Two hours of power at The Arborist

Wellington on a Plate wrapped up its tenth birthday today. We ended a foodie fortnight by saving the best for last. Two hours of power at The Arborist was described as a kiwi take on yum cha. Apparently the kitchen was given free rein and came up with a seemingly endless menu. This is what they promised:

An ambitious promise

The menu listed nine courses, in no particular order, plus two desserts. We actually started with a bonus dish not on the menu: baked potato with pulled pork filling. (Don't worry - each potato was to share between two people.)

Baked potato with pulled pork appetiser

So, with our palettes ready, then dishes kept coming in yum cha style. There were so many highlights and I only remembered to take a few photos. Marmite glazed pork ribs, hot smoked salmon devilled eggs, prawn cocktails with avocado on melba toast, mushroom and feta mini quiche, slow braised lamb shoulder with smoked kumara pastries ... we were served continuously for an hour before needing to slow things down a bit - a welcome reprise before starting again.

Would we like seconds of any dish? Although we were pretty full after nearly two hours, here's what we chose to sample again.

Beer battered snapper with salt and malt vinegar fries

Coq Au Vin chicken tossed in hiracha honey and garlic with blue cheese dip

Mini pavlova with strawberries, kiwifruit and chantilly cream, and a mini lemon curd tart topped with crumbled meringue finished off an amazing meal at The Arborist. The service this afternoon was exceptional and the food simply divine. A fitting end to another Welly on a Plate season.

A sweet ending

Mad Hatter's Tea Party with a twist

High tea two weekends in a row? It must be Wellington on a Plate. The Mad Hatter's Tea Party with a twist was held at the festival hub behind Prefab Cafe.

This dapper couple were suitably dressed for the occasion.

Thomas the Tank Engine meets the Mad Hatter

We entered through the magical festival hub, where candy floss clouds were there for the taking.

Candy floss clouds

Walk past the popcorn wall and entice your palette. Which will you choose: sweet, sour, bitter salty or umami?

A wall of popcorn

Alice invites you ...

Welcome!

  ... to follow her down down the rabbit hole ...

Don't get lost!

... and take your seat.

Table setting

The flowers look so pretty ...

Pretty flower bowl

... but they're actually a resting place for this little blue penguin!

A penguin ice sculpture

Ooh, a game of chess! Who is brave enough to play?

Giant chess board

Time for tea. Teapot cocktails were served. There were no non-alcoholic or coffee substitutions included (apart from some available for purchase) so we stuck with water.

Tea is served

While waiting for our food to arrive, we visited the vending machine in the Visa Festival Hub and munched on another pottle of popcorn along the way.

Treat yourself for just $1!

Here's how the menu transformed:

Mad Hatter's high tea

Where to start? At the bottom, of course! Rabbit pies, chicken liver and plum jelly brioche doughnuts, and cucumber, cream cheese and cricket (yes, cricket) sandwiches. The brioche and bread were amazing. The fillings ... well, I need a bit more getting used to chicken liver and crickets. Surprisingly, the chili and black ant candy floss was actually quite delicious.

Savoury style

These champagne jelly tarts were set on shortbread and dusted with freeze dried raspberries.

Champagne jellies

And no Mad Hatter's tea party would be complete without jam tarts. We finished off high tea with a mini chocolate (mousse) garden.

The Queen of Heart's tarts

This Mad Hatter's tea party was a magical way to wile away an hour on a Saturday afternoon.

Homegrown high tea at Artisan Dining House

Wellington on a Plate continued today with Homegrown high tea, an elegant high tea experience at Artisan Dining House in the Bolton Hotel. High tea featured a range of handcrafted gourmet teatime treats made with local ingredients and began with half a glass of The Griffin bubbles from Palliser Estate on arrival. The tables were set.

A bubbly start

The menu promised nine items sourced from locally produced ingredients along with a selection of teas.

High tea menu

 Thankfully we could exchange tea for coffee. Our high tea arrived.

Artisan Dining House high tea

Where to begin? The classic cucumber sandwich was actually on the top (dessert) tier, so we started there and then moved to the savoury bottom layer. You can see little venison pies, mushroom arancini, and lamb croquets. They're hiding a teeny tiny cheese scroll nestled in behind.

