restaurants Archives - freespiritfood

We had some great meals out in Auckland on our stopover on the way to the Cook Islands.

Lunch at Giraffe Cafe was delicious featuring beautiful New Zealand produce overlooking the buzzing scene around the harbour and viaduct. We loved the slow cooked lamb shank and the duck Caesar salad, enjoyed with a delicious Greywacke Pinot Gris. Great service and local knowledge from our friendly waiter Herbie too!

Dinner at one of our favourites in Auckland Baduzzi stood up to its huge reputation for excellent roman inspired dishes including their famous meatballs. We ate everything from ox tongue to venison meatballs and delicious steak with creamy polenta! Bellissimo.

Ox tongue with a heirloom tomatoes, asparagus and salsa verde

Broken cannoli of yellowfin with nduja and Burrata

Inside skirt tagliata with creamy potato and lettuce with parmigiana reggiano and balsamic

Korean lunch at Gochu in the new Commercial Bay shopping centre and food court was a welcome spicy and delicious detour. Everything from the milk buns with spicy pork and Kim chi filling with amazing beurre Blanc sauce to the cucumber salad with cashew cream, ssam and fried garlic to the brilliant crispy fried chicken doused in gochujang sauce and the crispy fried eggplant was cooked to perfection and impeccably presented. A great find in a shopping centre!

Milk bun with spicy pork and kimchi filling

Crispy fed chicken with gochuchang sauce

Crispy eggplant with doenjang glaze, tofu cream and sesame

Our final lunch at Amano which started when we enjoyed a breakfast coffee and croissant in their bakery earlier on our trip did not disappoint. Delicious cheesy focaccia, mussel fritter and Burrata shared between us followed by individual mains including agnolotti with slow cooked beef shin and asparagus, smoked Warehou pate, grilled chicken with kale and chittara with scampi and chilli.

Agnolotti stuffed with slow cooked beef shin with mustard seeds and crunchy asparagus

Focaccia with cheesy cow’s milk mozzarella filling

Burrata, sweetcorn, fermented chilli and chervil

Mussel fritter with pickled onion, preserved lemon and shaved fennel

Chittara with scampi, tomatoes and chilli

Chargrilled chicken with kale and chilli

Smoked warehou pate with green olive and sourdough

Great way to end our wonderful 2022/23 summer holiday.

There are so many other places we would have loved to have tried but we ran out of time on this trip. Auckland is definitely a foodie heaven that could do with much more exploration!

We are in Singapore visiting our son Nick who has been posted here for work since earlier this year. Now living the life of an ex-pat, Nick is being a great tour guide during our stay. Last night we went down for a walk along Boat Quay along the river. The Quay is a bustling tourist destination with a range of restaurants from Lebanese and French to Indian and Singapore Seafood. We chose Lanna Thai for dinner after drinks at the Red Spot Brewery further down the Quay.

Clean and orderly, Lanna Thai at Boat Quay in Singapore

We were greeted warmly by the waiter and given a lovely table right on the riverside with views of the stunning Marina Bay Sands building, Fullerton Hotel and passing boats in the background. After ordering drinks, which are expensive, we decided to start with some Thai standards – mix satay of chicken, beef and mutton and Thai fishcakes. The satays came with a delicious satay sauce in which you could taste the freshly roasted and crushed peanuts. The Thai fishcakes were super authentic achieving that elastic texture and lightnness that only Thai cooks seem to know how to get.

Thai green chicken curry and Roast Boneless Duck at Lanna Thai

Succulent and tender roast boneless pork

For mains we chose Butter Grilled Prawns in Claypot, Thai Green Chicken Curry and Roast Boneless Duck. I ordered Nam Prik(fresh sliced chilli in fish sauce) as a side sauce to add that extra kick of spice. The food was so surprisingly good for what looks like a tourist trap restaurant, I forgot to take photos until we were almost done. Certainly the grilled king prawns with their sweet, succulent meat deliciously enhanced with a butter sauce were demolished quickly as was the meltingly tender boneless duck.

Lanna Thai Green Chicken Curry, the chicken was thinly sliced to absorb the flavours from the delicious cocnut curry sauce. Thai basil., Apple and pea eggplant and bamboos shoots featured in curry too.

The Thai Green Chicken Curry was spiced exactly right with a finely balanced cocnut curry sauce and authentic vegetables such as apple and pea eggplants, bamboos shoots, and Thai basil.
Prices are calibrated for tourists so expect to pay $70-80 per head depending on how many you drinks you have! (Wine of course is as with much of Asia at silly prices for silly brands, so beer and spirits are the go!)
Not usually a fan of tourist area restaurants, I was very pleasantly surprised by the authenticity and quality of the food at Lanna Thai and would recommend a visit if you are heading to Boat Quay.

Tag: restaurants

Awesome #Auckland #NewZealand

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