Xmas + Hell Pizza!

For Xmas this year I made corn pudding which is something my grandmother made and then my mother for many years. 

NOW ME :D

You may ask... Where is the meat?

Well this is all we had for Xmas dinner we had steak last night but wanted to have something a bit festive for tonight. And as I always do I have eaten 3 bowls of it and my tummy is like what are you doing?!

We had a festive meat dinner when we went out to Smith & McKenzie a few days ago.

Hell Pizza Review!

I have made no secret of the fact that I LOVE hell pizza here in New Zealand. 

They deliver gourmet pizza, pasta, sides and desserts.

I love everything I have gotten other then the butter chicken pasta.

The spirit pasta is nail on the head perfect. It's Bacon garlic cream sauce pasta and chicken...

I tend to make my own pizza with the creator mode rather then pick a pre-made one. On my pizza I get pepperoni, mushrooms, garlic, and Cajun seasoning. (Yes you can even pick herbs and spices for your pizza!)

I love the BBQ spare ribs. I will note it says spicy ribs. If you are from the USA and you are thinking Texas style hot you're dead wrong. It's more like old folks home spicy. It's there but nothing really to write home about. Really really good even if it's not mouth on fire hot.

They have prawn horns that are just shrimp wrapped in a spiced wanton wrapper and fried up nice and crisp. You have a choice of dip with these. I always get the garlic mayo cause it's so damn good. Another item on the sides menu is their Cajun wedges, also YUMMY with the garlic mayo or without.

They have something I have not seen anywhere else. Crumbled Camembert cheese. You all know the Mozzarella sticks they have at every Italian restruant in the US? Well it's like that but with Camembert cheese, I tend to get it with the cranberry sauce.

DESSERT!

Hell has some amazing dessert pizzas.

Temptation Dessert Pizza

Apple, Cinnamon, Apricot, Berries, Crumble topping and Custard

Unearthly Dessert Pizza

Banana, Berries, Chocolate, White Chocolate and Custard

White chocolate Cheesecake (My boyfriend's favourite)

White chocolate and Kahlua Cheesecake with a Gingerbread crust.

Blood Cherry Chocolate mousse (My favourite)

This is a fantastic Dessert! dark rich chocolate cake in the middle of a layer of a tart cherry jelly and fluffy creamy chocolate mousse. 

YUMMY... have a picture.

When it rains...

It's been raining here a lot this week and its been humid as heck. It kind of reminds me of summer in FL. 90 degrees one moment thunder and lightning the next. Well anyway it means we haven't been doing much other then playing with the babies and staying inside. We did go to Smith & Mckenzie again and some really drunk jolly guy ran off with my prime rib as a joke then brought it back. It did worry me I was not let in on the fact that it was a joke. We also saw Tron which was okay for me it has no childhood meanings or nostalgia. Malcolm loved the movie as it has many memories and nostalgia attached.
I feel time going by me and it is unsettling. We want to go to the beach again but with my foot the way it is I still can't do that. We were talking about going to a place that has a prawn farm.... Mmmm yum.
Really thinking about seeing if I can get a work visa and stay here for awhile. I don't want to leave. Even with the crazy drunk people next door this place still feels like home to me. Even if it is hot and sticky >_>.


Finally I have a review of Dominos pizza NZ.   -_-'
The website is pushy as heck every time you refresh or go to another page it puts a popup asking you to buy something else. (like they normally do for ONE thing right before you checkout)  They brought me the TOTALLY wrong order. I called them and they said that I got what I Ordered and to shove it. Fancy that they didn't give me a recipt but offered to print me up one and send me a whole new order if I paid for it... Oh you mean if I place another order you will bring it to me?! Fantastic I had no idea! (the sarcasm oozing out my eyeballs) The delivery boy was a grumpy thing and yelled about how busy he was and how much he hated his job while giving us the pizza. All around I say stay clear of Dominos Pizza in NZ and go with Hell pizza cause they are amazing. Review for that soon.

