Dry & Tea | Best Ugly Bagels

A bit of an oxymoron combining Dry & Tea where all things are pretty and Best Ugly Bagels where all things are, well...ugly. But they are about 10 steps from each other in the City Works Depot so I reckon it's OK.

To be honest I am mostly lazy but also a bit useless at doing my own hair, and seeing as I drink about 7 cups of tea each day Dry & Tea is the perfect solution.

 

  

The first time I went to D&T was before a fancy awards thing but this time was just for the hell of it. At $40 for a blow wave it doesn't break the bank (coming from someone who is terrible at managing money) and it's a fun thing to do with the girls before a night out.

We arrived late (Alice was driving) and after a quick chat with our stylists were led to the basins. We all know the best part about getting your haircut is the head massage and now you can get one without leaving in tears after the hairdresser has gotten a bit 'creative' with your do. Dream result!

 

None of us really knew what we wanted done before going there, but I definitely recommend checking out their Pinterest page for some hair inspiration before you go. Or just have a look anyway because the photos are so pretty.

 

 

Next came the tea, and as a non coffee drinker I really do love a good cuppa. Luckily Dry & Tea ticked all the boxes with their T2 Tea range from Australia- I'm usually not even that keen on herbals but their 'Just Peppermint' tea was amazing. 

A few cups of tea and some glossy magazines later we were done and reluctantly left (looking a whole hell of a lot better than we did when we arrived).

Feeling quite smug with our freshly done hair we naturally had to go for a bit of a stroll around City Works Depot to show it off. I've done a post on The Food Truck Garage before, but this time we ended up in Montreal (or as close as we're going to get) at Al Brown's Best Ugly Bagels for some serious bagel action.

We were a bit late for it, but the best time to go is first thing in the morning when you can see the bagels being rolled, dunked and thrown into the fire right in front of you.

But no matter what time you go, you'll get amazing service and THE BEST BAGELS IN AUCKLAND! Sorry for shouting but writing this is making me very hungry, when I am hungry I am not nice.

I'll let the photos speak for themselves, but as you can see we really enjoyed them..

Citizen Park

For a blog that claims to be about food and lifestyle from Kingsland I've been a bit of a sell-out to the bright lights and glossy people of Ponsonby and Britomart.

In saying that though, I eat at Kingland's Citizen Park pretty much every week so it was about time I got myself in line and strung a few words and photos together. This time I had my sister Suzie in tow, and while she can be the picture of sophistication she didn't quite know how to play it subtle with the camera. You'll see...

After a few teething problems at the beginning Citizen Park have now really come into their own. With their unpretentious Mexi-Americano inspired menu and huge glasses of Heineken I find myself dining there dangerously often and it just gets better and better.

This time Suz and I had the Dirty Bird, Cajun Spiced Fries and a soft taco each. That and a big jug of Tiger beer came to $60 something all together. Pretty good right?

Fried chicken again (I know, I know)...

Be warned, the place gets jam packed before any rugby games but they have that old fashioned thing where you can call up and tell them you want to sit somewhere in advance, I believe it's called a reservation (a rarity these days).

Suzie and I had a lovely afternoon in the sun at CP as the place slowly cleared out around us, and the following succession of photos describe our afternoon perfectly. They also possibly explain why the place slowly cleared out around us...

NB: never leave camera alone.

Anyway, the clever wee things at Citizen Park have even put a fancy retractable roof over the courtyard so there's no excuse to stay at home eating soup all winter. Put on your taco eating pants and get on down, at the rate I'm going I'll probably see you there.

Tyler St Garage

Last time we had a team lunch for work we all piled into taxis and headed down to Britomart's Tyler St Garage. Thinking of Tyler St will probably conjure up blurry memories of a Saturday night out in town, but the place deserves to be known for more than just it's long lines and fancy cocktails (not that I don't like fancy cocktails).

Unfortuantely we decided to go pretty much in the middle of a monsoon which ruled out sitting upstairs on the deck. On the odd occassion of it being a nice day I definitely recommend heading upstairs, but keep in mind that when you are a few jugs of beer deep the staircase is a bit of a death trap.

Pretty much like the rest of Auckland, Tyler St are all about sharing plates, and I get the worst food envy so this suits me down to a tee. It felt like we ordered the whole menu but looking back there is so much I still want to try; the tataki, ceviche and the Tyler St hot dog all look amazing. I need a bigger stomach.

We left the ordering to my boss after making her promise she would order enough fried chicken to out chicken KFC (ohh KFC). In a joint effort between herself and the waiters we ended up with grilled flatbread, soft shell crab, fried chicken, pulled pork belly sliders, shoestring fries, the meat platter, and panko crumbed salt and pepper squid. And about 15 jugs of beer. 

The food was delicious. We probably should have had a salad or something but at times like this you have to do some tough prioritising, and when it comes down to fried chicken I don't have to think very hard about it- salad schmalad. I've also had the Wakanui Blue Scotch fillet there before and highly recommend it to any other carnivores out there.

 

Tyler St really do whip up some delicious food and drinks, and it'll blow your mind going there during the day when you have more than 1 square inch to sit/stand/dance. Grab some friends, a few plates to share and you'll see it in a whole new and unusually coherent light.

Queens B'day Lunch: Chorizo and Butter Bean Salad

Before I get started you should know I have a new kitten. There will probably be an increase in typos (she likes walking all over the keyboard) and I will probably change this from a food blog to a kitten blog. Just a heads up.

Anyway, over the long weekend the girls and I decided to have a lunch in honour of the Queen; really just an excuse for us to stuff our faces and drink Pimm's. We do this a bit and it's lots of fun to get together, have a few drinks, eat yummy food and act like fools (as per usual). Last time it was American themed and we were all left in food comas after coca-cola ribs, pumpkin pie and cornbread.

This time Sarah was the only one who stayed on theme with her jam and cream scones, whereas I went to Spain and cooked a chorizo and butter bean salad and Allie went to France with her scalloped potato gratin. Ah well.

Making the salad is easy, I literally went to the supermarket on the way to Alice's and made it when I got there in about 10 minutes. 

• 3 cans Butter Beans, drained
• 2 punnets of cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 bunch flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped

Toss all ingredients together on a platter (easy so far huh?)

Now for the dressing:

• 1 garlic clove 
• 1 Tbsp sherry or red wine vinegar
• juice of half a lemon
• 4 Tbsp olive oil
• sea salt and black pepper

Grind the garlic, salt and pepper in a mortar and pestle, add in the remaining ingredients and whisk with a fork. Pour over the salad and give it a good mix.

Next slice up 400 grams of chorizo (use the good quality soft stuff that needs to be cooked) and fry it quickly in a hot pan until its crispy. Throw the chorizo on top of the salad and it's done! 

Alice doesn't share the same passion for cooking so she is in charge of 'joy'- if anyone has seen the Friends episode where Phoebe is in charge of cups and ice you'll get my drift. At Christmas it was Santa hats and Justin Bieber's Christmas album, for the American theme it was red cups and cowboy hats and Queen's Birthday entailed crowns, gloves and paper doilies. 

I realise we look like idiots.

Gloves, crowns and the fact that we have all completely now lost our dignity aside, Sarah's scones and brownies were to die for and far more appropriate than our other dishes. 

We finished off with some blooming tea from Pratty's (and a few more glasses of Pimm's).

After putting all of these photos up I think that maybe starting a kitten blog isn't such a bad idea.