I would not, could not in the shower

We had an interesting conversation in the office last week. I have no idea how it started but clearly remember the moment it changed tack. Someone (it might have been me) stopped and asked a colleague for clarification: "you drink tea in the shower??" 

A quick office poll revealed most of my team were as surprised as me. How does it work? Don't you get soap and shampoo and other stuff in it? What if you spill it? Doesn't it taste awful? The simple answer was "no", but no further information was provided.

My curiosity couldn't let it go. This now called for a Twitter poll. The results mostly confirmed what I knew already and also furthered the conversation.

But seriously, how does it work? Several people offered suggestions. Many shared that they take cups of tea or glasses of wine to drink while relaxing in the bath. (A friend takes it one step further and pops her Kindle into a zip-lock bag to complement her bath wine experience.) That makes perfect sense. The surfaces are relatively flat, the floor is not too far away and water or other substances are not potentially falling from above into an open vessel. It's the 7% who frequently shower with hot drinks and the 9% who have tried it that intrigue me.

This is not me

How do they do it? Splash-proof lids? Children's sippy cups? Or do they have gigantic walk-in showers with separate shelves away from the shower head that means they can quickly take a sip before stepping back under the water?

I'm reminded of a couplet from my favourite Dr Seuss book, Green Eggs and Ham - slightly revised for this new context.

I would not, could not, in the shower
I would not, could not, at any hour

I still don't understand how it works.

Ice cream spiders

It's warm and sunny in Wellington today. Sure, there's wind - but that's to remind us of which city we live in. After a few wintry days inside, I decided to spend an hour wrangling the hebe bushes and deadheading the proteas that have been thriving since the early arrival of summer this year.

It was hot work and reminded me of summer days when the whole family got stuck into outdoor work at home. I don't remember having much success in Mum's garden but I do remember our reward if we helped: Dad would make us an ice cream spider - and there was nothing better in the middle of a hot afternoon when we'd been working hard.

Here's how it worked. We'd sit at the kitchen bench and watch Dad place one or two scoops of ice cream into a tall glass that was kept especially for this occasion (along with the extra tall teaspoons that could reach all the way to the bottom). He'd bring it over to us and pour Coke all the way to the top. Sometimes he plonked a straw in so we could sip up the last of the liquid at the bottom. There were no cherries, berries, cream, wafers, syrup or sprinkles in our spiders; simplicity was the key. You had to be alert, though; fizzy drink and ice cream could quickly overflow if you didn't catch it in time, which is why Dad assembled them right in front of us.

These days, I'm not much of an ice cream fan and haven't drunk fizzy drinks in more than 20 years, but nostalgia hit hard while I was gardening and I suddenly felt like a spider. I settled for a handful of ripe cherries and some leftover gingerbread instead.

Wine and liqueur tasting at Purangi Winery

Although the climate in the Coromandel is warm and sunny, it's not really known as a wine growing region. Purangi Estate winery is a great place to stop for food and drink on the way to nearby Cooks Beach.

Established in 1985, Purangi Winery uses traditional methods to make wines and liqueurs based on organic principles. There is something really refreshing about a relaxed countryside winery that presents itself without the frills and grandeur of many modern vineyards set up to mass produce for overseas markets.

For a gold coin koha (donation), you can sample your way through their cellar list. We tasted several fruit liqueurs including boysenberry, plum, rhubarb and guava, feijoa, passionfruit, persimmon and ginger, as well as limoncello. Most were too sweet for my palette but we did like the aged port and bought a small bottle to take home.

If you're after some lunch, there is a quaint, rustic style bar and restaurant serving wood fired pizza, along with a games room and outdoor picnic tables.

Craft chocolate and soda night

Tucked away upstairs at the start of what is known as the Hannahs Laneway is a tiny soda factory that is taking on the Wellington food world. Six Barrel Soda Co make sodas and soda syrups that you'll find in bars, cafes and restaurants all around the region. It has been a pleasure seeing their business grow and develop from its humble beginnings in Newtown four years ago.

