Very easy soups for very cold weather
Two soups to help you brave the cold, breakfast in Raglan and chef Morgan Mcglone on seafood.
Nau mai, haere mai. Welcome to The Boil Up, The Spinoff’s weekly food newsletter produced in partnership with Boring Oat Milk. Written by me, Charlotte Muru-Lanning. It’s lovely to have you here!
I spent last weekend with friends at my whānau batch in Whāingaroa Raglan. Sleeping there for two nights breathing in colder, damper than usual air has left me with a massive desire for warm, comforting food in bowls. Beyond my own chilly weekend getaway experience, it’s been extra-cold all around the country so I thought I’d share two brothy dishes I’ve had on repeat recently. Both require (sorry) chicken broth, but take very little effort otherwise. I promise!
Recycled takeout containers filled with chicken stock are the treasures of my freezer. Frozen blocks of liquid gold. Because they’re so precious I like to use them in only the most bare bones of ways.
The first means pouring about a litre of chicken stock into a pot along with a little salt and pepper, a whole dried chilli and a garlic clove. Simmer for about five minutes. While it's bubbling, tip in a few handfuls of dried pasta per person (you want a small shape: orecchiette, conchigliette or farfalle are my favourites). When the pasta is al dente, stir in a couple of spoons of butter and serve in bowls with ludicrous amounts of parmigiano reggiano and more pepper.
The second soupy dish I’ve been cooking, most often for weekend lunch, especially when the weather is biting. I think it’s best made for one. For this I pour a bowlful of my chicken broth, a smashed clove of garlic, a dried chilli or two, star anise, sliced ginger, and fish sauce, Chinese rice wine, soy sauce and sugar to taste. Let it simmer for as long as you can wait. Sesame oil, chilli paste and lime juice are quite necessary at the end. Often I’ll cook some rice noodles and steam greens to add to the bowl – but neither are obligatory.
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Weekly bites
It’s pretty hard to ignore the dwindling mask wearing in restaurants, cafes and bars when you’re out and about at the moment. In our current settings, public-facing staff are still mandated to wear medical grade face masks, but customers are only encouraged, rather than required, to wear a mask. With Covid-19 case numbers, hospitalisations and deaths on the rise, I asked University of Auckland aerosol chemist Joel Rindelaub whether it’s time for hospitality venues and diners to up their mask game again? Turns out masking up even for a few minutes when you’re heading up to the till or ducking in for a morning coffee could help to break a chain of transmission.
Is it time to bring back masks in hospo? (Image: Tina Tiller)
Often hailed as the future of employee productivity and work-life balance, the four-day work week has been taken up sporadically by businesses and governments with the aim to improve conditions for workers and increase productivity. I’ve often wondered how the model could be applied to the hospitality industry, where working is tied to opening hours rather than just completing a set amount of tasks. Auckland restaurant Cassia has taken up the challenge. Speaking on Morning Report this week, co-owner Chand Sarawhat said the decision to expand their opening hours from five days to seven days and reduce kitchen teams to four- day weeks – without a reduction in their salary – was vital for retaining and attracting staff. “Hospo has been known for gruelling hours so we’re trying to make it more attractive for our staff and to attract more staff,” she said.
Food courts have a special place in the hearts, minds, and dining rituals of Aucklanders. So when two of the city’s most beloved food courts, Mercury Plaza and Food Alley, closed in 2019 and 2020, we lamented their loss collectively in Tāmaki Makaurau. The good news is that since those dark days, a heap of stalls have reopened with their own standalone premises dotted around the city. We compiled a list of these – including detailed maps of where they were located in each food court before they closed, drawn by Toby Morris. Since publishing, I’ve received a tip this week that Mercury Plaza hairdresser Happy face Hair Design has reappeared in Mt Eden. I’m hoping there are more to come.
I’ve been following the ongoing unionising efforts of Starbucks workers globally, which includes workers of the coffee chain in Aotearoa (hospitality union Unite Union is currently negotiating its first collective agreement with the brand). Last week in the US, Starbucks, who have fought unionizing efforts strongly for decades announced plans to close six stores throughout Southern California by the end of the month. The coffee chain, in a statement to the Los Angeles Times, blamed the closure of the locations on “a high volume of challenging incidents that make it unsafe to continue to operate”. Some Starbucks employees and union leaders allege that the closures are not about safety, but more about breaking up unionisation efforts. This Eater article takes a look at how the new developments are playing out.
