Viva eating out editor Nici Wickes celebrates the diversity of flavours in the central city.
I love travelling and for me it's always about the food experiences I have. The past four years of making TV food-travel show World Kitchen have afforded me loads of amazing opportunities to immerse myself in a country's cuisine and the culture that surrounds it. I've enjoyed delicious street snacks galore, grabbed on the run between filming, as well as lengthy, fine dining experiences in Michelin-starred restaurants - albeit with a camera in my face - and everything in between. Has it spoilt me? Is it hard coming back to little old NZ? Do I miss being so far from the cuisines of the world when I'm not travelling? Not on your life.
Because being a citizen of Auckland means you can begin your day with a petit dejeuner at a French-style cafe or creperie, then meet up with friends for authentic Chinese yum cha, moving on to a late and long Italian lunch if you wish, before a session where you graze on a selection of traditional, or modern, Spanish tapas, then head off to slurp on some ramen from a local inner-city noodle bar - and that's to name just a few of the choices we can access within the heart of this city of ours. The conglomeration of its restaurants is like a happy collision of cultural diversity. There's no denying that many locales around the world have mind-blowingly great food but sometimes, when I'm overseas and ready for a change of cuisine after say, day seven or eight, I'm out of luck. Three days into a two-week shoot in Mexico, I thought I'd found the best food in the world, but by day nine I was craving something, anything, other than Mexican flavours.
Similarly, on a trip to France, that hallowed ground of cuisine, I gorged myself on flaky croissants, crusty baguettes smeared with soft pungent cheese and rich Lyonnaise dishes until I found myself desperate for something lighter, fresher, spicier - and somewhat guiltily I insisted we all dine at a Lebanese restaurant where we revelled in plates of tabouleh crammed with parsley, grilled meats and sauces spiked with yoghurt, mint and chilli. Aah, the relief of it. In Kerala in the south of India, the film crew and I prided ourselves on ordering the traditional breakfast of masala dosa every morning. And we won the respect of the waiter who often commended us for "eating like the locals". Alas, we eventually disappointed him by breaking our routine, requesting yoghurt, cereals and fruit because we'd had enough, we needed a break, even if just for one day. You see, we New Zealanders are accustomed to eating from a wide spectrum of cuisines and flavours here on our own turf and because of that, my palate unconsciously seeks variety wherever I go. Unhappy to come back to Auckland? Never.
Auckland city is jam-packed with eateries and wandering around of an evening, breathing in the tantalising aromas wafting from the kitchens, can take your tastebuds miles away. Take the area around the Lorne and Kitchener Streets/Auckland City Library/upper Queen St neighbourhood - it's heaving with Korean barbecue and pancake houses, outlets hawking great Chinese, Thai and Malaysian food and Vietnamese joints where the steaming bowls of pho and baguette sandwiches on offer are as authentic as you'll find in the streets of Hanoi. For a modern take on Vietnamese though you'll always find me at Cafe Hanoi in Britomart - they keep one eye on authenticity and the other on making sure the menu sizzles with impressive interpretations of traditional Vietnamese dishes.
