Recently in Living in New Zealand 2005 Category

Although we may be back in Ireland, today we are celebrating Waitangi Day, a national holiday in New Zealand, with that ubiquitous Kiwi desert - the pavlova. After bemoaning the lack of pavlovas in Irish supermarkets, the Boyfriend went off to work this morning laden with boxes of meringue nests, tubs of cream, my hand whisk and a nice pink bowl to assemble a selection of impromptu pavs for his workmates. Bron has an entertaining defence of the NZ claim to the pavlova here, along with many delectable pictures of her own fabulous Waitangi Day creation.

New Zealand cafés still continue to surprise and delight me. A moist Spinach Risotto Cake at Reid's Store during a break while driving to Nelson the morning after we arrived, eaten in bright sunshine outside on the decking was my re-introduction to café cooking, NZ style on this trip. There were other days of happy eating. Marinated Lamb on a Puy Lentil Salad with lemon yoghurt dressing at Nelson's Morrison Street Café, with a glass of local sauvignon blanc; a sticky, dried fruit-packed, gluten free Ginger Slice with a long black, milk on the side (my coffee order of choice in NZ) in Muses Café, Motueka, en route to the Boyfriend's family bach in Ngaio Bay; a last Christchurch breakfast of a fresh-baked savoury Spinach and Cream Cheese Muffin followed by an enormous date-studded sweet scone outside Veronica's Café on New Regent Street, soaking up the last rays of sun as we watched the tourist trams going past.

The secret seems to lie with the fresh-baked, often on the premises, scones, muffins and slices, good ingredients - many cafés (try Under the Red Verandah or Vic's Café, both in Christchurch) trumpet their use of free range eggs and local produce - and proprietors and customers who won't accept stale, prepacked goods made at one location and shipped all over the country as is all too often the case in Ireland. One of the few cafés I've found in Ireland that comes close to the NZ ideal is Michelle Darmody's Cake Café (there's a short piece about it here) in Dublin, even down to the mismatched, old fashioned dishes and cups that feature in my favourite Kiwi cafés.

It's often the small things in NZ cafés that make a customer feel cared for - a carafe of water either arriving on your table first thing or readily available; airy toilets which look like they have been cleaned recently; piles of things available to read while you eat, often including Cuisine, Taste and Dish and a couple of cookbooks. It's always reassuring to see café staff interested in food-oriented publications! The only place I've seen something like this in Ireland is in the delectable Café Paradiso in Cork which, funnily enough, is run by a half-Kiwi couple.

There is always an exception, and on this trip it was the Cityside Café in the ground floor International Terminal of Christchurch airport. Pasty rolls were stuffed with an indeterminate green-flecked paste that went under the name of spinach and feta. A stale chocolate muffin topped with an oddly misplaced dab of raspberry jam made me feel right at home, being a good example of the kind of sweet thing on offer in many Irish cafés. My flat white was barely lukewarm and, for a last taste of NZ, it really was a disappointing experience. Next time I'll make sure I bring in my muffins from Muffin Break - a shopping center café chain that manages to get it right, albeit in (usually) horrible surroundings, with decent muffins and lots of gluten-free options. At least their coffee is made with hot milk!

Two weeks in New Zealand and I didn't want to leave. Being on holidays and it being summer, rather than grey and gloomy Irish winter, certainly made things harder, especially as we had such a good time catching up with family and friends on that side of the world. We thoroughly enjoyed the main reason for our trip - the Boyfriend's sister's wedding last Saturday - especially as the reception was held in a recently opened vineyard in Moutere, Woollaston Estates, and I had more than a few chances to sample their 2006 Nelson Sauvignon Blanc!

Special mention must go to the Boyfriend's mother for cheerfully catering, twice daily, for at least eight people. I've taken down plenty of recipes from her notebooks. Now all I need is a little Irish sunshine to give me an excuse to make her Rice and Chickpea Salad or maybe I could get motivated to whip up a batch of her Chocolate Chippies this weekend...

While I didn't manage to bring back as many foodie items as Heidi did from her North Island trip - the Boyfriend had to fit another rabbit trap and a new fishing rod somewhere, after all! - I still managed to squeeze in a pile of cookbooks, a couple of new purchases and a few old ones from my Christchurch kitchen shelves.

Although I picked up Nicola Galloway's Cooking for your Child as a gift for a friend, after spending hours looking through the Boyfriend's mother's copy of these commonsense recipes and advice for friends and family of all ages, methinks I'll have to spend some more quality time with it before passing it on. It is a mine of useful information on catering for people with food allergies and intolerances and, like me, she believes in using real, wholesome butter rather than messing around with those interfered-with spreads and margarines. I also brought home The Great New Zealand Baking Book by Allyson Gofton - the perfect thing to keep at the cottage for wet Saturday afternoon baking sprees and a dear old copy of that Kiwi classic, the Edmond's Cookery Book, a present from the Boyfriend's aunt to keep me entertained after I was knocked down by a courier truck in Auckland two years ago.

Some of the tempting new NZ cookbooks that I found on sale but could not, alas, justify in buying included The Confident Cook by Cuisine writer and Savour New Zealand 2007 Programme Director Lauraine Jacobs; Taking Tea in the Medina, an exploration of Middle Eastern tastes and flavours by Julie Le Clerc and and Joh Bougen; and new collections of old favourites from Kiwi writers Ruth Pretty and Jo Segar (Ruth Pretty's Favourite Recipes and Jo Seagar Cooks). Christelle Le Ru also has a second book out - French Fare is the follow-up to her Simply Irresistible French Desserts and watch out for Passion Chocolat in 2007.

Knowing that the latest edition of Cuisine is waiting at home - I'm on my second subscription now - I avoided that on the magazine racks but, as I return to the stormy Irish winter, I grabbed Taste and the new Julie Le Clerc magazine to fortify myself with descriptions and pictures of summer barbeques and salads, picnics and pool parties. It's not helping though!

We left a damp, wintery Ireland last Friday morning and touched down to blue skies and sunshine in Christchurch, New Zealand, on Wednesday after a three-day stopover in Kuching with my Malaysian family. Sure beats sitting around in Ireland with the post-Christmas blues! While in Kuching we got a chance to feast on our favourite teh tarik, or pulled tea, and roti canai, layered Indian breads that are served with a runny dahl. The next day, the reheated roti are especially delicious when they reappear with kaya, an unctuous coconut spread, not unlike lemon curd. Daily feasts of tropical fruit at my aunt's house included papaya, the hairy-skinned rambutan, several types of banana, mangosteen, sweet ripe pineapple and rich, juicy-to-your-elbows windfall mangos from the neighbour's tree. This time round we avoided the durian, however!

This was my fourth trip to Kuching - the Boyfriend's second - and our laziest. Tired from the first leg of the journey, we just relaxed, read, slept, enjoyed the heat and had some quality time with the family. There was time to snack on my aunt's rich fruit cake, my cousin's sesame-flecked brownies - although we didn't go for too much of the durian cake, after our last experience with that noxious fruit - with meals of homecooked Malay curries contributed by neighbours and my uncle's relatives. Had some good, spicy, although not too hot, Tom Yam, dishes of Mee Goreng (fried noodles), Butter Prawns and Nasi Ayam, but we missed out on Laksa, Satay and Murtabak this time round. We'll have to store up those treats for the next time we return.

Now we're back in the land of numerous types of ginger beer - Bundaberg is still at number one and, we discovered on a brief explore round the city, also available in Singapore - Pegasus Bay Sauvignon Semillon, feijoas, fantastic cafés, the Boyfriend's favourite savoury meat pies, kumara and Ginger Gems...roll on the next couple of weeks!

My email has been acting up recently so it's taken me a while to realise that I actually have a couple of real messages amongst all the ridiculous spam that crams up my inbox. One of the more interesting mails was from the recently opened and wonderfully named Ya-Ya House of Excellent Teas (see below) which sounds well worth checking out if you're in Christchurch. For those in search of spicy hot chocolate in Dublin, Fallon & Byrne do a too-mild version which is worth trying out but it can't beat the stuff you make at home yourself and sip by the fire on a cold, dark autumn's night...

Hi Caroline,
I'm aware that your post about chocolate & chilli on www.bibliocook.com is now more than a year old, but I recently remembered reading it a long time ago. I remembered reading about someone (you) here in Christchurch being interested in hot chocolates. We just opened Ya-Ya House of Excellent Teas last month in the Poplar Street/Cotters Lane area (just a block away from the mentioned Aji) and hot chocolate with chilli is on our menu as an alternative to tea. We moved here from Europe last year and were desperate in our search for a good hot chocolate. It was impossible to find any place that served a good hot chocolate, so we decided to do it ourselves.
Jo

Whether you're in Dublin or Christchurch, New Zealand this weekend, there are plenty of Slow Food-organised events taking place. The Christchurch branch have their second "how to survive when ship-wrecked" morning by the sea taking place on Saturday 23 September. Led by Slow Food member, amateur botanist, professional fishing guide and enthusiastic forager Peter Langlands, participants will spend the morning gathering seaweeds, shellfish, crustaceans and fish from Canterbury's shoreline at Port Levy. Information on species identification, harvesting and cooking techniques will be combined with some cautionary notes. Car pooling will take place from the CPIT car park at 9:30am. You can email Convivium Leader Bill Bryce for directions and hopefully you'll avoid what happened to me last year - a frustrating hour spent waiting in the wrong CPIT car park!

Also in Christchurch, on Sunday 24 September, The Bicycle Thief restaurant will host a family-style meal cooked by chef Nik Mavromatis to raise money for Nik to attend the Slow Food Terra Madre conference and Salone del Gusto in Turin in October. The dinner will be at 6pm on the Sunday of September 24th and the cost will be $70 per person for five courses, including wine. I've eaten Nik's fantastic food at the café in the Mediterranean Food Company and he was the inspirational teacher for classes I attended there on Tapas and pasta-making. I can tell you where I'd be on Sunday night, were I in New Zealand, especially with a menu like this...

Canapes and cocktails at 6pm, followed by:
Bagna Cauda with witloof, cardoons, baby vegetables and organic rye
bread. Wine - Cracroft Chase Pinot Gris 2005
Trio of shared pasta dishes: Gorgonzola Gnocchi, Buckwheat Pasta with
Salmon Roe and Crème Fraiche, Butternut Pumpkin and Sage Ravioli. Wine - San Silvestre 2003 Barbera D'Alba
Roast Porchetta with Cavolo Nero and Puy Lentils. Wine - Pegasus Bay 2004 Pinot Noir
Masticha-infused Rice Pudding with Rhubarb Compote. Wine - Lombardo Sicilian Moscato NV

On this side of the world, at Sunday's Farmleigh Food Market in Phoenix Park the Irish Raw Cow's Milk Cheese Presidium will launch a new label which will be used by the producers to designate cheese made from high quality raw Irish milk. The cheesemakers will be there to give tastings and talk about their cheese and Kevin Sheridan, one of the co-ordinators of the Presidia, will be giving a talk at 3pm on Irish raw cow's milk cheeses as a part of the Farmleigh culinary month. Kevin, of Sheridan's Cheesemongers, is passionate - some might say evangelical - about good cheese and about Irish raw milk cheese in particular. At a recent Slow Food Dublin evening he talked us through samples of Drumlin, Cooleeney Raw, Mount Callan Cheddar and the stunning Bellingham Blue.

The cheeses which are a part of the Irish Raw Cow's Milk Cheese Presidium are:
- Drumlin made by Silke Cropp in Cavan
- Cooleeney Raw made by Breda Maher in Tipperary
- Mount Callan Cheddar made by Lucy Hayes in Co Clare
- Dilliskus made by Maja Bindler in Dingle, Co Kerry
- Bellingham Blue made by Peter Thomas in Co Louth
- St Gall made by Frank and Gudrun Shinnick in Co Cork
- Durrus made by Jeffa Gill in Co Cork
More information on the Irish Raw Cow's Milk Cheese Presidium is online here and the Cáis (Irish Farmhouse Cheesemakers Association) website is at www.irishcheese.ie

Also watch out, the following weekend, for the Temple Bar Food Market's 10th Birthday Party on Saturday 30 September with talks and demonstrations in Meeting House Square and at the Cultivate Centre at SS Michael & John's Church.

