End of the school year food fest.

In past years, Summerland Primary School has held a Gala toward the end of the school year as a fund-raiser. This year, it was changed to a food fest. I think it was successful. The crowds were just as good and I think the school raised the money they were hoping to, without quite so much work. 

Allie and the boys spent a couple of hours there, but Jeanne's knee was bad at the time, so I walked over, considered the many options available, and brought some dinner home for the two of us. 

I should have composed these pictures better I think, instead of just walking and clicking away at anything and everything. I guess I was in a hurry to deliver dinner to my lady. The other problem with my photos is that you can't smell what I was smelling as I took them. There was the smell of meat frying and warm bread, cotton-candy, deep-fryers making chips, and so much more. Think of a state or county fair and you'll have the idea.  I didn't count the booths selling food, but there were substantially more, maybe double as many places as there were at past Galas. 

So, take a look. You won't be drooling over the shots like you might have if I have paid more attention to my photography, but you'll get the idea of what it was like to wander through our food fest. 

 In the school parking lot, heading for 'the court,' where the food fest was held.

They did have a couple of rides and fun booths again I see.  

 Some of you may remember that Hangi refers to the style of cooking an assortment of meats, potatoes, kumera and other vegetables. Traditionally done in a pit in the ground lined with hot rocks and covered with leaves. 

This was one of the places where the smell of warm bread turned heads.  

Steak to the left of me, sausages to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle again.  

The baked goodies were inside the Hall. 

Another shot of the cake tables.

The guy in the blaze orange is Ramesh Chandra. For 11 1/2 years, he volunteered at Sumerland Primary in the parking lot, directing traffic and pedestrians and insuring that the two did not mix. The term used here is 'lollipop man.' He has now moved to one of Auckland's southern suburbs where he lives with his family. On his last day 'on the job' he did indeed hand out lollipops to anyone who wanted one. 

lollipop man

noun

BRITISHinformal

1. a man who is employed to help children cross the road safely near a school by holding up a circular sign on a pole to stop the traffic.

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It's called Jelly here, not Jello

Take a pineapple and cut it in half, top and bottom, scoop out the fruit and chop it up. 

Return some of the fruit to a scooped out half and pile vanilla ice cream on top of it.

Add whipped cream, syrups and sprinkles of various kinds. 

There you have it, pineapple ice cream. 

Gift baskets being sold

A sweet, vanilla smell....

Another possibility; curry, rice and naan. 

The 'A' refers to the inspected health rating of excellent.  -djf

A new look for the Metropolis.

 It's summer and it looks like all sorts of things are growing in this garden of steel. Look at all those spires reaching for the sun. 

I showed you some pictures of the Metropolis not long ago. Let's take a closer look at it today. There have been some changes.

It's impressive from every angle.

They've just recently completed an upgrade to the area around the base of the Metropolis. Allie saw it last week when she was in the city on business and told me about it. 

I approve of the changes. This area is very close to the Vietnamese hole-in-the-wall Banh Mi sandwich shop I featured sometime back, The Indochine Express, and is a popular place for many to sit and enjoy a take-away lunch. I was here early today so there were only a few people around. 

I like it here. In this naturally hilly terrain, doesn't it make sense to use steps and terraces everywhere? This new look is going to draw people like a magnet. 

You're going to have to watch where you walk here though. Some of the steps are bigger than others...and there is at least one other little surprise for the unwary...
Now look a little closer at this picture. You see a mom and a little girl and dad, who is sitting on a step at a distance  from his family fiddling with his fancy new camera.

It is now a few minutes later and I have been sitting and resting my feet. Mom, who is also watching their son, has now moved over to a new area and will shortly be annoyed because her husband is not helping to keep tabs on the kiddies.  He's still busy with his camera. 

What did I tell you about this place drawing people like a magnet?  
Do you notice that the boy's right foot is raised? A split second after I took this picture, he was moving at full speed. His mother's reaction time and her concern for little sister meant that she was going to be just a little late to stop the inevitable fountain/child interaction. I would have taken a follow up shot but she didn't look like she would have appreciated the humor of the moment. And dad was just about to hear about it. I don't speak Chinese but I knew exactly what she was shouting to her husband. I quietly moved on.   

-Thank you, and good luck little family...(and dad, you missed a real good picture of junior getting wet...Quit playing with the dials on that thing and take some pictures.)   -djf

If the sight of clams, oysters or mussels makes you feel squeemish, you should look away now.

I have shown you a number of unusual foods during the time I've been doing this blog. So maybe you are somewhat used to examining items here that you might not normally choose to eat.  It's only a picture right? You're not actually in the room with me full of cooking smells and I won't be expecting you to try it shortly.

I don't know how you feel about shellfish. Some people find an oyster, clam or mussel to be a little too organic to even look at, much less to eat. But, I've been enjoying the many types found here. I think in one of my early posts, I might have mentioned gathering crayfish and fresh-water clams while on a date with Jeanne way back in about 1971. Those clams were admittedly less than delicious and as tough as shoe leather. I'm guessing though that we probably overcooked them, just to make sure they were done. 

