Wishful Wednesday- feed me/read me

This week I thought I would talk about a couple of books & a website I am enjoying right now (or soon will be!), and a fantastic meal I had this week…

First up, I am very excited as one of my fav authors has a new book out next month. I am already on the waiting list at the Library (38 of 38 so far, I was a bit slow off the mark) for The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny. This is number eight in the Armand Gamache series, and they just get better & better.

Set in Montreal and the small village of Three Pines, each book is an ingenious murder mystery, as well as following the relationships with Chief of Police Armand, his deputy Jean-Guy and the various members of the village. I found Montreal beautiful and fascinating (and cold, actually it was the first place I touched snow) the history & relationships between the French & English speaking communities is an interesting theme in the books, and Penny describes the various scenes & characters so well you fell like they are old friends. I have missed them! Roll on August……..

If you want to start at the beginning, Still Life is number one in the series

Speaking of murder mysteries, if you are like me and enjoy a good crime novel, check out Crime Watch, a kiwi blog about all things happening in  crime and thriller fiction. Craig Sisterson chaired an excellent session at the recent Readers & Writers Fest. called A Mind for Murder which I really enjoyed, his blog is updated constantly & is great for finding out about new crime authors, especially those from New Zealand

Next up a few pics from my dinner at Depot last Friday. I met Mairi from over at Toast, and we enjoyed a fabulous meal, I highly recommend dining here if you are in Auckland.
Get there early (we were seated by 5.30pm) as the place gets packed & there is no booking. We scored a fantastic perch right in front of the Kitchen, so enjoyed watching the meals being prepped by the super efficient chefs. Actually the head chef bears more than a passing resemblance to Russell Crowe (ok, if Russ had a north of England accent) and I don’t think that was the (delicious) Chardonnay talking….

So, what did we have?

A meat platter, perfect size for two, with various delicious cold meats, rabbit rillettes, crostini and cherry relish, superb...

Pork Carnitas, tender slow cooked pork with a tangy tomatillo salsa in soft tortillas.....

Potato skins, topped with porcini powder, truffle oil and Gouda.....I went out the next day & brought porcini powder here so I could recreate these at home, completely morish.....

Turbot sliders, with pickled lime mayo......................WOW!

To finish, a gift from the kitchen, a tamarillo compote with the most amazing foam on top, complete with crunch & coffee............
I rolled out out the door completly satisfied, and cant wait to go back..........

On a food theme, here is another book I have really enjoyed, Monsoon Diary, Shoba Narayan's evocative memoir of her time growing up in Madras before moving to the US for college, the food descriptions made my mouth water. My sister found it in a second hand shop, but it is still available new.

And finally, on the subject of books, I have to mention Fifty Shades of Gray. Actually I don’t have to, but I’m going to. Everyone else seems to be talking about it…….


Good on E L James, it is really hard to write (& finish) any novel (I know, I’m trying…….), let alone actually get it published. To do so and have it become such a mega hit is just amazing, who would not want that?
It’s just a shame, in my opinion, it isn’t a better book. I found it far too long (and to be honest I only made it halfway through…..), in desperate need on an edit, and quite frankly, thin and boring. Never mind auto-erotic bedroom gymnastics, I just wanted to give Ana a slap, she is so wet! How Ms James managed to spread the story out over three books I can’t even imagine (actually maybe therein lies the problem, her imagination is clearly more active than mine!) but I wont be purchasing any more. The annoying thing is I brought the book on my Kindle, I can’t even give it away………

Have a great week!