Potato and Leek Soup: Delight or Disaster?

The weather is turning colder, and this means it’s time for SOUP!  Okay, my Northern Hemisphere readers are probably sick of soup, but this Tasty Tuesday, I am making Potato and Leek Soup.

I had some leeks in the fridge that needed to be eaten very soon (or else tossed into the compost bin).  In addition, five medium-sized red potatoes that had started sprouting eyes were added to the ingrediants.  Also on hand, and also included, was a 2/3 full can of coconut cream (left over from a Thai dish late last week), an already-cooked slice of shoulder bacon, and about a cup of shredded colby (cheddar) cheese.  I also used one hot chili, a scallion, fresh ginger, and fresh garlic.

Here is how I made Potato & Leek Soup:

1.  Finely chop garlic, ginger, chili, bacon, and scallions.  Leave some of the green part of the scallion for finishing.

2. Peel and cube the potatoes; slice the leeks length-wise, wash, and finely chop.  Set aside.

3. In a frying pan with lid, saute the chopped garlic, ginger, chili, and scallion in a good amount of olive oil on medium heat.

4. Add the cubed potatoes and four cups (about 1 litre) of hot water. *Hot water will not cool the food already in the pan.

5. Add the chopped leeks and stir.

6. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are soft.

7.  Transfer the mixture from the frying pan to a mixing bowl (or blender or food processor).  Blend until smooth.

8.  Add the coconut milk (about 1/2 cup) and mix.

9.  Pour into bowls, top with shredded cheese, bacon pieces, and scallions.  Enjoy!

Serves: 8

Prep time: 30 minutes

Results:

This soup was absolutely fantastic!  From the creamy coconut flavour to the gentle kick from the chilis, this was a crowd pleaser!  All but one at 20 Derby tried it and loved it - and I had plenty for lunch the next day.  The beauty of this recipe is its versatility; I will be whipping up old vegetables and leftovers into “Potato-and-(Something) Soup” again very soon.  For those not in hot soup mood, this would be a fantastic one to try cold.

This Tasty Tuesday was a definite DELIGHT!

Did you try this receipe?  How did it turn out?  Leave your comments in the “Comments” section!

Silver beet Cannelloni: Delight or Disaster?

My neighbors (landlords) keep a garden, and they had a surplus of silver beet, or Swiss Chard, a popular garden vegetable here in New Zealand.  I cannot remember eating chard before; however, I was told that it is similar to spinach.  Rus and I recently had dinner at a fabulous Italian restaurant where I ate cannelloni (pasta sheets filled with meat or cheese), and I thought:  why not try to make silver beet cannelloni?

I had some lasagna sheets (they are wide, flat sheets of pasta without ridges on the side) and pine nuts in the pantry.  I had Parmesan, ricotta, and mozzarella cheese.  I had garlic.  And, I had the silver beet.  Time to cook!

Here is what I did:

1. Preheat the oven to 175C (about 350F).

2. Thoroughly wash each leaf of silver beet.  Cut the thick stems off and finely chop.

3. Mince several cloves of garlic (you can never have too much garlic!).

4. Crush the pine nuts with a mortar and pestle, or food processor, if you have one.

5. Set a pan of water to boil (for the pasta).  Add some olive oil to keep pasta from sticking together.

6. Saute the garlic and silver beet in a generous amount of olive oil on medium-high heat, stirring continuously, until the silver beet cooks down to about a third of its original size.  Add the crushed pine nuts, and saute for a few more minutes.

7. Remove silver beet from heat; transfer to a mixing bowl.  Add a pinch of sea salt and the ricotta cheese and mix thoroughly (if you have a food processor, this would be an excellent opportunity to use it).  Add some shredded Parmesan and mozzarella to the mixture.

8. Once cooked, drain pasta sheets and run cold water over them until they are cool enough to pick up.

9. Taking care not to tear them, lay out a sheet of pasta.  Fill with the silver beet and cheese mixture and roll up.

10.  Place assembled cannelloni in baking dish, cover with shredded mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.