Things to Come + Mini Rant

So I plan on doing full reviews on "The strata cafe"  "Good World Takeaway" and a few other things but today is not the day.
Today I have a bit of a mini rant.
I have an issue with the medical industry. The issue I have is they liberally use the term "tasteless" to describe something that is "no flavour added" these are two very different things. If something is naturally flavoured like crap they tend to say that it is "tasteless".
It's a lot like how they say "just a little pinch" before injecting what amounts to liquid fire in your veins...
I just wish they would be honest. If it is going to hurt tell me so I can prepare myself. If it tastes like roasted poop tell me and I will prepare myself for it. 
After the surgery on my foot the other day they have me on antibiotics that are "tasteless". Since you want to gag every time you open the bottle and the taste is about 10 times worse I think of that as a bit of false advertising. The fact that I can't eat with it is a problem because it tastes so foul alone about the only way to choke it down is to have a bite of something after. -_-' At any rate I have managed to take this poo-tasteing pill for several days now and I have some yet to go. I just decided that I HAD to share my thought here.


I was going to post pictures of the cute babies but they are sleeping and I don't want to wake them.


I do have a bit of a mini review of a product I found by pure chance at the super market...

(Photo below is) Darrell Lea's Batch #37. 

It's like no other liquorice I have ever had it's super soft and smooth. It really is like fresh off the tray.  I like liquorice mind you some people hate it. If it's not your thing don't worry about it. If you love the stuff look into it! 








Sorry for the crap grammar and spelling I'm half asleep but I wanted to post something for you guys.

Fuzzy Babies! Lone+Star

Much has happened here since I last posted. I'm sorry for not posting. I will explain...

Yesterday I went in for surgery on my foot. It's all fixed now and my toe is all wrapped up like a marshmallow. I will spare you the yuck details.

Before that Malcolm and I gave in and bought some apartment friendly pets.

 ! Meet Lone and Star !

^^^^^^^^^

 The Babies.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This is Star.

 She is super sweet really loves to snuggle and is obsessed with avocado. She's almost all this grey-tan colour and her belly has a white patch. Star is the more cuddly one of the two and is really into being held and running around. She's very sharp. She learns very fast and loves to undo anything you think you have managed to do. We set up a water bowl for them to bathe in and they promptly tip it over no matter what we try to do to secure it.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This is Lone.

Lone is more shy than star. She is grey/tan on her head and has a stripe of the colour down her back. The rest of her is white. She loves puzzles and is far more into food than Star. She is the first to grab the yummy treats we put in the cage for them. When I take them out to play Lone is always busy running around and exploring. She's a jumper so you gotta watch her or you will end up spending hours playing find the baby. (Like we did this morning)

We love them so much they both fill us with joy.

Now for some cake?

Last year Malcolm bought me a cake for my birthday from a local bakery. It was the most rich and amazing chocolate cake I had ever had. (and I have had many) I'm not a chocoholic mind you but I do like my chocolate from time to time.

If the picture didn't get your attention I will add they also make a really amazing cheeseburger. It's super yummy! It's more then just ground meat. They put spices in it and cover it in caramelised onions then cheese and YUM! I will warn you to stay clear of some of the food in the display cases other then the cakes and such. They aren't yuck as such but they are not impressive. If I had not gotten the burger and the cake and I had just gotten the stuff from the case this review would be much different.

REVIEW: Burger Fuel

I said in my last post that I would review a place called Burger Fuel. Well here it is and the fact that I am eating it again while writing this should tell you a little about what I thought. Burger Fuel is a Gourmet burger place and I mean that exactly. They have avocado spread which is nothing but avocado mushed into a yummy paste and put on your already 1/3 pound burger. I special ordered mine but they do have a lovely list of special burgers on the menu. It's just a burger joint if you take it at face value, but what is inside is pure goodness. They do have a website and are apparently looking to open up shop in the USA. (PASADENA PLEASE!!!) I'm sorry I do not have photographs of this... >_> I kinda ate it before I thought about taking photos.

Hamilton Goes Wi-fi + Stuff!

