-cold coconut water in a tall glass. Unique, but tasty.  

Wherever you are, during the next week, make it a point to try something new. The next time you visit the supermarket, look for something you've never tried before. Especially if you have kids or grandkids that you can influence.  They may thank you some day. 

And it doesn't have to be something exotic. Believe it or not, I remember the first time we had French-cut green beans as a kid. I never knew they came that way and it was a big hit with us. They seemed much more elegant than the regular cut kind.  We all finished the beans on our plates that night without the usual pressure from the parents.    

Later,    djf

July 11, 2022

I was born and subsequently spent the next sixty years of my life living in in the State of Michigan, USA. We then moved to New Zealand and I've been living in a state of confusion ever since.

I knew of course, that we were moving from the northern hemisphere to the southern, but until I stood in front of an oak tree in July and saw it bare of leaves, it didn't really hit home how completely different things are here.   

The Oak, shut down for the winter.  

In Thoreau's work Walden, he wrote about a man who hears a different drummer. 

I think that a lot of plants here listen to their own drummers as well.  They live their lives, regardless of what the calendar says.  As I walked through Tui Glen today, on the 11th of July, 2022, I saw plants in several stages of their life cycles.  

To an old guy like me, it's confusing.  Just what season of the year are we in, anyway?  Is the year coming or going?  Did the calendar fall of the wall and its pages get shuffled around before it was put back into operation?  

Oranges and lemons, on trees about 100 yards away from the sleeping oak I showed  you earlier. 

Don't misunderstand me. I don't mind the differences. I think the mixed-up seasons here are interesting, exciting, even exotic. They add flavor to my life.  It's just that the seasonal rules that controlled my previous existence in Michigan no longer apply.  The mind boggles. (When you're 70, the mind boggles easily.)  

Here are a couple of photos for comparison.  Fall and winter. 

Taken on April 7, 2022

July 11, 2022

 

This was taken from our balcony at about 7:10 a.m. on the 11th of July.  Sunrise won't be for another 25 minutes or so.  (My camera is very good at picking up available light.  That sky actually looks darker to me than this picture makes it appear. ) 

And speaking of exotic, look at these three shots I took, also on July 11th.  

I grew up with maples and elms and cedars. Even after having lived here for 10 years, I marvel at such plants. 

 

This menu board has nothing to do with the rest of my post, other than that it was put up on the 11th of July. I just thought you might enjoy seeing it. (And, since my post this week is shorter than many others, this is a good way to -stretch- it just a little) 

For those of you in the U. S., divide these prices by 1.48 to get an approximate cost in U.S. dollars. 

That's it for today.  To all of you back in the northern hemisphere, where summer now reigns, enjoy the long days and the bounty of your gardens. 

And return here next week for another look at our lives in Aotearoa.   -djf

Our mid-winter dinner

We had our Mid-Winter Dinner yesterday, on the 9th of July.  The days are short now, the nights are long.  It's often rainy and chilly.  If you venture out without an umbrella tucked somewhere, you run the risk of a downpour finding you.

The rain is a good thing. Our summers are long and dry. The many reservoirs tucked away in the hills around Auckland are now being replenished.  I checked the levels a moment ago and found that they are now 85% filled.  The historical average is 80% at this time of year, so whoever manages the water system in Auckland must be pleased; we're slightly ahead of schedule.  

The bottom line though, regarding the weather, is that we're spending more time indoors. It's a good time to get together for a good meal with friends. Hence, the mid-winter dinner.  And, to make the event even nicer, our Social Committee subsidized the meal. Each resident's portion was much reduced from its true cost.  

I would love to be able to show you all the pictures I took during the dinner, but to be fair to any residents here, who may not want their photos spread to the world at large, I will not show them. 

I will show you some other photos though, that will give you, I hope, a feel for the event. 

Here is one of our stormy days.  Mid-afternoon but the lights have come on. 

