Fooding, So Hard Right Now
Sunday August 17, 2014
Wellington on a Plate 2014 has begun!
I've organised a team of foodies for the 17 days of this amazing food festival celebrating the region's finest produce and beverages. I've got a meal planned for every day, some times two in one day! We were at the Bangalore Polo Club at lunchtime on Friday, and Le Canard on Friday evening, and Duke Carvell's today for their amazing Double Down burger.
Yesterday I went out to Kilbirnie to look at the zephyrometer that had been struck by lightning, and spent some time at the sauna for my back. I picked up some pandan mooncakes (yay!) before heading home and meeting Dale, Jordan, Rob, Jill, Nic, Ian and Joe in town for some drinks. What was supposed to be a pretty low-key event turned into some pretty exhilarating shenanigans - we tried to get tables at Plum, then Hummingbird and Monsoon Poon as a random Wellington on a Plate venture, but all three places were jam-packed so we ended up having pizzas at One Red Dog, then dessert at Strawberry Fare (I tried their newest addition to the menu - a caramel, chocolate and peanut butter cheesecake!) and finally some more drinks at the Library. Such a great night out with friends - truly blessed to have such an awesome group of people to hang out with!
Posted by Jeremy at 10:10am on Sunday August 17, 2014 :: 0 comments :: 
Thunderbolts and Lightning
Thursday August 14, 2014
We had a sudden yet exciting hailstorm hit the city around 2.30pm today. Friends at Weta had started posting about a hailstorm hitting the Miramar Peninsula just after 2.15pm; sure enough, around five minutes later, the CBD bore the brunt of a cold snap, with hail falling in the inner city and some rather dramatic displays of thunder and lightning. We learned later that the zephyrometer - the large orange needle in Kilbirnie - had been struck by lightning and blown apart!
Speaking of the cold and storms, I was at Ants and Jo's leaving party at the ever classy Blend bar. Great to catch up with people there, but the highlight of the night was letting it go in karaoke. I was wanting to go home at midnight but couldn't resist following them to the new karaoke bar next to the Lanes bowling alley, and I was enthralled to see they had the Idina Menzel version of Let It Go there. And Let It Go I did! Amazing. Despite the late night, I was able to make it to church the next morning - just!
I had dinner with Tak and Loic at the Steer and Beer last Friday before heading to Wei's house to socialise a bit and observe some Monopoly Deal (was too stubborn to play), and saw Guardians of the Galaxy at the Gold Lounge on Sunday (could not go back to the pleb seats!) The Baking Competition pies were fantastic and the next challenge is eclairs! It's been a busy week but Wellington on a Plate starts tomorrow, and it's going to be mega.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:06am on Thursday August 14, 2014 :: 0 comments ::
Suddenly August
Thursday August 7, 2014
I was up in Auckland last weekend for May and Norman's wedding. Awesome to catch up with my KCC crew and even more exciting to see these two be married and to celebrate with them over a fantastic meal at the Cube on Swanson St in the city.
I got to see my two nephews - the older one is as giggly as ever, and extremely excitable, the younger one we call fei jai because of his cute chubby cheeks! They really do grow up so fast and I really wish I could see them more often. I also took my parents to this amazing restaurant called Chikos on Lincoln Road. The chef there is Filipino but trained in French cuisine and his food combines contemporary flavours of Southeast Asia, the Pacific and Japan to produce some truly delightful and inspired dishes. I was blown away by the immaculate presentation of each dish, as well as the freshness of the ingredients and the exciting, unique taste of the meal. Definitely one to visit again in the future, and for $30 per main, a very reasonably priced one at that.
This week has been pretty busy too. I went for yoga again on Monday but felt so horrible afterwards that I'm probably just going to skip the last two classes - I ended up having some shooting pains down my leg and it was so hot and humid that I felt like I was going to pass out. I've just come back from Luke's birthday celebration at the Lighthouse Cinema where we ate an Adventure Time cake and saw Princess Mononoke.
One more week until Wellington on a Plate! Organising people together for this is worse than herding cats, but I'm sure the negativity will melt away once I get some burgers in my mouth. This week's baking challenge was a vegetable cake - a cake with a vegetable as the primary ingredient. Our bakers pulled together with pumpkin, beetroot, zucchini, mushroom (ugh!), onion (ugh!!), potato and rhubarb; huge congratulations to Jules and Tim for their contributions to the challenge - next week's is pie!
