It started with Toblerone, the legendary triangle-shaped chocolate bar with chewy nougaty bits. Toblerone was made in Switzerland and, when I was much much younger, it was not easily available in places far from Switzerland. They were treats in our house, only… Read More ›
food
What we’ve got is a great big melting pot
A little girl in a pink salwar kameez sits cross legged on a rug, ice-cream slowly melting down her arm. A small group waits patiently for fresh tacos being made in a tiny red caravan and nearby a crowd gathers, drawn by… Read More ›
A crazy chef served me a beef doughnut and I ate it all
It never rains but it pours they say and this week it’s raining doughnut stories. First, the bakery owned by my friends Carla and Randall Perkins, the Blackbird Bakery, was crowned best bakery in the state of Virginia by popular vote. That’s… Read More ›
Good, bad and just plain ugly
I have a guilty pleasure. It’s looking at what other people are putting into their shopping trolleys in the supermarket. You can tell a lot about a person from the choices they make. Since being in America, I have taken… Read More ›
Perfect pizza
Everyone has their own idea of what makes a perfect pizza. Mine is a Margherita, paper thin, with a chewy crust, heavy on tomato and easy on cheese, smelling of fresh basil and extra virgin olive oil. I found it, my… Read More ›
Better Burgers are Better
Restaurant reviews aren’t usually the Local Tourist’s bread and butter but this article caught my eye and since I was there, in the new Vulcan Lane Better Burger two days ago, I thought I’d share this article as I thoroughly… Read More ›
Gong Xi Fa Cai
February 18 2015 is not just another day. It’s the day before the first day of the Lunar New Year, the start of the Year of the Sheep and the beginning of the longest festival in the Chinese calendar. On… Read More ›
The best little pancake shop
You’ll know you’ve found this hole-in-the-wall takeaway kiosk by the throngs of people waiting patiently on the pavement. It’s not a long wait even though about 400 Korean pancakes are made fresh every day for those in the know. Small balls of… Read More ›
OK Auckland. Are you ready to eat your way round India?
Who knew that just 10 minutes away from Auckland’s city centre there is a place where it is possible to take your taste buds on a trip all over the Indian sub-continent ? Not me, but an afternoon in… Read More ›
Street food in Glenfield
Glenfield is a sprawling suburb on the North Shore of Auckland. It doesn’t have sea views or historical buildings. Just streets of solid homes interspersed with a few parks, bush reserves, schools, a shiny shopping mall and a strip of… Read More ›