A blooming great meal: Fleur's Place, Moeraki

While in New Zealand I hope to do two things - visit Fleur's Place in Moeraki and eat Bluff Oysters. ~ Rick Stein

Once in a while you have a meal that's so good it makes your toes crinkle under the table.  That makes you salivate just thinking about it even weeks later.

On our fruitful trip to Moeraki a couple of weekends ago, we were lucky enough to have lunch at famous Fleur's Place.  I say lucky because you usually have to book in advance and we just rocked up and managed to nab ourselves a table with only an hour waiting time - just enough time to check out the Moeraki Boulders up the road.

{moeraki boulders: rocked my world}

My blackberry is not working: Rhubarb & Wild Blackberry Crumble Bars

Ronnie: I bought something from you last week and I'm very disappointed.
Shopkeeper: Oh yeah? What's the problem?
Ronnie: Yeah, well, my blackberry is not working.
Shopkeeper: What's the matter, it run out of juice?
Ronnie: No, no it's completely frozen!
~ BBC One, The One Ronnie 

It's a sign of the times when you tell people 'we got free blackberries last weekend' and they think you scored a new mobile phone.

I remember going fruit picking all the time as a kid: getting scruffy knees from kneeling down in strawberry fields in the height of summer, getting prickled by boysenberry brambles when bush walking and coming home with ice cream containers filled with ruby gems and purple fingers.  A whole day of entertainment for us kids.  Free child labour for our parents.  Wins all round. 

Nowadays, all the strawberry fields in Albany have turned into subdivided suburbia and most of us get our berries in clear plastic punnets and our veges all hygienically dirt free from the vege aisle in a fluorescent lit supermarket.  So what an absolute treat it was to find wild blackberries growing on the side of the road on our way home from a trip out to Moeraki Boulders last weekend.

Procrastination station

{via here}

If only studying was half as fun as avoiding it.

We learnt today in a clinical skills tutorial about some unusual symptoms that patients suffering a heart attack may experience. One of these unusual symptoms was "An Impending Sense of Doom".

That is also a symptom of the recurrent sanity-threatening condition known as Exams.

Sunshine and Fush 'n' Chups at Tunnel Beach

{Tunnel Beach, Dunedin, New Zealand}

What's more, if you turn over a new leaf, and keep it turned, I'll cook you some taters one of these days. I will; fried fish and chips served by S. Gamgee. You couldn't say no to that. ~ J. R. R. Tolkien (The Two Towers)

An almost wordless post today.

Am a bit of a busy bee this week, working on a monster of a post bout the wedding cake making process, it's massive, gargantuan even, a post to end all posts and also writing up articles for our med school yearbook, organising our next round for Baking for Hospice, while trying not to think about exams fast approaching...

So instead of my usual verbose offerings, here's a tranquilly almost-wordless photo spread from an oh so kiwi fish and chips (or as we apparently pronounce it "fush 'n' chups") picnic at Tunnel Beach, Dunedin, New Zealand.  Just another gloriously sunny but mind-numbingly chilly day down south.

Let it snow: Vanilla macarons with rose quince buttercream

 

"They're crispy on the outside but chewy on the inside and taste very hard to make" ~ my husband when he tasted his first macaron.

Macarons: delicate little cookie sandwiches that are the epitome of french baking chic.  These wee things may look pretty and delectable but macarons are notoriously difficult to make.  Apparently even seasoned patisserie chefs can get a dud batch depending on the humidity, weather and a million other mysterious variables.

I have never got the guts up to try to make macarons.  Yes, the thought of making these dainty morsels scared the bejeebers out of me!  Until finally, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to face my fear. I decided to make macarons.

Seems appropriate that seeing as it is snowing outside today, I blog about my attempt at tackling my culinary Everest: Macarons, by making snowy white Vanilla Macarons with Rose Quince Buttercream.

{snowed in: road closed, lectures cancelled...time for a cuppa}

"Can the Snow Queen come in?" said the little girl.
"Only let her come in!" said the little boy. "Then I'd put her on the stove, and she'd melt."
~ Hans Christian Andersen

Go Fish: Tuna Ceviche with Coconut Milk, Coriander and Pickled Red Onions

It's not everyday your dinner falls into your lap.

Just over a week, Ruth and I drove out to Murdering Beach, just north of Dunedin for a run.  It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, our only company on the beach were circling seagulls and lapping waves.  We had only run one length of the beach when out of the corner of my eye I saw splashing at the edge of the water.