11. Put into the oven and bake for 30-45 minutes, or until cheese on top bubbles and lightly browns.

12.  Cover with fresh, chopped tomatoes and serve with a pinot noir, merlot, or a chardonnay.

Prep time: 30 minutes

Serves: 4

Results:

This dish was hot, cheesy, and garlicky - yum!  Silver beet, while similar to spinach, is more bitter and slightly grainy.  A food processor, which would have pulverised the silver beet, would have been a big help with this dish in eliminating the slight graininess.  Also, the younger the silver beet is, the less bitter.  When I make it again, I will use even more garlic and a bit more salt while sauteing.

Rus loved the silver beet cannelloni, especially for lunch the next day when the flavours set in.

Overall, this Tasty Tuesday was a DELIGHT!

Did you try this recipe?  How did it turn out?  Leave a comment in the “Comments” section!

Sushi: Delight or Disaster?

I love sushi, and there is no shortage of great sushi restaurants here in Christchurch.  It’s healthy, satisfying, and fun to eat.  To clear up a common misconception, “sushi” is a specific type of rice; it does not mean “raw fish”, although many types of sushi do contain raw yellowfin or ahi tuna, salmon, eel, etc.  I would eat sushi on a more regular basis (right now, I eat it about twice per month), but it is expensive to eat often at about $10.00 per roll.  I have never made my own before, so this Tasty Tuesday, I am going to try!

For starters, I had to buy some supplies from the local Asian Food Warehouse.  There, I purchased a bamboo sushi rolling mat and rice paddle, nori (seaweed rolling sheets), wasabi, and sushi rice.  Rice vinegar and soy sauce are also necessary; I already had these at home.  In addition, I bought a fillet of smoked salmon (I do not trust the fish at the local supermarket to be “sushi grade”, or fresh enough to eat raw) and a bottle of Chardonnay to complement it.

At this point, I had all of my ingredients, including an avocado and a cucumber from the refrigerator.  I found a video on how to make great sushi rice (such an important step!) and watched.   Then, I followed the instructions by doing the following:

1. Rinse 2 cups of sushi rice in cold water.  Strain, let dry for 30 minutes (the video advises drying for an hour, but I was impatient).

2. In a saucepan, bring the rice and 2 and 1/4 cups of water to a boil; cover and simmer for 10 minutes on low heat.  Then, turn off heat and let sit for another 10 minutes.  *My rice was slightly too moist; I could have let it sit for 15 minutes.

2. While the rice is cooking, mix 1/4 cup rice vinegar with 1 and 1/2 tbsp. sugar and 1 tsp. of salt until dissolved. *My rice was a bit too sweet and too vinegary for my liking.  Next time, I will use less of both of these.

3. Transfer the rice to a glass or wooden dish or bowl (it is important to refrain from using metal because the vinegar could react with it).  Fluff the rice with a fork. Drizzle the vinegar mixture over the rice, fluffing and fanning the rice (any newspaper or magazine will do) continuously until it cools.  The rice should have a sticky texture to it.  *I did not need all of the rice vinegar mixture on my rice.

4. Unfold the bamboo rolling mat and place a sheet of nori on it, shiny side up.  Cover the sheet with a generous layer of rice about 1/2 inch thick, leaving an inch at the far end of the nori uncovered.

5. On the side of nori closest to you, place your favorite sushi toppings.  For me, this was a layer of avocado, the smoked salmon, cucumber slivers, and a few chunks of cream cheese.

6. Then, it’s time to roll!  Use the rolling mat to carefully roll the sushi.  Apply water with wet fingers to the end of the nori to keep the roll closed.

7. When cutting the sushi into pieces (typically there are 6-8 pieces in a roll), wet the knife before each cut.  This keeps the knife from sticking to the rice.

