DIY falafel
I’m feeling rather proud of myself as I made falafels for the first time the other day; I’m not very good at planning ahead, so remembering to soak the chickpeas the night before was quite a highlight. The trickiest part was getting the right temperature for the oil so they were cooked through but not too brown and hard on the outside, but the end result was pretty good. I used dried (then soaked) chickpeas, not canned, because I read that it gives you a nice fluffy texture. There are plenty of falafel recipes to choose from at Food to Love, like these mini falafel with cucumber yoghurt or falafel with tahini sauce.
Mangiamo Cafe
I live on the North Shore and generally don’t roam very far. But I don’t really need to, as a short, beautiful walk along the water’s-edge walkway from Murrays Bay leads me to Mairangi Bay. The seaside village is packed with cafes but Mangiamo is my favourite: great coffee, fast service, newspapers, lots of outdoor and indoor seating, and a big blackboard menu plus very tasty cabinet food. It also fulfils my other requirement: very reasonably priced. Their ham- and cheese-filled croquettes are very hard to avoid, as are their soups in winter with crispy garlic bread. Every now and then I’d splash out and treat the kids to a generous plate of sausages and chips to share, feeling extremely generous and indulgent ( it was only about $8) – although I don’t know if I could get away with that now as the boys are getting too big.
Mangiamo Cafe
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Green Gable Mall, 7/378 Beach Road
Mairangi Bay, Auckland.
Mairangi Bay Bakery
Just round the corner is another of our haunts: Mairangi Bay Bakery, famed for its award-winning pies. They regularly walk off with various medals from the Bakels Supreme Pie Awards and we can definitely see why. They make everything on site, of course, and there’s plenty to choose from but we always make a beeline for the pies and one of their icing-smeared chelsea buns – a great reward after a hard stroll on the beach.
Tides Restaurant & Cafe
While we’re on the subject of cafes, we also like Tides at picturesque Waiake Beach. Why? The location can’t be beat: sit outside and look across the reserve to the beautiful little bay with its picturesque tor (little island) poking out of the water at high tide or exposed and stranded at low tide. Sailing boats bob past and there’s a pontoon you can swim out to in summer. The coffee’s good, so is the fish chowder; they serve generous ice creams in cones, and – perhaps most important of all – there’s a lady who works there who always greets you with the most beautiful, warm smile.
Waffle machines
We’ve just had the school holidays and went away to Waiwera (25 minutes up the road) for a few nights. We’d borrowed a friend’s waffle machine and my 11-year-old son made waffles from scratch on his own every morning – thanks, Reece. We’ve now converted from pancakes and are poised to buy our own machine to try out creations like these almond and custard waffles.
Homegrown grapefruit
Hats off to our grapefruit tree. A year of near-neglect hasn’t deterred it from another massive crop of ginormous fruit. We tend to drink a lot of grapefruit juice and find the longer we leave it on the tree, the sweeter it is (tip from my dentist: drink it with a straw to protect teeth from the acid). We also give it away to marmalade-making friends – or use it in salads or desserts (and if you need some grapefruit, let me know).
Chocolate
Someone told me about a friend and her husband who eat just two squares of chocolate a night. I didn’t like to say that I generally eat two squares on my way back from the kitchen to the couch, packet in hand. However, I’ve been slowly moving upmarket with my chocolate and trying to eat less, savour more. My current tipple is Lindt Divine Hazelnut milk chocolate which has specks of hazelnut and almond praline in it – very enjoyable, and the squares are quite big, so two (okay, three) is about right.
Stephanie Attwater is the sub editor for Taste magazine. Subscribe to the magazine here.