The middle tier had a range of sweet items, including citrus slice, almond friand and a Whittaker's chocolate coconut fudge slice featuring an elegant white chocolate shark with a pretty marbled effect. This was my favourite high tea treat.

We finished high tea with a tiny salted caramel macaron.

The Artisan Dining House is a lovely setting for an elegant Sunday afternoon high tea.

Find your inner chocolatier

I've long been a fan of the Wellington Chocolate Factory. Their story of how they locally produce bean to bar organic fair trade chocolate is as legendary as their salted caramel bars at Christmas time. Find your inner chocolatier offered a magical hands-on Welly on a Plate experience at this inner city chocolate factory.

Did I mention how delicious the factory smells from the moment you walk in the door? The event began with a private tour of factory. We learned about what bean to bar means for their production line and sampled cacao beans and four different types of chocolate from around the world.

Chocolate sampling

We were shown various machines and gadgets, each one playing an important part in the chocolate making process. There is a window into a small room to the left of the entrance. This is the ageing room, where the chocolate blocks are left for around three months to age before it is tempered and crafted into bars.

Chocolate is left to age, much like wine and cheese

Then, we got to don aprons and sexy hairnets to have a go at making and wrapping our own specialty bars. The machines have names, making them as much a part of the team as the rest of the staff. Betty was busy preparing raspberry milk chocolate for us to dollop into chocolate bar moulds. Luckily she knows the exact amount needed for each mould and will dollop this in when you press and hold the foot pedal. The side tables vibrate. They remove the air bubbles that form and help to distribute the chocolate to the edges of the mould, which is a far more efficient way to do this than dropping a chocolate mould repeatedly on the bench at home.

Betty is tempering raspberry milk chocolate

Tui stands next to Betty and tempers dark chocolate to be made into salted caramel brittle bars. Dark chocolate flows more freely and was much quicker filling these moulds. The bars are flavoured by sprinkling sea salt and caramel crumble on top before leaving to set. I rebelled and made hokey pokey bars. (I'm completely over salted caramel.)

Dark caramel brittle blocks

After a short time setting in the fridge, it was our turn to hand wrap our chocolate bars to take home. It's actually not as easy as it looks to get perfectly straight edges, especially with chunky caramel pieces sticking out the back. (I'm not too good at wrapping presents, either.)

My finished products

We got to take home our four delicious bars and their full range extends to eight varieties. If you're in the Cuba St area, pop around the corner to the Wellington Chocolate Factory and step into a world of chocolaty goodness. I hear their hot chocolates are also magical.

The full Wellington Chocolate Factory range

Noodlicious at Dragonfly

Wellington on a Plate's 10th birthday kicked off yesterday and promises to be the biggest and best one yet. August is the time where foodies in the Wellington region happily gorge indulge to celebrate the end of winter.

Our first Welly on a Plate event for 2018 was Noodlicious at Dragonfly. This long lunch featured a modern twist on six different types of noodles. The flavour palette for each dish was complex and they were well spaced over two hours. In between courses, we could wander out to the garden bar and watch an ongoing Chinese calligraphy demonstration or order one of the many specialty cocktails on the menu.

First up was chilled green soba buckwheat flour noodles with zaru dressing, nasturtium, watercress, pickled shiitake and shaved mackerel.

Buckwheat flour noodles

The second course was tapioca cellophane flour noodles with poached chicken gallette, cherry tomato, ocean chicory, palm seeds and tom yum consomme. This was a very peppery dish.

Tapioca flour noodles

The rice flour cheung fun noodles with prawn, wild ginger, water chestnut, Chinese sesame and maple, garlic chive and chilli dressing had an unusual texture but proved to be my favourite flavour combination.

Rice flour noodles

The lye noodle box featured knife cut dan dan noodles with ground pork belly, pickled mustard greens, peanut powder and szechuan spices. The flavours worked well but the pork mince seemed dry.

Lye noodles

Chinese egg noodles were topped with braised black bean, beef cheek ragout, spring onion and a very strong ginger oil.

Egg noodles

And finally, dessert with a modern twist on rice pudding, made with jasmine and mandarin orzo pasta with jackfruit. Too sweet for me, but I was also very full by this stage.

Modern noodle rice pudding

We also got to take home a goodie bag from Orient and Asian Food Republic, which included a pretty noodle bowl and some mango and coconut biscotti to enjoy later.

Goodie bags