8. Grab your chop sticks, apply some wasabi, dip in soy sauce, and enjoy with a glass of Chardonnay or warm or cold sake.

Results:

My first sushi-making experience was excellent!  The sushi was delicious, and we determined that it cost about $5.00 per roll using an expensive smoked salmon.  Without the salmon, the price per roll would be less than $2.00 per roll!  The total prep time was about an hour, including the rice.  Assembly took mere minutes once the rice was cooked.  The bottom line is that my homemade sushi is as good as any that I have eaten in a restaurant - and the flatmates also loved it!  I prefer raw salmon or tuna, so my next goal is to find some sushi-grade fish; I am looking forward to experimenting with different sushi combinations.  Now that I know how to make it myself, my sushi possibilities are endless!  I will definitely be enjoying this tasty and healthy meal more often, too.

This Tasty Tuesday was definitely a DELIGHT!

Did you try this recipe?  How did it turn out?  Leave a comment in the “Comments” section!

The Winter Garden is alive and well, although we did lose two salad plants.  There were a couple of near-frost nights that were the likely culprits.  Despite this, we have been able to harvest already several hefty salads - yummy!

A few weeks ago, we had a potato that sprouted in the pantry, as well as two red onions, so we planted them for good measure.  I have not had any luck growing them to harvest in the (distant) past, but so far they look like strong plants.

In addition, the broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower are growing well and getting big.  With this success, we have also attracted bugs that love cauliflower leaves, as they have decimated several leaves on these plants.  To remedy, I will plant marigolds nearby because the scent of these flowers masks the scent of the cauliflower (which attracts the bugs), just like tomatoes. Hopefully, this will take care of the problem.

Also on the agenda this week is a dose of organic fertiliser.  members of the Brassica family (i.e. broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower) apparently need to be fertilised often, and I have not yet done this.  Unless it comes to picking and eating what’s in it, I am abnormally lazy when it comes to gardening - all the more proof that if I can do it, anyone can!

Updates will follow after these treatments have been given!

Ginger beer is hugely popular in New Zealand, and Rus and I are huge fans as well.  Ginger beer is not the same as ginger ale (though I do not even know the difference!), and it’s non-alcoholic (although local breweries often have an alcoholic version).  It is so yummy!

I gave up drinking soda in the United States because it is made with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), likely the single most unhealthy ingredient in the American diet.  In New Zealand, since there is no corn (and, subsequently, no powerful corn lobby!), sodas are made with cane sugar, even Cokes and Pepsis. Of course, this does not make them as healthy as water, it simply means they are made with ingredients from nature, which HFCS cannot claim.

Anyway, we tried several brands of ginger beer, and our favorite is one called Frank.  Frank Ginger Beer has a spicy kick to it, a lovely, spiky fizziness, and is fabulously sweet and refreshing.  And it comes in a brown recycled glass bottle with a retro-looking label.  It has become one of my favorite beverages ever!  Other brands lack the amount of spice, have too much sugar, etc. However, because Frank is so awesome, Frank is notoriously hard to find, and it is expensive (between $2-3 per 16oz. bottle!).

So, Rus and I did a little research (read: looked at the ingredients on the back of a Frank bottle), and as it turns out, ginger beer is not all that complicated to make.  Basically, it is just fresh ginger, sugar, water, and yeast.  We endeavored to make our own!  Our kitchen is consistently stocked with all of these ingredients, so one night, Rus gave it a whirl.

In his first attempt, Rus used an internet recipe that called for two tablespoons of ginger (I use more than that when I cook a meal for two!), a lot of sugar, the juice of a lemon, and a bit yeast for a two-litre batch.  Fearing a sticky explosion, Rus let the pressure out of the bottle several times as it puffed up.  When it was time to taste it the following day, we discovered we had nearly two litres of sugary, lemony, lightly-fizzy drink with a barely-discernible hint of ginger.  It did not taste good at all and needed to be discarded.