Six Barrel Soda Co sodas

Not too far away is The Chocolate Bar, a boutique bean to bar chocolate maker. There are very few bean to bar chocolate factories in New Zealand (Whittaker's is one and Wellington Chocolate Factory is another). They sure do take their chocolate seriously.

The Chocolate Bar

Both these wonderful businesses came together to host a Wellington on a Plate event this week, the sold out Craft chocolate and soda night. Hosted by Luke from The Chocolate Bar and Tegan from Six Barrel Soda, we got to sample ten (10!) different chocolate and soda combinations. It was a great way to taste our way around the world of New Zealand made craft chocolate, discover some new soda flavours and learn more about the process of bean to bar chocolate making.

Each chocolate and soda 'course' was introduced with a description of the beans used, their origin and tasting notes.

The first of ten chocolate and soda combinations

Wellington Chocolate Factory Peru 70% with orange and dandelion soda
This chocolate promised hints of apricot and honey. It turns out we started with one of the best tasting sodas of the evening.

Ocho Samoa 70% with creaming soda
Who remembers creaming soda? Yummy! Not as thick (creamy) as I recall but still delicious. The chocolate was made by Ocho in Dunedin, who source all their beans from the Pacific Islands. It had a really pleasant nutty, caramel finish.

Ocho PNG 66% with hibiscus soda
Much like PNG origin coffee beans, I didn't like the bold up front flavours of this chocolate. Also, the hibiscus soda was too sweet for me.

Hogarth Craft Chocolate Akesson Estate with raspberry and lemon soda
Hogarth Craft Chocolate is a new chocolate maker based in Nelson. This 70% chocolate using beans from Madagascar had a lovely raisin and raspberry aftertaste. It went well with my long time favourite Six Barrel Soda flavour, raspberry and lemon.

Ocho Beekeeper with lime soda
I'm not much of a honey fan but this 70% bar with manuka honey, bee pollen and puffed amaranth was really good. It also went well with my favourite citrus flavour, lime.

Wellington Chocolate Factory Dominican Republic with ginger ale soda
This dark bar was rich and with undertones of burnt marmalade - or so we were told. I couldn't quite taste it for myself but knew that I really liked the chocolate. I was also reminded that I still don't like ginger ale.

Wellington Chocolate Factory Bougainville Bar with pinot noir soda
There's quite a story behind how these cacao beans were sourced from Bougainville. The chocolate tasted raisiny and was worth the journey. The pinot noir soda was a little bit different: non-alcoholic, for one thing. Given that I don't care for either the wine or this soda, it seems reasonable to assume that pinot noir grapes are not for me.

Hogarth Craft Chocolate Conocada with cola soda
This chocolate was made with the same Dominican Republic beans as two others we sampled but the flavour palette for each was quite different. I liked the hints of caramel and toffee. The cola soda tasted a million miles away from Coca-Cola but is still not a flavour I like.

White Rabbit Cacao Dominican Republic with sarsparilla soda
Another chocolate bar made with the same Dominican Republic beans by a boutique chocolate maker in Bannockburn, near Cromwell. I don't remember much about this chocolate apart from its smooth finish. The flavour was completely overpowered by the cough mixture soda.

Hogarth Craft Chocolate Gianduia with coffee soda
We'd saved the best for last. I loved this soft, creamy gianduia chocolate with 30% Nelson hazelnuts and 70% Venezuela cacao. As for the coffee soda ... I'll stick with the real thing.

A big thank you to Luke and Tegan for a delicious and enjoyable night of sampling. We also got to take home one of my favourite bars from the evening to savour later, Wellington Chocolate Factory's Dominican Republic 70% single origin.

