How To Eat Oysters

A brief guide to the fine art of oyster eating.

Step 1:
On a sunny afternoon bundle dogs, family, friends, and a chilly bin full of oysters and wine into the oldest, rustiest Land Cruiser you can find.

Step 2:
Head to the nearest beach, and jump straight in for a swim.

Step 3:
Crack open a bottle of crisp white wine (or even better, champagne) and take a sip. Ahhh.

Step 4:
Open your chilled oysters, and eat as many as you can before anyone else counts them.

Step 5:
Sit back, relax, and watch the afternoon go by. Afternoon naps are encouraged.

Easy huh?

Luke's Kitchen

Nestled away in a small town on the Coromandel Peninsula is one of my absolute favourite restaurants. It may not have tablecloths and silverware (in fact I think they would laugh at the idea), but it never fails to disappoint me.  With tables made from surfboards, and bench seats made of drift wood, Luke's Kitchen embodies everything good about a New Zealand summer.

Luke's Kitchen started out as a small pizza shack by the beach and has turned into a heaving Coromandel hotspot packed full of hungry, sunburned beach goers. Pizza is still the crown glory of Luke's- and an enormous wood fired oven stands proudly in the middle of the restaurant where a team of surfer boys are rolling the dough and cooking to order.

On this balmy summer night, Mum and I made our way to Kuaotunu to visit Luke's Kitchen. We started off with kumara fries- the best I have ever had (and I've had a LOT), washed down with some Corona beer in the spirit of summer.

The pizza menu has a focus on NZ and seafood ingredients, atop a thin and crispy base. I'm a huge fan of greasy pizza (mmm Sal's), but Luke's Kitchen pizza is incredibly light and fresh, and all the more tasty.

We chose the Pacific Chix (coconut chicken, courgette, onion, preserved lime and coriander) and the very similar looking Never Fail (fresh fish, mushroom, courgette, onion, garlic aioli). Both were amazing, but the Pacific Chix was a winner for me, and is my go-to order whenever I am there.

LK is everything a beach restaurant should be, and is a true celebration of summer food. If you ever find yourself in the East Coast of the Coromandel, make your way to Kuaotunu, and pop into Luke's for a pizza before we run out of these glorious long summer nights.

An Early Summer + Ceviche

When the sun makes an appearance on those rare October summer days, you know you're in for a treat (and usually some sunburn).

Wanting to make the most of it, the girls and I decided at the last minute to head out to Tauwharanui Peninsula for the day. So, with a picnic packed, and with our towels and books in tow, we made our way up North to the beautiful beach.

After a gorgeous day of sunbathing, swimming, reading, and being attacked by seagulls, we were absolutely shattered. The sun had beaten us. It was time to head home for a drink, but more importantly something to eat.

Keeping on theme with our beach day, we decided to have seafood for dinner, so first stop on the way home was the Matakana Coast Oyster Company where we grabbed two dozen oysters to take home (this is The Oyster Weekend after all).

Second stop was Farro, where we picked up the ingredients for one of my all time favourite dishes, ceviche. Ceviche is a raw fish salad, WAIT- before you turn you nose up at this let me tell you; the lime in the salad acts as an agent that kind of cooks the fish, making this raw fish salad not very raw at all, but incredibly, amazingly delicious.

Ceviche (serves 4)

• 400-500 grams fish fillets. Ask your fishmonger what fish would be best suited to a raw salad (I usually use Tarakihi), and ensure the fish is very fresh.
• Juice of 3 limes
• 1 green capsicum, diced
• 1/4 red onion, diced
• 2 fresh chillis, diced
• 1 avocado, cut into cubes
• 1/3 cup coconut milk
• handful of coriander, roughly chopped

Slice the fish into small slivers or cubes, and stir through with lime juice. Leave this mixture in the fridge for 5 minutes or so while you chop up the rest of your ingredients.

By the time you've chopped everything else up, your fish should be looking slightly opaque, that's the lime doing it's thing!

The next bit is easy, throw all of the remaining ingredients into the bowl, stir through, have a taste test, and when you're happy with it, put it back in the fridge until you're ready to serve (it is best chilled). 

Once we had showered off the sand and the salt, and the ceviche and oysters were safely in the fridge, Alice whipped us all up some cocktails with gin, soda, sugar syrup, lime and mint, to go with our seafood feast. She may not like cooking, but she makes a good drink! 

With the cocktails in hand, we popped a bag of corn chips (the best way to eat ceviche), and started tucking into our seafood feast. The perfect way to end a beautiful pre-summer's day.