Bibliocook - All About Food

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

Category: Travel

Breakfast at Formerly The Blackball Hilton 0

Eating Out / Living in New Zealand

Breakfast at Formerly The Blackball Hilton

We weren’t very well organised for the last bank holiday weekend so it was Sunday morning before one of the boyfriend’s friends and his girlfriend came over and we tried to figure out where to go for the night. Despite fears that all accommodation would be booked solid for the weekend, a quick scoot through the Rough Guide to New Zealand and a few calls later and we had rooms for the night at Formerly The Blackball Hilton in the wee town of Blackball on New Zealand’s West Coast.

Bake / Living in New Zealand

Ginger nuts: Chocolate Gingerbread

Ginger is big business in New Zealand. Whether it’s the pieces of ginger slice available in every café and bakery, gingernut biscuits beloved by the boyfriend’s parents, the many brands of commonly available ginger beer (not in the least bit like the insipid ginger ale mixer common in Irish bars) – the best of which is always a hotly debated topic of contention in the boyfriend’s household – or Ginger Bear sweets (like gummy bears, but with a ginger kick) it seems like the Kiwis just can’t get enough ginger.

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Do / Living in New Zealand

A good haul

In the Salvation Army shop the other day I discovered the one thing that would make me look the part while marketing – a wicker basket!

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Do / Living in New Zealand

Olive picking

A big thank you to all at Athena Olives in Waipara who took a complete olive picking novice under their communal wing today and gave me such a wonderful – and painful! – experience during a very busy time for them.

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Eating Out / Living in New Zealand

Restaurant review: Simo’s Moroccan Restaurant

The days when you get a call from your boyfriend saying “don’t plan anything for dinner tonight. I want to take you out” don’t come too often so, no matter what you’ve been thinking about cooking, it’s time to put it aside. Especially when you discover that you’re going to New Zealand’s only Moroccan restaurant – Simo’s in Christchurch.

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Eating Out / Living in New Zealand

Restaurant review: Simo's Moroccan Restaurant

The days when you get a call from your boyfriend saying “don’t plan anything for dinner tonight. I want to take you out” don’t come too often so, no matter what you’ve been thinking about cooking, it’s time to put it aside. Especially when you discover that you’re going to New Zealand’s only Moroccan restaurant – Simo’s in Christchurch.

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Do / Living in New Zealand

A mushroom hunt

One of my fondest autumn memories from childhood is of my siblings, my cousins and myself as small children, bundled up in warm coats and wellies (aka gumboots in NZ), being handed a couple of buckets by the adults and sent down my grandparents’ farm to go mushroom picking.