Our review of the first batch resulted in some adjustments in the second, keeping the batch size the same.  We left it overnight, and eagerly tasted our adjusted recipe the next day.  This one was less sweet, nicely fizzy, more gingery; however, it had a strong yeast flavour.  It was drinkable, but not exactly pleasant.  Third time’s a charm, right?

On Batch #3, we reduced the amount of water and kept all other inputs the same.  After fermentation, the first taste revealed a spicy, fizzy, nicely sweet ginger beer!  It passed the initial taste test (i.e. Rus and me) and was put into the refridgerator to cool for final approval by our “esteemed tasting panel” (i.e. the rest of 20 Derby) - which ultimately gave Rus raving reviews for the delicious, spicy drink.  But there was room yet for improvement…

In Rus’s latest brew (Brew #4), he tweaked the ingredient quantities to exacting deliciousness.   So far, the brew tastes amazing; the best yet!  The yeast flavour is reduced, the sweetness just right, plenty of fizz, and the ginger - wow!  We are waiting for it to chill for the final tasting, including a blind taste test of local brands and Rus’s Derby Brew by a completely unbiased group of other Derby Street residents.  If successful, we might take our ginger beer on the road to Cathedral Square for real public opinion.

May the best brew win!

*Preliminary tests show that Rus’s ginger beer can tame feral cats and eliminate cancer in laboratory mice.  There are no actual studies to substantiate these claims.*

I am starting a new weekly feature called “Tasty Tuesdays”!

Every Tuesday on “Tasty Tuesdays”, I will showcase a triumph (or miserable failure) of a culinary undertaking.

Rus and I have always been into cooking and love all types of food from Japanese to Italian.  We love shows like “No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain” (we miss it!), “Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern”, “Iron Chef” and others on the Food TV channel here.  We even took an Indian food cooking class this time last year.

Our style tends to be simple using lots of fresh ingredients - organic meats, vegetables (especially from our gardens!), olive oils, ginger, garlic, and herbs - and can be prepared in reasonable amounts of time.

Use it as a guide to plan your weekly meals, spice up (pun intended) your current menu, learn a new trick or two, or just laugh when I screw up (just wait until we get to breads!).  It’s up to you!  Please be sure to leave comments, especially of your results if you try something I post!

As I have mentioned in previous posts, part of our strategy to eat healthy and fresh food, save money, and “do our part” in treading lightly on the Earth involves growing as much of our own food as possible.

We experienced the pleasure and excellent value of having a backyard garden in our last house, and we wanted to continue that here in Christchurch.  Earlier in the Summer, Rus and Christian took a pile of old bricks and made a raised-bed herb and salad garden (which we have been enjoying ever since!).  There were, however, a couple of challenges to growing a decent-sized winter garden.

First, like many urban dwellings, land for planting is scarce.  Two, since we moved in the middle of Summer, it was too late in the planting season to start a traditional Spring garden.   Conversely, there was some good news!  One, Rus and I are always up for a challenge.  Two, the ground does not freeze in Christchurch; therefore, hearty vegetables like broccoli and cabbage could still be grown despite Winter’s arrival.  Three, 20 DAH-bee has a small patch of overgrown land between the garage and the neighbor’s fence, full of yard waste, just begging to be re-purposed.

Since about half of our rubbish output is organic, we and our flatmates decided to “compost”; this consisted of throwing all of our organic waste next to the garage until we could work up a compost bin (no one was willing to buy one as they run upwards of NZ$150).  Several smelly weeks and a few feral cats later, and Rus and I asked the neighbours (landlords) for any available wood scraps to make one. We hit the jackpot!  We were given some tongue-and-groove timber and an old Formica table.  Without nails and without spending any money, Rus built a large compost bin with a lid.  We shoveled weeks of old vegetable stems, coffee grounds, and eggshells into its new home (and prayed to the Worm Gods).

