Today was our scheduled foodie tour with The Big Foody Food Tours. Dan & Joanne - you would be happy with us!
It was a fabulous morning with Colleen, our guide, not just with the food sampling we did, but also with the sites of the city of Auckland we experienced.
So first we set off for coffee at Miller's. This little shop imports and roasts their own coffee beans for sale. They're one of the first in NZ to do so, and they've got quite a market to ship to. They import from Papua New Guinea, Colombia, and Kenya. Then they create blends they like, and so it goes.
Here's the roasting oven.
They determine when it's done by look and smell, not by machine. Of course we tasted some of the coffee and it was delicious.
Just across this little street was a very unique building - like shipping containers all stacked willie-nillie. The space is available for renting out for a small office, or meetings, or whatever. At street level is this little chocolate shop which is a spin-off of a very thriving one in another location. It was convenient to have opened here.
It's called Newport chocolates. This lovely lady, Lorena, was the chocolate-maker, and she had some beautiful creations to show us and let us taste. These were Christmas balls.
Here she is. She's Argentinian and has a family chocolate recipe. Needless to say, we bought some. I don't know if it will make it home, or not.
After this, we stopped at a little bakery place where they make absolutely awesome food -- not just baked goods. Our hostess grabbed us a box of sausage rolls and a feta/herb roll which we took along with us. It was such a unique place as it shared its space with a fabric shop!
We took that food up Mount Eden and ate it there. There are 20-some volcanoes in the Auckland area. This is one of them. From here, you get a fabulous view of Auckland and the surrounding area. No need to go up the tower now!
This couple was there. I've seen them before.
We then went to a local market - Sabato - where they have all kinds of fine gourmet foods. We tried some of the local (NZ) specialties, including NZ honey (3 different varieties), oyster pate, wasabi, hazelnut oil, and these awesome smoked mushrooms that I would have loved to take back to Canada, but I couldn't get them in a transportable fashion. I'm not a mushroom lover, but they were absolutely delicious. Everything we tried was made here in NZ, and rather unique to NZ.
We also tried several different kinds of NZ cheeses. Fabulous!
After Sabato, we went on to the harbour, through their large park and war memorial. Our final destination was the fish market.
Every day, all the fish caught ends up here at the market where it's purchased by auction. This photo is the fish that was left from the auction, still boxed in a refrigerated area.
This is the auction room. They do a reverse auction, starting at a high price and going down.
After touring around the market, we ended up having a seafood lunch. Sorry, I forgot to take the picture before I ate most of it. I know, I know...you get to see the dregs. NZ mussels, squid, fish done a couple of different ways, prawns. Really delicious.
It was a fabulous morning with Colleen, our guide, not just with the food sampling we did, but also with the sites of the city of Auckland we experienced.
So first we set off for coffee at Miller's. This little shop imports and roasts their own coffee beans for sale. They're one of the first in NZ to do so, and they've got quite a market to ship to. They import from Papua New Guinea, Colombia, and Kenya. Then they create blends they like, and so it goes.
Here's the roasting oven.
They determine when it's done by look and smell, not by machine. Of course we tasted some of the coffee and it was delicious.
Just across this little street was a very unique building - like shipping containers all stacked willie-nillie. The space is available for renting out for a small office, or meetings, or whatever. At street level is this little chocolate shop which is a spin-off of a very thriving one in another location. It was convenient to have opened here.
It's called Newport chocolates. This lovely lady, Lorena, was the chocolate-maker, and she had some beautiful creations to show us and let us taste. These were Christmas balls.
Here she is. She's Argentinian and has a family chocolate recipe. Needless to say, we bought some. I don't know if it will make it home, or not.
After this, we stopped at a little bakery place where they make absolutely awesome food -- not just baked goods. Our hostess grabbed us a box of sausage rolls and a feta/herb roll which we took along with us. It was such a unique place as it shared its space with a fabric shop!
We took that food up Mount Eden and ate it there. There are 20-some volcanoes in the Auckland area. This is one of them. From here, you get a fabulous view of Auckland and the surrounding area. No need to go up the tower now!
This couple was there. I've seen them before.
We then went to a local market - Sabato - where they have all kinds of fine gourmet foods. We tried some of the local (NZ) specialties, including NZ honey (3 different varieties), oyster pate, wasabi, hazelnut oil, and these awesome smoked mushrooms that I would have loved to take back to Canada, but I couldn't get them in a transportable fashion. I'm not a mushroom lover, but they were absolutely delicious. Everything we tried was made here in NZ, and rather unique to NZ.
We also tried several different kinds of NZ cheeses. Fabulous!
Every day, all the fish caught ends up here at the market where it's purchased by auction. This photo is the fish that was left from the auction, still boxed in a refrigerated area.
This is the auction room. They do a reverse auction, starting at a high price and going down.
After touring around the market, we ended up having a seafood lunch. Sorry, I forgot to take the picture before I ate most of it. I know, I know...you get to see the dregs. NZ mussels, squid, fish done a couple of different ways, prawns. Really delicious.
So that was it. It was a fabulous 5 hours or so spent with Colleen.
Tonight we headed out for a brewski and some light dinner, returning by 8:45. Ready for new adventure tomorrow!
You are making me hungry especially for the chocolate (not so much the fish)!
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