One of the kitchen items that I regretted having to leave in New Zealand were my gem irons. Gem irons - cast-iron baking tins, divided into a dozen small curved spaces and used to make the light spicy little loaves called Ginger Gems - seem to be indigenous to New Zealand. I had never come across this cooking implement, or the accompanying recipes, in any other country. The first few times I saw the irons at the market I hadn't a clue what they were, despite the Boyfriend's mother telling me all about what I thought were called Ginger Jams and jam irons one day. It took me a wee while to get used to the Kiwi accent!

It wasn't until I came across an article in Catherine Bell's Dish magazine that everything fell into place. With the help of the photo in the magazine I realised what the old cast iron implements at the market were. It also helped me to make the translation from jam to gem and suddenly everything was clear. So, hearing that these were one of the Boyfriend's father's favourites, I set out on a search for the irons - which, at the very time I discovered how to use them, seemed to disappear from the market. I persevered, though, and eventually managed to get my hand on a pair of lighter and more modern aluminium gem irons. Then I had to find a recipe...

While I lived in New Zealand my equipment was limited. I had no food processor, blender or mixer (although I did manage to get my hands on a Breadmaker!) so all recipes were carefully read and assessed to ensure that they were possible to make with what I did have. Dishes which involved beating egg whites to stiff peaks were ignored as were any soups which had to go near a blender. Any recipe which started off "cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy" were similarly skipped over. I've never liked developing my upper arm muscles through beating butter and sugar with a wooden spoon. And, I can tell you from experience, it takes AGES for them to get to the appropriate creamed stage. But all the recipes I found for Ginger Gems involved the creaming step so that plan, despite the presence of the gem irons, got put on the long finger for a while.

While on a trip to the Boyfriend's family bach at Lake Rotoiti, though, I came across a recipe notebook that had belonged to his paternal grandmother, a wonderful cook and baker by all accounts. Her recipe for Ginger Gems was in the notebook and, to my delight, it involved melting rather than creaming. I had fun trying to figure out some of her measurements - she mixed dessertspoons with table and teaspoons - and the method was idiosyncratic to say the least, but a few test cases later I had success.

Although Ginger Gems, served warm with butter, really belong to the era where everyone stopped for afternoon tea at 4pm, they're still good as a light desert. If you have a gem iron - and if anyone comes across one in Ireland, please do let me know! - they're something that can be mixed and baked in about half an hour. A couple of warm Gems, placed on either side of a ball of decent vanilla ice-cream and drizzled over with still-hot caramel sauce take them firmly out of the tea time bracket. A New Zealand classic, just slightly updated.

Why is it that recipe names look so much more evocative when written in French? Gâteau au chocolate et à l'abricot seems so much more sophisticated than just plain Chocolate apricot cake. Still, from the look of this slice of this moist dark cake pictured in Christelle Le Ru's Simply Irresistible French Desserts I don't think that anyone will complain if you set it in front of them, no matter which name you use. But Carrés à la noix de pécan and Crèmes chaudes aux myrtilles (Pecan squares and Hot blueberry creams, respectively) certainly do have much more of a ring to them en Français and that's a great deal to do with the charm of this Christchurch-based Frenchwoman's self-published cookbook.

In a world dominated by glossy over-airbrushed and Photoshop-manipulated food photographs, it is refreshing to come across a cookbook with such real illustrations. Like any normal home cook, Christelle doesn't always get perfect slices and sometimes her icing looks intent on flowing off the cake but when she says that that particular cake will "delight many" you believe her. After all, she's got the weight of experience behind her as all these recipes have been thoroughly tried and tested on her friends and family.

Simply Irresistible French Desserts showcases a tempting selection of Christelle's sweet creations, from traditional French charlottes (choose between Chocolate and banana, Pear and chocolate and Strawberry variations) to her take on a baked cheesecake (Fondant au chocolate). The recipes are divided between chapters entitled Chocolate Creations, Fruit Delights and Small Treats, each of which hold a selection of entirely mouthwatering treats. None of the recipes are difficult and there are plenty that have me edging towards the kitchen as I type. I think I'm going to enjoy experimenting with Christelle's Simply Irresistible French Desserts - and I will especially relish using the French names!

Simply Irresistible French Desserts by Christelle Le Ru is published by CLR.

Before I came to New Zealand I had only vaguely heard of Kiwi chef Peter Gordon. From articles that popped up every so often in the English newspapers that I read, I knew that he cooked at The Sugar Club (still, I think, a truly brilliant name for a restaurant) and that he was designated king of what became known as fusion cuisine. That all changed when I made my first batch of his Tomato and Chilli Jam. Now he is known as the person responsible for coming up with the recipe of this addictive addition to sandwiches, sausages, noodles, patés, cheese, cold meats or just about anything that needs a little zip. I discovered it through an article in Cuisine magazine and you'll find the recipe right here.

It's not difficult to make, even if you don't have a blender. I just chop everything up as small as possible and throw it all in together. Don't be tempted to leave out the Asian fish sauce (aka nam pla). It may smell disgusting when you open the bottle but it really adds depth to the flavour. The first time I made this Tomato and Chilli Jam was during the autumn glut of tomatoes. They didn't cost too much and, most importantly, were ripe. If you make it during the winter as I did the last time (we ran out - I was desperate!) you'll be simmering the mixture for far longer than 30-40 minutes but it will eventually come together in the end. Well worth spending a Saturday morning on.

Last weekend being a long weekend, the Boyfriend and I decided to abandon Christchurch and open our personal camping season with a trip to the small town of Geraldine. For me, camping is a challenge to see what I can cook with limited ingredients and resources and this, the first camping trip of the year, was an opportunity not to be passed up. The night before we took off, I dug out Nigel Slater's Real Fast Food - the perfect camping cookbook - and started studying the recipes. So intent was I on packing the bag of food and so concentrated was the Boyfriend on getting us out the door on Saturday morning that no one thought to pack those camping essentials - the sleeping bags.

All happily oblivious, we were on the road at a good time. As we headed down south towards Geraldine, we took time to stop on the way to check out the Darina Allen-recommended The Store at Dunsandel. Annabel Graham of Camla Farm has turned the main post office and dairy of this wee village into a welcoming and thriving café. Tempting foods, ciders and wines are stocked alongside the bleach and plasters necessary in any village store while a shelf-full of cookbooks kept me entertained during lunch. We picked up a couple of bottles of Camla Farm cider for quaffing later and our food - crumpled Iraqi flatbread with humus and olives for me and a lamb pesto fichelle for the Boyfriend - was a far tastier option than the normal pie-stop.

After setting up the tent in the central Geraldine Holiday Park more foodie pleasures were in store for us. I browsed through the fruit juices, jams, toppings, sauces and jellies in Barker's shop, trying spoonfuls of chutney, smelling jars of mustard and limiting my spending to blackcurrant fruit juice syrup and passionfruit curd. A quick look around Talbot Forest Cheese (I was sorry to miss out on a chance of tasting their goat's milk mozzarella) and Fellmann's chocolate shop and it was time for coffee and a shared piece of Citrus Slice at the relaxed Easy Way Café.

It was only that evening, after a hearty meal of Nigel Slater's Sloppy Joes, as we ate homemade shortbread from the local market, topped with spoonfuls of Barker's passionfruit curd (a truly great combination of sweet and tart, crunchy passionfruit seeds and crumbly shortbread) that the Boyfriend suddenly realised that we had no sleeping bags. Worst still, we had also managed to leave our camping whiskey in Christchurch. Despite digging out the car boot liner to serve as a blanket, Saturday night wasn't the warmest and that was the end of camping for that weekend.

Still, without that night under canvas I might have never got around to making Sloppy Joes. Fast and intensely savoury, this is a perfect one-pot meal for camping. Make sure that you have plenty of kitchen paper to hand because, as Nigel says, this will run down your chin and up your arm. Ideal for a casual environment!

Although I'm not a huge fan of her bare basics books, Delia Smith's website is a very useful reference point. She has a helpful table of conversions here that are especially good when you're trying to convert a recipe using American cup measurements to metric but, alas, there are no references to the New Zealand or Australian cup. I didn't initially realise that these measurements were different - a cup is a cup is a cup, right? - but apparently not.

Apparently the US standard cup is smaller than the NZ/Australian one, about 240ml as opposed to 250ml (depending on who you're reading). Also, just to really confuse matters, the tablespoon in Australia is 20ml instead of the international standard of 15ml! Unless you are baking with a very precise recipe (and mine tend not to be), these differences shouldn't cause too many problems - after all, I've gotten away with using Kiwi cups for American recipes before this - but it's just something to be aware of. I think the best way around it is to have two sets of cups. Then you've no excuse for bellyflopping cakes and the like!

One night a few weeks ago the Boyfriend and I accompanied our Scottish physiotherapist housemates to a celebration of International Physiotherapist Day. Now, going to celebrations of other people's careers is not something that we would normally do but, as this was taking place at Christchurch's Canterbury Brewery, we decided to make an exception - just this once, you understand.

Canterbury Brewery, now owned by the Australian based company Lion Nathan, is pretty old. First named Ward's Brewery, it was founded in 1854 - not long after the first settlers arrived in Christchurch. The heritage museum in the brewery reflects this, telling the history of beer making in general, as well as concentrating on the brewing in New Zealand.

The physiotherapists of Christchurch, plus ourselves, were conducted to the heritage museum first. After wandering through that our guide - a very enthusiastic brewer who occasionally does these tours at night - explained the whole process of brewing and took us around the parts of the brewery which are open at night.

As soon as we walked out onto the brewery floor we could smell that rich barley/hop scent that will always remind me of Dublin's Guinness brewery. Unsurprisingly, this is the company that also brews New Zealand's Guinness. The most interesting part of this tour - there's not actually too much going on at night time - was when our guide led us into the large room, complete with massive gleaming copper vats which contain the malted barley, where they were actually making the beer. The brewing is a 24-hour operation, with brewers working in shifts, but the bottlers seem to get nights off.

After a stressful week, all you want to do at the weekend is get out of the city (without driving too far), stay in a comfortable place (without paying too much) and eat some good food. In search of just such a place, the Boyfriend and I stayed at the historic Governors Bay Hotel last weekend. Although it is only about a forty minute drive from Christchurch, once you emerge from the Lyttelton tunnel, which cuts through the Port Hills directly south of the city, you feel like you're arriving in another, more relaxed world.

With the outward appearance of an old New Zealand country pub, the Governors Bay Hotel has a level of comfort and service that would shame most city hotels. The fact that the bedrooms aren't en suite may be off-putting for some but, given that their Winter Escape Package - bed, breakfast plus two-course dinner - only costs NZ$150 for a couple this is a small quibble. What's more important is that the rooms, though small, are cosy and come equipped with solidly comfortable beds, something all too rare in overnight accommodation.

We arrived in the afternoon of a miserable Saturday so the view at that time was nothing to write home about although the roaring open fire in the bar did lift our spirits. Still, the rain lifted enough to allow us a good ramble along the shoreline directly underneath the hotel before we wandered upstairs to our room, legs aching, to read several of the glossy magazines that were piled high in the corridor.

My only experience of pumpkins while in Ireland was at Halloween during my first year in Dublin. One of my then housemates bought a pumpkin and carved it into a grinning Jack O'Lantern to sit in the window. I had only ever made Jack O'Lanterns from turnips before and was amazed at how easy it is to hollow out a pumpkin rather than spending ages digging your difficult way through the tough flesh of a turnip! With touching (and undeserved) faith in my cooking abilities, he set the pumpkin flesh aside and informed me that it was my job to turn it into something edible. I failed the challenge, I must admit. Every time I opened the fridge the watery yellow flesh rebuked me and it wasn't too long before it made the trip to the dustbin. Since then I've seen pumpkins appearing in Irish supermarkets in time for Halloween each autumn but I've never even been remotely tempted.

