Two breakfasts in Ōtautahi
On unpretentious cafés, stacked cabinets and tulip cups.
Nau mai, haere mai. Welcome to The Boil Up, The Spinoff’s weekly food newsletter presented in partnership with BurgerFuel. Written by me, Lucinda Bennett. I hope you’re hungry!
Whenever I visit friends or family in an unfamiliar city, I give myself over to their expertise. Sure, there’s the places I went last time, the ones I follow on Instagram and recommendations I’ve gathered, but ideally, I want to be led. Take me to your local, your work lunch spot, the places you eat all the time!
Visiting Ōtautahi this last week to attend a writing workshop that took the form of an overnight tramp to a DOC hut in Mount Somers, I expected this week’s newsletter to be about the kai eaten during and after our snowy hīkoi, or perhaps about finally visiting various chic Ōtautahi cafes and restaurants such as Londo, Frances Nation Café, Estelle and Grizzly Baked Goods. While these were all delicious experiences (special shout-out to Chloe, our camp cook), I can’t stop thinking about two unexpectedly brilliant breakfasts I had at two different cafes, neither which I would ever have known existed were I not staying with my uncle Andrew, who loves an “unpretentious” brekky spot.
At Bunrunners, I was the only female customer in a room of old boys and mechanics from the neighbouring garages. Figuring “when in Rome”, I ordered a bun – or a Scottish morning roll as the menu named them – choosing my fillings from a list that included tattie scone, haggis, black pudding, Lorne sausage and plant-based sausage while my uncle went all in and ordered a Full Scottish. An elderly gentleman at a nearby table ordered a strawberry milkshake at 9am on a Monday. A man with a silky mullet nipped in for a pie and coffee to go. I was pleasantly surprised when my “small oat flat white” was delivered in a tulip cup, something that happened everywhere I went in Ōtautahi, prompting me to realise that this is actually how I prefer it. My bun came out quickly and it was a thing of beauty, a light bap with a lacy-edged fried egg, melted cheese, spiced sausage and the right amount of HP sauce, exactly what you want on a crisp autumn morning.
On Tuesday morning, we hadn’t yet decided where we were going when we loaded my pack into Andrew’s car. He offered two equally unknown café options to me and I told him to follow his heart, so we went to Claude’s Kitchen, an unassuming spot in Woolston that Google Maps lists as a pie shop. After Bunrunners, Andrew had my full trust, and he did not let me down. Claude’s was full of old staffroom style chairs upholstered in dark mustard vinyl, with opshop paintings and vintage medallions hanging on walls painted institutional green. Most importantly, there was a cabinet stacked with homemade sweets and carbs. Notable among them: pineapple lump slice, pumpkin risotto domes, vegan coconut custard slice and a peanut satay chicken filo. On the counter, a perfectly even layer cake with stripes corresponding to the colours of the transgender flag, and a cooling tray of Portuguese custard tarts – my favourite. I picked one up for later. For breakfast, I couldn’t go past the kiwi classic corn fritters, my patriotism rewarded by a plate piled high with the fluffiest, crispiest I’d ever tried, accompanied by thick curling slices of smoky bacon, sweet relish and a generous smear of cream cheese. Another oat flat white in a tulip and I was sold. I could have happily come here every day, or at least once a week for a treat. I ate my tart at the airport, especially glad to have it when my flight was delayed.
These experiences got me thinking about this style of eatery, the local café that doesn’t promote the beans they use at the door, that has never hired someone to do design or fit-out, that clearly works hard to offer a cabinet and a menu with something for everyone. The kind of café that is common in the regions but can get lost in the fray of a big city, unless you live down the road, or your uncle takes you. I have my own favourites in Tāmaki – Blue Rose in Sandringham, Bun Hut on Dominion Rd, Cozy Cafeteria in Onehunga – but I’d love to know yours, wherever you are in the country! Post yours in the comments!
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Weekly bites
While no one seemed concerned with questions of how the Countdown rats were being controlled, last week Tāmaki institution Daily Bread came under fire for “controlling” their own pest situation by poisoning sparrows outside their Point Chevalier café. The issue came to light after a video depicting some very sick birds wobbling around the carpark was posted on social media, sparking a barrage of negative comments, reviews and threats of a boycott. Daily Bread responded with social media posts explaining that while the poisoning of “birds classified as pests” was standard practice in ensuring the health standards of their facilities, they would be working to find alternative ways of handling pests in the future.
