On Tuesday morning I had started a blog post that I was going to finish during my lunch hour. Needless to say, events of the day kind of pushed that off the radar for now. In the meantime, here's this post - which also appears on my other blog. 

At lunchtime on Tuesday a big earthquake hit Christchurch.  Having spent quite a bit of time in Christchurch, and because a lot of my family lives there, it felt like a personal blow. I'm sure it did for so many people, not just me.

Being up here in Wellington, the worst and most pervasive feeling of all is feeling utterly helpless. At times it's felt like all we can do is sit and watch the footage on TV, refresh the news websites over and over, until we're overwhelmed with tears or numb with disbelief and it all seems hopeless and we feel helpless and don't know what to do anymore.

But we can do something.

There are so many people who are out there doing awesome work, using whatever skills they have to help out in any way they can. It's been so heartening and awesome to see people all over NZ and the world band together. (Actually, this is true in so many disaster-type situations; it just feels a lot closer to home now, I guess.)

There are some great lists floating around the internet of awesome things people are doing to raise funds for the Christchurch earthquake appeal. The Wellingtonista has one here and Wellington Tourism has put together a list as well. Because it's late and I need to sleep (!!) I won't list specifics of all the events but definitely check out the links; I will be surely going to as many of those as I can (for sure Hashigo Zake on Saturday night and the City Market and L'Affare on Sunday) and getting as involved as I can.

And tomorrow morning I will be getting up bright and early to do some baking to take down to Grow From Here garden store at the top of Cuba St. Laura from Hungry and Frozen will be there as well as many others selling donated "white elephant" type items, and local businesses have donated goodies as well. Kaye from Grow From Here says it'll be running all week and is open to anyone to buy and sell! All proceeds will go to the Red Cross Earthquake Appeal.

More info here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=201237359902001&index=1 - Please share!

Hope to return to normal blog posts soon.

Love you Christchurch.

Fisherman's Plate, Bond St

A couple of things:

1. I've started a new blog. It doesn't mean I'll stop blogging here, but as you may have noticed, our frequency of dining out seems to have diminished in recent months. For me it's a combination of trying a bit harder to put aside some savings along with living a bit further from town than before. So the focus of the new blog is more on cooking and eating at home. Although it's just brand new, I'm really excited about it, so please check it out if you're at all interested in what I'm eating when I'm not out and about in Wellington!

2. Happy new year everyone! (Does it count if it's now not only 2011 but the Chinese New Year?) Yes, this is the first Gusty Gourmet post of 2011. And this Year of the Rabbit. Anyway, onto today's post.

So, in 2010 I was lucky enough to have my mum visit me 3 times. Of course any visits from mums are special but this was rather unexpected and wonderful because my parents live overseas. And every time she comes to visit, we go (at her request) to Fisherman's Plate, a little fish-and-chip shop on Bond St.



Except it's not just a fish-and-chip shop: although it has a typical chip-shop-combo-menu board behind the counter, and you'll see plenty of people ordering off it, the aroma of fresh Vietnamese herbs and soup broth that ever-so-subtly wafts through the air is a giveaway, as is the wall plastered with a photographic menu of sorts featuring noodle soups and other Vietnamese dishes. And I'm pretty sure this is some of the best Vietnamese I've had (granted, I haven't been to Vietnam).

On our most recent visit, I ordered some avocado rice rolls ($7) to share. They were incredibly simple, consisting of a crunchy-creamy filling of sliced avocado, carrot, lettuce and bean sprouts in a smooth rice paper wrapper. Despite their simplicity, these were obviously assembled with care: the vegetable filling was seasoned with black pepper before going into the wrapper, adding a little bite to what would otherwise be a bland filling.



Yes, it's sort of cliche, but for me no visit to a Vietnamese place is complete without a steaming bowl of pho bo ($11.50). I ordered mine with rare beef, which was thinly sliced and tender, floating in a flavourful homemade broth along with thick rice noodles.



We were given this heaping plate of fresh herbs, lettuce, bean sprouts and lemons, as well as a bowl of sliced chillies (sadly not pictured) to add to our bowls of soup - I love the DIY-ness of putting together the perfect combination of condiments.



Mum didn't waste any time in adding greens to her soup, the mien ga ($11.50) - chicken soup with vermicelli noodles. This actually might replace pho bo as my new favourite; the chicken was shredded but in decent-sized chunks, the broth comforting and flavourful. And although it'd be the perfect steaming bowl of soup for a cold, wet winter's day, it's the kind of soup that tastes fresh and clean enough to fit in perfectly on a summer menu.

E's spicy pork noodle soup (I'm guessing $11.50 - though I've misplaced my notes with the Vietnamese name of this dish, and it doesn't seem to appear on their takeaway menu) had enough red-hot chilli floating at the top to keep the doctor away, the broth full of fiery zing. 

