Wellington on a Plate 2013 Wrap-up
Sunday September 8, 2013
Yes, I realise that Wellington on a Plate finished two weeks ago, but I've been busy and/or tired and lazy! So to recap, Wellington on a Plate runs for 17 days in August, and is a celebration of Wellington's finest food establishments and the amazing produce and ingredients that they source from around the region. Restaurants and cafes join in by offering a special set meal or degustation during this festival, or they may opt to enter the burger competition with an exquisite burger of their creation, and a Garage Project beer to match. I have been to a few Wellington on a Plate meals in previous years, but this year I decided to hit it hard. Here are some quick fire stats:
Number of Burgers Consumed: 11
Number of Oysters Consumed: 18
Dined with: 19 different people in total
Best Burger: Hummingbird's Craydaddy Crayfish Burger
Best Meal: Logan Brown
Worst Burger: Crazy Horse's Kimchi Burger
Worst Meal: Martin Bosley
Total Money Spent: $635.60
Level of Happiness: Highest it's ever been
A full set of photographic documentation and verdicts on each dish can be found on my Wellington on a Plate album on Facebook. Many thanks to each of my friends who shared these delicious experiences with me; good food must always be matched with good company!
I was impressed by the dinners I had at Ortega and Logan Brown. It was my second time at Ortega and first time at Logan Brown, and though several people had extolled the quality of the food at Logan Brown, my own dining experience there exceeded my expectations. Definitely the most outstanding meal I've had this year - on par with the amazing degustation I had at Tatsumi in Newmarket, Auckland last Labour Weekend. I knew what to expect from Ortega so there were no surprises that the quality of the meal and the freshness of the seafood were top notch. The biggest disappointment was Martin Bosley's - small portions, average quality, and unreasonably expensive - everything I find frustrating about fine dining. For such a celebrated chef, I think he could do much, much better.
Burger Rating List (Mouseover for burger descriptions!):
- Hummingbird's Craydaddy Burger: 10/10
- Duke Carvell's Flocking to the Duke's Harem Burger: 9.5/10
- The Grill at the Amora's Classic Sunday Roast Lamb Burger: 9/10
- Ti Kouka's All About Longbush Pork Burger: 8.5/10
- The Larder's Dough and Deer Burger: 8.5/10
- El Matador's Che's Chevito Burger: 8/10
- Little Beer Quarter's Burg-As Bro Burger: 8/10
- Vivant!'s Elementary, My Deer Watson Burger: 8/10
- Atlanta's Ring of Fire Burger: 6.5/10
- Crazy Horse's Kimchi Burger: 2/10
Apart from the meals and burgers, there was also the Oyster Saloon, a caravan in the carpark right by Duke Carvell's on Cuba Street and Swan Lane, where they served freshly shucked oysters on a quaint egg carton - au naturel or beer battered to your liking. I love oysters so much, and hands down the winner of the five varieties I got to try were the sumptuous Stewart Island variety - gorgeously large and creamy, and all the characteristic sweet and salty flavours of the sea that every fresh oyster should have. Also, there was the Moore Wilson's Taste Street Night Market, filled with stalls selling bisques, chowders, sliders, sandwiches, grilled meats, ice cream, chocolates and more. It was fantastically busy, with thousands of people crammed into the upper level carpark at Moore Wilson's. Winner on the night was the Zany Zeus Grilled Haloumi Sandwich, hot off the barbeque and drizzled with fresh lemon juice - yummo!
A thoroughly enjoyable 17 days of decadence.
Posted by Jeremy at 10:42am on Sunday September 8, 2013 :: 0 comments :: 
More Earthquakes
Saturday August 17, 2013
We were hit by a massive 6.6 magnitude earthquake yesterday around 2.30pm. I was at work and we all felt a small jolt, prompting an instinctual move the chair back from the desk and stare at the others in the room. It went quiet for a split second and then suddenly a huge force hit the building and we dived under our desks. The tables rattled and a few things fell off the wall but the shaking diminished and we crawled out. The building continued to shake, taking the brunt of at least seven aftershocks over 4.0 magnitude within the next 30 minutes.
Senior management decided we were done for the day, so I wrapped up the final builds with my project manager and headed home. Geonet says that 11 more aftershocks over 4.0 magnitude occurred between 3pm and 4pm. As I was walking home, the streets were packed with people waiting for buses and cars scrambling to get out of the city. It was chaos, the roads all gridlocked as the entire CBD began an exodus out to the suburbs. My workmates living in Miramar said they took two hours to get home... I'm so thankful I'm only 15 minutes walk away.
It's been quiet overnight, thankfully. Things have settled down but once again we're on edge and anxious about the weeks ahead.
I do however have Wellington on a Plate to look forward to! Tonight I'm going to try the crayfish burger from Hummingbird - yummo!
Posted by Jeremy at 2:26am on Saturday August 17, 2013 :: 0 comments ::
Post Earthquake
Sunday August 4, 2013
Things seem to have settled down. We've had a few big aftershocks but things are more or less back to normal. Cordons have been lifted and there might still be a few carpark closures, but business is running as per usual and things are starting to feel routine again. The Geonet Website has provided heaps of information on the quake series, including a tally of aftershocks grouped by magnitude, probability tables for future aftershocks and the ten largest quakes since the 6.5 last month.
Work has been alright. We released version 1.2.1 of Robot Unicorn Attack 2 on iOS and are continuing to work on updates. There's a lot of bugs to fix and features that AdultSwim keep asking us for, and there's heaps of work to do on the horizon. We've had a change of Technical Manager and Technical Director, and the plans for the future look interesting and exciting, and hopefully we'll continue to improve and grow as a department.