However, it's an altogether different story over here in New Zealand. In autumn, pumpkins in every kind of shape, size and colour are piled high at the markets and, due to their superior keeping abilities, they linger happily on in kitchens long after the first harvest. There are many different varieties, but the Crown Pumpkin - a medium sized round pumpkin with corrugated grey skin and, unlike that Halloween one, sweet orange flesh - is one which I've used most.

Despite that bumpy past introduction, I've really enjoyed eating and cooking pumpkins here. I love roasted pumpkin - toss it in salt, freshly ground black pepper and olive oil and cook at 180°C for about 40 minutes - to accompany stews, especially a recent Bean and Pork Hock one. Any leftovers brighten up a miserable wintery day when converted to Spiced Pumpkin Soup, there's an interesting-looking Pumpkin Salad here and it can be used in curries, with pasta, for a tortilla, to make gnocchi, or in pies. It has a great affinity with kumara, the Maori sweet potato, and the Boyfriend's mother recently cooked us a rich and delicious Pumpkin and Kumara Soup. In short, the humble pumpkin is an entirely versatile vegetable that can be used in either sweet (Govinda's Pumpkin Pie, for instance) or savoury dishes and has an affinity with either spices (cumin, coriander, cinnamon) or herbs (rosemary, sage). I wonder if I'll be able to get pumpkins that taste this good when I'm back in Ireland?

One of the things that I do enjoy about living in New Zealand are all the cookery classes that are on offer. Not only the usual night courses at the various schools around Christchurch, but also food shops offering classes in the use of their goods à la the Mediterranean Food Company and Café and tonight I'm looking forward to a class with Judith Cullen of Judith Cullen's Cooking Classes fame.

That cookbook is particularly focused on cooking with seasonal produce, something that I've found much easier to figure out by buying my vegetables at Christchurch markets rather than having to depend on supermarket permaseasons. Apparently Judith is going to cook her September menu, "full of great North African flavours". Sounds good to me! And then, if I'm not all cooked out, there's a pasta workshop tomorrow night at the Mediterranean Food Company and Café...

My local Oxfam Fair Trade shop here in Christchurch has started stocking Fair Trade spices, including ground ginger, cinnamon - ground and sticks, whole cloves, whole and ground black peppercorns and chilli powder, all from Sri Lanka. I've only bought the black peppercorns so far - they're really pungent, after they spent a night in my handbag it all smells of pepper! Each little package comes with a little flyer giving information on the origins of the spice and some ideas of how to make the most of it in cooking.

The Oxfam Fair Trade shop also stocks many other Fair Trade products including Thai jasmine rice - not my beloved basmati, alas - tea, chocolate, coffee (beans and ground as well as, I was interested to see, an instant version), hot chocolate and a huge variety of handicrafts. All prices are very reasonable, my peppercorns were only $2.95, for instance - a small price to pay for a clear conscience.

Find out more about Fair Trade here.
Oxfam Ireland have their website, including information on where your local shop is situated, here.

Taste: Baking With Flavour is the third book from the partnership of professional baker Dean Brettschneider and contributing food editor at Cuisine magazine, Lauraine Jacobs. Their first two books - The New Zealand Baker and Baker, The Best of International Baking from Australian and New Zealand Professionals - were perhaps a little too technical for home use, although it was evident that they were fantastic resources for anyone in the baking business.

Without dumbing down in any way, the authors have redressed this issue in Taste and the book is packed with more than 50 recipes that will have even the more inexperienced cooks making a beeline for the kitchen. This time round, the authors have broken the method down to manageable steps plus, beside each recipe, are useful Keys to Success, which draw your attention to variations, substitutions and suggestions to make the recipe easier.

There are several unusual taste and texture combinations - Plum, Almond and Fennel Tart or Rosemary Rice Pudding Tart being just two of these - and plenty of gluten-free options, Lemon and Blueberry Polenta Cake and Poppy Seed Bread, for example. There are also recipes for those interested in taking bread baking a little big further and the Chardonnay Loaf, topped with a hand-moulded bunch of grapes (instructions and pictures included!), is a fine illustration of this.

The book is divided into three chapters - Pastries, Pies and Tarts; Breads; and Cakes and Cookies - each of which starts with basic techniques and recipes to enable you to get the best out of whichever recipes you decide to cook. Ending with supplementary information on ingredients and equipment, Taste: Baking With Flavour is an essential addition to anyone's baking library.

Taste by Dean Brettschneider and Lauraine Jacobs is published by Random House New Zealand.

Even though yesterday was a miserable day in Lyttelton, it looked like the farmers' market was successful. The Boyfriend, his sister and I made our way out there around 11am and the Supervalue Carpark was pretty busy by that stage, with a few of the suppliers already running out of supplies. We wandered around for a while, tasting Ground Foods delicious dips and observing the huge queue at the Tuahiwi Organic Produce stall but the cold wet day ensured that we had little inclination for dawdling. We did manage to pick up a few things, however, before we legged it to the warmth of a local café.

12 - eggs from Annie's Free-Range Eggs.
9 - beautiful handmade chocolates, three of each Baileys, peppermint and Cointreau/orange, from a woman called Victoria who had the biggest and most desirable-looking chocolate and carrot cakes on her stall as well. Perhaps next week...
2 - small punnets of mustard and rocket seedlings for planting in the garden.
1 - pot of mizuna salad leaves for the same purpose.
1 - bottle of Brayburn apple juice from Annabel of Camla Farm who assured me that she will be there next week with real cider.
1 - bag of wild walnuts. All we need now is a nutcracker!

Although there is no shortage of small weekend markets in and around Christchurch, the one thing missing is a proper farmers' market. A couple of weeks ago, however, I read an announcement in local newspaper The Christchurch Press - which does a fantastic food section every Thursday - about a farmers' market starting up this Saturday, 3rd of September, at the Supervalue Carpark, which is just off Canterbury Street in Lyttelton. Lyttelton is a harbour community, just about half-an-hour's drive from Christchurch, and was one of the original ports of entry for English settlers arriving in New Zealand in the 1850s.

The farmers' market will take place from 10am till 1pm and will sell locally grown and locally made produce, direct to the public from the producers. Apparently the goods for sale must be either grown or produced by the seller - no middle men - and no craft stalls are allowed. A recent email I got from the Christchurch branch of Slow Food detailed a few of the producers, some of whom will be familiar names from these pages:

Athena Olives, Vic's Bread, Ground Foods - quality spices and dips, Tuahiwi Organic Produce, an egg producer, a honey vendor, a flower grower, a small goods manufacturer, a garlic producer, a patisserie maker. Fresh fish will also be sold separately from the fishing wharf.

As you may have noticed, I was recently involved in Jen's Eat Local Challenge during August, and, although the month has finished, it doesn't mean that the challenge is truly over. As an avowed lover of markets, to the Boyfriend's frequent exasperation (I tell him that he can't complain too much - at least he gets good meals out of it!), this is the perfect place for me to stock up and meet some more small local producers. For anyone based in the Canterbury region, it should be well worth checking out.

Even though I came late to the month-long challenge - think last week! - I've really enjoyed having to focus on Eating Locally. New Zealand, and especially Canterbury, is a particularly good place to be doing this.

Earlier this year I interviewed Tina Duncan, who has a catering business, runs cookery classes and is also one of the founders of the international food and wine masterclass Savour New Zealand. She said that one of the reasons for locating Savour NZ in Christchurch was because of the great local produce that comes from Canterbury. "Once we discovered we could make great wine then the emergence of boutique producers followed on because they're all part of the industry," said Tina during our chat.

"You want the olives to go with the wine and the olive oils are just getting better and better. We're growing the best saffron in the world here in Canterbury and we're making fantastic wasabi. We just wanted to celebrate the fact that we've such wonderful produce." Wine, olives, olive oil, saffron and wasabi are only the tip of the food iceberg produced in Canterbury and during the interview Tina pointed out that this area can rightly be called the pantry of New Zealand.

Bread is very important to me. I love it fresh, I love it stale and ready for toasting, l love it with cheese, I love it in particular - fresh or toasted - with good salty butter. I love the way it mops up your plate after you've had a particularly tasty tomato pasta dish. I love the yeasty smell from the breadmaker as it cooks yet another loaf of homemade bread. I love making my own Brown Soda Bread and, most importantly, eating it. In short, I can't fathom a life without bread. That was why it was so important, after I moved to Christchurch - before the coming of the breadmaker - to find a local source of decent bread. The only time I ever use slice pan or a sliced loaf from the supermarket is when I'm temping and need something quick and easy to make my sandwiches for lunch. But it's not something that I'd chose as part of my normal daily life.

Part of Eating Locally is very supporting the small shops and producers of the area, something which I'll do as a matter of course - as long as their product is up to scratch. And for a while there, the bread that I was getting from a few bakeries around Christchurch wasn't much better than the "luxury" bread that you'd pick up at the supermarket. That was, however, before I discovered Ma and Pa's Bakery. They have a shop at in the Christchurch suburb of Richmond but, even more convenient for me, they have a city centre outlet just off Cathedral Square, on my way to the library. They make a variety of different breads and, even when well stocked, it's a habit of mine to walk past - just in case there's one that I might need. We've eaten our way through much of their stock at this stage - their nutty and sour Californian Sourdough, the very different Pain au Levain, a dense Rye Loaf, the wholewheat and wholegrain Wild West Grain Loaf, an intensely savoury Parmesan and Red Onion Focaccia, a delicious nigella seed-scattered Turkish Flatbread and, most importantly, their Maori Rewana Bread. A sourdough with a potato starter, the Rewana Bread is a solid loaf which is very happy to be eaten with one of my chunky Vegetable Soups. It's also a great basis for cheese-on-toast and lasts very well so that there's never a scrap thrown away.

Another café/bread shop that I've recently discovered is Vic's Café and Bake on Victoria Street. Vic's puts great emphasis on making all its food with vegetables from an organic supplier and it uses organic free-range eggs for its sumptuous brunch range of French Toast, pancakes and Eggs Benedict. The café is a great place to spend some time in the afternoon with a coffee and something sweetly delicious - and there are many decisions to be made about what loaf of bread should accompany you home. So far I've only managed to try their award-winning Wholegrain Bread. The loaf is packed with linseed, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, polenta, oats and rye and is a nutritious meal in itself. Match that with some cheese from the local range stocked by Canterbury Cheesemongers around the corner and you've a fantastic locally sourced meal. Is it time for lunch yet?

There are so many things that you can't go near when you're trying to Eat Local. I had written this piece about Spanakopita ever before I started this challenge but, pressed for choice on Saturday night, it was something I happily turned to. I had spinach and onions from Canterbury, feta from Karikaas, ricotta from Zany Zeus (North Island but still New Zealand!), nutmeg, couscous for the accompanying salad and local free-range eggs from Piko, our brilliant local wholefoods/organic shop but I must admit failure with the pastry, which was Australian. If I had been a bit more organised ahead of time I could have made my own but still, it didn't turn out too badly!

When I was in college in University College Cork, one of our greatest treats was to go out for dinner to the Quay Co-Op. As well as a wholefood and organic shop, rather like Piko, it was also our local vegetarian restaurant. Although none of us were in any way inclined towards giving up meat, we all loved the food (good and filling), the prices (very reasonable) and the fact that they welcomed you bringing your own wine. I think there was a ridiculously cheap corkage of about £2 (this was way back in pre-Eurofication times) and we took full advantage of it for birthdays and other celebrations. I can even remember a party of us turning up with a bottle of wine apiece on Holy Thursday to do our pre-Good Friday drinking in comfort.

One of the dishes we most loved was their Spanakopita - a Greek dish of spinach and cheeses, enclosed in a delicate filo pastry case. One member of the group, who particularly had a weakness for this particular dish, prevailed on the chef on night to give her the recipe. It was something we often cooked for parties or get-togethers while we were in college and, especially as I have a spinach-loving boyfriend, I have regularly made it since then.

