Restaurant Month: Vikki Lane

Vikki Lane is tucked down an alleyway on Victoria Street West, towards the Vic Park end. It goes by the name 'Vikki Lane Bar and Kitchen'. Upon entering the bright little alleyway, one would think it was the 'bar' alter-ego tonight, with the upbeat mood and the smoke smell dominating the covered space. Turns out the crowd this Thursday evening came for the free wine tasting event. For a girl who describes wine as either "too bitter" or "that's nice", I did not help myself to a glass by the door, instead we were seated in a cosy corner for Restaurant Month.

The covered alleyway in Vikki Lane

The menu was easy enough to choose from. Eliminate the seafood from the options (dining with a fussy eater) and we were left with deep fried camembert and garlic bread for our entrees, and ham steak and chicken kiev for our mains.

St Clair Vicar's Choice, Malborough

A glass of bubbles arrived! This was exciting since this was included in the $25 set menu. I'm not sure if many other Restaurant Month menus include a drink in their price. About 45 minutes into our dinner I remembered the other reason why I do not enjoy alcoholic drinks; it makes me sleepy. Regardless, this makes the dinner very much worthy of $25. 

Deep fried camembert with plum chutney

Deep fried cheese is great. The camembert came with plum chutney; tart and sweet enough to complement the savoury cheese, and a basic salad with marmalade. The serving came with three wedges, so it left the two of us fighting for the third slice. The kind of fight where you go back and forth "you have it/ no you have it" until we ended up making the effort to cut it 50/50. With a little more crispiness of the breadcrumb coating, I wouldn't have been so polite eating more than my share.

The presentation of the meals wasn't over the top; no sauce patterns, no flower toppings, no sculptures stuck in the potatoes. This is a bar and kitchen after all, and with that comes simplicity. But well executed, may I add.

Chicken kiev with waldorf salad

I'm not sure what a 'waldorf salad' is, but this breaded chicken was on top of a green salad that contained apples. Simple and tasty enough. My dining partner's plate however...

Ham steak with pineapple ring and potato croquettes

I wasn't polite this time. I had a taste of the ham and when the last piece was still on the plate after a long minute, I stabbed my fork into it. Fantastic, delicious.

The food at Vikki Lane left a good first impression, although I do note that these dishes are not part of their daily menu, so it's only available this August! If you're after an affordable dinner with bubbles to make things a bit fancy, I recommend this place.

The portion sizes won't make you undo your button, but with a comparably fair bill for inner city European dining, you can make allowance for dessert.

Vikki Lane Bar and Kitchen

151 Victoria Street West

Mon - Fri 7am - Late

Restaurant Menu diners to be seated by 6:30pm

Where to next?

https://www.heartofthecity.co.nz/restaurant-month

Signed,

Elisa

ps. I paid with a registered American Express and I got a $10 credit for spending over $20 at Restaurant Month, so this dinner only cost me $15

A little bit about neenish tarts

Sad story:
I found a recipe to this yum as Choc chunk banana bread to make for jt (cause he loves bananas). And I set aside 3 bananas to brown up. However they took aaages to brown, I even put it in a container with an apple and hid it from sunlight etc and it took like, over a week! When they did become brown enough, I got sick and lost my sense of taste. And when you can't taste, baking and cooking feels pretty useless, you have no idea if it's good or bad, it's like blind baking.
But I'm cured now! However... the bananas turned mouldy :((((

It was so sad.
So today I decided to make neenish tarts for the man instead.

Sorry for the lack of 'making of' photos, I didn't have time to fleet back and forth between my camera and the mixing bowl...

Neenish Tarts 

PASTRY
100g butter
100g sugar
1 egg
1 ½ cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt

FILLING
4 Tbsp butter
4 Tbsp sweetened condensed milk
4 Tbsp icing sugar
2 Tbsp lemon juice

ICING
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
3 Tbsp milk
1 Tbsp butter
100g chocolate buttons (I used Cadbury dark chocolate)


PASTRY: 1. Cream butter and sugar
2. Add egg and beat well
3. Sift dry ingredients and add into creamed mixture.
4. Mix well and knead onto a floured board.
5. Using a rolling pin, flatten pastry dough into 5mm thick sheet and use a round cutter to cut out pastry according to the size of the pastry/ muffin tins.
6. Spray pastry/ muffin tins with oil and lightly set each pastry round into the bottom of the tin and prick bases with a fork.
7. Bake at 180C for 12 minutes or until slightly golden.
8. The bases will puff up slightly. When they’re out of the oven, lightly press the base flat with a teaspoon.

FILLING: 1. Combine ingredients into a bowl. Fill cooled bases with a tablespoon of filling, careful not to overfill.

ICING: 1. Sift icing sugar into a bowl.
2. Add milk and butter and stir over a bowl of hot water until well mixed.
3. Ice half the tarts with the white icing.
4. Melt chocolate buttons.
5. Pour into a piping bag and pipe over the remaining half of the tarts.
6. Leave until set.

