The culinary roulette of shishito peppers, from the menu at Orphan's Kitchen on Ponsonby Rd, Auckland. Photo / Alex Burton
The culinary roulette of shishito peppers, from the menu at Orphan's Kitchen on Ponsonby Rd, Auckland. Photo / Alex Burton
You go your whole life without meeting a shishito - and then bump into hundreds of them in the same week.
I can’t vouch for the offerings at Omni, Candela or Onslow (just some of the Auckland restaurants whose social media feeds recently featured this bright green capsicum-adjacent gem) butat Orphan’s Kitchen they were glorious.
“One in 20 is very hot,” warned the waitperson. “Like a padron?” I asked, as per someone who has been to Spain exactly once.
This pair of peppers is, it transpires, closely related. They are both innocuous - until they are not. Exact counts vary, but everyone agrees on the principle: The risk of a jalapeno-level burn from a Spanish padron is around double that from a Japanese shishito.
I was three of these little peppers deep when the Scoville rating leapt up and punched me in the throat. I’d have been disappointed if it hadn’t. (Imagine going to Parliament and not meeting Winston Peters?).
Take away the burn with a slick of goat’s milk. It’s not as odd as it sounds. Mostly you will be nibbling on pleasantly charred and vaguely grassy peppers; the little pool of milk they sit in simply adds salt, fat and a pleasant respite should you lose this round of culinary roulette.
Orphan’s Kitchen was the restaurant that brought chef Tom Hishon (Kingi, Daily Bread) to Auckland’s attention. It opened with a roar and then reverted to a daytime only operation. Evening service recently resumed in partnership with Dan Gillet (Wine Diamonds, Everyday Wine) and the stated aim is “delicious wine and snacks”.
The $90 tin of caviar on ice is an outlier (the next dearest dish is a $35 shareable steak). On the day of our visit, the kitchen was doing interesting things with parsnips and mole, and there was organic chicken with a koji mayo and black lime that surely defies any of the usual cliches about chicken being a safe option.
Inside Orphan's Kitchen, reopened for evening service on Ponsonby Rd, Auckland. Photo / Alex Burton
In short, the wine bar vibe easily accommodates a dinner-sized appetite (though the seating - tiny, almost backless stools - will require long stayers to have good core strength). Food and drinks arrive with friendly efficiency and, following the complimentary nuts (thank you!), you must start with a “gilda”. The $5 single bite skewer of pickled chilli, salty anchovy and green olive is the aperitif you can chew - a negroni without the headache.
Should we be paying $3.50 per spear of asparagus? Nope, but that’s what it will cost if you want six perfectly cooked specimens atop a slurry of minty herbs and under a heap of toasted macadamia. The season is short, and restaurants have to make moolah while the sun finally shines.
I didn’t enjoy the smoked kahawai and ‘nduja croquettes. A very crisp exterior and an even-textured smoke-on-smoke interior left my taste buds swimming against the tide for something that was obviously “fish” (the discovery of a bone was a less than ideal confirmation of origin).
Growing up I recall four types of steak. Rump and porterhouse were fried, blade and flank were casseroled. More recently, I’ve come to appreciate the latter as “bavette”. Just seared and thinly sliced, it’s chewy and flavoursome and a little goes a long way.
Orphan’s adds a classic garlicky-herby-mustardy butter and an unexpectedly kale-centric salsa verde. Pair it with truffle and parmesan fries, a salad built from Kelmarna Community Farm greenery and mark it in your calendar as a recurring event - this has to be the easiest midweek wagyu in town.
The dessert list sounds simple. Cheese, tiramisu or black cardamom truffles. The latter were rolled in an intensely dark cacao nib and a chewy toffee centre had been taken to the very edge of its endurance. Truffles not to be trifled with and, I think, the essence of Orphan’s by night.
You read the menu and think you understand what’s coming - and then it sneaks up and surprises you anyway.
Orphan’s Kitchen, 118 Ponsonby Road, Auckland. We spent: $166 for two.
Orphans Kitchen was always a joy to lurk in at lunchtime, but I’d always thought how groovily it would lend itself to being a night-time wine bar of sorts. And lo! It doth happen, thanks to being able to source from a smorgasbord of excellently eclectic wines hunted down by Dan Gillet, co-owner and founder of Wine Diamonds and Everyday Wines. Gillet has created two wine lists for Orphans. The “weekly selection” features a small clutch of highlight wines (the 2022 Native & Ancient Pet Nat Sauvignon Blanc and the 2023 Atipico “Under The Plum Tree” blend of pinots noir, blanc and gris are definitely worth diving into), a very compact list of just two cocktails (Lillet and Thyme spritz and a curiously beautiful Beetroot and Chili Negroni) four beers dominated by Garage Project (Fugazi, Bliss and Tiny) and Parrotdog (Birdseye) and a list of a dozen or so by-the-glass wines. Here’s where things get adventurous. Ever thought, “One day I’d really like to try a 14-year-old blend of five white varietals”? Well for $14 a glass, the 2009 Entente Marlborough viognier-pinot gris-riesling-chardonnay-gewurztraminer is here to help. A “chilled red” called Halfway to Heaven by Xavier wines hails from Gippsland, a place where, if anywhere was going to perfect a chillable red it’d be there and, if skin contact riesling is your jam, then let the 2022 Vita “Zoe” riesling from Central Otago pop your toast. The other wine list is viewable online (but dated September 13, so some listings may’ve changed) and it details an encyclopaedic collection featuring unpackaged wines on tap that you can buy by the 750ml carafe (5th glass is free), sparkling wines from Champagne, Jura, Sussex, Adelaide Hills, Marlborough and Veneto and a smorgasbord of off-the-track tasties from across the motu, Australia, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Portugal, America and Georgia. Far too many to mention, but it’s a vinous feast.