Today's post is about a popular local species, the green-lipped mussel or Perna canaliculus. In Maori, it's called kuku or kutai. They are farm-grown not far from us, just over on the Coromandel Peninsula (Pacific Ocean side) and are always available. They usually cost $4.79 per kilo of live weight, but fairly often go on sale at Pak n Save for $2.99/k. 

We adults consider them a treat so I buy a few now and then. Here are some that I just brought home. 

It's certainly easy to see why their name is 'green-lipped.'  

 In this close-up, you can see a bit of it's 'beard.' This is what anchors the mussel to a rock in the wilds or to a rope at the farm. It's inedible and I usually remove them before steaming. This time though, I'm leaving them in place just to show you what they look like. 

This mussel is interesting also because it has another bi-valve shell of some sort attached to it. 

I get a pot of water boiling under the steamer and in they go.  

They only take about 5 minutes of cooking. By then, they'll be fully open.  

They are ready and look, even the hitch-hiker shell is open. 

Here they are poured out on a platter.  

 The beard will pull out of the flesh of the mussel  easily. 

The green-lipped mussel has one adductor muscle and you can see it here still attached to the shell. You can also see the hole in the meat of the mussel where it was attached.

Here is a little closer look at the mussel and it's beard.

 And here is a really close look. This mussel also has a parasitic pea-crab inside it. Finding crabs inside mussels is quite common. The crabs may spend their entire lives in the mussel. They sneak in, sit on the gills and steal the food that adheres there as the mussel filters water through it's shell.

Cleaned of its beard, and free of crabs, this tasty bit is ready to eat. 

They're very good right out of the shell like this, but we sometimes saute a few sliced garlic cloves in butter and then toss in the lightly steamed mussels for another thirty seconds. Even better. 

Jeanne also sometimes makes a batter and deep-fries them. Those are almost addicting.We use raw mussels for that of course. I've become quite adept at slipping my knife into just the right spot on the shell to cut the adductor muscle. And they are a requirement as a last step in my seafood chowder. 

I've also read that these mussels have anti-inflammatory properties and can help relieve pain in arthritis sufferers. 

Here is a short video about this amazing creature. 

https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/videos/366-mussels-are-filter-feeders 

Spark Arena

I suppose that I shouldn't really complain. The term 'white-out' which I've applied to conditions like I'm seeing today could be very different after all. 

I've been in real white-out conditions in Michigan a couple of times. The last time was while I was driving home from Escanaba about ten winters ago. I was coming home at night from a meeting and was on that straight stretch of US2&41 between Hyde and Bark River. I crawled along, straining to see through the snow that was falling sideways at a 45 degree angle to me and trying to sense where I was on the pavement. Was I on the crest of the highway  or was I slowly being pulled into the deeper snow that lay on its sides? Almost impossible to say.  I was so thankful when I finally made it to the lights at the intersection of US2&41 and Hwy 69. Now that was a white-out. 

It's just that I was hoping today to get some really nice pictures of the Spark Arena area but the sky isn't cooperating. Winter is the time here that means overcast skies. But, while the calender says that it's summer, the sky does what it wants to. There is almost no threat of rain. The sky though is a uniform bright white that causes everything below it photograph as if the colors had been drained from it. Hence my term white-out. 

With a blue sky above and direct sunlight, all these shots would be so much nicer. I have tried to put a little color back into them with the photo editing tricks the computer provides, but that only helps a little. 

But, here we go. Spark Arena seats 12,000 and hosts all sorts of sporting and musical events. I walked past it recently on one of my jaunts and liked the looks of the landscaping around it. I thought it looks like a modernistic Japanese water garden. (I know about as much about landscape design as I do about architecture; almost nothing. Just enough to show my ignorence) 

Allie has attended concerts here. 

The old Railway Station Building is right next door. It's no longer in use as a transportation hub but has been remodeled and serves as a residence dorm for the University of Auckland. 

Back at Spark Arena. 

See what I mean? When you're photographing water, you really need to have some sun to make it look its best. 

Cool benches

Another angle across the water

Try to imagine the blue sky reflected here.. 

I like the design. Actually, it's the white concreate that mirrors the sky today. 

More curves. Nobody has to sit on plain old straight benches here at the Spark.  -djf

Flower power, part two

I had too many flower pictures for one post, I thought, so here is the second batch. 

Summertime is definitely here. And I'm in the mood tonight to hear three versions of a song that celebrates it. Here is my first. There was no one like Janis...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guKoNCQFAFk

And another amazing version. I love it that she seems to be singing it just for herself. You've got to slow yourself down to appreciate this one. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2bigf337aU

On our feijoa tree

Bird of Paradise

I don't know if anyone ever called Billie Holiday a Bird of Paradise, but I think it would fit if someone had. What a voice. What a band. Listen to this. Wow. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysow1wXWyvE

Jeanne has been volunteering all year as a 'Reading Buddy' in Arram's year 4 classroom.  She has been helping a group of four students who need some extra practice to improve their skills. The teacher for that class, Mr. Moore, presented Jeanne with this bouquet today in thanks for her efforts. This was her last class for this school year. (The books they use are on loan from the Ministry of Education and must be returned before the end of the year) 

Summer vacation begins at 12:30 p.m. on December 15th.  -djf