Skip to content

JOLIN

Monday, May 14, 2012

[Photographs: David Straight]

We went to Jolin for lunch recently, and rolled out very full. It cost $41. Jolin is one of the few Shanghainese restaurants in Auckland and so it is here that you will find xiao long bao, the little dumpling that could. These are the classic Shanghainese dumpling – technically they’re a bun, only they’re delicate on the outside, pinched and gathered at the top, with stock and pork inside. You bite the top, suck out the stock and then eat the rest quickly. The Dominion Road Dumpling Wars just got hotter.

There are other things at Jolin, and if you’re not familiar with Shanghainese food you might think it bland – it’s delicate and oily. (Sadly, Jolin put things that aren’t Shanghainese on the menu: don’t bother with them.) Try the cold dishes – we like the salted duck, salty and slightly nutty from soy sauce. Recently, we also ate an astonishing dish called “cold Shanghai noodle”, which was a plate of noodles, cold, topped with chilli-peanut-pork mince, almost like Chinese spag bol. We liked it a lot.

So there is the food. But what we really like about Jolin is the service. Yes. Service in a Chinese restaurant on Dominion Road. Recently, our waiter looked contemplative when we ordered. We asked him if we needed something else. “Oh yes,” he said. “I think a wonton noodle soup.” And it didn’t come with a fork and spoon. SFG

HOURS Open seven days, 11am to 10pm.

ADDRESS 248 Dominion Road, ph 631-5575.

IMPORTANT DETAILS There is parking around the back. And be careful – sometimes they’re a bit heavy on the MSG.

Filed in Cheap and Cheerful, Chinese, Dominion Road | Tagged , , , | Comments (2)

FRIENDS: ANNA KING SHAHAB

Friday, May 4, 2012

Anna King Shahab writes for the likes of Metro and Taste magazines, not to mention for her blog, Eats by Anna, which switches between what she calls “other people’s kitchens” and her own – she’s lucky enough to live in the Balmoral / Sandringham food nexus, so regularly heads out on spice missions with daughters Maia (3) and Zara (1) in tow. It’s an approach that we like very much, so we asked her to give up a few of her favourite places to stock up.

The Avondale Sunday Markets (Avondale Racecourse, 6am-12pm) can’t be beaten for variety and price of produce. My favourite stalls are the Thai family who grow wonderfully sweet little red shallots, fiery chillies and Thai herbs such as holy basil (which you won’t find sold anywhere else), and the Fiji-Indians down the far end, with their green papaya, yellow and white turmeric and crisp, downy okra. Trawling the many rows makes me peckish, so I usually grab some sweet-salty peanut dumplings and chilli-laden chicken laab with sticky rice from the Northern Thai ladies. They also sell packages of fat Chiang Mai and Laotian sausages to take home and cook.

Other produce haunts of mine are the Wesley Community Centre Markets on Tuesday and Friday mornings (740 Sandringham Rd Extn) and the excellent Art of Produce (36a Crummer Rd, Grey Lynn). These places prove that really good, fresh produce needn’t command silly prices.

If my spice collection needs replenishing, I wander down to Khyber Foods & Spices (530 Sandringham Rd) and Top in Town Food City (583 Sandringham Rd) in the Sandringham Shops – also great for nuts, seeds, and other bulk supplies.  There’s not a whiff of free-range or organic about the two halal butchers in S-Town, but do, I urge you, try the spicy lamb sausages from Khan’s (543 Sandringham Rd), whose sirloin steak is also bloody good.

I cook quite a bit along Middle Eastern lines, and favour a few neat little places to grab the right supplies. At Shefco (827 Dominion Rd) I buy chickpeas, tinned stuffed things – vine leaves, courgette, eggplant, and cabbage, fresh pita, labneh, and baklava that rivals any I’ve eaten in the Middle East. Their shawarma, too, are the best in the city. Persian Network (718 Dominion Rd) and Persian Trading Co (891 Mt Eden Rd) stock such exoticisms as dried barberries and giant bags of shelled pistachios to stud pilau with, Persian fairy floss, and the addictive fizzy yoghurt drink called ayran. It might involve quite a bit of popping in and out of different suburbs and shops, but I like that, and doing it on foot makes it that much more enjoyable.

Filed in Friends | | Comments (1)

RAMEN DO

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

[Photographs: David Straight]

Some nights, and the odd lunchtime too, we just want to eat ramen. We want a big bowl of noodles where the stock is slightly too hot and burns your mouth, and we want a piece of roast pork and noodles that are still just slightly firm. When we want this, we go to Ramen Do, and Ramen Do only.

It’s a funny wee shop, more Raffles than Tokyo, with cane seats and tables that are slightly too low. The floor is concrete and there is no beer because they don’t have a liquor licence. But this is, quite simply, the best ramen in Auckland, and we don’t say that lightly.

They make their own stock and their own noodles, and they make them fresh each day. But then, other ramen shops in Auckland do this, and the results can be so ordinary. Really, it’s because of the enormous care they take, right down to the slice of pork belly that is roasted and then – get this – grilled on both sides. We particularly love the cha-shu miso ramen, but we also love the Hokkaido, which is dark and salty, and recently we branched out and had the Gyokai ramen, which is made from shellfish and fish. They are filling, almost nutty stocks, and the noodles are perfect. We love it, and so should you. SFG

HOURS Monday to Friday, 11.30am to 3pm and 6pm to 9pm. Weekends 12pm to 9pm.