On another visit I had this bun thit nuong ($11.90), chargrilled, marinated pork on rice noodles. This required more DIY-ing in the form of various sauces and condiments to be added according to personal preference, and was a satisfying alternative to a brothy noodle soup.

I was happy to see avocado smoothies ($5) on the menu - aside from being deliciously creamy, they're the perfect foil to the searing heat of having added too many chillies to your soup. This one was as I'd remembered them from Southeast Asia, although I did find it a bit odd that the cup was only about 3/4 full.

We were about to leave when I spotted these plastic cups half-full with a cheery yellow substance lined up in the drinks fridge. These turned out to be che dau xanh danh ($4), a sweet mung bean paste that was served topped with a heap of shaved ice, which we then mixed into a cold, thick slurry (more DIY - hooray!).

It was different from what most people would think of having for dessert, but good nonetheless - and in any case I'm a pretty big fan of sweet, bean-based desserts (like azuki beans in Japanese cuisine), so this was well-received.

Fisherman's Plate is such a wee gem. OK, it may be lacking in ambience, but it makes up for this entirely in the quality and freshness of the food on offer. I haven't even tried their fish and chips (it's surprising they still offer them, seeing as they could easily run a restaurant serving Vietnamese alone), but from what I saw on other diners' plates they looked pretty decent. I don't think I'll be waiting till the next time Mum visits to go back!  

Vivo Enoteca Cucina

As part of my goal to make it to as many Dine 2010 lunches* as possible without taking too many super-long lunch hours (I'm pretty sure an "hour" can be stretched up to 90 minutes, right?) E and I visited the not-usually-open-for-lunch winebar Vivo Enoteca Cucina, tucked away in a little corner of Edward Street. We were seated at a bright and airy windowside table but the interior, chock full of wine bottles and dark wood, felt like the type of place you could squirrel away cosily with a few glasses of wine and a couple of good friends on a rainy day.

With the $25 set menu we had a choice of two courses and a glass of wine. E chose the caprese salad with fresh buffalo mozzarella, tomato, basil and capers. I was a bit apprehensive when he ordered it because I tend to associate caprese salad with summertime, with vine-ripened tomatoes and fresh green basil (it was still August, after all).

I shouldn't have worried: the main focus of the dish was on the cheese, complemented by thin slivers of tomato and dainty basil leaves, just enough variety to create an intermingling of flavours reminiscent of a hot sunny day. The capers provided an added salty, briny dimension that went beautifully with the the otherwise fresh, earnest flavours on the plate.

I had the arancini, little crumbed saffron risotto balls that arrived with a few rocket leaves and parmesan (could have been pecorino, though, now that I think about it) shavings. These were a joy: the outside fried to a perfect crisp, the insides soft and gooey with risotto and melted mozzarella.

They were drizzled with truffle oil and a bit of balsamic vinegar, but I was too fixated on the delight of deep-fried cheesy goodness (really, it must be an instinctive thing) to pay much attention.

I wasn't really sure that they tasted particularly saffron-y, but again, that may have just been me blindsided by the cheese and the crunch. (Mmm, cheese and crunch...) Soon they had disappeared and I found myself wanting more.

But it was time for the next course - and E, never really a dessert person, ordered the fettucine with Italian sausage and capsicum in a vodka pomodoro sauce. This seemed a bit hastily put together, though I guess you could say it was in a rustic fashion, and I thought the sauce may have been on the dry side, but E wolfed it down, especially the meaty chunks of sausage.

Meanwhile I had moved onto dessert, a very fluffy, almost mousse-like lemon cheesecake. I think with cheesecakes I tend to prefer the denser, richer, let-me-just-lay-down-and-die variety but this was probably a much better version for lunchtime seeing as I had to go back to work just a few minutes later (and especially since I had been having veeeeery sleeeeeepy afternoons at the office after my big meals at Pravda and Hippopotamus the week before).

Overall it was an enjoyable lunch - service was friendly and prompt, the food was good (especially those arancini, oh boy!) and although we didn't get to peruse their very extensive wine list (they are a wine bar, after all), that was probably best saved for an after-work drinks and nibbles session anyway.

Aaaaaaand..... I'm so excited for this Sunday (5 December) because they're going to be in the Market Kitchen at the City Market serving up these very same arancini, along with mussel fritters and Italian meatball sandwiches. That's my breakfast sorted!

Vivo Enoteca Cucina
19 Edward St
Wellington

(04) 384 6400

www.vivowinebar.com

Open Mon-Fri 3pm till late, Sat-Sun 5pm till late.


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*(I promise this is the last of the horrendously outdated Wellington on a Plate posts and after this there will be more recent material on the blog.)