Just because the chocolate isn't iced on smoothly doesn't mean it don't taste delicious!!

I'm actually really proud of my pastry making. It tastes good and the texture is perfect.
But it was so time and energy consuming (rolling the pastry) next time I will just buy frozen sweet shortcrust pastry from the grocery store.

I hope jt will like these :)


And to conclude,
We went to The Food Truck Garage the other week

Click here for menu

They have delicious, healthy and affordable food. I was so satisfied...

Papple Dog (pork and apple hot dog) $8

Tequila chicken tortillas.
This was aired on the Food Truck show Season 3 Episode 11. The recipe is here

TV1 8pm on Sundays! "Serving NZ's healthiest fast food"

Food truck garage
City Works Depot
90 Wellesley St West
Auckland
Fri- Sat 11am-10pm
Tues- Thurs, Sun 11am-9pm
Closed Mondays


Signed,

Elisa

A little bit about a date: Station and Chocolate Boutique

I have just finished my 5 exams and it feels so good. As good as dipping a spoon in a nutella jar... mmm...

But not so good when I think of the results :/

It's okay, I've done my best- letting God do the rest!

jt and I celebrated by having a day full of good food..

We went to Station Canteen and Espresso for lunch, famous for their $6 meals

They have a mix of cuisines; Chinese, Italian, European, Thai...

So many people have recommended it to me, and six bucks for a meal at a restaurant? Unheard of! So we went to check it out...

I was starving after my 3 hour morning exam!! I ordered spaghetti bolognese $6 pretty delicious... It hit the spot. But I was still really hungry after that. What is this?! Can anyone explain why I can eat 3 dinners during exams? Is it the stress, is it because studying requires a lot of energy and I'm not eating enough to keep it up? I'm hungry as I write this and I had two servings for dinner...

jt's chicken noodle soup. It smelled so good!!
He said it was to his expectations (and he has high expectations)

I loved the decor and ambience immediately.
The place was well decorated, sunny, airy and had a relaxed feel. I can tell they would get pretty full and busy sometimes!

this is the seating just before the main doors.



Oh and do you know what's awkward? Unisex toilets.
They basically had one bathroom with two cubicles, one for gents one for ladies.
So awkward!!




Anyway, we walked to Parnell afterwards, to the Chocolate Boutique!

My banoffee parfait! Bananas with hokey pokey ice cream, cream, toffee sauce and grated russian fudge.


The Chocolate Boutique is one of my favorite dessert places, I had been looking forward to sharing it with jt.
The selection, the price, the food... To read a previous post about it, click here: The Chocolate Boutique

Chocolate waffle!! Look at that pleased face :) He said it was delicious
You know the food's good when he makes satisfied sounds when he eats :p

yumm...

It was delicious indeed.



The rest of the day we spent walking to Newmarket, leaving him at a bookstore while I perused the make up and the dresses and stockings... Then we went home and watched Rhys Darby Live DVD and cooked spaghetti bolognese!

It was so yum, I had two big bowls, which is about quadruple the portion I normally eat...
Follow the recipe here, but instead of half a can of water we used a quarter cup of red wine.


jt was well fed today and in turn, it made me feel good about myself!
Girls, feed your men.




And to conclude,

We've been getting into Dynamo: Magician Impossible shows.
I am really into magic and tricks,
Look at his trick here, where he slams a phone into a glass bottle and the cellphone is stuck inside http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c6s-G6LGEM

I've been youtubing all his tricks, because I can't stand not knowing how the tricks work! Unfortunately, it's not as impressive when they are revealed :p Watch them on youtube! They are mind boggling.

Signed,
Elisa

Tips on eating at a buffet!! Fortuna restaurant, Skycity

To celebrate my dad's 50th birthday, my mum booked a table for us at Fortuna Buffet Restaurant in Skycity.

It was so embarassing because someone else was having their 50th birthday party there and my dad just stood next to the balloon that had 50 on it and asked us to take a picture...

A friend had given Fortuna glowing reviews, especially the tiramisu dessert served in mini cups "so you can have four!!" Unfortunately, they didn't have tiramisu that day :( 

But for $22.50  all you can eat lunch, it was well worth it.

The place was great, it was relaxed yet had an upper class feel that didn't hold you back from going all out and filling up your plate.

Glazed ham, garlic bread, pizza...

Roasted vegetables, corn on cobb...

the seafood: shrim salad, sushi rice, smoked fish, prawns...

noodle, mushroom and chicken salads...

I started off with soup, there was a choice of either pumpkin or tomato. The pumpkin soup was very nice and not too hot to eat

I then had pizza, baked pasta, glazed ham, three different kinds of salads...


There was so much more food than what you see here, I couldn't take photos of them all cause I was hungry!!
From what I recall, there was also pork, potato chips, pasta dishes...

The dessert... pavlova, cheesecake, jelly, creme caramel, pecan tart, chocolate mousse, brownies, assortment of mini cakes...

