Ima Cuisine, Auckland

I'm searching the back streets of Auckland for a good place to have dinner when I stumble upon Ima. I'm instantly drawn in by all the orange (although it does make it an absolute pain to take photos). After the flight, Mediterranean food sounds really good...

We step inside and I notice all the mismatched chairs, bookshelves filled with cookbooks and this...

... yes, Gordon. Ramsay.

After ordering from the hand-written menu, I totter over to the open kitchen to see what Chef is doing. It's smiles abound back there! Also, there are strings of dried chilis hanging from the shelf which is totally neat.

Bread with olive oil, sesame seeds, cumin, salt and pepper Complimentary

Just like in Italian restaurants, we're served a plate of bread with olive oil plus something to dip it in. I love it except I need to pace myself because bread is pretty filling...

Chicken liver pate traditional Jewish style $14
Served on grilled brioche

This is different from the pate that I'm used to, in the way that it's not as smooth nor creamy. It's a lot nicer to have more when you're not overwhelmed with creaminess... Thin juliennes of pickled lemons adorn the tops and cut through the meatiness of the pate.

Brik $19
North African delicacy: fresh tuna and preserved lemon in Warqa pastry parcel fried crisp with soft egg inside

Warqa is essentially brik pastry so when you cut into this little parcel, you can hear the fragile cracks. Then take in the egg yolk oozing out (I don't know about you, but I'm a sucker for oozy yolks!) from inside the soft tuna. Every mouthful is accompanied by some strips of carrot which, along with the lemon, add some freshness.

Boneless stuffed baked baby snapper $29

At first I actually thought the snapper was boneless... then I realized that they took the bones out... Oops. It's just a plain baked snapper with a some spring onions. The snapper is used as a canvas for the sides. (Below).

Slow braised Lebanese lamb shoulder $15 per portion

I think I almost teared up when I ate this; tender, succulent pieces of lamb with a seriously meaty jus and some onions. Do you love meat? If you answered yes, try this. (With sides; below).

Sides (set of 5) $12 per person
Slightly spicy tomato shallot salad; minty, zesty, crunchy salad; Tunisian grilled carrot salad with feta

These sides are to accompany the snapper and lamb. My favorite from this plate was the grilled carrot (mostly because it has grilled feta and I love cheese). The chargrilled flavor is offset by small knobs of salty cheese. The tomato salad is actually a little spicy... Minty? Check. Crunchy? Check. Zesty? Where....?

Sides (set of 5) $12 per person
Seasonal vegetable dish (tomato, zucchini, eggplant); Arab rice with lentils, pine nuts, pistachios, almonds and caramelized onions

My favorite of these two has got to be the vegetable dish which reminds me of ratatouille (this dish, not the rat). Stewed veggies add a kick of freshness to the proteins. The Arab rice is interesting... Somehow I'm getting some faintly sweet flavors from it. There's a healthy amount of nuts interspersed in the rice, actually imparting flavor rather than being an aesthetic addition.

Arab coffee cooked in a special pot $6 per pot for 2

This little contraption is sweet! It's basically unfiltered coffee in a stove-top coffee pot. The coffee settles into the bottom of the pot, effectively letting you decant the coffee. A small amount of sugar is added just so it's not too bitter. It'll definitely get your heart racing!

Ima Cuisine
57 Fort St,
Auckland
1010 New Zealand
Ima Cuisine

Little Nepal, Burwood

I watched this amazing film Samsara about a week ago and was really struck by a particular scene that reminded me of Nepal (even though it was filmed in India). Being me, I translated this impression into food and had a hankering for Nepalese food for the past couple of days.

Burwood seems to me like a bit of an odd suburb to have a Nepalese restaurant, but bam! That's where Little Nepal is. We arrive early so the tiny restaurant is empty save for 2 tables. Once inside, I quite like it for its lime green back wall, huge Nepalese flag, red patterned table cloths and mirrors lining the left wall.

Hurricane's Grill, Top Ryde

Yep. That's me in a bib. No giant knife like chocsuze, but with a bib nonetheless. Eating ribs can be a very messy business, but it's a tasty business. Make reservations first unless you want to wait for a table...