Posted by Jeremy at 12:08pm on Thursday August 7, 2014 :: 0 comments ::
Awkward Poses
Wednesday July 30, 2014
I went to yoga for the first time in my life on Monday.
Then I went again today.
Both times were awful. I am unfit and inflexible, and my hamstring injury was not contributing to my general well-being. It is something I want to try and like, because I know it will be good for my joints in the future and that it will strengthen my leg to prevent injuries like that from happening. But it is a very steep hill to climb and I am having a very bad time.
I spent most of last week cleaning and packing for my big shift 20 metres away. Everything went pretty smoothly, thanks to some help from Wei and my new flatmates. Though my leg was starting to give me some serious grief, I was able to rest it often enough to persevere through the whole day and get everything shifted in. After a trip to the Southern Landfill on Sunday, it all started feeling settled again. As a bonus, Vodafone sorted the Internet out on Saturday so I was able to get that all connected with my new powerline adapters to my desktop. Home is where the Internet is.
We were at the opening night of Mexico on Dixon Street for Jill's birthday and at Dragons for yum cha on Sunday. Then on Monday was the first bake day for the Wellington on a Plate Bake Club - I'm the co-ordinator for two teams at work who are battling it out to be PikPok's top baker. Wellington on a Plate sets a series of challenges each week and it's up to our teams to go out and bake up a storm and bring in the goods on Monday (sometimes Tuesday) for judging. We award points based on appearance, flavour, texture and usage of "Wellington ingredients" and the sum of the scores for each category over all the weeks determines who is the winner and thus who will advance to the Wellington City Bake Off!
The two PikPok teams are Fondante's Inferno and Flour Power: Into the Bread, and the first challenge was slices. There was an assortment fantastic edibles - lemon meringue, honey lemon and ginger, strawberry and chocolate mascarpone, chocolate and star anise, lemon passionfruit and coconut, and almond, peanut and chocolate. Absolutely awesome job by our eight bakers and looking forward to next week's exciting installment!
Posted by Jeremy at 10:40am on Wednesday July 30, 2014 :: 0 comments ::
Epic Karaoke
Sunday July 20, 2014
We had some epic karaoke on Friday night at New Kor. Ants, Jo, Luke, Mike and I met at 8pm for dinner there, but unfortunately the restaurant was full, so Mr Lee let us have some pre-karaoke while we waited for a table. And in the 45 minutes that we were there, we belted out some amazing numbers: Ants and Mike dueting Creed's "With Arms With Open" perfectly, in the exact same style; Luke and I hitting some sweet harmonies with Bette Midler's "The Rose"; some smooth baritone versions of "My Heart Will Go On" and "I Will Always Love You". So good.
After dinner, we were joined by Matt, Ben, Jill, Charlie, Jimmy and Thomas where the festivities continued for another two hours, hitting max crescendo with Bohemian Rhapsody as the night's epic finale. There was plenty of soju and plenty of song, and it was a fantastic night indeed.
It was an early start to the next morning however, as I played badminton for the first time in almost six months. With my leg feeling marginally tight, I was able to play on and off for the full two hours without too much strain and had a great time easing back into an activity I have been missing so much this year.
That night, I was at Jordan and Chloe's for their flat warming - a classy wine and cheese night. Another great night of fine conversation and an amazing selection of wines, cheeses and condiments, including's Nic's Cob Loaf, a hollowed-out loaf of bread filled with cheese, sour cream, spring onions and bacon. The night's activities included Josh and Damon visiting the rave party downstairs, and a flurry of selfie bombs on Damon's Facebook page.
Music at Central Baptist went well this morning. I wanted to spend more time reflecting on the devastating news on MH17 - yet another tragedy for Malaysia Airlines as one of their planes was shot down over the Ukraine killing all 300 people on board - but there were plenty of other wrongs in the world to pray for. There sure is a lot of conflict these days... it's pretty depressing.
Posted by Jeremy at 11:32am on Sunday July 20, 2014 :: 0 comments ::