Wellington Chocolate Factory bars to take home

Cruise cocktail class

Never have I ever seen as many cocktail menus and signs as during the past two weeks on the Pacific Pearl. I'm not complaining; cocktails and their limitless flavour combinations fascinate me. Although I rarely drink alcohol, you'll almost always find me perusing cocktail menu ingredients.

We signed up for a cocktail making class while at sea one afternoon. We learned how to measure, muddle, squeeze, shake and pour four cocktails, then spent a blissful hour or so consuming our creations. Our workstations were beautifully set up like this. Of course, it wasn't so tidy once we'd finished, but that's ok when the result is yummy cocktails to enjoy.

Here are the cocktails we made and the recipes so you can try making them at home. 1 ounce (oz) is roughly 30 ml, or the bigger part of a cocktail jigger (measuring cup).

Fresh grapefruit cosmopolitan

Any Sex and the City fan will love this variation on the cosmopolitan.

• 1 oz (30 ml) grapefruit vodka
• 1 oz Cointreau
• 1 oz cranberry juice
• fresh grape fruit slice
• squeeze of lime
• 15 ml sugar syrup

Muddle grapefruit and all of the ingredients. Half-fill the shaker with ice. Shake until cold and strain into a chilled glass.

Grapefruit cosmopolitan

Pimm's cup

This one is usually made in tall pitchers and served on English summer afternoons. These Pimm's cups are individual servings and can be made with any fruit combination.

• 2 oz Pimm's
• fresh mint leaves
• grapes
• oranges
• strawberries
• lemonade

Add all the ingredients into a glass. Make sure you bruise the mint to bring out the full flavour. Top up with lemonade and stir.

Pimm's cup

Caprioska

This variation on a Portuguese/Brazilian cocktail features my favourite citrus flavour: lime.

• 3 lime wedges
• 2 oz citrus vodka
• ½ oz sugar syrup 

Muddle limes with vodka and sugar. Fill to top with crushed ice.

Caprioska

Coffee and cream

This dessert cocktail has plenty of potential to experiment with different flavoured sauces (such as caramel).

• 1 oz coffee and vanilla infused vodka
• 1 oz Patron XO Café (coffee liqueur)
• ½ oz Baileys
• 1 ½ oz cream 

Add all the ingredients into a shaker. Half fill with ice and shake until cold. Use chocolate syrup to make fancy patterns on the side of a chilled glass and strain cocktail mixture into it.

Coffee and cream cocktail

Infusing vodka
You can infuse your own vodka or buy it ready-flavoured. Here's how to make your own. Remember that the higher quality alcohol and ingredients you use for your infusions, the greater the final product will be.

Coffee and vanilla vodka

• 10 vanilla pods
• 100 coffee beans
• 1 litre of vodka

Cut vanilla pods length ways and add them with coffee beans to a bottle of vodka. Leave to infuse for three days or until vodka changes colour.

Citrus vodka

• 2 limes, peeled
• 6 lemons, peeled
• 2 oranges, peeled

Add all the peels to a bottle of vodka. Leave to infuse for three days or until vodka changes colour.

Cheers!

We were out for dinner with a group last night. As one of the first two couples to arrive, we decided to open our bottles of wine and pour some pre-dinner drinks while we waited for the others. We chinked glasses with each other and said cheers, everybody!

The next couple arrived. They poured a glass of wine each and we repeated the ritual. Cheers! And then for the next, even though they ordered drinks from the bar. Cheers! Finally, the last couple joined us and we went in for one last round of chinking. Cheers!

A short while later, I noticed another large group behind us go through pretty much what we'd just done, but it was all at once and the glass chinking happened for a good 30 seconds as guests stretched across the table to touch glasses. It was then that I wondered: why on earth do we do that??

It seems I'm not the first person to ask the question. My searching on glass chinking led me to an etiquette guide on how to make a toast. (Yes, really.) I've found that toasting is a ritual in which a drink is taken as an expression of honor or goodwill. There are theories that the chinking of glasses to cause some of your drink to spill into another person's glass and vice versa could negate attempts to poison each other. Snopes has, naturally, debunked this myth and you can read the article if you are that interested.