Boerewores $18
Traditional South African beef sausage, mildly spiced and serves with mashed potato and Spanish sauce

 It really is a long winding sausage... Creamy mash. The sausage by itself is a little chunky in a good way and not too fatty. When I add the Spanish sauce, my food brain goes "DING DING DING TACOS". The sauce sort of reminds me of salsa.

Full rack of pork ribs $42.90 with Monkey gland Sauce $2.50
Monkey gland: typically South African, sweet and savory BBQ sauce

Basted ribs that are grilled under tender...You can see the char on the edge-most ribs and personally, I like a little char so I decide to take that one. The pork is falling off the ribs and delicious when dipped in Monkey Gland. It really is something to try at least once in your life if you can eat meat. Don't try to tackle a full rack unless you're SURE you can finish it. Obviously, I love sticky sweet tender ribs...And you can get them with chips or a boiled potato!

Hurricane's Grill, Top Ryde

Shop R3006, Ground Floor

Top Ryde City

Cnr Blaxland Rd, Devlin St

Ryde NSW 2112

Lovin' Haloumi

Robert Louis Stevenson III once said "Many's the long night I've dreamed of cheese - toasted, mostly"; he's not the only one who has dreams about cheese! I adore cheese, I'm not sure I could live without it. I'm starting to learn more about cheese these days from reading books and watching Cheese Slices.

Ginger Crab

I made this for dinner the other day:

Crispy Pork Belly (Pic)

Crispy crackling pork belly. Not too fatty.

Inspired Dinner Part 5 (Citrus Chocolate Explosion)

DESSERT. This was pretty much ALL inspired by Grant Achatz who is possibly one of my most favorite chefs in the whole wide world.

He made a dessert that was a literal explosion and so I made the amateurs version; an explosion of citrus. And yes, even with my scrappy video editing skills I managed to put epic music over it. (WOAH LIKE 240P)

Inspired Dinner Part 4 (Citrus & Root Beer)

A pre-dessert should be smaller I know but this is what I like.

On the bottom is an orange jelly, then a lemon jelly with a hole cut out and in the hole is some root beer granita. Then some root beer 'sprinkled' (for lack of a better word) around the plate and some grated orange zest.

Inspired Dinner Part 3 (Steak & Fries)

The main done to my style. I remember as a kid, getting a (relatively) huge plate with a hunk of meat, mushroom gravy, fries and mash so I decided to change it up a bit for this.

Instead of a typical steak, I pick up some eye fillet at the butchers and I cook it the way I love it: caramelized, dark surface and medium inside. Whack the fillet into a hot pan with some herb butter and keep an eye on it.

Inspired Dinner Part 2 (Prawns & Wonton Wrappers)

So my starter. Darn the hot oil! Browned my prawns too much in pretty much 1 second... Darn.

This wasn't inspired by anything really, it just came from my love of fried foods and mayo and mustard.

Being too lazy to get kataifi, I grab some wonton wrappers out of the fridge to fry. And there's dollops of mustard, a line of ras-el-hanout and some lemon mayo on the side. Once again, DARN THAT HOT OIL.

Inspired Dinner Part 1 (Cheese Toastie)

So I thought up a dinner with most parts inspired by something I saw in a cookbook, or a chef. I don't like to go into the technicalities of things like how big should a pre-dessert be or how big should an amuse be cause at the end of the day, this is just a meal I made at home for family to release some 'creativity'!

I'm splitting this up into parts so I can have a little spiel about how it came about etc. but if that's boring y'all can just look at the picture.

So the 'amuse' is pretty much a toastie.

This is inspired by Heston Blumenthal's 80s Feast. When I think of breakfast I think of a cheese toastie with some mushrooms and tomatoes. It's a little emmental sandwiched between buttered toast. I wrapped it like a little present in filo pastry for extra crunch.

Mussels

Just a short one...

Mussels. More versatile than oysters, not to mention cheaper haha. So in the words of an old poetess, O how do I love thee, let me count the ways...

Tomatoes, egg, white wine, red lumpfish roe

(Pic) Prawn & Kataifi

Dinner: prawns wrapped with kataifi (shredded phyllo pastry) and deep-fried. Oh so crispy.