ADDRESS 167 Symonds Street, Newton, ph 377-1313.

IMPORTANT DETAILS No booze.

Filed in Cheap and Cheerful, Japanese, Uptown | Tagged , , , | Comments (2)

FRIENDS: DAN PEARSON

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

[Image supplied | Tyson Sutton]

Daniel Pearson used to be the chef at Bracu. Now, he’s responsible for Egg & Spoon, a pop up restaurant that has most recently ‘popped up’ in Grey Lynn’s Wine Vault, with more events to come throughout the year, before the restaurant settles in a permanent home. The English-born chef began his career in the burger vans of Northampton, and arrived in New Zealand via London’s Michelin starred Foliage. Somehow, he’s amassed a list of Auckland favourites that include some of our old favourites as well as an impressive number of local secrets we knew nothing about.

  1.     Kura

The thing I love most about Japanese food is that I haven’t been trained in it, I haven’t studied it down to the molecule and I haven’t worked in any Japanese restaurants. So when I walk down the stairs through a door easily missed off Queen Street and enter a bustling restaurant like Kura, I know I’m going to relax and have a good time.  Easily my favourite restaurant in Auckland.

 2.     Obsidian Montepulciano 2010

 Wow. What a wine! Even better than that, what a place to buy it from. I love anything that involves Waiheke Island.  I’m a council estate boy from the middle of England; places like this only exist in your dreams or on TV where I come from. Highly recommend taking a bottle down to Hekerua Bay and watch the sun go down. If you’re lucky you might get to see a pod of orcas, too.

 3.     Depot by Al Brown

Awesome place for a flat white. Great coffee, great staff, great atmosphere. People are busting out on to the road in the evening. Reminds me of the bars in London, packed to the rafters with people enjoying the social side of life.

 4.     Nasturtium

One of my favourite herbs meaning ‘peppery to the nose’ in Latin. This wild herb grows everywhere in Auckland! Next to train tracks, up walls, in fields, gardens, car parks, under bridges. Literally everywhere. When I was working in London, using flowers and wild herbs was just coming into fashion and were readily available. However, a punnet of nasturtium flowers was £15 ($30). Crazy. It’s everywhere here and it’s free.

 5.     Clevedon Oysters

Clevedon oysters are hands down my favourite supplier. When I was working at Bracu they openly invited our whole team down for the day to look around their warehouse, shucking systems, grading machinery and storage facilities. They took us out on a boat to the oyster beds and we were eating them fresh from the sea. They taught us how they produce their product and all the different techniques involved.

 6.     Resurrection at Galbraith’s Alehouse

Galbraith’s Alehouse do a lovely pint. As a lover of real ale I highly recommend this one. It makes me giggle after a few and would put any burly geezer on his arse at around 8%.

7.     Mercer Cheese

This little cheese shop is definitely worth a detour off the motorway. Albert Alferink has been making his legendary Gouda for some time now and just to prove its quality they have recently run out of wall space in the shop for all their gold medal certificates. Last time I was there they were joking that they would have to start turning the awards down (or invent their own). And if you don’t like Gouda, try the creamy walnut, or the feta, the stinging nettle, the blue, the edam, the parmesan…

 8. Pukekohe Market 

Not the most attractive of markets it has to be said. It sometimes resembles a car boot sale. However, this is my type of market. No frills, down to earth, multicultural, good, honest produce mostly grown around the Franklin district. I go to Pukekohe market every week with $20 and buy a bounty of produce. From bitter melons to mini cucumbers, multiple varieties of fruits, Asian greens, punnets of herbs, rhubarb that looks forced, fresh eggs, cheese… the list is endless. Each week is a surprise. As a chef it’s a dream come true: constant seasonal inspiration and at a fraction of the price of other markets, and more importantly than the all-too-convenient supermarket (or the suppliers that can’t be bothered to make an effort).

 9.     Gypsy Tea Room 

This place is just cool. They haven’t had to do much to achieve that – it’s very unpretentious, in a great location, with brilliant atmosphere, wine, olives to nibble… When sitting with a nice glass of red I feel like I’m back in Soho. There aren’t many places I’ve been to that have made me smile like my first time here.

 10.  Orua Bay, Awhitu Peninsula 

In the Awhitu Peninsula, Orua Bay is my number one favourite place in Auckland, possibly the planet, as it’s where my daughter, Alice, had her first paddle in the sea. Scenery that words can’t describe and the Sky Tower very much on the horizon letting you know that the hustle and bustle of life is at a safe distance.

A beautiful place for a picnic with all the ingredients picked up from Pukekohe Market on Saturdays or Awhitu Market on the occasional Sunday. If you want an ice cream from the shop, make sure you take cash as Eftpos is a foreign entity in this neck of the words.

Filed in All, Friends | | Comments (2)

EAT HERE NOW & CRANE BROTHERS

Friday, April 13, 2012

We’re very excited to announce a new partnership with Crane Brothers. We’re providing a concierge service for them, so if you’re visiting one of their stores and stumped for where to eat, they’ll have handy guides to Auckland on hand. Guides to other cities are in development, and there’s a private email address for those requiring a little bit more help. You can find a paper version in store at Crane Brothers stores.

 

Filed in All | | Comments (3)