Little and Friday: After Hours

I've been a slack blogger these last few weeks- but I'm back in the game, and surprisingly this post in completely un-burger related (shocking, I know).

You might remember my post on Little and Friday, the amazing bakery in Belmont on the North Shore. But on this occasion I arrived well after the last doughnut had been devoured, and the shop next door called After Hours was opening it's doors. 

After Hours is the dinner edition of Little and Friday. They serve up a selection of delicious salads, hot meals and desserts from Wednesday to Sunday 2pm-9pm.

When I visited it was sticky free range five spiced pork belly, atop a selection of salads. The pork belly was fragrant and melt in your mouth - I could have eaten the whole tray.

After Hours is the perfect lazy dinner option, when you want quality home-style food without the incumbent supermarket trip and pile of dishes. The menu changes daily so keep an eye on their Facebook page for updates.

Lastly, don't forget to take a slice of cake or sweet pie home (it is a Little and Friday establishment after all!).

Enjoy!

P.S. This post was originally commissioned for The Denizen

Bread and Butter

My dear friend Hannah goes to Bread and Butter Bakery and Cafe about three times every weekend, so I figured it must be worth a visit. I've been to the smaller version in Ponsonby Central a few times before, but on this occasion we visited the mothership; the bigger version, just around the corner on Richmond Road.

We were all in a bit of a state: Jamie had just finished the half marathon (woohoo!), Hannah was sick, and Allie and Alice, well, let's just say they had good Saturday night. As for me, I was shattered from moving house over the weekend and was feeling a bit lost with everything I owned still in boxes. Turns out, a visit to Bread and Butter was just what the doctor ordered.

I started with an iced mocha which was perfectly made, with a slight bite from the bitter chocolate. The girls went for smoothies and iced chocolates which all got the thumbs up too.

Food wise we were spoiled for choice. I had already eaten breakfast, so went straight into lunch with a pulled pork baguette which was delicious. I'm a bit hit and miss with pulled pork, but this one was spot on, and the baguette itself was fantastic.

Jamie chose a well deserved french toast, Allie chose the mixed mushrooms, Alice had good ol' poached eggs, and Hannah went for one of the delicious sandwiches from the cabinet. On that note, the cabinet food is amazing; there are so many delicious treats to choose from, not to mention the freshly baked loaves of bread available to take home. Plus, all of their bread is organic, sustainable, and tastes absolutely delicious.

The big Bread and Butter is in Grey Lynn, right next to Farro and Citta, so you can basically spend a few good hours around there. Although the menu is a bit unimaginative, the quality of the food is pretty good, and the cabinet food is great, so if you're on the hunt for a new cafe give Bread and Butter a go- and let me know what you think!

Mexico

Not Mexico the country (I wish), but Mexico the restaurant.

But hey, it's as close to Mexico as you can get living in the middle of Auckland, and I'm not about to complain. In fact, I'm going to do just the opposite and tell you how great this restaurant is.

Mexico opened it's first store in Britomart a few years ago, and started off with a roaring trade. I ate there regularly, and watched in wonder to see if like many new restaurants, people would get sick of it as soon as the next best thing came along. But no, the customers remained, the restaurant only got better, and then franchised out to became one of Auckland's favourite eateries.

I had been meaning to check out Mexico's newest addition for a while, so, after being away for a long weekend with the girls, I thought I'd drag James along to Mexico Ponsonby for dinner, where we sat outside under colourful blankets, and ate our way through the delicious menu.

I started off with my favourite of their cocktails- the black plum margarita, while James went with a good ol' Corona. The margaritas are to die for, but if you don't fancy alcohol then the Jarritos are pretty damn good too, and a great alternative.

The food at Mexico is designed to be shared, so what I usually do is chose a taco each and a whole lot of other dishes for the table. After a small argument about the merits of coriander (come on who doesn't like coriander!) we went with chickpea patatas, octopus and chorzo pinchos, and Mexico's famous fried chicken to share, along with the fish taco for James, and the blackened duck taco for myself.

The fried chicken was, and always is delicious, and won dish of the night, followed in a close second by my delicious blackened duck taco.

Apart from the fried chicken, one of my favourite things about Mexico is that the menu changes fairly frequently, meaning you can go back time and time again trying new concoctions, creations and flavours that never disappoint (not that I need an excuse to go!).

Whether you go to Mexico in Hamilton, Takapuna, Ponsonby, Ellerslie, Britomart, or wherever they open up next, the food is always fantastic, it's good value, and is definitely worth a visit.

Ladies Lunch at Soul Bar

Soul Bar deserves more than a few snaps on my phone, but I couldn't resist telling everyone about the Ladies @ Lunch deal on there at the moment. So, until I head back when the sun is shining with my camera in hand, here is a quick snapshot of yesterday's lunch at Soul.

In celebration of beautiful Allanah's birthday, a group of us from work braved the storm and headed down to the Viaduct to Soul Bar. An institution on Auckland's waterfront, Soul Bar has a reputation for great seafood, flowing Moet champagne, and being the place to be during the America's Cup (hmph...).

The ladies lunch deal is awesome, we ended up sharing the entrees, so each had a three course meal, a glass of wine, tea and coffee to finish for $29.50 each. Not bad! To make life easier I did some sweet menu copying and pasting below.

MENU
To start
Crushed avocado, jalapeno, warm jou jou bread

Main_Choice of
Skillet seared chicken, broccoli orzo salad, goats' feta, pistachio
OR
Ora King salmon fillet, citrus risotto + new season asparagus

Dessert
Salted caramel ice-cream, dark chocolate ganache and toffee popcorn

Espresso coffee or tea selection

WHEN:  Thursday September 5th to Sunday 6th October
TIME: 11am onwards
PRICE: $29.50 per person
STATUS: Bookings available

The meals were all surprisingly delicious for under $30, but the dessert - oh my the dessert was absolutely amazing (I may have eaten two servings of it).

The deal is on until the 6th of October, so before time runs out, round up your girls and make a booking. Chop chop!