Award-winning blog of Irish food writer and broadcaster Caroline Hennessy.
It was a friend’s 30th birthday on Saturday and we were gathering at 5pm, in fancy dress, for a few drinks before heading over to a rugby match in Christchurch – Canterbury Crusaders vs South Africa’s Cats.
When you move to a new place, you’ve got to figure out what events are going on and, when I arrived in Christchurch in January, I was thrilled to discover that this South Island city is the home of Savour New Zealand, a foodie spectacular that happens every two years.
The first time that the boyfriend’s parents were coming to dinner, last summer in Ireland, was a bit of a challenge.
Hmmm…sometimes it pays to study the labels of the jams you buy a little closer. After Saturday’s trip to the St Albans Market I’ve discovered that I am eating not Black Bot Peach Jam but Black BOY Peach Jam.
It’s always the way, isn’t it? You go to the supermarket and get a lovely bunch of yellow bananas. You eat some that day, take one to work for lunch the day after and even slice one on top of your muesli for breakfast.
Although we’re very solidly into autumn now here in New Zealand (autumn! In April! I’m still not quite getting my head around it) with little prospect of camping ahead, Nicola Saker’s Blue Sky Kitchen: Creative Cookery For Kiwi Campers still caught my eye.
There are lots of good things about being based in the little Christchurch suburb of St Albans – we’re only about 30 minutes walk from the city centre, there is the choice of a couple of supermarkets nearby (Edgeware’s bare basics Supervalue and the well stocked Fresh Choice in Merivale) and, best of all, every Saturday morning there’s a market in English Park, just five minutes away from the house.
Last night we had a couple of the boyfriend’s friends staying over, thus giving me an opportunity to cook dinner for more than the usual two people.