Yesterday Hamilton's "Garden Place" in the centre of the city put out their free wi-fi that they say should soon extend to the rest of Hamilton. It was a really cool event with the most massive Christmas Tree  I have ever seen. I don't think there is any way for me to get a photograph of the whole thing but I will try for you guys real soon! The event had a raido station local here to Hamilton called More FM. There were also members of city council who paid for all this wi-fi goodness, several of whom I shook hands with. Oozing with charisma, they welcomed me to the city. They gave away an iPhone and despite already having one both my boyfriend and I decided to go and try our luck. The girl who won was a kick ass punk chick who didn't even have a cellphone to begin with so I'm extremely happy she won. You could just see the "OMG" look on her face as she stood there actually having WON a contest like this.
While we were sitting at the table waiting for the winner to be called someone walked over to us and said "This may be a bit stalkerish of me, but are you Malcolm (pointing at my boyfriend) and are you Ginn?"
Yes we both said slightly puzzled then it hit us he's a local dude who we randomly friended on FourSquare!
If you don't know what that is it's an iPhone app used to check into the places you go. Anyplace! Food, Doctor, Parks, pretty much anything you can check into it if you are there and if it's not listed you can add it!
He was super cool and we hung out with him for the rest of the contest.(Shoutout to Bradley)
At the end we asked him where we could eat and he said to check out Burgerfuel. I did and will review later!




The contest happened to be next to a place that does body piercing and sells pretty sweet clothes and jewellery. Before the contest started I figured I would get my upper ear pierced.  (because life decisions like that should always be made on a what the hell why not basis) O_o  
I'm notorius for doing oddball things like dyeing my hair blue when I was 11. But hey if the worst I ever did in my life was make my hair a funny colour then I did pretty good right? As you can see from my photos I still dye my hair crazy colours but less for the teenage rage and more just simply because it's who I am.


Garden place is a lovely spot to grab some food lots of little shops including Hamilton's Duty free shop. If you are from over seas you can go in and pre order things from duty free and have then just show up for you when you get on your airplane. The shop has all kinds of cool New Zealand gift ideas as well as more high end stuff including super expensive booze and cosmetics.


We came home totally exhausted and flopped down to sleep. We woke up at midnight and I went to brush my teeth. When I looked at the window sill I had to pause... There was a little bird "toy" in between a thing of hand soap and a thing of  lotion.  "WOW! This looks so real I didn't know Malcolm had any models like this."  
A moment later I decided it looked way too real and nudged it with a comb. Nothing happened so I nudged it again. This time it flapped its wings and I totally freaked. It was so cute a fledgeling blackbird had apparently come in the bathroom vent and just decided to chill. I picked it up and kissed it as I exclaimed to Malcolm "THERE IS A BIRD IN HERE" he helped me get the door open so I could let the adorable little thing go. It did. It flew straight into the tree and chirped once like it was thanking us for setting it free.
If the hint has not gotten across I love animals. At home in Cali I have 2 cats Cherry and Bubbles, a huge dog Sheba and a bunny named Toasty.  This little bird really made me happy> For a moment I forgot about all the fuzzy things I left at home.

Also it appears I lied before about the pumpkin pie. We did not make "pie" we made pumpkin pudding. And there was one serving left I did manage to photograph for you guys. Frankly I think the pudding is nicer because it seems every time I have "pie" the last bite has burnt crust and it ruins the whole thing for me.


That's everything I had to post today, thank's for reading.
-Ginn

Differences in New Zealand and American Foodstuffs.

Oh yes let us start with dairy.

DAIRY

Things that are dairy or meat product related here taste very different due to the "Free Farming" they do in New Zealand. It is much like the "free range" you hear so much about although there is no legal definition for "free range".

You can see the meaning of "free farmed" when you drive around here. The animals are free to roam nice size chunks of land and have shade trees with which to keep cool in the heat of the summer. The taste is less sweet because they are fed grass instead of a corn based food as they are fed in many places in the US. Don't get me wrong I don't dislike the taste of either it just needs to be expressed that the taste is not the same.

The photograph above shows some triple chocolate ice cream, topped with heavy cream and then chocolate sauce.

MEATS

Meat is different in much the same way. Beef has a very different flavour than it does in the steaks at home. This time I'm afraid I really am not certain how to explain the taste. The best I think I can offer as an explanation is that it's again less sweet. 

SODA And OTHER

Okay same deal back home in the USA we use corn syrup to sweeten things like soft drinks. Here plain sugar is used which makes the drinks you think you know and love very different! Personally I like both kinds for different reasons. It's important to note when reading my blog that the things posted here are based on my experiences and tastes. Not everything I say means you will feel the same way.

Update on what we have been up to!

We again went out do dinner at an old favourite from last year LONESTAR. 

I did a review on this place in my first entry. 

These are photos from last year.

We also caught a movie the other day. Anyone else see RED?

It's a fantastic movie. It's funny and the action was really good as well. 