Then, borrowing the neighbors’ shovels and a rake, we cleared out the area where we would put the garden.   We purchased some organic garden soil with compost mixed in, garden accessories like a hose and reel and hand trowel.  Rus and Dylan picked up about 100 used bricks at the landlords’ other property (free!) for a walkway through the garden to the compost bin.  Finally, we bought seedlings from a local home improvement warehouse: red cabbage, green cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and lettuce.  We also bought a lemon tree and an orange tree with large fruits already on the vines.

On one of the (presumably) last warm days of Summer, we measured out the location of each plant and put the seedlings in the ground.  With a little luck, in 60-90 days, we will have more cabbage and cauliflower and broccoli - as well as plenty of fresh salad - then we know what to do with.  Hopefully, we can find some Bean-o around here somewhere too!

So we successfully planted an urban winter garden with limited space and fund - if we can do it, anyone can!

In addition, I will keep track of the return on investment (ROI).  In our summer garden in Pennsylvania, I estimate we returned 400-500% on our initial investment of about US$150 in fresh, organic vegetables.   We spent about the same equivalent in NZD on this one, so it will be interested to see how it turns out.

Stay tuned for updates!

*Reader alert: Lots of links in this one; however, if this information is new to you, I highly recommend checking them out!

I would like to offer my kudos to the President: Michelle Obama has broken ground on the much-anticipated White House Garden.

Advocates for organic farming and sustainable living have been calling for this for months, and even though I consider myself an amateur with only a few gardens under my belt, I am a huge fan of home gardens.  Name your issue:  Conventional produce not tasty?  Organics too expensive?  Concerned about salmonella and other food-bourne illnesses?  Is money tight?  Unsure about the future?  Feeling stressed out?  Start a garden!

The Obamas are setting a great example, especially since home gardens are more important than ever for the following reasons:

1. Growing food organically and close to home is healthy for you and the environment.

Obviously, replacing a lawn that needs to be watered, fertilised, and mowed into a productive food patch is better for the environment; however, many people do not fully understand the health and environmental impacts of purchasing food from a supermarket. For example, conventional produce is grown in depleted soil, requiring inputs and fertilisers to make the soil viable for planting.  Then, it is sprayed with highly toxic, cancerous pesticides (genetically-modified “RoundUp Ready” plants are actually sprayed with RoundUp!) throughout the growing process.  These chemicals eventually make their way into the water supply and contribute to harmful algal blooms (HABs), collapse of ecosystems, and ultimately ocean dead zones.  Finally, the produce is picked before ripeness to survive shipping (and is often coated in a waxy preservative!) until it arrives on your grocer’s shelf - not as tasty nor nutritious as they should be.

2. It reduces the reliance on a complex system of credit and fossil fuels to provide one of our basic human needs - food

It is estimated that it takes 10 calories of fossil fuel energy (from seed to sowing to supermarket) to produce one calorie of food for consumption! (1).  Furthermore, most farmers borrow money to plant seeds in anticipation that they will be able pay back the loans (and hopefully make a profit) when the crop is sowed.  Similarly, truckers rely on credit to fill their fuel tanks to ship food across the country, and pay off the loan (and hopefully make a profit) when they get paid for successfully delivering the shipment.  In the face of a credit crisis, Peak Oil, and climate change (droughts in food-producing areas, floods in others, etc.), this complex system is destined for disruptions that will impact Americans’ food security in the near future.

3. It relieves stress

The world news today does not exactly illicit feelings of calm and tranquility.  In fact, it can be downright scary.  Taking control of part of your food supply provides peace of mind for when disruptions occur.  Small farmers and family gardens got the United States through the last Depression.  It got the Soviets through the collapse of the U.S.S.R.  You can also avoid the risks of food-bourne illnesses associated with mass-produced food.  And what could be better than venturing out after a long day to see what vine-ripened goodies nature has provided for dinner?

4. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to do it
Remember, when you were a kid, putting a lima bean seed on a wet paper towel and watching it sprout? Plants are amazing.  A bit of water and a bit of sunlight, and plants are resilient little miracles.  Little miracles you can eat.   I do not consider myself a “green thumb” (I have killed my fair share of house plants), but gardening is easy enough for kids!

Spring is here (for my Northern Hemisphere readers), and it’s time to get planting!  No matter how big or small, I think you will be happy that you did.

1. Horrigan, Leo, Robert S. Lawrence, and Polly Walker. “How Sustainable Agriculture Can Address the Environmental and Human Health Harms of Industrial Agriculture.” Environmental Health Perspectives 110, no. 5 (May 5, 2002) (accessed March 20, 2009).

After putting in a full physical effort riverboarding in the morning, Rus and I did what any reasonable person would do on a sunny, warm afternoon: we went wine tasting.

After we found Christian and had a bit of lunch, we jumped in the car and were off.  The vineyards are located in a fertile valley (Gibbston Valley) between many mountains - about 20 minutes from Queenstown.  Central Otago, the region where Queenstown is located, is well-known for its fabulous Pinot Noirs; the grapes like the combination of the warm days and cold nights.

The first vineyard we went to was called Chard Farm.  In order to get there, we had to navigate a few kilometres down a one-lane, twisting, loose gravel road hundreds of metres above the Kawarau River (on which we riverboarded earlier in the day) - with no guard rails.  One slip or miscalculation, and we would drop straight down to meet our untimely deaths.  Combined with Christian’s aggressive driving habits, riding down this road was the most terrifying part of my day!  Not riverboarding down white-water rapids, not jumping 10m off a rock, or swinging out into a river…no, this road was by far the most extreme activity I did while in Queenstown (Rus likes me to point out that he was not at all scared.  Good on him!).

When we finally reached the winery (seemed like an eternity), we tasted some very nice wines, from sparkling all the way to a couple of lovely Pinot Noirs.  We tasted two Pinot Noirs, one meant to drink right away, and one meant to cellar for a few years.  Rus bought a bottle of each, with the condition that we put a “do not drink” label on the one meant to keep (Rus and I are new to the concept of cellaring wine; if we have it, we like to drink it!).  Anyway, I was hoping the delicious wine would help calm my nerves for the ride back up the scary road.  Since Christian was driving, he was spitting out the wines he tasted, but I was still very nervous.  As it turns out, I lived to tell.

Since the frightful experience of the “road to Chard Farm” was behind us, I could finally relax an enjoy the rest of the afternoon.  The next stop was Gibbston Vallery Winery, a commercial vineyard whose owner was one of the first to plant Pinot Noir grapes in the area.  It is also a popular tourist stop on the area’s numerous wine tours; thus, the vineyard takes full advantage and charges a fee for everything.  Instead of tasting, we each had a glass of white (a Chardonnay for Christian, a Pinot Gris for Rus, and a Sauvignon Blanc for me) on their grape vine-covered pergola patio.  Christian was determined to see their cave cellar (for which the admission was $10 per person!), so he introduced himself to the winemaker and managed to have him escort us through a back door to see it.  I saw a couple of cave cellars in Napa when I visited there, and this one was not particularly large or special; however, it was still cool to see, and even cooler that we did not have to pay the ridiculous fee to see it.  Sweet as!

Next up was the Peregrine Winery, a secluded vineyard down another loose gravel road (this one was at the bottom of the valley and very flat - no danger here).   We went in and tasted several of the nice wines at Peregrine.  One of the winemakers had been in Christian’s restaurant a few weeks prior, so Christian wanted to meet up with him.  While he was unavailable due to holiday, his partner, Jude, was happy to show us around.  We took a walk through the aesthetic barrel room and back through to the stainless steel fermenting vats.  We also peaked into the actual barrel warehouse (they had just sprayed the sulfur, which makes the wine clear, so we were unable to tour it).  Then, Jude took us to their awesome, modern, covered patio.  It is sheltered from the weather and the sun and is an area where they hold events and local concerts.  The backdrop is the untouched mountains and trees.  With the breeze blowing through and the stunning scenery, it felt like we were part of the landscape.  When we were done, we went back to the tasting room and tried a few more wines before buying a couple of bottles and continuing on our way.