Sometimes it can be difficult to get your hands on filo pastry - and not so easy to manage - so, among other things, I have adapted the recipe to use a puff pastry crust. When made with puff pastry it really is a most obliging recipe, always happy to be made well before it is needed and sit around to be cooked at the last minute. I'm sure it wouldn't even mind being frozen for a while and cooked direct from the freezer, although I have not yet lived with a freezer big enough to take a whole Spanakopita. Besides, if the Boyfriend sees that I'm making it, there's no way that I would be allowed to save it for too long.

A word about feta cheese before I move on to the recipe. I always cut it into small cubes and fold it through the spinach and cheese mixture at the end as I like getting little pieces of it scattered throughout the dish but you can blend it more thoroughly, if you like. Also, always taste your feta before adding it. The cheese I used in Ireland was much saltier than the feta I find here so you may need extra salt to compensate. Don't forget to season the spinach and cheese mixture well. It is too late to be thinking of adding seasoning when it is cooked. In the summertime I normally serve this with a salad of diced vine ripened tomatoes and red onions, tossed with balsamic vinegar, and either Tabbouleh or some variation on Couscous Salad.

I've just discovered the Eat Local Challenge posted by Jen on her life begins at 30 blog. She invited fellow food bloggers to make the commitment to eat locally produced food during August. In her own words:

"For the month of August, I would like to invite all bloggers to join me in taking a challenge to eat food local to where you live. You will be able to build your challenge parameters yourself, and set reachable goals for the month. Ths goal of this time is to eat as much local food as possible, and to really pay attention to where your food comes from."

Typical that I should discover this as the month ends but it did put me thinking.

In Ireland, my main source of food was the local Tesco. I'd go there a couple of times a week, without a list normally, and pick whatever caught my eye or was on special. Since moving to Dublin, I've never lived more than 10 minutes walk from the supermarket so there was never much pressure if I forgot something or I decided to make a dish for which I didn't have the ingredients. I just ran up the road and collected the necessary - and several other things which I didn't need but which came to hand at the time!

I rarely went to the butchers, there were no nearby greengrocers and, since I didn't really eat much fish at the time, I didn't need a fishmongers. As my favourite meal normally involves bread and cheese - but the bread has to be good and the cheese fabulous - I did need a cheesemongers. Some of my nicest meals involved something savoury that I picked up from Sheridan's Cheesemongers around the corner paired with a baguette from the gorgeous La Maison des Gourmets. I did make an effort to eat Irish cheese (Cashel Blue, I miss you) but you could hardly call a baguette, even if produced in Ireland, a local food.

Govinda's in Dublin - a vegetarian restaurant run by the Hare Krishnas - has a great reputation and was one of those places that I always intended to go for dinner. Somehow I never managed to make it there but, when I was searching for a yoga class in Christchurch lately, I discovered that they run them in the Christchurch branch of Govinda's. not only that but, for $15 you get an hour's yoga plus your dinner. How could such an offer be turned down? Last week I tried the class and I think I'll be returning every week for the food, as well as for the yoga. After working hard for an hour, the delicious meal is truly well deserved.

Over the last two weeks we have been served a dal-type soup with mustard seeds and then a plate of rice, curry, fritters, chutney and salad. All vegetarian, of course, but - more importantly! - tasty and filling as well. But the real highlights have been the deserts. Last week we got a glorious Apple Crumble which I, the crumble connoisseur, could not fault and this week an amazing Pumpkin Pie appeared. The lads at my table were very pleased to see it coming out, telling me that it's apparently the best Pumpkin Pie in all of Christchurch. Pumpkin Soup is no longer a novelty to me but this pie was a surprise - I had only heard of Pumpkin Pie for American Thanksgiving. Curious, I tasted it and it wasn't long before that special little slice disappeared. It was an open pie, with a smooth, velvety, cinnamon-scented filling. The texture was more akin to a mouse than a pie but no delicious for that. Well worth stretching for!

Beer drinkers, as wine drinkers, are pretty well catered for in New Zealand. There are plenty of microbreweries and brew pubs about - Brew Moon, the Dux de Lux and the Twisted Hop are amongst some Canterbury favourites - but even the big breweries have pretty decent beers. One of the biggies is Speight's Brewery. Known as "The Pride of the South", it is based in Dunedin and produces a very tasty dark beer called, in an obvious move, Old Dark.

Normally, given my preference for wine I don't get to taste too many new beers but, as Bealey's Speight's Ale House opened around the corner from us in Christchurch recently, it seemed churlish to ignore their obvious speciality. Especially so when I discovered that they have a limited edition Chocolate Ale (Dunedin is also the home of Cadbury) on sale at the moment. I demanded a pint and spent the next hour drinking it - it's certainly not something that will go down fast.

Despite a few initial doubts, it was a fine flavoured, although sweet, drink. It had a true dark chocolate taste with a cherryish aftertaste. Immediately it reminded me of the Black Forest chocolates that were my childhood favourites from the Christmas box of Cadbury's Roses. That was, of course, before Cadburys decided to replace them and the yummy marzipan ones with some of those manky praline-centred things. The information on the bar suggested pairing the Chocolate Ale with rich chocolate deserts but it is a perfect after-dinner drink on its own. Maybe there should be an Irish version - Chocolate Guinness, anybody?

New Zealand baker Dean Brettschneider was one of the people that I encountered at the recent Savour New Zealand in Christchurch. Together with Lauraine Jacobs, a Cuisine food editor, he has recently published Taste, the third in a series of quality books on baking. At Savour New Zealand, when not signing stacks of Taste and his other books, he gave an eagerly anticipated class called Kneading the Dough in which he made a loaf of my favourite sourdough bread.

With sourdough, you don't use yeast from a packet or jar. Instead you just use the natural yeasts from the air, making a starter that ferments over time to raise the dough. I was particularly interested in this bread as the Boyfriend had tried a series of sourdough experiments in Dublin with not a huge amount of success. Getting one useable loaf of bread out of about ten can't be seen as a good statistic in anyone's books!

Dean emphasised the simplicity of sourdough during his class and, when I talked to him afterwards, I asked him if he saw his role as taking the mystique out of breadmaking. "There's people that do create that mystique. All the hidden secrets. What is it? Just flour, water and salt," he says. "The books are about giving people the confidence, giving them photographs, giving them explanations. Some good information that works. I try to unlock the secrets. Nothing is complicated. It is simple. It's about the little things."

In the notes that accompanied the class, he stated that his baking philosophy was "back to the future", a statement that he enlarged on later. "It's going back to the past for the style of product," said Dean, "but we're using futuristic knowledge and modern ingredients to bring it forward."

Pies truly are a New Zealand classic. Maybe it's because of the British influence and their Pork Pies, although colonisation of Ireland didn't leave us with any such culinary heritage. As I mentioned the other day, pies are eaten by Kiwis on long road trips - the guarantee of a good pie will encourage people to take major detours - and they are apparently the traditional accompaniment to a rugby match. The national pie is bacon and egg and, every summer, magazines and newspapers compete to give the perfect recipe for this picnic standard. Apparently a good Bacon and Egg Pie is dependent on you not breaking the egg yokes as you add them to the sliced bacon in the pastry case. Hmm...another recipe to try out at some stage in the future!

When I was small I remember my mother regularly making a deliciously savoury Lamb's Kidney Pie encased in shortcrust pastry. It was never steak and kidney, for some reason, not that I ever minded. For me the Kidney Pie, with bacon and sometimes mushrooms, was the height of culinary sophistication although, if I took a piece of it for lunch at school, I was bound to get someone going "urgh...kidney...disgusting!" I think I put them off their lunches more often than they managed to put me off mine.

But, back to my pie-fest for the Boyfriend's birthday dinner, the Beef and Chorizo Pie was topped with a thick homemade scone-like pastry so I decided that the pastry for the Chicken and Mushroom Pie should just be plain (bought) puff pastry. I must admit to not being particularly precise about how the pastry fitted across the top of the pies as, for me, the nicest part of a pie is where the gravy bubbles up around the pastry.

A search online for Nigel Slater plus Chicken Pie brought up this recipe for Deep-dish Chicken Pie which I adjusted to my own needs. The filling is fabulous, much richer by being made from stock than it would have been from milk (although I couldn't resist adding a little cream). Thickened a little, it would make a great filling for a Chicken Lasagne or you could use it as a pasta sauce or on top of rice or...

Yesterday was the Boyfriend's birthday so I decided to throw a small surprise birthday dinner - just us, three of his sisters, one sister's boyfriend and our two Scottish Housemates. The plotting and planning for this has been going on for a couple of weeks but, after pondering various options, I only decided on what we were going to eat fairly late in the day. My first idea was for a kind of Chinese banquet, heavily influenced by the fact that I'm reading a cookbook by Chinese Australian chef Kylie Kwong at the moment. That, and the fact that it contains a recipe for Sung Choi Bao of Pork. We loved this when we had it for the first time - and the second - at Indochine restaurant and it looks like a good dish to try out at home. I think I'll still end up cooking it at some stage but it looked like a difficult dish to make for eight. So, eventually, I decided on another of the Boyfriend's favourites - the good old Kiwi meat pie.

Pies are big business over here. You can get them at any local corner store or garage shop and they, rather than the plastic Irish sandwich in a plastic box, seem to be the food of choice for anyone travelling a long distance. Why I don't know. The only way they seem to differ from that typical 'hang' (otherwise known as ham) sandwich is that they're usually served hot. Other than that, the pies that I've had seem to be a matter of indifferent pastry enclosing mysterious meat filling and dried up gravy. Not necessarily a culinary classic - but, when well made, pies can be delicious. Never being one to cook a single dish when two will be too much, I decided to make a Beef and Chorizo Pie, adapted from Julie Le Clerc's Simple Café Food, as well as a Chicken and Mushroom Pie, inspired by Nigel Slater.

Simple Café Food and its successor, More Simple Café Food, were the origins of my accompanying salads for the meal. Fed up with my usual tabbouleh and couscous salads, I branched out with slight adaptations of Julie Le Clerc's Orzo with Spice-Roasted Carrots, Currants and Pine Nuts, Cracked Wheat with Lemon, Spinach, Herbs and Seeds and Roasted Purple Onions with Dried Sour Cherries. Although not a very extensive menu, I would have been lost without the help of one of the Boyfriend's sisters, on the salad-making side of things, and one of our Scottish Housemates who got stuck into the washing-up with a will and a way so that we were finished - just! - before the Boyfriend and the other Scottish Housemate (deputised to distract Boyfriend from preparations) returned from the local pub.

For desert we had a dense Chocolate Birthday Cake with cinnamon and chilli. I had just purchased this fabulous Kashmiri Chilli Powder from Aji in Christchurch and, being a fan of chocolate/chilli combinations, couldn't resist using it. Although both the cinnamon and chilli did add a depth to the flavour of the cake, it was not enough to satisfy me. More chilli the next time, methinks, and I might even pop back to Aji for some of their 'Triple A grade' cinnamon to give it an extra richness.

Enjoying Moroccan food as much as I do, I am a big fan of preserved lemons. Years ago, when I was living in a flat in Dublin, I made a jar of preserved lemons which I didn't have the nerve to use. So they just sat there and sat there on top of the cupboard looking like, as one visitor put it, preserved babies heads - I really don't know what he was drinking at the time!

That batch of preserved lemons ended up the dustbin but I'm not a person to let one failure cause me to stop trying, especially when I had a lemon tree outside the door. Before we moved, I gathered a selection of ripe lemons and, using a variety of methods from a variety of places, made myself a jar of preserved lemons. They're currently sitting on the top shelf of my pantry, happily maturing away (I hope), getting ready to be chopped into couscous, tagines, risottos, stews...

Those of you who are regular readers may have noticed that it's been quiet on Bibliocook over the last week or so. The reason for this is because I have recently returned from a road trip up the East Coast of New Zealand's South Island with my mother and aunt who were visiting from Ireland.

After a few nights in Christchurch where we introduced them to New Zealand foods like silverbeet (in the form of a Pasta and Silverbeet Bake), lamb (Braised Lamb Shanks with Chickpea Mash) and kiwifruit (Apple and Kiwifruit Crumble - the crumble obsession continues!) while keeping them topped up on Irish foodstuffs (Brown Soda Bread, Ham and Pea Soup), it was time to hit the road. Just because we were touring didn't mean that we had no time for food. On the contrary. Food assumes an even greater importance when you're on the road for several hours a day and we weren't even an hour out of Christchurch when we stopped off at the Brew Moon Brewery and Café for tasty refreshments.

