Reviews / Food
recent Reviews/Food
by Niki Lomax | 5:01 am, 10/10/2011
by | 3:47 am, 03/10/2011
With uni getting more stressful by the day (seriously - nervous breakdown imminent), a meal that takes 20 mins to throw together and another 30 mins or so to cook sounds ideal. Making a quiche is really easy. It requires minimal preparation and then you pretty much just throw it in the oven and walk away. An episode of QI later, it will be all ready to go! Excellent.
by | 6:20 am, 19/09/2011
I think it’s time for a collective sigh of relief. Winter is pretty much over and a head of broccoli is less than $2 again. Let the joyous prancing ensue! Before you know it we will all be feasting on tomato and capsicum like it’s going out of fashion.
by Ruby the Nutritionist | 2:50 am, 12/09/2011
Chickpeas are just the best. Every time I go home for a holiday I fill a gym bag with delicious things from my mum’s pantry (Air NZ “sports allowance”, thank you!), including various nuts and seeds and dried fruit and, of course, cans of delicious legumey goodness. Mum just sighs wearily and reminds me to remember this time in my life when I consider farming her off to an old folk’s home. Dreaming mate.
by Susie Krieble | 11:30 pm, 22/08/2011
You may have noticed that the vast majority of recipes this year in Critic have been vegetarian. This is for two reasons: 1) meat is expensive and we are povo and 2) the food editor and 90% of the contributors live meat-free and vege-plenty. However, we understand that not everyone is this way inclined, so this week we have killed some animals for y’all. Aren’t we nice? Specifically, this week we are workin’ with chicken.
A tribute to the in-between
by Tien-Yi Toh | 4:37 am 23/08/2010
The reality is that fantastic food places are rare and far in between, particularly in a small(ish) city like Dunedin. We are lucky enough to have a few restaurants that serve exceptionally good – sometimes even outstanding – food, but the rest mostly just fall in the ‘not bad’, ‘okay’, or ‘sometimes some things are good’ categories.
These in-betweens are essential to our gastronomic happiness. We need to be familiar with the ‘not bads’ and ‘okays’ of the world to preserve an un-jaded palate and to be able to identify the ‘fantastics’ when we encounter them.
This week’s column is a tribute to the in-between. These are the dishes that I order most frequently when I dine at various establishments, and I think they’re pretty good. At Thai Over (388 George St), I always order the Vietnamese fried fish steak, which is battered fish fillets with stir-fried tomatoes, red onion, and mushrooms in a mild garlic, chilli, and black pepper sauce, served on a hot plate. It is the tasty, mildly peppery sauce that coats the fish and mushrooms that does it for me, and I wish there was more of it so I wouldn’t have to rub my fish pieces on the bottom of the plate to soak up more sauce, but it’s still good. I also like the tom yum and green curry at Thai Over and the excellent, efficient service provided by a petite staff member who has now memorised my approximately fortnightly Vietnamese fried fish steak order.
At Korea House (450 George St), my favourites are the bibimbap or kimchi pork. I really enjoy the spiciness and the variety of textures and flavours that you get from the nine or ten different toppings that go on the bibimbap. The kimchi pork is just stir-fried pork and kimchi, which doesn’t sound very fancy but is nice and tasty (and slightly spicy), if you like kimchi. As a general rule, the barbecue meat dishes are also good choices. Most of their mains come with nice little side dishes of kimchi, mung beans, and cubed potatoes (I think). Instead of the cubed potatoes, they used to include a type of seaweed, which I quite liked, but not anymore.
And finally, whenever I have a hankering for kimchi fried rice, I go to Tokyo House (367 George St), where the dish is not overly dry and the kimchi and beef pieces are juicy and succulent. Tokyo House also serves relatively cheap, fresh sushi and decent teriyaki and curry dishes. The biggest (no pun intended) plus point for Tokyo House is that the meal portions are quite large and the prices are reasonable, which enhances its appeal for those of us with healthy appetites and limited budgets.
