Category: Food

November Reflections

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NOVEMBER MOOD

If you live in a true temperate climate, like I did growing up, you might say that the months have personalities.  Personalities influenced by the weather and the holidays.  In November, in upstate New York, it got dark early and then earlier and earlier.  And it was cold.  Often the first significant snowfall put in an appearance.  It was a month that was more somber than joyful albeit punctuated by the warm sounds of gratitude and full bellies around a Thanksgiving table.

In the last years before her death, my mother dominated my siblings’ and my thoughts and concerns.  There was infrequent mention of my father who had died so many years before.  I would quietly think about him each November 6,  the Election Day anniversary of his leaving us.  This year, with my mother gone two years past, I almost missed this anniversary.

My father was a very warm and nurturing individual.  He played board games and Wiffle ball with us kids and invested significant amounts of time paying attention to and being available to us.  I think he was ahead of other men of his generation.

I still recall with fondness the morning he met me for coffee in the W.T. Grant department store downtown.  I was probably home from college or in my last years of high school.  I felt so grown up to be doing this.  Mind you, this was long before Starbucks and a café on every corner.  Dad met me, we sat on stools at the simple lunch counter, chatted, and then we separately left.  He to return to work, and I to do whatever.  I felt that in his eyes that day, I was an adult.

Sadly, my father died far too young at only 48.  On that fateful Election Day eve, we drove hours through the dark, cold, snow-flurry night to say our last goodbyes.  He was the only one who voted (absentee).  He never got to know and enjoy his grandson and granddaughters nor his great grandchildren.  But he left a legacy of caring and warmth that lives on in us as we remember and cherish all that he gave us in that short time.  And, it being November and Veterans Day, he was also a World War II and Korean War Navy vet.

November can be a gloomy month up north, but it redeems itself with thankfulness on a day to draw close to family and friends.

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

A very good friend served us these tuna and bulgur stuffed peppers recently, and they were delicious!  So much so that I immediately made a copy of the recipe for myself.  It’s from Melissa Clark at the New York Times.  These peppers are prettier than hers!

Down Under: Marlborough

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MARLBOROUGH WINE REGION

On Monday, we reprised the water taxi from Charlotte Sound back to Picton and then got a rental car to drive the short distance to our next port of call. In yet another example of the kindliness of individuals here, the women at the Cougar Line office offered to take our luggage and keep it while we walked to the ferry terminal, home of the rental car agencies. It wasn’t a very long walk, but a lot easier without dragging suitcases.

We are now staying outside Blenheim, in this celebrated sauvignon blanc wine region, at a lovely country home called Marlborough Lodge. Open not quite a year, Marlborough Lodge was a Catholic convent in another era, but was moved to this location and the interior gutted and re-modeled with modern plumbing and appropriate Victorian style furnishings. The building dates from the early 1900’s and is large, but not overly grand. Several parts of it have been enlarged including the kitchen area. It’s simply lovely and sits on several acres of land with extensive gardens and its own vineyards. Over the weekend, the lodge hosted a wedding party, but we were the only guests our first night and had the full attention of Peter White, the general manager.   

Continuing the informality of this country, Peter greeted me with just his first name and proceeded to sit down with us,  give us an overview of the lodge and the region with suggestions for where to have lunch, and then a building tour ending at our room. Before dinner, he invited us, his usual practice, to join him for a drink and some canapés. Despite the definite chill in the air, we opted to sit outside by the stone fireplace—albeit bundled up in several layers and making use of the lodge’s wool blankets—for a sauvignon blanc that had been oaked a bit making it a bit rounder and less grassy, along with some chorizo beignets. 

The two dining rooms inside are light and attractive and in Harvest, the more formal one, one wall is dominated by a vivid scene of bushes with brightly colored blooms. The menu offered lots of choices and we could order whatever we wanted to try (part of the room rate). We tried a number of dishes, but discovered the portions were somewhat larger than we expected. Especially tasty were the local king salmon and the pumpkin risotto.

For lunch earlier in the afternoon, on Peter’s advice, we ventured to Brancott Estate, about 20 minutes away and sitting high on a ridge. You park on one level, and a winery staff person comes along in a van to take you up to the top where the tasting room and restaurant are located. It was a perfect lunch! 

Both for the food and the marvelous view of the vineyard spread out below, its orderly rows making a wonderful tapestry of green and brown. My ora king salmon on skinny noodles in dashi broth was sublime and the Chief Penguin’s monkfish on a potato concoction with asparagus equally delicious. Paired with the recommended wines, it couldn’t have been any better!

Note: All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).

Down Under: Dining in Wellington

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MEALS IN WELLINGTON  We found Wellington to be a great food city. There are more restaurants here per capita than in New York, a fact cited to us several times.  With our short visit, we only scratched the surface of good eating.