So, without being any the wiser for my searching and drawing some very thin conclusions, I am simply going to put the custom of glass chinking down to one of life's social oddities.

Cheers, everybody! Cin cin! Sláinte!

Happy Tea - High Tea

Friday was a foodie's delight for me, with two Wellington on a Plate events in one day. After learning the secrets of Dom's Cheese Scones before work, I celebrated the end of a very busy week with a special Happy Tea - High Tea at Martha's Pantry. We were assured that our grandmothers would have enjoyed a tipple at high tea, so some special tea-based cocktails were created to accompany this event. Look at the beautifully set table.

A beautiful table setting

The high tea menu was similar to the one I enjoyed at Let Them Eat Cake last weekend. This time, we were provided with a booklet featuring some of the recipes from high tea. I quickly looked for the lemon curd that I loved ... and discovered it's actually made in the microwave!

I'm not a tea drinker - not even remotely - but luckily had brought a tea drinker with me. We cautiously approached the tea cocktail menu, looking for something that I might enjoy and found it in the hot masala chai cocktail, which was essentially mulled wine. Two pots later ... yes, I can assure you it was very nice mulled wine! I wasn't impressed with the iced coconut rough cocktail, though. It was far too sweet for me to take more than a couple of sips, a situation that my friend took advantage of by polishing off most of the 1 litre pitcher.

And then we got to the food. Three tiers of exquisitely prepared sandwiches, savouries and sweets. We discovered that mulled wine didn't go too well with the cool cucumber sandwiches with minted cream cheese, so fixed that by topping up our tea cups, cleansing our palettes with long sips of mulled wine and moving onto the next tier. It was lovely to finish off with some soft opera gateau, along with tiny raspberry macarons and a creme patisserie sweet pastry tart. I'll definitely be emailing Martha's Pantry to ask for those recipes.

Happy tea high tea

As we polished off the final tier, we were astounded to look across at the next table and see four ladies sitting around a half-full high tea serving set, having methodically each eaten the same food item together at the same time, then taking a break before moving onto the next. We don't understand this kind of restraint but redeemed ourselves slightly by discovering that we didn't win the medal for first finished in the room; another pair had beaten us - just.

How to High Tea with Ruth Pretty

Last weekend, we spent a delightful day at the Ruth Pretty Cooking School in Te Horo. The weather came to the party and so we played at being ladies by wearing pretty summer dresses for the occasion. How to High Tea is a day of food delights in a stunning garden setting, hosted by Ruth Pretty and her team. We were in good hands!

We were greeted with coffee and morning tea on arrival. These savoury and sweet scones were freshly baked and served alongside a berry salad of strawberries, raspberries, tart cape gooseberries and lightly whipped cream. We had our 'breakfast' at a picnic table outside by the herb garden. Even by mid-morning, the day was shaping up to be a hot one.

Scones for morning tea

The herb garden outside is immaculately kept and puts my few planter boxes to shame. I enjoyed wandering around smelling the different herbs, trying (somewhat unsuccessfully) to identify some of the variations and thinking about how they might be used in cooking.

An immaculate herb garden

At 11 am, we were called into the cooking school/catering kitchen for class. During the next 2 1/2 hours, Ruth and two of her amazing chefs worked with incredible precision and skill to prepare a three course high tea, demonstrating their recipes and teaching us some very valuable tricks of the trade.

Cooking school

We learned how to create three dishes for each of the three high tea 'layers': sandwiches, savouries and desserts. With only one or two chances to impress, Ruth stresses that it's especially important for each high tea dish to taste as good as it looks. This certainly applied to food as tiny and delicate as the cocktail sandwiches made that day.

Ruth Pretty explains

My sandwiches are positively boring compared to the exotic range of flavours we learned how to make, each using different techniques: Bloody Mary prawn rolls, chicken and tarragon sandwiches and refreshing lemon and basil club sandwiches.

