Our Marathon weekends...

Of course I don't mean running a Marathon as in the Round the Bays last weekend... we are way too lazy for that. I mean marathon eating out with The Hospobaby. Sadly last weekend our permanent babysitter aka The Grandfather, went back to India for a bit so we are sans alone time and have to eat out with Zoya in tow all the time. Lets face it we had it good for a whole year. Now its welcome to real world of eating out with a bubba. It started badly 2 weeks ago, when we went for a casual brunch to what used to be Cafe on Kohi, the fact that it is now called Kohi Beach Cafe should have set off some alarm bells. The menu items were exorbitantly priced for the portion sizes. We paid $80 for eggs, sausage and mushrooms on toast, a glass of juice and a coffee. Still left hungry and feeling ripped off. They were also way too cool to have a high chair. Well we will stick to our local Zus & Zo next time.

Hospobaby tries to get the waitstaff's attention at Depot

Yum char at Grand Harbour was as always a welcome delight. On the following day, we went to Depot in the Sky City Grand. We have been hesitant to go there with Hospobaby as they only have bar stools as seating. However, we were surprised that Hospobaby didn't mind and sat quite comfortably on them, Sid had to have his arm around her though. Hospobaby was quite desperate for her food order to be taken, but all the staff seemed to be working at a real leisurely pace, it felt like they had all been out the night before.
Luckily we were served some  complimentary tortillas with Baba ganoush and Hospobaby seemed to love them.

Mmmm! Tasty baba ganoush at Depot

We ordered the Kingfish sashimi w oyster cream, apple and fennel which was more like kingfish cubes but hospobaby loved them nevertheless. The apple and fennel really added a zing to the fish.

Kingfish sashimi w oyster cream, apple and fennel

 The skirt steak fajitas w sweetcorn, guacamole and cumin soured cream were great in flavor but the tortillas could be a bit crispier, they seemed soggy. Hospobaby was so excited by them that she stuck her hand out and grabbed a heap of garnish and shoved it in her mouth. To her dismay, it didn't taste that good by itself.

Uhhh! what did I just eat?

Although our food had arrived our drinks hadn't and so we had to remind our sleepy waiter who finally rushed to get them.  Meanwhile our snapper w pickled lemon mayo and water cress arrived. They are our staple order at Depot. This time they were not up to scratch. They skimped on the lemon mayo and the snapper was slightly over done. Hospobaby didn't mind much.

The famous snapper sliders

Hospobaby also loved the zucchini flowers w Persian feta and Pinoli pine nuts. Sadly there were only two  pieces to share!

Zucchini flowers

 We ordered the grilled corn on the cob with chilli on the side for Zoya. She has been devouring corn on the cob at home, but she wouldn't have a bar of the grilled version. All the more for Sid and me.

Corn on the cob

Finally as we were still a bit peckish and yet we didn't want any dessert, we ordered the Grilled Peaches with NZ prosciutto, Kingsmeade blue and roasted macadamias. Hospobaby got stuck into the prosciutto and peaches.

Grilled peaches w prosciutto, kinsmeade blue and roasted macadamias.

All in all Depot didn't let us down but neither did it blow our socks off. Mexico on the other hand was a different story. Mexico is owned by the same people who own District dining. Warren and Mimi do a great job in executing concepts. Mexico looks and feels like a traditional cantina. The food is very reasonable and the service is quick if not super quick. We felt like the food genie was sitting beside us. One minute our order was placed and the next our food was in front of us.

Hospobaby checks out the menu at Mexico

I am quite sure I was Mexican in my last birth on earth. I find Mexican food intensely satisfying. Auckland has always lacked a good Mexican joint. The only one that has tickled my fancy until now has been Mexican specialities in Ellerslie. Mexican specialities is only open for a limited time each week which makes it almost impossible for me to go there, especially as we now don't live in Ellerslie.

We were quite aware that Hospobaby might not share our love for chipotles and ordered her a chicken quesadilla. The quesadilla portion was large enough for all three of us to nibble on and it came with a large jar of Guacamole, which was empty by the time we had our way with it.

Chicken quesadilla w guacamole @Mexico

We also ordered the house special fried chicken, which was extremely crunchy and delicious. I fell in love with the skirt steak taco and refused to share it with Sid. We loved the pulled pork taco as much as Zoya did, who pretty much sneaked all the pork into her mouth. The beef mole tostada was a little bit too sweet for our liking. A good mole needs to have a distinct hint of chilli which this one was sadly missing.