Check it out!

Uh.. I feel like I had more to say here...

Thank you for reading as always!

-Ginn

Mini party burgers! (Recipe & How To)

Sorry I did not post yesterday I had planned to post pumpkin pie photos but it got eaten too fast... 

I hope this makes up for it.

Pretty photo>>

<< More true to colour

This is what we are going to make today.

It's my mini burgers with special onion sauce.

You can always make them big burgers if you wanted to.

If you want to make these here is what you need other then ground beef.

If you have onion powder please use that instead of onion salt. 

Also if you do not have this green onion dip I will explain how to make it at home below.

2-3 tablespoons of beef stock powder

1 teaspoon each of garlic and onion powder

1 whole container of the green onion dip

Measurements are for one pound of meat, if you want to make more you can double this.

Take your stock, garlic, and onion powders and place them in a mixing bowl with your raw meat. Knead the spices into the meat until well mixed, make into little balls then flatten to make a 2 1/2 to 3 inch patty about 1/4 of an inch thick. Set them aside.

Now make your sauce. I will explain 2 ways of doing this one with the green onion dip and one without.

1.If you do not have green onion sour cream based dip where you are please buy a thing of plain sour cream and one small onion (of any kind) dice the onion fine and place it into the dip. If you are not a fan of that much onion please feel free to only use half or none of the onion. Also add a teaspoon of onion powder to the sour cream and stir well. At this point you will need the ketchup. how much you add is up to your taste. Add about a tablespoon at a time until you feel the mix has enough. 

2. If you do have sour cream based green onion dip just add the ketchup and garlic power to that mix and you are done.

Let's cook the burgers now!

Before you start this get a large baking sheet lined with paper towels to soak the grease. Place the cooked burgers on this and let rest before serving.

Please make sure you are using a non stick pan this will make your life much easier!

Set your burner to half way and put some vegetable oil in your pan. Once that is hot start adding your burgers into the non stick pan in batches. Leave them be for a 2-3 minutes until you can see the browning coming up the sides of the meat. Once you see this flip them over and cook for about the same on the other side until they "spring" back when you poke them with your spatula. They should come out looking perfect and not burnt!

Please do not be tempted to turn the heat way up and cook them faster all that will get you is a burned outside!

Let them rest for a few minutes so the extra grease drips off onto the paper towels and you're not left with all of it on your shirt. You can at this point just pour the sauce over them and serve or pair them with some type of bread. Heck if you really want to go the distance take a bunch of these put them in your casserole dish cover them with mashed potatoes and you have a special shepherd's pie.

However you decide to enjoy them, I hope yours are perfect <3

Thank you for reading -Ginn

Drinks of New Zealand!

As you may have guessed this time it's all about just a few of the crazy awesome drinks found here in New Zealand.

This set here is a NZ energy drink called V as you can see it comes in many flavours. My personal tastes I prefer monster but I do like these!

You can take a hint from the fact that this is empty that I like it. I'm so sorry I just could not wait to drink it.

It's a powerade drink the special flavour of the NZ rugby team the "All Blacks"

This is a soda called L&P more info here.

I really can't describe how this one tastes other then yum.

 

Okay I lied its not all about the drinks.

This is Butter chicken from a place down the street called the Curry Pot.

They are very hard to order from 2 of the numbers on the home delivery menu do not work and the third reaches a man who does not speak much English but the food is AMAZING the sauce is so thick and creamy it was well worth the price paid for it and the long process to order.

First the soda it's frank's blood orange soda. Very tangy and has a heck of a bite I love this soda.

The tin foil holds some garlic naan bread.

The first box is rice. (derp you all most likely knew that) The second box is filled with creamy amazing butter chicken tika. The chicken is super moist and has no hard gristly bits it is also smothered in spices it's just amazing. 

It rained pretty good here today, so I'm happy.

That's all I have for you today. 

-Ginn

Beef Stroganoff + Home cooking photos!

Recipe time!
This one is for Beef Stroganoff. It's my uncle George's recipe something I remember having for years and years now I recently made it here in New Zealand for my boyfriend. He seems to like it fine since he had 2 bowls of it in one sitting. *giggle* I will warn you this recipe is set up in New Zealand measurements but the instructions are the same.