Our fourth and final vineyard of the day was Arcadia, housed in a cool stone and wood chalet with an open floor plan and huge exposed beams.  We tried a couple of wines and bought a couple of bottles here too.  They charge for tasting and were quite stingy with the tastings, especially compared to the other vineyards (this irritates Christian, and I find it annoying as well).  There was a couple from Oregon tasting too; they were in New Zealand for a wedding in Auckland (way up in the North Island) but decided to check out Queenstown while they were here.  Cool!

By the time we finished up at Arcadia, the rest of the vineyards were closed for the day.  We were hungry again, so it was time to eat!  The young woman operating the tasting table at Peregrine recommended we go to a restaurant called VKnow for dinner; they have a great wine list and excellent food, she told us.  We drove back to through Queenstown into one of the residential areas down the road from the town centre.  The restaurant was plain from the outside and had just opened for dinner.  There was no one there but us, and the owner, Danny, (who pulled up right when we did), sat us and was our server.  He looked Italian and in his early 50s, with a dark tan.  Some chest hair and a gold chain could be seen where his tropical-print Bermuda shirt was unbuttoned at the top.  I might have seen him on the Jersey shore any given summer, but his Kiwi accent told me he had been here awhile.  He was pleasant and accommodating.  We ordered our meals:  Christian, seafood linguine; Rus, Mediterranean pizza; and me, venison with mushroom risotto.  All of the food was superb!

While we were finishing up, a few age 50-ish Americans came into the restaurant.  They said they were part of a group of six, and they thought the walk up the hill from their hotel to the restaurant was too long - could (Danny) please go and pick the rest of them up?  Danny actually drove to go get the rest of their group (Kiwis are so damn nice!), but they were apparently able to walk up the hill after all since they showed up just after he left to go get them.  Then, when ordering water, they had the audacity to ask the man if it was safe to drink!  The water here is actually some of the best drinking water in the world; they do not “treat” it with chlorine or fluoride, and there are no traces of pharmaceuticals.  Danny reassured them that he has the water tested monthly, and it is 99.9% pure.  Not sure if this was true or not, but I was disappointed that these people were behaving so poorly; hopefully, most Kiwis do not encounter Americans (or others) like these often.

We paid our bill, thanked Danny, and went back to hotel.   Then, we showered and watched “The Departed” on TV.  After everything we did, we were all exhausted and slept hard.  In the morning, we would be leaving to go back to Christchurch.

Today was one of those awesome days that suddenly makes you allergic to waiting in line, paying full price, eating what is on the menu, etc.  Today, Rus and I went V.I.P. wine tasting with our flatmate, Christian.  Christian, 25, has studied viticulture in Vienna in his home country, Austria.  He works as a server at Saggio di Vino, which is arguably one of the best restaurants in Christchurch - just around the corner from our house.  An aspiring vintner and sommelier, he spends his free time rubbing elbows and tasting wines with the world’s finest. So when he said he was going wine tasting, we were happy to invite ourselves to tag along :)

Christian called ahead to the Pegasus Bay vineyard in Waipara, about 50km (30 miles) north of Christchurch, to schedule a tasting.  The drive out to Waipara was emblematic of the scenic beauty we see in New Zealand.  Within a blink of an eye of leaving the city limits, we were treated with a vast rural flat landscapes stretching on to dramatic hills covered in tall, dry grasses…and sheep.  We saw more sheep, alpaca, deer, and cows than we could dream of counting - all happily chomping away in the chilly summer air (Rus thought aloud that he’d like to mountain bike down one of those awesome hills; I just wondered what it would look like from up there.  Okay, mountain biking down one sounds fun too!).