The prawns with corn and chipotle mayo were simple yet tasty. Zoya had most of the corn salsa. With a bill of $80 including 3 drinks we were pretty happy and have decided to go back to Mexico again and again.

While you can often get staff that are happy to have a little one in the restaurant, at other times you are served rudely and made to feel guilty for bringing a toddler along. Last weekend a couple of friends and I went to check out the Kingsland festival and ventured into Mekong Neua. We understand that Hospobaby can get all excited and messy, we usually try to clean up after her and apologize profusely. We were made to believe that they didn't mind us bringing Zoya along. They promptly brought us a high chair. They served her sticky rice just as promptly when I ordered it. Our food however was terrible. They got my friends' duck dishes mixed up. The one who ordered the mild chilli got the extra hot and vice versa.  I was sharing with another friend and our hot chicken dish was extra hot too. I guess they take their chillies seriously. I ordered a red chicken curry with mango and basil. Unfortunately it came out to be a weird sweet yet spicy concoction. The staff forgot to mention that the mango was actually in the sauce rather than in slivers through it as I had assumed. It still lies in its takeaway coffin in my refrigerator.
We gave up after a lot of futile sweating, crying and gulping water. Meanwhile Hospobaby had made a slight mess and had got carried away with her sticky rice. As we started to gather our belongings to leave, I apologized to the waitress who shunned me and started cleaning before we had even left the table. She shoved rice all over our belongings. Needless to say they never got a tip that day.

On Sunday night I heard of Kobe Sizzlers opening in Parnell. They are a chain of restaurants that are famous in India. Sizzlers are iron platters that sizzle with meat/veg accompanied by fries, mash etc. Sizzler restaurants are a common concept in India but a sadly lacking one in NZ. I was super excited to try Kobe.
We ordered the chilli cheese toast to start. It was good, cheesy not too spicy served with floury but fresh chips. Sid ordered the lamb seekh sizzler and I ordered the chicken shashlik sizzler.

Chicken Shashlik Sizzler

Of course the sizzlers were nothing like India but were not a bad attempt at re-creation either. I wished that they made the chicken out of thigh meat rather than breast. The usual vege patty was missing on the platter. Hospobaby was happy with the fries and carrot that came with the platter. Although the sizzling component annoyed her more than entertained her. The service was faultless and cheerful. We would take Hospobaby back if some changes were made or if a sizzler craving returned.

MooChowChow in Ponsonby is our favorite place for flavor packed mouthfuls of delicious Asian fare.
We went there with our restaurant manager Ismo Koski and his beautiful partner Leslie for an early dinner last night. Yes, Moochowchow is now open Mondays.

Son in law eggs @ MoochowChow

We ordered the son-in-law eggs with chilli jam on the side for Hospobaby. She absolutely loved the deep fried eggs. The pork rolls were also a big hit with her. She ate the pork meat out of the giant spring rolls.
We all loved the stir fried curried crab with coriander, lime leaf and lemongrass. The soft shell crab was packed with flavor that exploded in your mouth. Hospobaby ate the tentacles, we didn't want to risk the rest of spicy meat. The caramelized pork hock was to die for. This is Moochochow's best dish ever. It is consistently good. We had no problems eating two portions between the 4 and half of us. Although the little half ate almost a whole portion of the stick,fatty,crispy pork.
Hospobaby must be getting a hang of eating out by now. Her expert taste buds rejected the mildly flavored 5 spice chicken. It had been over done and was tough. It was the only dish which had a piece of meat left on it as it made its final journey back to the kitchen. The Beef short rib was yummy with its red peanut curry, it caused a heated debate on our table with respect to whether it should be reordered.

Moochowchow is clearly consistent, even when it comes to desserts. They were a let down the last time and they were a let down this time too. Dessert is something one can't resist ordering. We cautiously ordered 2 to share amongst the 4.5 of us.  We ordered the Moo Bar: a homemade white chocolate candy bar with pistachio and lemongrass nougat. The Moo Bar to me, should be served with coffee in a cafe not as a dessert. The coconut pannacotta had none of the characteristics of a pannacotta. It tasted like whipped cream flavored with coconut and Hospobaby was its only taker.
So the verdict is that Moochowchow remains chow worthy for repeated return visits, however we will stay away from the desserts until chef sorts them out.
Until next time...
Live to eat like Hospobaby!