We spent a couple of nights at a bach at the township of Oaro near Kaikoura with the aforementioned Ham and Pea Soup, supplemented by the traditional New Zealand fish and chips on the beach. Leaving Kaikoura and travelling north, we kept our eyes open for the only building on the right hand side of the road - The Store at Kekerengu. On last year's miserable Christmas Eve, after a rude awakening in our Kaikoura hostel, the Boyfriend and I had had a large morale-boosting cooked breakfast here. This time round, even though it is mid-winter here, the weather was warm enough for us to take our food outside and eat in the sun, although it wouldn't be any kind of hardship to eat indoors in the airy rustic surrounds of the refurbished dining area. Although The Store is just off State Highway 1, you're a world away from any kind of driving stress with great food, good coffee and a view to die for. It wasn't too long after breakfast but we couldn't pass up a piece of the Kiwi classic Ham and Egg Pie to share. Always good to have something sweet with the coffee/tea so we also chose a Tan Slice (like a shortbread-caramel-chocolate layered Millionaire Square but without the chocolate).

I have just been informed that Marigold Swiss Vegetable Bouillon Powder is actually available in New Zealand. As you may have noticed from past posts, it was my stock powder of choice in Ireland and I have been moaning about its lack of availability over here! In Ireland it is available in both supermarkets and health food shops but, despite my searching, I haven't come across it here. Apparently it is distributed by an Australian company who contacted me to let me know that it is sold in NZ. Fingers crossed I can track it down soon in Christchurch.

When you're driving the long distances that are necessary to get anywhere in New Zealand, good quality rest stops, with coffee, cakes - and clean toilets - become very important. That's why it breaks my heart to discover one so close to my current hometown of Christchurch. I've often spotted the enticing entrance of the Brew Moon Brewery and Café (situated about 50km from Christchurch) but, as it is normally too close to either the start or end of a journey it has never been a place for stopping. This week the prolonged start of a road trip with my visiting mother and aunt (nicknamed Thelma and Louise by my sister) gave me an opportunity to sample the facilities.

By the time we reached Brew Moon, it was already time for a toilet stop and, naturally, it would be rude not to sample the local delicacies. Alas, being the designated driver - and the fact that it was only midday - meant that the brew side of things could not be tested. Instead we opted for coffee and tea, ordering a blueberry muffin, piece of carrot cake and that Kiwi classic, a Ginger Gem.

Despite the fact that it was midweek, there were another three tables occupied, keeping the lone waitress busy and delaying the arrival of our order but as we were in no hurry, having plenty of family news to catch up on, this was not a problem. And we weren't complaining when the cakes arrived. Fresh and delicious, my Gem was a little larger than usual but, shared among three, it didn't last long. The muffin had the crunchy top of baking that had recently left the oven and the carrot cake was an shining example of its kind. Pieces were swapped, crumbs swept up and fingers licked. The bathrooms didn't leave the side down, making up in size for what they may have lacked in numbers on a busy day. On this quiet Wednesday so there were no queueing problems.

Brew Moon Brewery and Café is a good place to start your journey or to revive spirits before you reach home. Well worth visiting for the range and quality of sweet treats.

The Brew Moon Brewery and Café is located at 150 Ashford Rd (SH1). Phone: 03 314 8030

Having thought that there wasn't too much different between the New Zealand and Irish climates, I've been amazed to discover that lemon trees grow here. And, what's more, they actually fruit too! While living with the Boyfriend's parents in Nelson it was a great treat to go out and pick some lemons from a tree that fruits year-round but, as we live in much colder Christchurch, I didn't think that we would have that option ourselves.

Our first home in Christchurch was a unit - basically a flat on its own land. After years of apartment living it was great to have a garden of our own, albeit a two meter square lawn and some hedges that rapidly got out of hand. I didn't realise until much later that the green oval berries on one of the garden shrubs were actually nascent lemons and, even though we've moved into winter a while ago, they continued to grow and turn yellow until they were small, but perfectly formed, lemons. The tree itself was rather small, with lovely glossy evergreen leaves and, when it was covered with lemons ripening at different stages, it was a magnificent sight indeed. The first batch I harvested got made into preserved lemons - more Moroccan influences! - and they're sitting curing in the cupboard at the moment.

Alas, my lemon paradise didn't last for long. Last weekend we moved into a new (to us) house which, although gorgeous, is sadly lacking a lemon tree. But it does have an even bigger garden and I have plans for a sunny North-facing wall - in NZ some things get turned upside down - out the back. Having done some research it seems that the elusive, and beloved of New York Times columnists, Meyer Lemon is the best adjusted variety to the Christchurch hot summer/cold winter balance. Although Meyer Lemons - a hybrid cross between a regular lemon and either an orange or a mandarin - have gotten good press for their sweeter-than-an-average-lemon juice, they don't have the best skin when it comes to zesting. There might have to be a pair of lemon trees purchased, if I have my way...

I spent Wednesday night last week at a cookery demonstration by the Christchurch branch of the New Zealand Vegetarian Society. No, I'm not going over to the dark side - I love meat too much - but their description of the evening intrigued me. Vegetarian Cuisine for the Non-Vegetarian sounds just like my cooking style in Ireland. That was, of course, before I landed in New Zealand and discovered that meat is cheap, there are several good butchers nearby and even the supermarket meat comes with a sticker indicating what it should be used for. Still, I am always open to new kinds of cookery and the line-up of dishes, which included Mushroom Nut Croustade, Savoury Polenta, Cinnamon Pear Cream, Vegetable Pakoras and Puris was very tempting.

So I took myself along to the Canterbury Horticultural Centre on Riccarton Avenue on Wednesday night and had a fascinating evening. There were a total of ten dishes demonstrated by three people - Yolanda Soryl, who runs an eco-friendly B&B by English Park, an Indian lady called Janaki Kandula and Vanya Maw of Wyenova Organic Farm. There were about 30 people there, many who seemed to know each other well, and it was all very relaxed and informal.

Yolanda was up first and she started with Mushroom Nut Croustade which she said was based on a recipe from famed vegetarian cook Rose Elliot that she got from the radio some years ago. My first misgivings arose when she used olive oil margarine and soya milk. Coming from a farming background - I was even an occasional milker of cows at my grandfather's farm in Oldcastletown - I am a lover of dairy products, especially butter. However, as Yolanda had told us that we would have the opportunity to taste samples of all the dishes at the end of the evening, I decided to wait and see how it actually tasted before making snap judgements.

An entertaining demonstrator, Yolanda has been doing this since 1988, and she had plenty of tips to offer. I discovered where to buy cheap sacks of nuts in Christchurch, a replacement for my beloved Marigold Swiss Vegetable Bouillon Powder (Rapunzel Vegetable Bouillon), that Brazil nuts are always organic and that my local health food shop - Piko Wholefoods - stock organic homemade peanut butter. It was also interesting to learn that you can make pesto with silverbeet - seeing as the Boyfriend is a devoted lover of silverbeet this could be a new dish to try out on him!

Janaki Kandula runs a series of Indian cooking classes at nighttime in Riccarton High School. After the mustard seeds that she cooked for her Tomato Chutney tried to asphyxiate us, the demonstration went off smoothly and we learned how to make Puris - a type of Indian bread - Date and Tamarind Chutney and Vegetable Pakoras. During Janaki's demonstration she passed around jars of her own pungent-smelling ginger-garlic paste and fragrant all-spice powder and told us how to make these ourselves. (ginger-garlic paste: blend 100g ginger with 50g garlic and 25g salt; all-spice powder: crush together 2 teaspoons of coriander seeds, 6 cloves, the seeds from 6 cardamom pods and 1" cinnamon stick).

Vanya Maw was last up and in her demonstration she strongly emphasised the nutritious value of food. We were treated to conspiracy theories about the dairy and beef industries, a diatribe on the evils of sugar and positive tofu propaganda. I have to admit that tofu is something I despise but, as with the soya milk and olive oil margarine, I decided to go with the flow and let the proof of the pudding be in the final tasting. And pudding was what we got from Vanya. After she made a batch of Savoury Polenta, she moved on to Chocolate Nut Brownies, with the aforementioned tofu, and a Cinnamon Pear Cream which was a simple (and surprisingly tasty) blend of liquidised tinned pears, cashew nuts and cinnamon.

In the tastings, I have to say that I was hugely impressed with my piece of Mushroom and Nut Croustade - although I think it might be even nicer with butter, milk, and perhaps a bit of bacon. Heresy! It was definitely the nicest dish of the evening, although the Puris and Vegetable Pakoras were also compeditors, and something that I definitely will be cooking at home. I also hope to make Vanya's Cinnamon Pear Cream as it had a richness which belied the simplicity of its ingredients. The Brownies? Well, let it just be said that tofu and I are still not on good terms!

New Zealand cook Judith Cullen used to run her own café in Dunedin before she changed careers to become a successful teacher of cookery classes, many of which are run from her home. Judith Cullen's Cookery Classes is her first published book but she has a fresh and simple approach that many more seasoned cookbook writers would envy.

Staying with the format of her cookery classes, Cullen has opted to divide the book into monthly menus with a seasonal slant - picnic ideas for January, mid-winter slow cooking in July. An introduction to each chapter gives some background on her choices as well as plenty of useful tips and ideas. One thing that I loved about the book was the way in which Cullen made the most of seasonal fruits with her emphasis on relishes and sauces.

This is fusion cookery without fuss. Cullen uses an eclectic but judicious mixture of foods and flavours, with influences ranging from Asian, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and North African, introducing and demystifying unfamiliar ingredients, from pomegranate molasses to tamarind and sumac.

The one fault that I found with the book is the fact that no recipe states how many people it serves. Although on further investigation I found a line in the introduction saying that most of the recipes feed four to six people, I shouldn't have to go searching for it. Nor does this better inform me of the number of biscuits/cakes that I will get from the recipes for Blue Cheese Biscuits or Ricotta Cakes.

That aside, Judith Cullen's Cookery Classes is a beautifully written and photographed introduction to modern New Zealand cooking.

Judith Cullen's Cookery Classes is published by Longacre Press

We weren't very well organised for the last bank holiday weekend so it was Sunday morning before one of the Boyfriend's friends and his girlfriend came over and we tried to figure out where to go for the night. Despite fears that all accommodation would be booked solid for the weekend, a quick scoot through the Rough Guide to New Zealand and a few calls later and we had rooms for the night at Formerly The Blackball Hilton in the wee town of Blackball on the South Island's West Coast.

The historic hotel - it dates back to the early part of the last century - used to be known simply as The Blackball Hilton but, when the representatives of a certain Hilton hotel chain discovered the place, it wasn't long before lawyer's letters started flying Blackball direction. Showing a healthy disregard for American bullsh*t, the owners put a Formerly in front of their name and carried on as before. I'm not sure how long they'll get away with it but their stand is a typical West Coast one.

After a long afternoon spent in the car and waiting for the Boyfriends to finish their climbing on Castle Hill, the road to Blackball seemed to take forever but we were no sooner in the town than we came across the large looming presence of Formerly The Blackball Hilton. Through the front door we came to a large entrance hall, papered on one side with lots of local notices and flyers for events in the district - evidentially Formerly The Blackball Hilton is a popular place with the locals, always a good sign. Collecting our room keys from the bar, we went upstairs to discover just how strange and quirky the place was.

The rooms were all colour-coordinated in a very strange way. Ours was purple and a particularly lurid green, complete with family-type pictures on the walls and dressing gowns in case you felt the need to wander down the corridor to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Once you switched off the main light and turned on the bedside lamp, thereby tuning down the alarming colours, the room was cosy, clean and, most importantly in New Zealand at this time of the year, warm.