Elegant sandwiches and rolls

Savouries have come a long way from the days of preheated sausage rolls and frozen potato top pies from the supermarket. We learned how to make three varieties of base (puff pastry, vol-au-vent cases and a bread base) and a whole range of fillings. We ended up with tiny Parmesan and potato top beef pies made in mini muffin tins, vol-au-vent with salmon and chive salad (with vol-au-vent cases made by hand from buttery puff pastry) and snapper pies with macadamia crumble.

Savouries

And then came dessert, even though this course was demonstrated first. Apparently éclairs are the new macarons which were the new cupcakes. Although I still have a soft spot for cupcakes, I'm not fussed about having missed the macaron craze but am glad to hear that we're onto éclairs now as choux pastry is something that I can make reasonably well! I'm really keen to try making strawberry cream to fill the chocolate éclairs like these ones. We also learned how to make layered champagne jelly and raspberry bavarois and baked vanilla cheesecakes with blueberries. (It's official: I still don't like cheesecake but wanted to give it one last try to confirm what I already knew.)

Sweet treats

With our heads full of good advice and an armful of recipes, we headed back into the garden room to beautifully laid tables for high tea. We found our places by looking for our names individually written on a leaf, then the bubbly was poured and we worked our way through each course.

Table setting for high tea

I learned so much from this session. Even though I can't realistically see myself whipping up a full high tea like this at home, I quite like the idea of attempting a 'progressive' high tea of sorts, where I try experimenting with the recipes and methods one or two at a time. We thoroughly enjoyed being ladies for the day. I even came away with a few more items for my baking arsenal (of course).

Wine list

Although I seldom drink alcohol, I enjoy perusing wine and cocktail lists at restaurants (before inevitably asking for my water glass to be refilled). My partner and I play a game where we look for the most expensive bottle on the list before dismissing it for 'quality' reasons or because it looks too cheap at just $850. Apparently people do buy those expensive wines, though, even if it is just to make themselves look like big spenders in front of others. I've yet to see it myself but wonder just how many bottles of the good stuff restaurants actually keep in stock just in case. Not many, I'd imagine.

We have a wine list. It came about after many conversations in supermarket alcohol sections that went something like this:

"Shall we get some wine? We have that dinner/party/thing coming up. What's on special this week?"
"All these. What do you feel like?"
"I don't know. What was that one we had the other week? That was nice."
*insert guessed wine brand/type/year here*
*repeat several times*
"Have we had this one before? Did we like it?" (picking vaguely familiar bottle off shelf) ... and so on.

And so we started collating the list. It began as a note on my old phone but is currently in need of updating and transferring to Google Drive so we can both access it from our smartphones and/or online. The intention is to sort it into three categories: yes, maybe/ok (if under a certain price) and definitely no. Then, we record the brand, type, year and brief notes (like "very fruity" sav blanc or "unoaked" chardonnay) so we're never caught out buying something we know we don't like just because the label is familiar. It's a work in progress. However, I can assure you there are no $800 bottles of wine on our list ... yet.

Cupcakes and cocktails

Wellington on a Plate is in full swing. Last night, a friend and I went along to Martha's Pantry for Cupcakes and Cocktails. Going by the almost-exclusively female group that had assembled, it would appear that others had the same idea as us: a fun night out for the girls. We were warmly welcomed with a Pimm's winter cocktail and tiny club sandwiches à la high tea, put on our pinnies and took our places at beautifully decorated tables.

An elegant welcome at Martha's Pantry

Martha's Pantry has a long tradition on its premises and is operated in family-style; we met the two sisters who own the café, their mother, their cousin (who taught me cupcake decorating at Tempt last year) ... the embedded family culture was obvious. We were given the super-simple recipe that Martha's Pantry use for their cupcake base. This would be good to try if I need to whip up some cupcakes in a hurry, as everything goes into a blender for just a few seconds and then straight into the oven - easy peasy!