Ingredients:

1/2 Kilo Round Steak, thinly sliced
1/4 Kilo Button Mushrooms, sliced
Half of a medium-sized brown onion, chopped
250 ml sour cream
65 mil flour
250 ml beef broth (or red wine) (I used beef stock)

Butter for mushrooms
Vegetable oil for onion and steak
Ketchup

The trick to getting thin slices from the round steak is to partially freeze it and then cut. It's best if the slices are 2-3 mm; thinner than that is not better.  The best you can get without freezing is about 5 mm.

So, start by slicing the mushrooms, chopping the onion, and slicing the steak.

Dredge the steak in the flour so the slices are coated.

Saute the mushrooms in butter and set aside in a bowl
Saute the onion in vegetable oil and set aside in a bowl
Saute the steak until the redness is gone.  The flour, oil and steak juices make a roux
Add the liquid and mix thoroughly, scraping up and mixing in any bits that stuck to the bottom of the pan.   Add a spoonful or so of Ketchup at this point, mix again, and reduce for a minute or tow.
Now turn to low heat and add the onions, mushrooms and sour cream.  Mix and heat but do not allow it to boil.   This step takes less than a minute.
Serve immediately with rice pilaf


-- George

Good World Takeaway & More!

Good World

Fish and Chip shop.

They have a lot more the fish and chips but they have (from all the places here I have tried) the best fish and chips around Hamilton East. They also have a vast selection of Chinese style food and wok tossed noodles.

They have desserts and fried crispy shrimp wraps that are also very yummy. 

Hamilton eateries revealed!

So once again I find myself in New Zealand visiting my boyfriend.
I realise that there are still no good reliable places to get reviews and ideas on where to get anything to eat. The best and most reliable way to get information like that is always to ask the people who live here. Thankfully at least in New Zealand most everyone speaks English (Queen's English) as the main language. I have decided to post photographs and reviews on the places I/we have eaten or been to. This will include shops, places to eat, spots to catch a movie and more.


I have been here for about 5 days now so I have 2 reviews to post already.


The first of these is a bit on the expensive side but well worth the splurge for a special date.
Smith and Mckenzie [chophouse]
Is a fantastic steakhouse here in hamilton. Also the only place I have found in the city that serves prime rib, the dish I ordered. It's a 500g huge prime rib of beef. 
They do have a website http://www.smithandmckenzie.co.nz/ and they recommend calling ahead to reserve a cut of the prime rib if you plan to have that meal 24 hours in advance. I did not do this and got the very last one. I chose the garlic jus sauce which has a bit of red wine in it, just enough to add depth but not to make it taste like wine with a side of meat. It came with lovely herb roasted potatoes which I thought needed salt but hey I personally always want more salt so decide that for yourself. We got a side of mushrooms and split the whole meal. At the end we ordered the special dessert which was a trio of Icecream flavours. After dinner mint, Dark chocolate, Strawberry. I know the flavours sound kinda plain but they were really amazing deep rich flavour. (I do not have photos of the dessert I'm sorry for that.)

The second place I have to review is a "Tex Mex" place that I went to many times my last trip LONESTAR. Website:http://lonestar.co.nz/
Let's set the record here people. Many of the so called "Tex Mex" dishes they server are NOT authentic. They are asian style made with hoisin sauce. 
However that does not mean the food here is bad! I have liked everything I have gotten there the "Redneck ribs" are a pork rib slab with a hoisin glaze. They have something called a LoneStar Loaf which is a home baked white bread loaf served with garlic butter. (To be honest this bread is some of the best I have ever had)  There are some gems here that are pretty authentic and are 100% yummy! The "Prawn Star" is a huge shrimp dish that is covered in a spicy chunky sauce that reminds me of home back in the states. It's served with basmati rice instead of Mexican fried rice but I like rice of any colour. 
Now let's get to the bit you read all this for shall we?
DESSERT here they have a lovely selection of  "Pudding" (They use the word pudding instead of dessert here.)
Banoffe pie which is an english pie. The pie here is a rich caramel with some bananas and whip cream sliding down on each side of the slice. 
The other dessert I have ordered there many times it's the signature New Zealand dessert Pavlova. At LoneStar "Kiwi Pavlova" It's a meringue-based dessert with whip cream and a dip of ice cream. To cut all the loads upon loads of sweet they have tart sauces made from fresh fruit. In this photo passion fruit and raspberry.