As most of our party were hungry, we went downstairs to the pub, which was warmed by a roaring fire, and got ourselves a seat in one of the booths on the side of the room, settling ourselves at a table covered with a cheerful red and white gingham tablecloth. I wasn't hungry but the food ordered by the other three - Blackball Salami Company sausages and mash, fish and chips, roast of the day - seemed to go down well, and I have to say that I had no complaints about the rather strong gin and tonics that arrived from the bar.

Ginger is big business in New Zealand. Whether it's the pieces of Ginger Crunch available in every café and bakery, gingernut biscuits beloved by the Boyfriend's parents, the many brands of commonly available ginger beer (not in the least bit like the insipid ginger ale mixer common in Irish bars) - the best of which is always a hotly debated topic of contention in the Boyfriend's household - or Ginger Bear sweets (like gummy bears, but with a ginger kick) it seems like the Kiwis just can't get enough ginger.

To keep up with this ginger fascination, I started thinking about making gingerbread. It was something I used to make often as a child, especially when I was working my way, recipe by recipe, through the first Stork Cookery Book. Without that book to guide me, I discovered that Nigella had a recipe for a rather unique Chocolate Gingerbread in her latest book, Feast. So, never being one to pass up a new variation on an old favourite, I tried this recipe. I have to say I wasn't too impressed. Rather than gingerbread, it tasted of liquorice - not a favourite flavour of mine. The Boyfriend, however, loved it and, after he took a couple of pieces to work everyday that week, there wasn't much left over.

I did like the recipe, however. It was a one-pot cake, all made in the one saucepan, therefore cutting down on dirty dishes - always a consideration when baking! So I decided to have another try. This time I substituted extra flour for the cocoa and chopped crystallised ginger for the chocolate chips and forgot about the icing completely. I'm not sure the Boyfriend liked it as much but this gingerbread variation was the one that I fell in love with. As dark and moist as the nicest of my childhood experiments but with the added extra kick from the embedded chunks of crystallised ginger. Gingerbread is a good keeper too so I've been able to nibble away at chunks of it all week. Just one tip - if you're going to make the version with the crystallised ginger make sure you cut it up small and it's worth tossing it in flour to make sure it doesn't fall to the bottom of the mixture like mine did!

It's not very often we go out for Sunday lunch but the fact that I had a voucher for the Riccarton House Café in Christchurch made our minds up for us last weekend. The café only does lunch but that's well worth the hour-long walk from our house.

It has the perfect setting. Riccarton House is a heritage attraction, a splendid example of Victorian and Edwardian housebuilding - complete with plenty of decapitated stags in the entrance hallway - and it is set in a 12-hectare reserve of ancient native forest and parkland. The homestead was the home of Canterbury's pioneering Deans family for 91 years and, when you arrive, you almost feel like you're walking into a private home.

The café is situated off the oak-panelled main entrance hallway in what might have been the Deans family sitting room. The tables and chairs are all solid and dark, as befits the space, but it does leave visitors with an absence of manoeuvring space. There are also tables outside on the veranda, overlooking the river but, despite the sunshine, it was too cold to sit there for long and we moved ourselves indoors before our meal arrived.

The menu isn't large but it is well balanced and there are plenty of choices. We settled on the pizza of the day with a topping of broccoli, blue cheese, caramelised onions and chicken. As we waited for our food, I hungrily observed delicious-looking dishes of goats cheese parcels, huge fluffy pancakes (they also serve a breakfast menu) and a pork roast arriving at nearby tables. Dishes to return for, perhaps. As it turned out we were more than happy with our pizza. While the base looked like it may have been made from wholemeal flour, it was thin and crispy enough to overcome this faux pas. Before it arrived, the Boyfriend had been bemoaning our lack of foresight in not ordering a serving of wedges as he saw them carried past us, but there were no complaints of hunger after we finished the pizza.

We did have enough room for desert so, although the Boyfriend was thinking about getting one of the scones resplendent on a table nearby, I managed to steer him towards a moist orange and poppyseed cake instead, which was served with yoghurt. Only after I promised to make a batch of scones at home! As for myself, I was seduced by the promise of a crème brulee. Although I have read a lot about these little French deserts and know how to make them - in theory at least - I had never actually tasted one. The waitress brought it over, apologising that the chef was only getting the hang of the blowtorch and sure enough there were little burnt patches on the caramel. Fortunately this only accentuated the experience of crisp caramel and light creamy custard. Not only did I finish it in double quick time, but the Boyfriend caught me using my finger to ensure that I hadn't let any custard behind. A couple of coffees and we were ready to rise. It was just as well that there was an hour's walk ahead of us!

Without the voucher the meal would have cost $34 for a shared main course, two deserts and two coffees.

Riccarton House Café is at 16 Kahu Road, Christchurch. Phone: 03 341 1018

In the Salvation Army shop the other day I discovered the one thing that would make me look the part while marketing - a wicker basket! Since then I've been trotting very happily to the market with my basket on my arm although sometimes I have to bring along a bag to supplement what it can hold. Look at today's haul - cauliflower, silverbeet, carrots, green beans, mushrooms and free range eggs...and that's what's on top. There's a wee cast iron pan, four forks, six spoons and a second-hand jumper underneath. It was a busy morning!

A big thank you to all at Athena Olives in Waipara who took a complete olive picking novice under their communal wing today and gave me such a wonderful - and painful! - experience during a very busy time for them.

I spent the morning in the olive groves dragging large nets around to put under the trees before the men with the clappers (a kind of vibrating rake) shake the olives off the trees. Those nets don't manage to gather everything so there was plenty of picking the harvested olives off the ground. Between that, rolling the nets and moving large boxes of olives my muscles know all about it tonight! A lunchtime was never more welcomed.

After an hour back out amongst the trees in the afternoon, I got to work for a time in the sweet-smelling pressing shed, watching the actions of the traditional Italian hydraulic press and tasting the peppery fresh pressed oil.

Although picking olives may be a far distance removed from haying in Ireland the backbreaking work of the harvest is the same. And so is the satisfaction. Now I understand a little better how quality olive oil is produced - and why it costs so much...money well spent, if you ask me.

The days when you get a call from your Boyfriend saying "don't plan anything for dinner tonight. I want to take you out" don't come too often so, no matter what you've been thinking about cooking, it's time to put it aside. Especially when you discover that you're going to New Zealand's only Moroccan restaurant - Simo's in Christchurch. I've been a fan of Moroccan flavours for a long time and Simo's didn’t disappoint.

We were booked in for an early dinner at 6.30pm and, when we arrived, were the only people in the place. But, rather than making us feel in the way as can be the case sometimes, the staff really made an effort to put us at ease, showing us to our table in the warmly coloured rooms, dispensing menus and tempting us with the idea of a Moroccan cocktail. Cocktails are going to be my downfall in New Zealand, I can tell. I never can say no. This time I was glad that I hadn't even tried to. Unfortunately I can't tell you too much about them as the mists of time and, perhaps, alcohol, have dimmed my memories of what they contained but let it suffice to say that if you're offered a cocktail in Simo's, don't turn it down.

As little cards on the tables and the waitstaff explained, Simo's had won the Meadow Mushrooms Grande Entree Award of Excellence 2004 so we decided to see what all the fuss was about and share their entry, Trio of Meadow Mushrooms, for a starter. The Trio consisted of an Olive Oil preserved White Button Mushroom, Charmoulla Marinated Swiss Brown Mushroom and an Oven baked Portabello Mushroom. Mushrooms in any guise, as far as I'm concerned, are a good idea but my heart sank when the dish arrived at the table. It was a carefully layered and plated arrangement but, I thought, smacked more of style than substance. By the first mouthful I had forgotten such traitorous thoughts for this was a well-balanced dish, with different pungent and strong flavours in each bite. Before long we had managed to make our way through the Trio and were awaiting our main courses. The Boyfriend had chosen Lamb Tagine to put his fears about tagines to rest, after having a few greasy experiences in Morocco last summer. Judging by the speed it disappeared there was little comparison between the 'real' Moroccan experience and the Moroccan restaurant option! I had the fish of the day which was baked with chermoulla and served with one of the ingredients that I've been noticing lately - Israeli couscous, which has grains much larger than the normal Moroccan couscous. After tasting it in Simo's I promptly bought a bag of it the next time I saw it on display. Time to figure out how to cook it soon, methinks!

Although we didn't really feel that we needed desert, the Boyfriend, still having flashbacks to his time in Morocco, was tempted by the Moroccan Sweet Mint Tea. As this could come with a selection of pastries, I didn't hesitate to encourage him in his choice and this proved to be the perfect ending to a truly wonderful and relaxing meal.

Simo's is located at 114 City Mall, Cashel Street in Christchurch. Phone: 03 377 5001

One of my fondest autumn memories from childhood is of my siblings, my cousins and myself as small children, bundled up in warm coats and wellies (aka gumboots in NZ), being handed a couple of buckets by the adults and sent down my grandparents' farm in Oldcastletown to go mushroom picking. After listening to their admonitions to avoid the field with the bull and to look after the smaller kids, we tramped down to the place where there had been a confirmed sighting of mushrooms.

Leaving the buckets down, we - there may have been six of us at times - spread out and looked for those small patches of white that denoted a successful hunt. Sometimes we'd only find a couple of wee ones. Other days we came back up to the house with a good haul and then there would be mushrooms for supper, cooked on the stalwart Aga cooker that presided over the centre of the kitchen. My Nana occasionally made a slow cooked mushroom soup if we got particularly lucky. The Aga was great for quick cooking too and occasionally one of my uncles would put a whole, peeled mushroom directly on its hotplate 'till it sizzled, popping it into his mouth before the juices escaped.

Since the day itself I've cooked Anzac Biscuits a couple of times. They seem to be the kind of biscuit that doesn't really know how to go off, getting slightly more chewy after the first day they're baked but none the less tasty for that. Quick and easy to put together, involving no specialist equipment (by which, at the moment, I mean an electric mixer or food processor), the reward of having a wire tray-load of Anzac Biscuits cooling far outweighs the effort of making them. With their mixture of oats and coconut they're a great pick-me-up for that mid-afternoon slump and are a perfect addition to lunchboxes. So simple, so easy, and with a long shelf life - what more could you want in a biscuit?

A few more news stories from Savour NZ...

Scoop.co.nz: They Came, They Saw, They Savoured New Zealand

Christchurch Star: Bon Appetit with Mavis Airey

Salient: CLASS, MASTER

Walnuts in New Zealand are fantastic. Not only can you buy the boutique, high-quality nuts that are widely grown in this country - there's even a Christchurch-based grower and processor that glories in the name A Cracker of a Nut - but even the imports are of a far better quality than we normally see in Ireland.

I buy most of my baking needs from loose bins at the supermarket - what I describe as a way of seeing what you need and then buying too much of it! Still, there are advantages in almost always having supplies in the house for those times that I feel like putting wooden spoon to bowl. It is from these bins that I buy walnuts so, whether it's the high turnover or just better quality imports, the nuts I buy are never rancid - something that was the bane of my life with pre-packaged walnuts in Ireland. As a result I've come to realise that walnuts in this country are reliable, tasty and versatile.

I have always used walnuts in my recipe for Chocolate Brownies but now I'm starting to branch out and use them in other ways. The other day I had a yearning for a pecan pie but thought that it would be interesting to try making it with walnuts. In my continuing efforts to find tasty uses for my bottle of real maple syrup I also decided to substitute maple syrup for the corn syrup used in pecan pie recipes. Also, because I love the combination, I threw in some cinnamon. Despite me taking a short cut and not pre-cooking the pastry tart case before I added the filling, with the result that the case leaked, the end result left little to be desired (apart, maybe, from keeping all its filling internally the next time!). The tart had the authentic stickyness that I love in pecan pies but the combination of crunchy walnuts, sweet maple syrup and spicy cinnamon was a good twist on an old favourite.