If you want to get out of your apartment for a while, there are dozens of lounges throughout the buildings from which you can sit and watch the rain.  This is my favorite. It overlooks the Fernery and the African Garden.  A good place to read, too.  The chairs and table are in a constant state of rearranging depending on the whims of the residents.

I often come down during the afternoon and help myself to a free cup of coffee or hot chocolate.  

And I drink it in front of the fireplace located next to the Opanuku Café.

I took this shot with my phone and the flames, and cozy warmth emanating from them, are not apparent. Take my word for it though, this is a great spot on a chilly afternoon.  

Here are some shots from our café. You can see that some of the tables have been decorated by the folks who will be dining at them.

 

Okay, here we are at the dinner and you see my plate down below this text.  I opted for the salmon and am glad that I did.  It was terrific.

You know, I did a lot of traveling during my working years, and that meant dining out in cities all over America.  We were generally a group made up of factory personnel and sales reps. We ate at some very nice restaurants.  

One in particular often comes to mind.  The restaurant I'm thinking of was in Minneapolis, MN., and we were there for lunch.  I noticed that, besides all the normal wait staff, there were two young men, in black pants, white shirts and black bow ties, who had a station at one side of the dining room.  It was elevated two steps above the floor level.  

It was their job to watch over the room and instantly move to whatever diner needed more water in their glass, a plate removed, a fork replaced, or whatever.  I watched them watch the floor, fill any need efficiently, and then return to their station to watch for the next call to duty.  

It was impressive.  

Well, last night we had a table situated not far from the kitchen area.  I was able to watch our staff at work, and I've got to say that it was a pleasure.  They too, were efficiency personified.   

The chefs were plating the main courses.  There were three options available, so they had to prepare the plates according to what the folks at each table had ordered. Our wait staff was standing by, and when the dinners of the entire table were ready, they'd head out with them, across the dining room.  Some of the tables were small, only consisting of four diners. When that was the case, a couple of tables worth of main courses went out at one time. Others were large and must have had more than a dozen people at them.  It was especially impressive to see a line of servers, each laden with two or three plates, heading for a table and distributing the meals correctly to each resident. They served a lot of meals very quickly.   

I take pleasure in watching an efficient team work together. We are very lucky to have such talented people serving us.   

Our good friend Kevin once told me about this drink.  He said that it was the favorite of a friend of his.  As you see, I bought a bottle to try.

It's a whisky to which the essences of tangerines and almonds have been added and was sweetened with honey.  

I brought the bottle to the dinner and as the dessert service was beginning, offered a taste to anyone at our table.  Well, soon other friends stopped by and samples were given out to them as well.  Long story short, it generated a lot of interest.  I think several bottles are going to be ordered on-line from the same place I got it in the next few days.  

I did a little snooping at one point and discovered where our desserts where being prepared. I meant to show you the finished product, but I was too busy eating mine and neglected to get a shot.  These are tiny éclair bites. They will be topped with a scoop of ice cream and covered with caramel sauce.  Although no one actually did, there was talk around our table of licking our plates, the sauce was that good.  I was again impressed.  

Our dinner is over. We are satisfied, with a good meal, a couple glasses of wine, and an evening with friends behind us.  Jeanne and I are looking over our balcony at a fairly balmy night, for the middle of winter, that is.  Is the Moon up there do you think? 

Certainly it is, and it is fairly bright. It makes it difficult to see the constellation of Hercules that is at the center of the picture. Look at this in dim light and the stars will show up better. Or zoom in if you can. There are four stars in a rectangle that make up the body of the constellation and they lie just above the little cloud that appears below the center of the photo.  

A closer look at the Moon.  And look, the golden handle is beginning to show, (down toward the bottom on the right) although to be fair, I think it would be better, given the Moon's color tonight, to call it a silver handle.   

That does it for today, my friends.  The event was a success and I want to thank our management and staff for the job they did for all of us. And, special thanks to the Social Committee for their generosity.      -djf