Cheese platter, with crackers and dried fruits

I chose a slice of creme caramel, sponge cake, jelly, pecan tart, chocolate mousse...

and these cute cheesecake cups

oh and they had a soft serve ice cream machine with caramel, strawberry and chocolate sauces and a LOLLY JAR

finish off with a coffee...

Tips on eating at a buffet:

- It's not nice to unbutton in the middle of a restaurant! Don't wear clothes that are tight at the waist or non-elastic, such as jeans. :p
- don't go crazy at the sight of various breadrolls and eat three for the entree... not a wise choice. The carbs filled me up too quickly. I love bread and butter too much...
- take a look at everything that's available first, cause you don't wanna be piling your plate up at one station to discover there's another section you haven't seen!
- Fortuna's lunch is 12-3pm. Book for 12 because there was a long line to get your food at 1.30pm
- must book! That place is popular!
- take about 2 tablespoon of each dish, so you can try everything
- drink water because sugar fills you up
- three cups of cheesecake, seriously? I didn't have any more room for the chocolate mousse :(
- go for it.

My brother's technique:

- skip entree, load up on pork and chips
- halfway through your main, grab as many jelly cups as you can, incase someone takes all 100 of them
- go to the toilet
- repeat steps 1-3 as necessary

You know my favorite place in Skycity is watching the casino from the balcony above.

I don't know how the games work but it's fun watching the dealers' non-expressive faces and the gamblers' concentration.

BUT DON'T GAMBLE YOUR MONEY AWAY!

And to conclude,

I've had really nice food dates with jt lately.

Crust Pizza, so delicious...

 Mediterranean lamb and bbq chicken

We actually only ate half for lunch then got full

Students who have Liked their fb page get a 25% discount! 

So one pizza was only like $8, and for us that was lunch and dinner. So much good food...

And while I'm blogging about food, jt's blogging about much more important things; theology and the church leaders' views on the Christianity. The link is here http://abclogical.blogspot.co.nz/

It is very very interesting.

Signed,

Elisa

A little bit about high tea with my mum at Stamford Plaza

Ever since Calci took me to high tea at Cornwall Park Restaurant for my 19th birthday (thank you Calci!! That was so special) I had been wanting to take my mum to experience this European culture...

Stamford Plaza (which is a reaaaal nice hotel; Dom told me this evening that LADY GAGA stayed in their top suite) serves high tea from 12pm on Sunday accompanied by a live pianist, so that was super elegant :D

Mama said: I used to wish my children would play the piano like that.

lol Grade 4. soz bout it.

I was going to order rosehip with hibiscus flowers, then the waiter said we could order coffee in the high tea package, so I got a trim latte (noticed the link to my blog address? ;) )

mummy with the tier

The white curl on the top tier is white chocolate! So cool! Reminded me of that time I dropped a chocolate curl in Josh's drink at chocolate boutique cause "Tiff told me to!"

top tier: custard fruit tart, berry sponge friand and macarons

middle tier: chocolate scones, raisin scones and curry puffs

finger sandwiches; cucumber and salmon, relish, ham and cheese

jam and cream in cute little mugs for the scones :D

me :) aw i like this photo

the finger sandwiches were good and I always appreciate interesting ways of cutting the bread haha. I especially liked the cheese in the ham and cheese filling.

curry puffs were a bit spicy for me (radiation side effect #1) but the first 3 seconds of chewing it was quite tasty :p

I usually avoid eating scones because they're really dry (radiation side effect #2) but I had these and they were yum with jam and cream.

The only good piece from the dessert tier was the fruit tart, but even then the ones we made for Calci's brother's engagement party were way better. The berry friand was average, not very gourmet tasting. The macarons were even worse. Seriously, if you're going to serve macarons, serve real ones, not ones with jam in the middle.
It's alright, mama and I are making Adriano Zumbo's on Mothers' Day.

These are the goodies my mum brought back from Sydney! She got them from Coles. The Lindt hot chocolate tastes like the gold easter bunnies... melted. Absolutely delicious.

The restaurant in Stamford Plaza is called Knights, situated in the lobby. I liked the seating plan; open and relaxed with a business feel created by the low knee-high tables and arm chairs.
I felt like Blair was going to walk in at any moment to join Serena for a martini. And Chuck behind them, trading his father's assets with Jack over a brandy.

Do you know what I always do when I go somewhere nice?

Check out the bathrooms.

Check out myself in this fantastic mirror.

You know it's good when they have hand lotion in the bathrooms!!

Bottom line: Great location, but the food didn't live up to it. Average.


Lauren and I have had this plan since last year to have high tea at the Langham... And then we found out it was $45 per person. Aiyaaaa. Maybe once, for a very very special occassion...

And to conclude,

one day...
http://stamfordresidences.co.nz/apartments-for-sale/one-bedroom.html

it would be nice.


Signed,
Elisa