Another four Savour New Zealand classes down and we're now at the end of what was truly a magnificent weekend. Today I started with A Well Seasoned Appetite (Darryl Maffey and Simon Gault), afterwards wandering into Cooking the Catch with Al Brown of Wellington's Logan Brown restaurant. We broke for lunch at 12.15pm - not that too many people could have been hungry at that stage after spending the morning eating tasters from the demonstrations! - and then my afternoon was spent at Stephanie Alexander's presentation, The Kitchen Garden, and Anthony Bourdain's opinionated lecture about French food, Charlie Trotter, roasted crispy pig tail and the evil clown that is Ronald McDonald - a very loose interpretation of the Classically Inspired title of his session.

Although I got to eight classes over the weekend, there were another eight that I would have loved to attend, particularly the fascinating-sounding wine events. At this rate I might even have to make sure that I'm in the country for Savour New Zealand 2007.

Most inspiring presenter: Stephanie Alexander with her absolute passion for and belief in the importance of bringing a programme of gardening, cooking and eating to children at primary school level.

Most entertaining presenter: Undoubtedly Anthony Bourdain. He is a showman and agent provocateur extradionaire and one of his best quotes, during a debate about healthy food, was: "I don't see my body as a temple, I see it as an amusement park."

Most frantic class: A Well Seasoned Appetite, presented by Darryl Maffey and Simon Gault who got through an impressive, if hasty, total of ten Spanish and Italian dishes in just 60 minutes.

Most relaxed class: Al Brown's Cooking the Catch. Just two complex but totally delicious dishes - Seared Scampi Tails with Fresh Wasabi Panna Cotta, Green Olive Lime Salsa and Cabernet Syrup (that was the first one!) and Paua Ravioli with Basil, Coriander and Lime Beurre Blanc.

New things I've tasted: New Zealand shelfish paua, quail eggs, pure Wasabi from Canterbury, rabbit, Mexican mole sauce (a chilli and chocolate sauce served over turkey or chicken), Eight Moon Saffron grown near Christchurch.

Things I learned over the weekend: a new method of steaming salmon on a bed of rosemary (Patricia Wells - Bistro Cooking); how to prepare a paua steak for cooking (Al Brown - Cooking the Catch); how wet a Pain au Levain dough should be before you start kneading it (Dean Brettschneider - Knead the Bread); that you should check the temperature of chocolate with the bottom of your lip instead of your tongue, although you should use a thermometer for preference (Richard Hingston - Craving Chocolate). Oh, and that if Anthony Bourdain had to choose between Gordon Ramsey and Jamie Oliver as a cellmate, he'd pick Jamie "because he would make a fine-looking girlfriend!" (Anthony Bourdain - Classically Inspired).

One day down but one more to go - will I be still standing at the end of it? Yesterday was the first day of Savour New Zealand and it had to be experienced to be believed. I took four from a choice of sixteen masterclasses. The sessions may only have been an hour long but the chefs and cooks managed to get through a huge amount in that space of time. As they prepared dishes in front of the audience there was a kitchen frantically working backstage to produce and send out individual tastings of each dish. With an average of two tastings to each of the classes - and that's not to mention the accompanying wine - it's no wonder that I'm having a breakfast of lemon and ginger tea this morning! I don't have much time as it all kicks off at 9.30am again but see below for some highlights.

Things I tasted: Patricia Wells' Six Minute Salmon with Rosemary at 9.55am (Bistro Cooking); Chicken with Mole Sauce, Chocolate Tart (Craving Chocolate); Dean Brettschneider's fabulous Sourdough bread (Knead the Dough); Rabbit Bistayeea and Sauteed King Prawns with Ras El Hanour, Angel Hair Pasta and Lentil Vinaigrette from Greg Malouf (Middle Eastern Magic). And that's not to forget the fabulous seafood lunch courtesy of Pacific Catch - a freshly shucked Bluff oyster for starters followed by divinely coloured Seafood and Saffron Stew with Garlic and Parsley Scones. If you were hungry after that there was a lemon cake placed on each table. All those dishes, of course, came with accompanying wine.

Chefs and cooks I met: I interviewed three people yesterday. Greg Malouf talked to me about the month he just spent in the Lebanon and Syria, Dean Brettschneider shared his crusading-like zeal for teaching people about bread and Anthony Bourdain was undoubtedly much nicer than he comes across in his books! These interviews will all appear on the site - just as soon as I've a chance to transcribe them.

Cookbooks I now want to buy: I own all of Anthony Bourdain's books already - but they're in Ireland. Not very helpful if you want someone to sign your copy. Thanks to the Christchurch library I am familiar with books by many of the presenters but that doesn't stop my dawdling in the on-site bookshop! Dean Brettschneider has three books out and the newest one, Taste - Baking with Flavour, is something that I'd like to get my hands on soon. I have been fascinated by Greg Malouf's first two books - Arabesque and Moorish - and am looking forward to his new one, to be released in November. I think Patricia Wells' Bistro is going to be added to my collection at some stage soon and maybe, along with that, her James Beard award-winning The Provence Cookbook.

Time to get out the door - let day two begin!

The countdown is nearly over and this Friday sees the opening of the Christchurch based Savour New Zealand foodies masterclass - by NZ Prime Minister Helen Clark, no less. I can't imagine her Irish counterpart, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, opening such a thing in Ireland unless, of course, it was a pub in Drumcondra and there was a pint of Guinness in it for him.

Since I've been here it has become glaringly obvious to me that Ireland lags badly behind New Zealand in terms of availability of good seasonal and regional produce; cooking ability - in most of the NZ cafés you will find food of a quality that's difficult to track down in Ireland (and there's no year-round sad little salads comprising of a piece of tasteless tomato, watery slice of cucumber and limp lettuce leaf); and sheer interest in food. You've only to walk into a newsagent to see the amount of foodie magazines available. New Zealand's Cuisine (out every second month) and Dish (quarterly) are among the best of them but there are plenty of others coming in from Australia and America as well.

So, with this in mind, Savour New Zealand looks like it is going to be a fascinating weekend with lots to see, hear and, hopefully, taste. Although the international cooks and writers - Anthony Bourdain, Patricia Wells, Stephanie Alexander - are getting the big press, there are plenty of interesting Kiwis on board too. From winemakers - Nigel Greening and his pinot noir (a wine that, for me, will be forever linked to Alexander Payne's hilarious and sad film Sideways), New Zealand's Mr Champagne Brett Newell, biodynamic wine producers James Millton and Nick Mills - to chefs like Auckland's Simon Gault, pastry chef Richard Hingston with his Craving Chocolate class and Christchurch's own Darryl Maffey from JDV Restaurant; plus cheesemakers (Katherine Mowbray) and restaurateurs (Judith Tabron of Soul Bar and Bistro in Auckland). Bi-location is beginning to sound like a good idea because there's no way I'm going to be able to make it to all the classes that I'm interested in. I've got till Friday to work on it anyway!

It's feijoa season! And what, you may ask, are feijoas? The first time I saw apple and feijoa juice for sale, not long after I arrived in New Zealand, I had no idea what it was. But, when the Boyfriend - apparently a feijoa fan - ordered it I made sure that I got a taste. It was a pleasantly refreshing drink with a strong flavour of apple but there were tropical undertones that I did not recognise. The hallmark of the feijoa, apparently, which has its own unique taste.

Intrigued, I did a little bit of research on feijoas and discovered that they're not indigenous to New Zealand but instead were brought here in from South American in the 1920s. The trees thrived and now New Zealand, along with California, is one of the few places that the fruit are grown commercially.

After I realised that autumn was the season for fresh feijoas, I've been keeping an eye out for them and, last weekend, I was intrigued to discover some green, egg-shaped fruits in the St Albans Market - they looked like small hairless kiwi fruit, although a different colour. I inquired of the stall owner as to what they were and discovered that these actually were the legendary feijoas. Priced at NZ$3 per kilo bag, I wasn't going home without them so I handed over my money and headed back to the wee house. The Boyfriend was very excited when I told him what I'd bought and he tackled several immediately. You eat feijoas just the same way you do kiwi fruit - or boiled eggs - cutting them in half and using a teaspoon to dig out the flesh.

I have to say that I wasn't hugely impressed with my first feijoa but since then, and seeing as we had a large bag to get through, I started to like them. They have a curious flavour, which is difficult to describe, although the American name for them - pineapple guava - does go some way towards summing up what the taste.

Last night I was having a few friends for dinner so I decided on crumble as the desert of choice. It's one of my favourite things to cook when people are coming round as it is one of those dishes that can be prepared in advance. All you have to do before sitting down to the main course is put the crumble on top of the fruit and land it in the oven. Normally I'm a big fan of Plum and Apple Crumble but, it being feijoa season and all, I decided to make a Feijoa and Apple Crumble. It turns out that feijoas - which can be bitter if unripe - take very well to crumble cooking. The flavour was much more developed by the heat and they married exceptionally well with the Brayburn apples that they were mixed with. It might be difficult find the feijoas for this exact recipe elsewhere in the world so I won't mind too much if you feel the need to substitute plums.

Yesterday - 25 April - was Anzac Day. Now, in the days before I got myself the Kiwi Boyfriend, I mainly knew the word Anzac from some recipe for Anzac Biscuits that I had cooked when I was a kid. But I have been educated since then and now know that Anzac Day commemorates the date in 1915 when forces from this side of the world, fighting as part of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (hence the name Anzac) landed on the shores of the Gallipoli peninsula. The Gallipoli expedition has gone down in history as one of the most ill-fated campaigns of World War I. It had to be abandoned after nine months but, by that stage, almost one-third of the New Zealanders taking part had been killed.

The Anzac Biscuits of my childhood were devised by the women at home to send to their soldiers in Gallipoli. The biscuits - a mixture of oats, coconut, flour, butter and golden syrup - had to survive a long sea voyage (no airmail in those days!) hence the lack of eggs in the mixture. Despite their wartime origins, they're really very edible as I re-discovered last year. I intended on making the biscuits as a surprise for my Boyfriend who, in Ireland, had to work through what would normally be a bank holiday for him. A halt was put to my plans when I discovered that my local Tesco - never very well supplied - had run out of the desiccated coconut that I needed. There must have been more New Zealand and Australian people living in the area than I had realised! About two weeks later, when they finally got around to restocking, I was finally able to buy the coconut and make the biscuits. They might have been slightly out of date at that stage but they weren't any less tasty for the fact.

So, as this year's Anzac Day rolled around, and with me living in one of the countries particularly involved, I decided to revisit last year's recipe - until I realised that it couldn't be found. I know that I discovered the original on the internet but it seemed to be hiding this time round. I did, however, find this recipe on the New Zealand schools social studies site and, with a few tweaks, it turned out just fine although not up to the standard of the Boyfriend's mother's biscuits, of course. I must get after her for the family recipe!

When you move to a new place, you've got to figure out what events are going on and, when I arrived in Christchurch in January, I was thrilled to discover that this South Island city is the home of Savour New Zealand, a foodie spectacular that happens every two years. Fortunately 2005 is one of those years and the event takes place from Friday 6 May to Sunday 8 May - dates now very firmly fixed in my diary!

Apparently the weekend is structured around suites of masterclasses with a total of four sessions per day and the choice of four classes per session. Just looking at the titles of the classes is mouth-watering - Cooking the Catch, Craving Chocolate, Knead the Dough and, one that looks especially fascinating to me because of my love of spices, Middle Eastern Magic. And that's only four of the total sixteen!

But it is the presenters of the classes, and the chance of getting to meet them, that really intrigues. Anthony Bourdain, the enfant terrible of the New York restaurant scene is the name that jumped out at me. I remember when his first biography, Kitchen Confidential, jolted the publishing - and restaurant - scene. It was a breathless, entertaining and sometimes disgusting overview of the dirty business that is food preparation. A Cook's Tour, his follow-up, was a wander through the food of the world in search of the perfect meal was ok but then he played his trump card and published the Les Halles Cookbook. This file of recipes, from New York's legendary Brasserie Les Halles where he is executive chef, shows that Bourdain can not only talk the talk, but he is able to walk the walk as well. Written in Bourdain's trademark aggressive style, the Les Halles Cookbook was an education - and proof that the man can actually do something other than eat, bitch and write about it!

