The pod squad gathers for the last time this year to celebrate and commiserate the best and worst food and drink of 2020. In the final episode of the year, Sophie, Alice and Simon share their culinary highlights and lowlights from a year that had nearly everything. It started with Simon and Sophie adding children … Read more
This festive Italian specialty is as delicious paired with a Christmas Eve nightcap as it is with a Christmas morning coffee – and yes, there’s still time to make it. I love the magic of Christmas. The carols, watching Christmas lights begin to twinkle as night falls, stockings hung by the fireplace and Christmas sweet … Read more
Messing too much with summer berries is sacrilege, but this heavenly light sponge provides a fine vehicle for the most luxe of fruits. In this time of misinformation and alternative truths, I’m going to lay some refreshingly stone-cold facts on you. The greatest summer food is a berry. I mean don’t get me wrong, banana … Read more
Two of Auckland’s best sandwich makers join sandwich aficionados Simon Day and Stewart Sowman-Lund to talk about their craft. Why are sandwiches so good? It’s a question anybody who’s ever eaten a sandwich has probably wondered at some point in their life. And who better to ask than this week’s Dietary Requirements guests, Aletheia Elder … Read more
Grab a slice of moon cheese and sit back as Alex Casey imagines her dream multi-course dinner party plucked straight from our TV and movie screens. This has been a simply scrumptious year for realising just how many things we can’t do any more. We can’t travel internationally. We can’t press lift buttons with our … Read more
For years, the traditional wine establishment has been able to decree what’s good and what isn’t. Some of them can’t accept that that’s changing. For those of you who do not keep abreast of wine news, here are some facts: Jim Harré, the chief judge of the New World Wine Awards and a wine consultant … Read more
In this cursed annum, when that purest of joys – being fed by someone else – was briefly snatched away from us, we turned in desperation to our lord and saviour, the world wide web. It seems unfathomable now, but for 41 long days across March and April, we had to cook. Remember that? No … Read more
Tis the season for ice blocks – and if you have a stash of these in the freezer, you won’t even need to venture out to the dairy. While here in Taranaki it feels as though the rain might never stop, the temperature at least is warm and conducive to enjoying one of these coconut … Read more
Simon Day celebrates the arrival of summer by ranking the five flavours of New Zealand’s most beloved frozen treat. The Fruju is the perfect accompaniment to the New Zealand summer. While I fully endorse the role of the scooped ice cream in the Kiwi culinary cultural canon, when the asphalt starts to shimmer and the … Read more
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he’s joined by Foodprint founder and CEO Michal Garvey. Food waste is such a massive problem that it’s hard to fully … Read more
Oat milk is so hot right now, so we bought a whole bunch and conducted a good old-fashioned blind taste test. Here are the results. Non-western cultures have always known milk doesn’t have to come from a mammal’s mammary gland, but in New Zealand, dairy-devoted nation that we are, we’ve taken a while to catch … Read more
In just a matter of months, e-commerce systems have become a crucial piece in the puzzle that will ensure the hospitality sector has a fighting chance. Anyone in hospitality knows there wasn’t any fat in their business margins before Covid, so when the pandemic hit, many questioned how they could possibly survive months of lockdown. … Read more
In the first in a series of Wellington-focused food comics, Liliana Mañetto Quick illustrates why she loves Cha, a haven of calm on Courtenay Place.