Today has been messy. I didn't get much sleep last night and had to get up early for music at church this morning. I was super tired and it reflected in my playing. I hit the wrong chords and couldn't concentrate, I was flustered over timing and had to abruptly end the offering song awkwardly. I was not having a good time. I managed to get some shut eye this afternoon after some delicious steak from the Chocolate Frog Cafe in Miramar, but it was soon up and go time for Dale's stag do. We had some thrilling games of paintball at the new place on Willis St, with my workmates sporting some impressive welts and injuries. I escaped major injury, with maybe two or three big ones to my leg and arms. We had dinner at the Tap Haus and then back home for a couple of grim games of Dota.
Sigh, Dota.
I am out of practice and fed too much. Once things get like that though, I just feel like it's too much effort to practice and get better; it's such a huge time investment. One game can be horribly demoralising; the next exhilarating and adrenaline pumping. The same goes for a lot of online games I guess, and the unpredictability of your opponents means no two games are ever the same.
I'm looking forward to Wellington on a Plate this month, with deliciousness starting this Friday. It's going to be an expensive food month, but I'm sure it'll be totally worth it - last year I only managed Boulcott St Bistro, but this year I'm hoping to try El Matador, Logan Brown, Ortega, Hummingbird, Crazy Horse, Martin Bosley's and the Grill. Truly there is no sincerer love than that of food!
Posted by Jeremy at 12:17pm on Sunday August 4, 2013 :: 0 comments ::
Earthquakes
Sunday July 21, 2013
Wellington was hit by a large earthquake on Friday morning, just after 9am. I had just arrived at work and began my morning routine when the jolt hit. We looked at each other nervously, the quake increasing in intensity but tapered off soon after; we were ready to bolt under our desks should the severity have intensified. Geonet placed the magnitude at 5.7. There were some minor aftershocks throughout the day but the remainder of Friday and all of Saturday was pretty docile.
Sunday morning after 7.15am, the city shook again from another severe 5.8 magnitude earthquake, followed by at least three major aftershocks registering more than 4.0 within the next three hours. The final major strike of the weekend though came just after 5pm when a massive 6.5 earthquake struck the city. Reports of fallen bookshelves and broken crockery filled my Facebook news feed. Pictures and videos from around the CBD started popping up, showing shards of glass scattered across the road, burst waterpipes spewing water everywhere, people standing outside their apartment buildings wondering if we were going to suffer the same fate as Christchurch. I was having dinner with Mitchell, Amy, Jono and Charlotte and throughout the evening we were increasingly becoming edgier after feeling some aftershocks.
The 6.5 was really grim. I was mortified because I was in the shower at the time and I have long feared the day that an earthquake would hit while I was bathing. There was nothing to hold onto, all I could do was crouch down and hold on to the side of the bathtub. The quake almost knocked me off balance, but subsided soon after. I'm okay; uninjured but nervous. No damage to my flat, but the Mercure Hotel just down the road has sunk 5cm into the ground, and that area has been cordoned off.
We've been advised to stay out of the CBD until at least noon tomorrow so that engineers can inspect the buildings for damage. Seismologists have said that "in the coming week there could be up to nine magnitude 5.0 or greater events, with an approximately 30% probability (a 1 in 3 chance) of a magnitude 6.0 or greater. The most likely period for this to occur is the next 24 hours, when the probability is approximately 20% (a 1 in 5 chance).". This series of earthquakes has been the most severe I've ever felt since moving to Wellington five and a half years ago. While I'm thankful that we still have our basic utilities and have escaped relatively unscathed this round, I can't help but feel uncertain for the coming months.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:24pm on Sunday July 21, 2013 :: 0 comments ::
Cold. Sick.
Monday July 15, 2013
It's been a tough few weeks at work, but the Robot Unicorn Attack 2 Android version is finally out on the Google Play store, and had over 10,000 downloads in the first 24 hours of release. We're continually working on updates and ever-changing requirements means a shift in focus and priorities for particular features, but hey, that's game development for you. Two of the team are away on holiday and one resigned to travel the country, so there's two programmers and one artist holding the fort. Stay tuned for more unicorn fabulousness in the future.
Andrew and Shuren are down in Wellington for a research project during one of the worst weeks ever, weather-wise. I took them around to the regular touristy places like Te Papa, the Weta Cave, Mt Victoria Lookout and the Brooklyn Wind Turbine - it occurred to me that there aren't a lot of things for people to do in Wellington when the weather is so bad. Of course, food was an important item and we were at Chocolate Frog on Saturday afternoon after badminton, and Restaurant 88 for dinner - and needless to say, we went to Strawberry Fare, twice!
After church on Sunday, we went cronut hunting at Moore Wilsons and brunching at Cafe L'affare. With reports of snow at 300m, we decided to go for a drive to the Rimutaka's to see what we could find. Driving conditions weren't as treacherous as I thought they would be; it wasn't too windy but the rain was heavy. As we reached the site of the old cafe, the wind picked up and deliver some sleet and snow flurries that danced around the car. With temperatures rapidly dropping, we headed home and played some Super Smash Bros Melee before dinner at Cosa Nostra and dessert at Strawberry Fare.
Unfortunately with all this adventuring, I've come down with a mild cold and had to stay at home today. Metservice reported 5.3C this morning, feeling like -1C with the windchill factor. My room is quite toasty thanks to the heater, but at some stage I will have to venture out into the kitchen and make dinner :(
Posted by Jeremy at 6:05am on Monday July 15, 2013 :: 0 comments ::