Bibliocook - All About Food

Award-winning blog of Irish food writer and broadcaster Caroline Hennessy.

Category: Do

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Do / Eating Out / Living in New Zealand

A weekend hideaway

Governors Bay Hotel After a stressful week, all you want to do at the weekend is get out of the city (without driving too far), stay in a comfortable place (without paying too much) and eat some good food. In search of just such a place, the Boyfriend and I stayed at the historic Governors Bay Hotel last weekend. Although it is only about a forty minute drive from Christchurch, once you emerge from the Lyttelton tunnel, which cuts through the Port Hills directly south of the city, you feel like you’re arriving in another, more relaxed world.

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Blogging by Mail 2: The arrival of the parcel…

Blogging by Mail 2 - the bootyYesterday morning was miserable. It was wet and stormy, I hadn’t slept well and I woke up with a nasty sore throat. I was lying in bed, feeling sorry for myself (I had to cook dinner for nine last night) when the Boyfriend said “there’s a parcel here for you!” A parcel in the post is never something to be sniffed at, especially when I had a suspicion that it was sent from America by my Mail Blogging partner, Deborah. Before I knew it, I was out of bed and tearing open the wrapping to receive a veritable avalanche of goodies! And that was only the start. When I checked the proper post (as opposed to the parcel post) later I found a card telling me that there was another parcel to be collected at the post office. This morning, the third – and final – parcel was delivered, along with a lecture from the postman as the bottle of porter (yes, porter! Alaskan Smoked Porter, actually) it contained fell out as he took it out of his sack. He was not impressed – apparently the New Zealand post office take a dim view of bottles of alcohol falling out of parcels. Thankfully it survived, although I don’t think I’ll be opening it for a while. Mr Postman said it had survived a lot and it should be put on display!

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Parcels in the post

My bars of Amnesty chocolate I’ve always loved getting parcels in the post (hence my involvement with Blogging by Mail 2!) and this year in New Zealand has only accentuated that fact. When you’re far away, it’s always nice to know that your friends and family at home are thinking of you, something which is even more appreciated when there’s chocolate involved! My mother is great for sending on bars of Butler’s Irish Chocolate and chocolate Santys at Christmas time – I even got a (very squashed) box of Black Magic for my birthday and a slab of Bournville (especially useful for bach hot chocolates).

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Slow Food on Film

Slow Food Ireland I was just taking a look round the Cork Film Festival website when I came across their Slow Food on Film event. Slow Food Cork are behind this amalgamation of food and film which is in its third year. It always sounds amazing but, as I’m normally based in Dublin (when I’m not in New Zealand!), I haven’t yet managed to attend.

Observer Food Monthly – September 2005 0

Do / Read

Observer Food Monthly – September 2005

Due to the vagaries of the post between Ireland and New Zealand, my reading of the Observer Food Monthly is always a few weeks behind. Seeing as we’re never in season with the produce it doesn’t really matter and it’s always a red letter day when the most recent edition arrives, along with recipes and restaurant reviews torn from Irish publications – thanks again Mum!

Cooking classes 0

Do / Living in New Zealand

Cooking classes

One of the things that I do enjoy about living in New Zealand are all the cookery classes that are on offer. Not only the usual night courses at the various schools around Christchurch, but also food shops offering classes in the use of their goods à la the Mediterranean Food Company and Café and tonight I’m looking forward to a class with Judith Cullen of Judith Cullen’s Cooking Classes fame.

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Meme: The Best in the Last 30

Barbara at Auckland-based Winos and Foodies has tagged me for the foodie leg of Basic Juice‘s meme with two tails – The Best in the Last 30. You can read more about the meme here. Basically, the idea behind it was to write about the most wine-friendly dish I had eaten over the past month.