Brunch. I’m not the biggest fan of Maths, but the sum of breakfast + lunch is an equation everyone should get acquainted with. Brunch is the socially acceptable way to get away with two meals in one and to drink bubbles with eggs and hollandaise sauce – Winning. And quite frankly, my experience in the past few weeks has revealed that Christchurch City has many Brunch haunts worth a visit (or two.) Here are some top picks.
Do you enjoy a great book? Â How many of us recall searching through a bookstore with rack after rack of colorful novels? Â A long time ago our cities were filled with independent book sellers. Â These book stores were a part of the community. Â Sadly, most such places have faded into the dust of history. Â In their stead we have the endless results of Google, the extreme pricing of Barnes and Noble, the careless displays of Books A Million, the behemoth of Amazon, and we have the proverbial cloud of Kindle.
Little River, a small village conveniently placed at the foot of the Banks Peninsula and a gateway to Christchurch’s more outdoorsy relative. In Latin, peninsula literally translates to almost (pen) an island (insula), i.e. A very accessible destination with all of the frills one expects of a typical island such as postcard views and an abundance of food from the sea. Last week, I took a trip to Little River to experience a break from technology, a spot of relaxation and a chance to explore a place I have spent many a childhood jaunt, but from a different perspective. One of my favourite past-times is pretending I am a tourist in my own hometown; you can travel the world, but sometimes it’s your backyard that was stunning all along. Go check it out!
The pineapple is one of those perfect ingredients (alongside avocados and mangos.) Â So why mess with perfection? Â I would say it is more about taking a different approach to something you are familiar with than a detraction. Â The heat concentrates and enhances the natural sweetness of the fruit and the caramelization on the outside is just delicious.
I originally put this together for my paleo friends. Â Aside from that, I wanted to play around with temperature and texture. Â The raw and cooked ingredients play well off each other. Â This is also a really simple salad and you can put it together in about 20 minutes.
It’s Summer so there are only two things you need to concern yourself with; some type of fire powered grilling device and ingredients to sear over aforementioned fire. Â If you live in New York, there are actually designated areas you can bbq in the city. Â You can also make due with a broiler in your oven or grill pan.
The Ponzu in this marinade has a salty-citrus flavor that pairs well with the heat from the Italian peppers.
Not to be outdone by Bareburger (which I really like by the way and highly recommend) and all their burger choices: beef, elk, wild boar, duck, quinoa and more, I put together my own at home Ostrich burger.
There is a local vendor at the green markets around New York who only sells Ostrich so finding the ingredients wasn’t too difficult. Â Next up was thick cut bacon, which also isn’t a problem (if possible get the one from the meat counter where they cut it for you and not from the package.)
While contemplating what to plant in my garden box, tomatoes seemed like a natural choice. Â But what type of tomato should I plant?
I could have gone the heirloom route because few things in a garden are cooler than zebra tomatoes. Â San Marzano were next under consideration because this Italian gem is one of my favorites.
Pittsburgh, a night at the theater, and the genius of the playwright are not a group of words we would often fit together.  Perhaps, however, a few of us walk to the beat of a different drummer and we know how synonymous these words actually are.  In fact, on any given weekend evening all across the city there are small theaters filled with devoted  and talented actors performing the works of Playwrights from all over.  So many of us would be surprised by the level of talent our city commands.  I spent a large portion of 2015 attending show after show as I had been tasked with reviewing a great many of said shows.  Of all of the plays I had seen one troupe of actors and a particular playwright stood out as something spectacular.  I recently had the chance to see these artists once more as they brought their talents yet again to the stage as they performed an original play created by one of Pittsburgh’s soon to be favorite sons, James Michael Shoberg.
I spent half a weekend afternoon in Queens eating, drinking (coffee) and snapping pics along the way. I think I have a great 2 stop trip in the borough the next time you have friends and family in town.
There was a raspberry bush in a park near my house where I grew up. Â I’ll point out this was very much a suburban park but we would go pick those raspberries during the summer months.
What is so immensely satisfying about this little act of foraging. Â Perhaps it takes us back to our original days searching for seeds and fruit to sustain us? Â Perhaps it is just simple pleasures that allow one to take something off a vine and be rewarded with that little pop of natural sweetness.
