“I was born. The place was Dunedin, and it’s been suggested that if all the people who were born in Dunedin were suddenly to go back there wouldn’t be standing room in Carisbrook.” Denis Glover Hot Water Sailor 1912 – 1962 , 1962. In the morning I note that a bible has jumped to it’s…
Author: southstarbrew
Travel : Came on Holiday by Mistake – There is much evil in the world and a great suffering in my head
“I drink much less than most people think, and I think much more than most people would believe.” ― Hunter S Thompson, Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967 I slowly become aware of my continuing existence on this mortal coil. Limbs seem to be unhindered , for the moment my gastric processes…
Travel : Came on Holiday by Mistake – By the sea but not of the sea
“May your wisdom grace us until the stars rain down from the heavens.” Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe C.S. Lewis 1950 We pull into Oamaru . The roads are being resealed, dust rises as utes and trucks drive over the metal road surface. A haze fills the sky . I disembark, head to the…
Travel : Came on Holiday by Mistake – Up with the ghosts
“There is no past or future. Using tenses to divide time is like making chalk marks on water. — Janet Frame, Faces in the Water 1961 I wake early. Shannon was out last night so I creep around the house, feed the dog, dress and set out with Rubes for an early morning walk. I…
Travel : Came on Holiday by Mistake – Holiday at Home
“Free to those that can afford it, very expensive to those that can’t.” Withnail and I, 1987 I found myself coming on holiday by mistake. Not because we had lifted a key from Uncle Monty[1] but because a work event moved dates when I had already booked tickets and arranged dog care. So, I found…
Food : Königsberger Klopse
An old Prussian recipe for aromatic veal, pork, anchovy meatballs simmered in a tart caper broth which is then turned into a sauce with the addition of herbs and sour cream. The meatballs buck our contemporary obsession with frying everything and are deliciously succulent as a result. The broth self-thickens from the flour the meat…
Food : Pork Pie
There is something glorious about the simplicity of traditional pork pie. In effect it has two ingredients , the produce of a pig and wheat flour. We can allow ourselves a few spices , and a torn herb leaf or two, perhaps a few stock veg for the jelly but really it is the triumph…
Food : Spiced Lettuce Soup
Lettuce soup is a surprisingly divisive dish. There is something about taking a green we eat raw and cooking it that really upsets people. The reality is that like spinach, lettuce can work in both raw and cooked applications . I have a few old NZ cookbooks that feature recipes for lettuce soup and with…
Food : Home Washed Rind Cheese
While I don’t make cheese at home anymore , or indeed monger it for a living anymore , I do subvert it every now and then for fun. I love the funky, tangy, expressively fermented world of washed rind cheese. Washed rind cheese or, smear ripened to use the technical term, is a family of…
Food : Tomato Kasundi
This year I had a decent tomato harvest allowing me to make sauces and chutneys. Tomato Kasundi combines 2 of my favourite things , preservation by pickling or fermentation and the flavours of the Indian sub-continent . Kasundi is a chutney that comes in a number of forms but outside of the Indian community is…
Raise the Dawn 