Pegasus Bay is unassuming; the sign marking its place could easily be confused with one advertising a small farmer’s roadside vegetable stand.  A short drive down the unpaved road, and we were greeted with a lovely old home surrounded by lush gardens and well-appointed hardscape.  Christian told us that Pegasus Bay winery, one of Waipara’s largest commercial ones, started with the owner simply wanting to put his three lazy children to work; one was responsible for reds, one for whites, and one for the on-site restaurant.  The building itself has lots of character: hardwood floors, stained glass windows, and decorative trim that is hard to find nowadays.  Once inside, we were greeted warmly by our hostess, a German expatriot, who vacationed in New Zealand frequently before deciding to move here permanently 19 years ago.

We tasted eight different wines, starting with the wine that boosted New Zealand wines onto the world stage - Sauvignon Blanc.  After that came a beautiful Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon blend, Dry Reisling, Sweet Reisling, and Chardonnay.  Then came the reds - Pinot Noir, Merlot/Cabernet blend, and one that was apparently so good, I can’t remember! (wink)

All of that wine-tasting worked up an appetite, and we opted for a fabulous lunch of caprese salad, ciabatta and olive oil, and a glorious seafood chowder in the winery’s restaurant.  The food was excellent, and this was the first time since we arrived in New Zealand that I ate buffalo mozzarella (as you may already know, I consider fresh mozzarella a food group!).  Once finished, we were allowed a very brief tour of the fermentation warehouse, and then it was off to Winery #2 (evidently, Christian had us on a tight schedule).

Another drive literally over the river and through the woods (and in and out of arguably the smallest town I’ve ever seen), a near-missed left hand turn and screeching brakes, and we arrived at Pyramid Valley Vineyards.  Hidden off a lonely (self-named) road less traveled, this obscure vineyard - barely distinguishable by the half-barrel sign that read “Pyramid Valley Vineyards, Open By Appointment Only” - looked more like a antique shop than a winery worthy of Christian’s discriminating acclaim.  Alas, appearances can be deceiving, as we were greeted by the vintner himself, Mr. Mike Weersing.

Mike looks to be in his early-40s, with bright blue eyes and an already-white head of closely cropped hair.  Dressed in cargo shorts and a plaid button-down covered with a heavy wool sweater (yay Summer!),  he immediately suggested we jump in the truck and go see the vines.  You can see a video of Mike describing his land here. Pyramid Valley is interesting; Mike grows Pinot Noir and Chardonnay on site, and leases vines of different varieties in Marlborough, New Zealand’s largest wine-making region (have no fear, dear readers, Rus and I will definitely be visiting this part of the country soon!).  He drove us to the top of one of those magnificent hills I had wondered just moments ago what it would be like to look out from.  It was cold, barely breaking 60F, and my 2″ sandals were no match for the foot-tall grasses.  Mike was telling us about how he chose the spot to start his vineyard, the composition of the soil, about the weather, the birds, etc. - all very interesting!  The brisk wind, however, kept his lesson from atop the hill short; we got back in the truck and drove back down the hill to the small tasting room.

We tasted several lovely wines (mostly whites), but for me the most memorable part of the afternoon was listening to Mike.  I have gone wine-tasting before and learned a lot about how it tastes, what food it should be paired with, etc.  On the other hand, it is a truly rare opportunity indeed to experience any product with its producer, while surveying the beautiful land on which its grown, and listening to him describe how and why it was made the way it was made.  Pyramid Valley Vineyards clearly has a lot of passion and a lot of love there - for wine, for nature, for New Zealand.  I found the day exhilirating and soul-quenching in a way that is hard to put into words.

After this special adventure, it is surely going to make all other wine-tasting pale in comparison.

*A special thanks to Christian Esser for allowing us to share this wonderful experience with him (and for driving)!