While the cupcakes were cooking, we were given a lesson in cocktail making. We learned about using jiggers (yes, that's a real word), Boston shakers, and practised making a cocktail for ourselves - lots of fun and noise! Then it was on to decorating cupcakes Martha's style. Their secret seems to be using large piping nozzles on little cupcakes, making one simple, fluid movement to ice the whole cake. Again, their icing recipe was very simple, so this might become my quick-fire backup.

Cupcakes and cocktails

We piped some white chocolate onto baking paper, then finished our decorating by making some delicate tape roses out of sugar paste. The sugar paste was very soft and crumbled easily so this style of rose was probably easiest to make from it. The result was a pretty, elegantly styled cupcake perfect for high tea (or dessert, as it was night time) and a fabulous girls' night out.

Rose cupcakes

Girls' night out

Last night, a large group of us got together for a girls' night out - no boys allowed! We started off with dinner at One Red Dog, where the $10 cocktail list and large glasses of wine were a hit with several members of our group. Bucking the trend of ordering one of their many gourmet pizzas, I instead opted for the lamb salad - lamb marinated in red wine and garlic with feta, red onion, tomato and mint with mandarin dressing. An excellent choice, if I may say so myself!

Then, it was on to The Embassy Theatre to see Sex and the City 2 - the ultimate girls' night out activity. I'd been told that this movie was funnier than the first; that is certainly true. There was also plenty more bling. At times, the ridiculousness (is that a word?) was beyond hilarious, not to mention the extreme 'fashion' that featured in several scenes. There were many instances where the characters were sending themselves up, making it a lighthearted change to some of the heavier moments during the first movie after Carrie and Big's wedding breakup.

This time, the girls have been treated to luxurious all expenses paid week in Abu Dhabi, the new Middle East. It's amazing what money can buy. A few issues were touched on; married life two years on, worrying about a husband's fidelity, coping with a young family, and Samantha's menopause all floated by. But, as to be expected, most of it was about friendship, shopping, going places, and generally living it up. In amongst it all, some old favourites make an appearance: Smith Jerrod, Aidan, Stanford and Anthony, and, of course, Big.

Our own in-theatre entertainment was provided by a group of drunk women sitting near the front of the cinema. They were shouting at the characters on screen throughout the movie until several other movie-goers told them to shut up. Enough is enough, already!

The verdict? Leave the boys at home, switch off your brain, and simply enjoy the extravagance.

Cocktails at Chow

On Wednesday nights, Chow in Tory St has a special 1+1=1 offer, ie when you order a cocktail from their drinks menu, you'll get two for the price of one. Perfect for a summer's night! A round of rosebuds was duly ordered and the night began in style out on the deck. Round 2 was when the entertainment started.

Our group had grown, so rather than send a few unfortunate individuals (guys) to traipse up to the bar, we looked for a passing waitress to come and take our orders outside. The waitress who arrived was absolutely delightful, and more than a little tipsy herself. She informed us that she had been doing shots all night, and didn't realise she was still going to be working, but as long as we didn't mind, she'll take our order and join in. After all, she highly recommended the shots. So, cocktails, wines, and a solitary summer ale was ordered along with some food and, as she wouldn't take no for an answer, one guy ordered the obligatory shot.

We waited. And waited. Then saw our lovely waitress approaching. With an explanation that, as she had been doing shots, she couldn't read her own writing, and did we remember what we had ordered? True to her word, her piece of paper looked like something a chicken had scratched over, although we managed to make out the odd word for her. We eventually got there, and she came back with our drinks (most of them) and joined our gullible friend for his shot. (She seemed to cope with it better than he did, going by their facial expressions.)

Of all the Chow venues, I think Tory St is the best for ambiance, and generally as a great hangout with friends. Now I can add 'free entertainment' to its list of features.