Was it a shark??  Was it a sea monster???   Oh no, that splashing turned out to be a humongous silvery fish - very alive but very stuck on its side, at the edge of the lapping waves.  Holy mackerel!  We literally caught the fish with our bare hands and took it home for tea - no floundering around! (Full credit to Ruth who actually did all the grunt work - Go Hunter Gatherer Woman!)

Fishing had never been so easy.

Rabbit au Vin aka Bugs Bunny Stew

This is probably going to horrify vegetarians and small children but we ate Bugs Bunny.

No seriously, rabbits are considered a pest here in New Zealand and farmers are all too happy for hunters to come and help keep their rabbit population under control.  So off the boys went the other week for a spot of rabbit hunting and they brought home some rabbits for the larder.

Having never cooked or eaten rabbit before I moved down to Dunedin I was intrigued.  What on earth would bunny would taste like?

We first tried it as a pot roast in the slow cooker loosely using a Jamie Oliver recipe but the meat ended up being really dry and the lemon was completely over-powering.  However, you could still just make out the flavour of the meat and guess what it tasted like...

Yip you got it - it tasted just like chicken.  Only gamier.  I kid you not.

So not to be defeated by the first failed attempt, I thought to try a different approach: Rabbit au Vin or as we jokingly called it Bugs Bunny Stew.

Shore Girl Goes South: Rugby Oreo Truffles for Baking for Hospice

So sorry my lovelies for the massive break between posts.

I honestly think these last two weeks have been the most eventful two weeks I can remember.  And on top of the life changing, literally earth shattering events recently, I also haven't had access to internet where I am staying so my poor wee blog has been a bit neglected.

So humongous apologies to everyone, I've missed you all heaps and I would like to explain my tardiness by sharing with you all the massive events that have been going down in the world of Nessie.

Massive event numero uno:  Moving down to Dunedin. 


I grew up on the North Shore (cue the Shore Girl jokes) in Auckland, New Zealand and have lived in Auckland since 1989.  Yes, since the eighties.  I can still remember a time when milk was delivered to your door, Cobb & Co was considered haute cuisine and not all malls were Westfield.  So moving down to the South Island was a bit of a shock to the system to say the least.  From a city of about 1.4 million to a city of 125,000, 25% of which are students).  We are so much closer to Antarctica it's almost like a different country down here. I went from wear tiny beach dresses because it was 28oC and 99% humidity to wrapping up in two layers of merinos, jeans and boots.  That first week was a classic case of spot the Jafa (Jafa of course, stands for just another effing Aucklander), since everyone else was telling me it was actually warm for Dunedin when I thought it was freezing.  Apparently eating lots of pies will help me acclimatise.  I'm working on it.

Massive event number 2: Starting Medical School.

The reason for making the move down was to start studying Medicine down here.  I went straight into second year and have hit the ground running.  The amount of lecture/tutorial/lab time is intense....so many contact hours, so much reading, so much catching up to do but I am loving every minute.  I've been studying/practising law and doing basically no science for pretty much the last four years so getting back into all the sciencey stuff is a wee bit of a task for the old noggin.  But it is SO much fun and interesting and we've got such an awesome bunch of us graddies (graduate *coughmature* students) to hang out with, commiserate getting old with and sit at the front of the lecture theatre with.  Fun times.

Massive event number 3: Christchurch Earthquake


A literally earth shattering event for all New Zealanders.  I was sitting in the library here in Dunedin (which is 5 hours drive away from Christchurch) and felt everything shake.  I think it's New Zealand's largest natural disaster in history, it was devastating, terrifying and heartbreaking.  We have been glued to the telly at the 24/7 news coverage.  My friend who I am living with had to do a 10 hour round trip to drive up and pick her brother and his wife up at 3am in the morning and bring them down here.  There are still so many missing, and the death toll keeps on rising and rising.  My thoughts and prayers are with everyone in Christchurch and their friends and families...what an absolute tragedy. Kia kaha Canterbury.

Massive event number 4: My Grandma


In the midst of all the drama and chaos down here, up in Auckland my Grandma had a stroke and is currently in hospital.  The doctors say that it doesn't look good at all and I haven't felt more far from home than I do right now.

So do pretty please I get let off this time for slack posting????  :)

Just before I left Auckland, I made these Rugby Oreo Truffles for the Baking for Hospice Kiwi Round and I've been dying to show you all these cute wee things!  And I have so many posts in the back log to share so hopefully we will get the internet sorted soon and I can tell you all bout my recent kitchen disasters and triumphs. Onward and upward!