Big Chewing Gum is undergoing a rebrand and it’s partly thanks to a nurse working in a hospital Covid-19 ward. At a time when medical workers were exposed to such dire conditions that city-dwellers were applauding them each day as their shifts changed over, one nurse told Alyona Fedorchenko – vice-president for global gum and mints in Mars’ snacking division – that she chewed gum to calm herself. This comment inspired Fedorchenko and her colleagues to switch marketing emphasis from fresh breath to wellness, fuelling multi-million-dollar ad campaigns such as “quiet your mindmouth” as well as the acquisition of new products like Respawn by 5 gum, a product aimed at gamers which contains green tea and vitamin B to allegedly improve focus.
With his bill to remove all GST from kai going through its first parliamentary hearing this week, Te Pāti Māori party co-leader Rawiri Waititi sent a letter seeking support from MPs across the political spectrum. “It shouldn’t matter where you sit...”, he writes, “removing GST from kai should be a no-brainer for any party who is serious about supporting whānau during a cost of living crisis.” As food prices in Aotearoa continue to soar, Waititi hopes that his bill will be passed and the change made overnight, something he says will have an immediate impact on whānau across the country — but not everyone agrees. Shanti Matthews has written an excellent article explaining the bill and in detail.
More-ish:
In case you missed it, MasterChef winner and cookbook author Sam Low has teamed up with friend and former Metro Food Editor Jean Teng to launch Ate Ate Ate (said as 888!), a podcast about food and eating, in Tāmaki Makaurau and beyond. The first official episode (there’s also a fun intro) dropped last week on the piping hot topic of Eating on Social Media and includes an interview between Sam and food media academic Emily Contois. The podcast’s Instagram is also already proving a great follow with a weekly “what ate ate ate this week” post including casual food snaps and mini-reviews.
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Snack of the week
NTS Rose Pasta Snack 95g for $3.19 from Kosco Metro, Corner Colombo & Lichfield, Ōtautahi
Having visited many of the Korean and Korean-inspired eateries blessing Tāmaki Makaurau, I am already an avowed fan of rose (sometimes rosé) pasta, or tteokboki. If you haven’t yet sampled some form of carb doused in this rich pink sauce, let me explain. Rose is the multicultural amalgamation of the velvety Italian-American dish known as Penne Alla Vodka, made with tomatoes, cream and a splash of vodka, combined with the bold, spicy fermented Korean chilli paste known as gochujang. It’s the perfect sauce for anyone who wants to enjoy tteokboki but is a little spice-averse as the cream mellows to chilli to something gentle while still maintaining the distinctive sweet and savoury flavours of the usually fiery red sauce. On pasta, it’s an umami-packed upgrade to your standard pomodoro and seemingly very easy to achieve at home.
Lord knows how, but the folks at NTS have somehow managed to translate this silky dish into an extremely addicting crunchy snack that has all the creamy-spicy-savoury-sweet notes of the hot dish. The snacks themselves are shaped like fusilli, a shape that I find a bit boring when chosen for a pasta dish but somehow very cute in this context, with a satisfying crunchiness that doesn’t feel at all like you are eating dried pasta, nor does it feel exactly like a chip – it’s a little more dense. Although made from wheat flour, a friend commented that they taste a bit like rice snacks (remember those?) and she’s not wrong, they do share a savoury-sweet profile with a hint of soy sauce, but the pasta snacks are far superior with their substantial crunch and slightly spicy, cheesy flavour. If anyone knows where I can find them in Tāmaki, please let me know! 9/10
Mā te wā,
Lucinda
Claudes is a best local secret. Great pies and lots of vegan food. Run by 2 of the nicest guys you will meet. Coconut custard slices are some of the best in nz and the friday doughnuts are 🤌
If you're ever in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, check out Deluxe! They're just tucked in next to the Embassy Theatre; such a lovely little nook with absolutely wonderful people behind the counter.