New Zealand’s wine industry built its name on sav, but we’ve been putting all our eggs in one basket for too long, writes Jules van Costello. I like to think of sauvignon blanc as the IPA of wine. It’s brash, bombastic and a little bit basic (in a good way). Like IPA, its tropical aromas … Read more
The no-nonsense comfort food is enjoying something of a renaissance, and Anna King Shahab has come up with some simple meal starter ideas to spark your mince-spiration. T-paper, flour, mince. The grocery shopping priorities of our nation were revealed unceremoniously when Covid-19 made “panic buying” a household phrase earlier this year. It wasn’t all doom … Read more
The Dietary Requirements team drag Lucy and Matt out of the office and into the studio to discuss some of The Spinoff’s most controversial food topics from the past week. Exciting news – Dietary Requirements is moving from monthly to fortnightly episodes! We’ll still have a special guest from the food world once a month, … Read more
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he’s joined by Lisa King from AF Drinks. As a society, we don’t have a particularly healthy relationship with alcohol. We … Read more
The challenges of 2020 have cemented the importance of having flexibility and adaptability top of mind when creating hospitality spaces, writes interior designer Jonathan Goss. It’s no secret that Covid-19 has shaken up the hospitality industry. From being shut down fully for lockdown, to reopening under strict safety measures, then, after a few months, those … Read more
Whether savoury or sweet, plain or piled high with toppings, these English muffins will take your sourdough game to a new level. These English muffins have become a staple in our household, where I make a batch about every fortnight that’s then frozen for use throughout the week. They’re delicious toasted with lashings of butter … Read more
After years watching it unfold on social media with a growing envy, Duncan Greive finally hit the road to Beervana last year. With the 2020 edition about to kick off, he revisits a magic day. My day started early, with a beautifully balanced Westmalle Trappist Dubbel over a hearty omelette, just after 9am. It was … Read more
Lockdown forced restaurants to find new ways to stay in people’s lives. Anna King Shahab speaks to Sid and Chandni Sahrawat about their new range of sauces and spice blends for home cooks, and shares some recipes. Running three of Auckland’s top restaurants through a pandemic has been a rollercoaster for Sid and Chandni Sahrawat, … Read more
Each week, two Tāmaki Makaurau community groups share a K Road cafe’s kitchen to support the local homeless community, and bring urban Māori together, through a simple, nourishing bowl of boil-up. Tangata whenua have always innovated within a changing environment. So, when Pākehā arrived in Aotearoa with new foods like pork, potatoes, pumpkin and flour, … Read more
When it comes to Lynx-flavoured Mountain Dew gaming chips, everyone asks why – but nobody asks how. Don Rowe investigates a culinary mystery. Following the release of any number of Frankenstein’s monsters of food and beverages, the nation resounds with a groaning “why?”. It’s a fair question. Why should milk taste like pineapple lumps, or … Read more
This month on Dietary Requirements, chef Monique Fiso joins us for a chat about Hiakai – her acclaimed Wellington restaurant, and the title of her stunning new book. Calling Monique Fiso’s new book a cookbook doesn’t really do it justice – there’s so much more to it, tracing her personal journey and charting the history … Read more
Kind-of vegetarian Alex Casey brings you the only meat-free fast food burger ranking you’ll ever need. At the start of the year, several centuries ago, I went vegetarian. Kind of. As a coward with commitment issues, I decided to enter into a dietary Yes Man situation, where I would always say “yes” to eating vegetarian … Read more
This weekend’s Te Ahi Kōmau festival will celebrate South Auckland’s fiery volcanic past and amazing local produce. Justin Latif visited the marae as the hāngī pits were being dug in preparation. Not all superheroes wear capes and not all chefs wear a toque and apron. Anthony Adlam is one such chef, described as the master … Read more
Yesterday Marama Davidson said that the Greens-Labour negotiations had been lubricated by the introduction of Mallowpuffs in place of Krispies. Today the Green leaders emerged from negotiations with a tray of assorted biscuits, which may or may not be a concession granted to them in return for parliamentary confidence and supply. But which biscuits are … Read more
An effervescent fermented beverage a bit like kombucha, water kefir is a refreshing drop for the warmer weather. Here’s how to make it. As I sit here typing, my kids are sitting at the table colouring in, sipping the glasses of water kefir I just photographed for this recipe. Our middle boy Ahi has just … Read more
A definitive answer to a burning question: what is the best gluten-free bread of them all? Outside of coeliac circles, not many people know that gluten-free bread is actually better than regular bread. It’s true.* After years of fastidious experimentation and perfecting, gluten-free bakers have now produced a product vastly superior to its wheat-filled counterpart. … Read more