Interview with chef Morgan McGlone
Morgan McGlone is probably known for his fried chicken. The Tokoroa-born and raised chef, who now lives in Sydney, is the owner and chef of restaurant chain Belles Hot Chicken. But between July 29-31, he’s teaming up with the Wellington on a Plate Festival for a pop-up celebrating all things kaimoana, from a relaxed space in an old car mechanics workshop.
So what can people expect from the Seabreeze Inn?
It's a quintessential fish and chip, but a refined version. When we say refined we're not trying to make it super flash or anything like that. We're trying to keep the prices super reasonable (around $10 to $12), simply because we want people to have that sort of experience where they can come in with their family. Whether it's a group of friends or family coming in, we kind of want them to come in and just have a great time.
What will be on the menu?
Kasey and Karena Bird are doing pāua on toast, and grilled mussels with bacon and watercress butter. Otis Schapiro is going to be doing pickled clams and also crayfish and corn cakes. I'm going to be doing cloudy bay clam chowder and a vol au vent royale, which is sort of an homage to my parents' dinner parties they used to have in the 80s and early 90s. It's kind of opulent but at the same time, we want to make it like $10. Martin Bosley will be doing a raw bar. And then we're going to also have a station that does fish and chips. There's also going to be an ice cream vendor.
You live in Australia now, but do you have memories of seafood in New Zealand growing up?
Funnily enough, before we moved to Australia my parents owned a fish and chip shop in Tokoroa called Tiki Takeaways. I still remember being five years old and finishing school and going to my parents' fish and chip shop and sitting on the chip freezer, drinking a milkshake and eating fish and chips all the time. My dad's fish burger saved a lot of lives because it was right near the Tokoroa pub. It's a piece of fish and some coleslaw and a beautiful mustard taratare sauce.That was my dad's secret burger, he claims it saved a lot of hangovers and fights. It was those humble beginnings for me that sort of mapped out a really cool entry into cooking. You go full circle, 40 years later doing your quintessential fish and chips shop in Wellington is a pretty pretty cool thing. It's quite surreal.
How do you balance celebrating seafood with sustainability?
I think the whole aim for us is affordability, accessibility and also sustainability by showcase the beautiful kaimoana that we have in New Zealand. Some of the species of fish that I'm using are fish and seafood that aren't very common. We want to help educate that there are these other fish available, we don't have to always get kahawai or snapper, there are other fish that are indigenous to the area of Wellington, and more often they’re cheaper. We're also using predominantly wild and line caught, and so that people know exactly where the fish was caught, who caught it, and how it was caught.
What role do you think chefs have in fostering that kind of attitude towards seafood?
It does come down to a misconception around the price point. Even if you have a big appetite, the value you can get out of one fish is so huge. There's miseducation on how to prepare fish and how to treat it and we're kind of scared of the whole fish – we only know fish bites or fillets. But I often feel that as chefs we have more of a duty not to just utilise the seafood, but also to teach people how we can all use these lesser-known species of fish and whole fish fishing.
All week on The Spinoff, we're examining our relationship with menstruation in Aotearoa. And, just like real periods, the content is both heavy and light and will probably make you laugh and cry all at once. Read more Bleed Week content here.
A meal a week
As mentioned at the top of this newsletter, I spent last weekend in Whāingaroa. Although my visits have been few and far between in the last few years, I’ve been going there my whole life and it’s both incredible and terrifying observing the constant evolution of the town. It’s gone from a place which my great-grandfather in the 1980s described as being filled with “working, farming people” rather than “hoighty-toighty types”, to a place that is frequented by more and more of those “hoighty-toighty types” (myself definitely included).. Over the weekend I rediscovered Jo’s Takeaways, a campground shop and takeaway outlet looking out onto the estuary. It’s been run by Jo herself for 16 years and they sell 10 cent lollies, 50 cent mixed bags, jandal repair kits and a bewildering array of hot takeaway food options. I opted for the kai moana burger for breakfast which was crammed with battered mussels, scallops, oysters and fish. A challenge to eat, but worth it for the taste of nostalgia.
Talk next week!
Hei kōnā mai, Charlotte