The first time that the Boyfriend's parents were coming to dinner, last summer in Ireland, was a bit of a challenge. It was intimidating enough having to meet the 'out-laws', as my Monaghan friend calls those to whom you are related by having a relationship with their son, but apparently the Boyfriend's father wasn't into spicy food. At that time, I was going though a phase where most things involved the addition of heat, whether in the form of a fresh or dried chilli or using some spicy hot sauce. So, the fact that I had to avoid my favourites made me do some serious thinking about what to cook. In the end, I decided to introduce them to that great Irish fish - the salmon. But, in order to minimise preparation and cooking on the day, I went towards the idea of making a savoury tart (sounds so much classier than quiche!).

As the Boyfriend was at the time working in Dun Laoghaire, he bought some beautiful salmon fillets from the pier so I poached them with a couple of bay leaves the day before we were going to have dinner. I also cooked the tart pastry base in advance, made, I must admit, from bought pastry. Being lazy, I find ready made pastry far more convenient and, I figure, it's either use bought pastry or never make savoury tarts! One of these fine days, when I have both my food processor and a proper freezer in the same country I intend on making several batches of pastry from scratch and freezing them so I can be an oh-so-organised cook. Well, I can dream at least...

Last weekend I had the same guests for dinner so, as it had been a while since our first meeting and the Boyfriend's father seemed to like my first attempt at a Salmon and Leek Tart, I decided to update the recipe. In my freezer I had several hot smoked Akaroa salmon fillets from a Vin de Pays food and wine tour I did earlier this year. I have often had cold smoked salmon, especially at home over Christmas time as part of the festive season, but never tasted hot smoked salmon before. The moment it passed my lips on the tour I was hooked. It has a more delicate flavour than the cold smoked variety and a lovely flaky texture. The friends that I was with were kind enough to buy me a bag of the fillets and that night a portion was put to delicious use with pasta and some cream. The sizeable remnants had ended up in the freezer as we were going away for a few days and stayed there, awaiting their fate, until the other night.

Although I specify hot smoked salmon in the recipe, you can - like I did the first time - use poached salmon or, alternatively, substitute cold smoked salmon. They're all very good in their different ways. I use a half-and-half mixture of cream and crème fraîche to give the filling a bit of bite but you can, of course, use all cream - or all crème fraîche . I also add some paprika, more for colour than flavour, and am sure I got this idea from Clotilde's exemplary Chocolate & Zucchini food blog but can't seem to track it down there now.

Hmmm...sometimes it pays to study the labels of the jams you buy a little closer. After Saturday's trip to the St Albans Market I've discovered that I am eating not Black Bot Peach Jam but Black BOY Peach Jam. I had spent time searching for more information on the black bot peaches (not a good term to put into a search engine!) to no avail. But my search for black boy peaches came up trumps and it seems to be a fairly unusual type of peach with, according to one New Zealand website "dark reddy-grey skin. Bright port red and white streaky flesh." Sounds beautiful. Now, having been seduced by the jam (even if I was calling it by the wrong name) I'll have to look out for the peaches themselves, although I might have missed the season as they apparently ripen in late February.

The jam lady's produce is so fantastic that I had to go back to her and replace the first wee jar of Black Boy Peach Jam that I bought. While I was there I grabbed another jar of the delicious Lady Rose chutney as well. While I was examining her other jams and chutneys I heard her tell another customer that she was thinking of giving up the market for the winter. I'll have to get stocked up!

Although we're very solidly into autumn now here in New Zealand (autumn! In April! I'm still not quite getting my head around it) with little prospect of camping ahead, Nicola Saker's Blue Sky Kitchen: Creative Cookery For Kiwi Campers still caught my eye, despite the sickly image of the nuclear family that feature on the cover. Although not a Kiwi, I certainly am a camper cooking for a Kiwi so I figure I fall into Saker's target market. Anyway, I'm always looking for good things to cook over our wee gas burner (one-pot options only need apply) and this has plenty of great workable ideas for campsite cuisine.

Saker isn't one of these super-efficient, scary women that you sometimes see in campsite kitchens, whipping up a three-course meal with nothing but a billy can and tin opener. As she says herself, "I'm not a trained cook, and I'm not a hugely experienced camper" - sounds like someone on the same end of the scale as myself, then. The start of the book concentrates on good advice to do with food storage and, most importantly, food safety - something which is often forgotten or disregarded while camping. There are also handy lists of cooking utensils and stores for those who, unlike myself, dare to go under canvas with more than one generation.

There are lots of good things about being based in the little Christchurch suburb of St Albans - we're only about 30 minutes walk from the city centre, there is the choice of a couple of supermarkets nearby (Edgeware's bare basics Supervalue and the well stocked Fresh Choice in Merivale) and, best of all, every Saturday morning there's a market in English Park, just five minutes away from the house. The English Park Market (on Cranford Street from 9am-2pm) has little in common with the kind of food markets that I am used to in Ireland. There are few of the ready prepared gourmet snacks and dishes that characterise Dublin's Temple Bar Food Market at Meeting House Square, for instance. The English Park Market instead reminds me of Thursdays spent in the Square at Mitchelstown when I was a kid. There's lots of fruit and veg, with the odd few tatty kids' toys thrown in for good measure, but where Mitchelstown Market of old loses out is in the quality of produce available here.

Every week, come rain or shine, there's an organic vegetable and fruit stall with everything from the basic onions, carrots and garlic to silverbeet (a staple over here, like spinach but bigger and stronger in every way), organic and free-range eggs, four types of apple, two types of pear, some knobbly but interesting looking peppers and lots of potatoes. It's paper bags all the way - perfect for me as I've brought my shopping bags with me and I reuse the paper bags for our breadmaker bread.

So, after loading up there - it's nearly a one-stop shop, but not quite - there are lots of other stalls to explore and one of my first stops will have to be with the Cox's Orange Pippins man. It's a tiny stall with stacks of 2 kilo bags of Cox's at the very fair price of NZ$2. Not that I'm complaining, for his are the best apples that I've tasted by far. I choose to ignore the fact that he teased me about being too young to appreciate Cox's the first day I bought them. With my return each week for another bag, I think I've proven otherwise!

Moving to a new city in a new country is not exactly the time for extravagant dinners à deux. When you're looking for work and trying to scrape the money together to rent and furnish a flat, it seems like wanton extravagance to splash out on sumptuous meals - unless, of course, your Bibliofemme friends club together to give you and your Boyfriend a voucher for a night of cocktails and food at Christchurch's Indochine on Cambridge Terrace. What better way to introduce yourself to a new city than with a meal in a restaurant you've never heard of?

First impressions were good - the elegant décor has a strong Eastern influence with black lacquered screens cutting the room into cosy, low-lit sections. The fact that our first cocktails took a while to arrive didn't start the night off on the best footing but this minor annoyance was quickly assuaged by the quality of the drinks. Indochine prides itself on its cocktail menu and there's plenty of choice here for the connoisseur. Even though we couldn't quite identify the contents of the Boyfriend's Mai Tai (other than rum), it had a kick like a mule and my Tropical Fizz wasn't much lighter so the alcohol, coupled with hunger, meant that a good mood prevailed ever before we set eyes on the food menu.

Indochine has an eclectic take on East-West fusion cooking with Dim Sum openers moving confidently from Grilled Fish Cakes with Cucumber Relish to Crunchy Oregano Chicken and a menu that incorporates French techniques and Chinese ingredients. The restaurant is peopled by friendly and mostly efficient staff who helpfully explain the menu after seeing your bewildered looks. It's not as complicated as it seems at first glance, however, once it is explained that starters and mains are distinguished by price rather than classification.

There's more than one way to make the best of your time. And perhaps writing about Hot Cross Buns as they (hopefully!) rise in your kitchen may be winning in the multi-tasking stakes at the moment. Not very New Zealand, you may say, but no! These are extra special Kiwi Hot Cross Buns with Chocolate Chips.

Now, I've always been a fan of the Hot Cross Bun, especially when it's toasted so that you can add the extra treat of melted butter to the warm, spicy yummyness, but Chocolate Chip HCBs I had not come across before arriving in New Zealand. And now they're everywhere! I just have to wander into or past a bakery (of which there are many) to see an advertisement for HCBs - plain (as if you could ever call a HCB 'plain') or with chocolate chips.

A taste test at Baker's Delight in Northlands shopping centre while waiting to collect some of their dense Cape Seed rolls (ideal for packed lunches) convinced me that these were indeed a good idea and so I pressed our new breadmaker into service this morning. Not being lazy, you understand, just intrigued to see what it can do. So far it's doing good. I carefully measured the ingredients into the pan, in sequence as told, just adding a ¼ cup chocolate chips with the sultanas, and set it running.

An hour and a half later, three beeps told me we were ready to rock so I took the dough out of the machine, kneaded it for a few minutes - not that it needed it but old habits die hard - and divided it into slightly over the dozen pieces as recommended by the manual. Well, you can't be following instructions blindly all the time. I put my fourteen buns lovingly on to two trays and set them to rise, which is the stage we're at now.

This is the first time I've ever made a bread-type thing in our rather cold house and I'm not sure how long they're going to need to rise. The recipe, which says leave for 30 minutes, seems a little optimistic so we'll see how we go. In the meantime, here's the recipe. Bear in mind that my breadmaker has a capacity of 1½ lbs and your own breadmaker might even come with a handy recipe that you can use yourself.

For those of you without breadmakers, I often made HCBs by hand in my mother's kitchen without any problems. If I had the recipe I'd give it here but, alas, I'm far from the advantages of having all my tried and tested cookbooks to hand so you'll just have to do with my breadmaker one. Oh, and don't forget, all the measurements in New Zealand are in what seems to me, terribly inconvenient cups. Still, you'll find no end of conversion tables available on the internet.

Updated: 25 August 2007: Two-and-a-half years after I started Bibliocook, I think it is about time I updated the About section! I started this blog while living in New Zealand - see below for my first entry - with the Boyfriend, who recently became the Husband. After a year focusing on the flavours and tastes of New Zealand and cooking for my friends and family in Christchurch, I had a new perspective on food when I returned to Ireland in 2005. I resumed my day job at RTÉ.ie Entertainment but continued to write about baking and dinners, cafés and restaurants, cookbooks and products here on Bibliocook, making friends at Greatfood.ie, Slow Food Ireland and Intermezzo Ireland. And now, the next step for me, in both writing about and working with food is the 12-week certificate course at Ballymaloe Cookery School!

Original text 25 March 2005: I've been reading other people's food blogs with great interest for a couple of years. I love how blog writers describe how they come up with their recipes, foods that they like, kitchen equipment that is essential to them, experiments they make and their favourite cookbooks. It's a much more personal way of learning about food rather than just looking at the bare bones of a recipe. And for me, food is all about context. Like the blogs, the cookery writers that I adore - Nigel Slater, Nigella Lawson, Darina Allen - are good at evoking the events and feelings that surround particular dishes, Nigella Lawson in particular. So, with the help and encouragement of my Techie friend, I decided to explore doing that for myself.

At home in Ireland I had a busy life as an entertainment journalist on the RTÉ website but, since coming to my Boyfriend's native New Zealand in December, I have much more time on my hands so it's the perfect opportunity to write about food. Particularly since the food here in New Zealand is amazing - I've been constantly amazed at the quality of food available in restaurants and cafes, in local markets and side-of-road stalls.

Another thing that really impresses me is the New Zealander can-do attitude. They've taken a look hard look at European produce and determined that it can be done - and bettered - here, from spectacularly good olive oil, wine and verjuice to new products such as avocado oil and hazelnut paste. I am living in Christchurch on the South Island at the moment and have every intention of spending the next few months eating my way around the country - and writing all about it here.

There were several reasons why I picked the name Bibliocook. Firstly, I'm a long standing (if absent at the moment) member of an Irish bookclub called Bibliofemme and this website is designed by that club's Techie who has been saying "and, of course, Bibliocook is your baby" to me for years. Also, it is a name that sums up two of my major loves in life - cooking, naturally, and reading. My Boyfriend says that I sometimes spend more time reading cookbooks than cooking from them. I don't see a problem with that! So Bibliocook it is - I hope you enjoy it.

Contact details: cook[at]bibliocook[dot]com