Artisan. The weather was so miserable our first evening that we opted to eat in the hotel dining room called Artisan. We were pleasantly surprised at how good the food was. We started with some mixed olives and two breads with a flight of four olive oils. The olives were lovely, the olive oils good, but the so-called artisanal bread disappointing. Our next courses were superb; both my smoked cheddar soufflé with cherry tomatoes and spinach and the Chief Penguin’s smoked salmon. We like small plates rather than large entrees and often order these smaller, usually lighter, dishes. My soufflé wasn’t light, but it was exquisite!

Ombra. The concierge in our hotel has been most helpful and enthusiastically recommended several restaurants. We’ve been taking him up on them and today’s lunch was at a casual Italian bistro. We ordered the gorganzola picante with walnuts and honey, gnocchi with cheese and lamb ragu, and fritto misto. Everything was delicious, but especially the gnocchi. To top it off we had three chocolate truffles: coconut, lemongrass and hazelnut.  

 

Whitebait. Dinner here was by far the best meal we’ve had in New Zealand. It’s on the waterfront and the dining room is simple with bare wood tables and high back fabric-covered chairs in muted shades of gray, blue, and aqua. Yvette and Josephine gave us friendly service and everything we ordered was not only beautifully presented, but superb. This is sophisticated dining. We started with anchovy toasts and smoked eel mini tacos (for the C.P. who likes eel) followed by snapper filet on slices of preserved Meyer lemon topped with celeriac for me and for him, lemon sole topped with a mix of peas and beans (very green), and a seasonal citrus salad with fennel, pistachios, and bits of green olive. The salad was reminiscent of a similar salad served at Ports of Italy in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, but more elegant, although I’d leave out the olives. The chefs here are fond of salty tastes.  

 

Chow. Our hosts at Te Papa tooks us to this Chinese place for lunch, which was perfect for our group of five. We ordered seven or eight dishes which were all small platters with five or six pieces including fish cakes, sesame crusted seared tuna, two kinds of dumplings, and chicken satay. Everything was tasty, but could have been spicier for this twosome.

 

Noble Rot Wine Bar.  For our last evening, we dined at Noble Rot, a very happening place recommended again by the hotel concierge.  He adopted us and seemed to eagerly wait our reporting back after each meal.  The front bar and high tables were fully occupied when we arrived, but fortunately for us shorties and oldsters, there were tables  of normal height in the side room.  Most were empty at first, but by the time we left all but one was taken.

With our wine (they have an extensive list of wines by the glass), we started with some chorizo and pecorino cheese with black truffle and accompaniments and then moved on to a couple entrees.  The Chief Penguin had the chicken with parsnips and mushrooms which had been done sous vide and was marvelously tender and lovely.  I had the fish of the day which was a local white fish served with capers and some roasted cauliflower and a bit of sauce on the side.  Also lovely.  Being chocoholics (at least I am), we had a dark chocolate truffle each.

 

Note:  All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).  Header photo is gnocchi with lamb ragu and Parmesan.

Down Under: Wellington in the Sun

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TRAMPING AROUND WELLINGTON

Botanic Garden

Thursday was clear and almost cold (50 degrees), but a good morning to walk. Our first destination was the cable car up to the botanic garden. Interestingly, since the incline is very steep, some affluent individuals have their own private cable cars to deliver them to their homes. This public one takes only about five minutes, makes a couple stops along the way, and ends at the Cable Car Museum and the entrance to the Wellington Botanic Garden. We wandered in the museum, took our pictures with period hats and then were on to the garden.    

It was quiet and lovely and full of trees and plants native to this country. It’s also very well signed for specific locales within the garden as well as with plaques identifying most of the flora. We headed for the Lady Norwood Rose Garden which was said to be about a 20-minute walk. It took us longer, partly because I kept stopping to take pictures. The rose garden is probably glorious when in full bloom; today there were just a few rogue blooms, early budders.  

Bolton Street Cemetery

From the garden, you can enter the historic Bolton Street Cemetery which was in use until 1892. Founded in 1842, the original intent was that it be a cemetery for all religions and all people. It ended up being divided in three parts: Anglican, Jewish, and Public; the Catholics already had a cemetery elsewhere in Wellington. As you walk the main path, there are side paths that you can take deeper into the various sections. It’s a fascinating glimpse at the history of the city, its famous politicians and successful merchants, and the children who died of one disease or another, diphtheria and scarlet fever being two examples. Like the botanic garden, it’s a peaceful spot and we saw no one else on our walk.  

 

 

Note the understated summation of her life.

 

 

 

 

Wellington is a clean, compact city and very walkable. We like it a lot and have done almost all our wandering thus far on foot. By the end of this day with all our tramping around, we had reached 20,000 plus steps or eight miles!

Note:  All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).