Taste of Auckland 2010

Taste of Auckland was on last month and I got Mel to go with me. We went to the 5 pm session on Friday and the weather was pretty yuck. Luckily it wasn't so bad that it got in the way of us stuffing our faces. Phew! It was on the rugby fields opposite Victoria Park so I had to sink my heels into the grounds as we navigated around all the stalls. The things I do for food.

Our tickets came with $30 crowns each. You use them to pay for food at the stalls. Basically, Taste of Auckland is a food festival where you can buy products from various stalls - usually products you find in specialty foodstores and you can also buy dishes from the top Auckland restaurants that took part. The restaurants that took opart were Bracu, Clooney, dine by Peter Gordon, Euro, The Grove, Harbourside, Monsoon Poon, Mudbrick, Prego, Soto and Toto.

Poor chef grilling chicken after chicken for the hungry mob.

How awesome does this coil of sausage look? Imagine re-enacting that scene from Lady and The Tramp with it? Hohoho I volunteer myself.

Kohu Road stall.. me favourite ice cream brand. They do sorbets now too.

The Malaysian stall that had the cheek to charge an entry fee (comes with some food but still!). Winner of Australian Masterchef, Adam, was in there cooking but since we were too cheapskate to pay and go in, I took a photo of Mel instead.

Mel looking all excited, trying to decide what to spend our precious $60 crowns on.

After circling all the stalls, we finally decided on the offerings from The Grove. Not because we thought it was the best restaurant in Auckland, but because the dishes looked to be the biggest out of all the other restaurants. Haha.

Mel queueing up to order.

Entree : Yellowfin Tuna Salad with Avocado, Corriander and Chilli; 12 Crowns. The tuna was fresh and succulent but it didn't rock my world. It was nice but nothing groundbreaking. Maybe because I'm not a fan of corriander.

Main: Crispy Wild Boar with Heirloom Beets, Apple and Hazelnuts; 12 Crowns. The crumbled snow-like looking topping was the apple. This dish was soooooooo good. The boar was so juicy and tender. Yum yum yum yum yum.

Dessert: Valrhona Chocolate Pave, Cookie Crumbs and Strawberry Cream; 8 crowns. This was crazy rich. The chocolate was headache-inducingly rich. Luckily the strawberry cream and strawberries balanced the richness out. *smack lips*

We then took a break from all the eating and watched Matt Moran do his thang at cooking arena. He was very smooth in his delivery - able to cook while telling the audience anecdotes about his career. This was glaringly obvious when the dude after him ummmed and aahhhed throughout his opening speech.

The MC was one of the contestants from NZ Masterchef. Kelly or something.

We still had $30 crowns left so we got the teriyaki chicken from Soto for 8 crowns. Again, our choice was dictated by how big the portion was. Mel then spent the rest on some cheese from Kapiti Cheese.

My stash : A free teatowel and some nougat.

Closeup of the nougat : They had raspberry liquorice inside!!! Yum.

I think I prefer Taste of Auckland to the Food Show even though it had less free samples. Less free samples = less cheapskate crazy crowds. I will be going again next year!