A few of our favourite things...

Becs: Winter salad inspiration - no, not made by me, but enjoyed for lunch at Med Foods recently.  A simple salad of honey roasted yams, crispy bacon, baked ricotta, toasted pinenuts and dressed salad greens.  Sweet, salty and delicious, and one I will be recreating at home.

a few of our favourite things

Miriam: Mike and I have just come back from a lovely weekend in Wellington, being very well looked after at Libby & Jabez' place. As well as the many culinary delights (special highlight was being treated to these hot cross buns for breakfast), I also enjoyed a green tea on our flight back to Auckland. Although not quite as good as a happy hour wine, it felt quite nice and cleansing after a great weekend of overindulgence.

Libby: Yes, it was a weekend of overindulgence with lots of Wellington food highlights... little garlicky rolls at Vivo and dosai at Roti Chenai on Friday night... bomboloni at Floriditas and haloumi at Nikau on Saturday... and a Sunday morning spend-up at Moore Wilson followed by Caffe L'affare mocha.

Becs: Coincidentally my favourite thing this week is beverage related too. These dutch stroopwafels are made in Waihi, and were recently recognised in the Cuisine Artisan Awards - according to their website "they're typically enjoyed as 'lids' for hot beverages - you place the biscuit atop a cup of hot tea or coffee, leave it for a few minutes to allow it warm through, then enjoy it in all its sweet and gooey deliciousness." They are lovely and not too sweet like the imported ones I've tried.

A few of our favourite things...

Libby: I'd almost stopped buying garlic as it was all so old and shrivelled, full of bitter, sprouting green cores. But the new seasons garlic that started showing up in the last few weeks is all lovely and purply-skinned and sweet. I've been adding generous amounts of finely-chopped garlic to almost everything I've made for dinner in the last week!

Becs: Good St Deli in Rangiora is a great little cafe that puts many in town to shame. My bagel with salmon, cream cheese and capers was homemade down to the bagel and the house-smoked salmon, which is pretty special for a cafe-priced lunch. They bake a delicious section of little single serve cakes - the flourless chocolate and almond topped with a dollop of ganache is lovely, as is the lemon baked cheesecake topped with thick cream and blueberry compote. Service is swift and the coffee is well made. While I think Good St alone is well worth the drive out from Christchurch for lunch, we combined it with a stop at Femme de brocante, another Rangiora gem - who sell a gorgeous array of soft furnishing fabrics and upcycled furniture - where Daisy scored a sweet string of bunting.

Miriam: Whoops, I'm in Auckland Anniversary long weekend mode and forgot about favourite things this week! However, I have a few random favourite things; one is my resumed relationship with Les Mills. I do love a good run around at body attack or combat.

Another is Takapuna beach - it's the perfect length for a casual stroll & good people watching.

And lastly my other favourite thing of late is Sakata wholegrain rice crackers, they taste great and surely they must be healthier than standard rice crackers?!

a few of our favourite things

Becs: I thought I was over cupcakes, they so often seem to be (over the top) style over substance that overpromise and then fail to deliver on taste. Then I tried one last week from Petal in Newmarket. A simple piped rosette of intensely flavoured icing - we tried the 'ripe strawberry' - tops a deliciously moist vanilla cake. The 'snifter' and 'black doris plum' sounded divine too, but shall have to wait for another visit. I also love the photo above from their facebook page, beautiful.

Miriam: There's a new cafe in town - The Rabbithole opened a few weeks ago on Jervois Road in Herne Bay. It's in a great wee spot, with a lovely outdoor area. We had lunch there last week, with good coffee and great food. Three of us shared cottage griddle hotcakes with apple and blackberry compote, mushrooms with garlic crumbs and a breakfast salad with chorizo. Delicious.