Just a bit of Housekeeping for us here at NQN. Selecting the winners of the competitions is fun but it is also hard when you get a slew of great entries. But choose you must do and here are the winners for the POM Wonderful competition where 2 lucky readers will get 3 bottles of POM Wonderful couriered to them.
Bel J.
Michael A.
And for our Taste of Sydney comp, we have three winners who will be making their way to the event starting this Thursday. They are:
Cindy E.
Sandra B.
Skye D.
Congratulations to our winners! 
And for my Pay it Forward these bloggers will receive a package from me over the next 300+ days (which gives me time to research what they like) . They are:
Sophie from Sophie’s Food Files
Tammy from Wee Treats by Tammy
Kevin from Closet Cooking
Thanks to everyone for entering and being a part of it!
Love,
Lorraine
xxx
When I was planning our trip to New Zealand and specifically Queenstown, the one name that would consistently pop up was Patagonia Chocolates. Chocolatiers are always going to win fans by the fact that they produce some of the most delectable items on earth but this was different. People insisted that I visit there and try some of their goodies. Some were downright pushy with their insistence. I know the look, for when I love something I get the same fierce expression.
This sunny Queenstown morning I met up with Alejandro (or Alex) Gimenez, the owner and founder of Patagonia Chocolates to find out a bit about his chocolates and his philosophy. Gimenez founded Patagonia Chocolates 4 years ago after emigrating from his native Argentina (he is an Argentinean of Italian descent) to New Zealand 7 years ago as a Hangglider pilot. On his first day he was struck at how similar the temperates were between Queenstown and Patagonia, both being 45° South latitude. He knew about chocolate as many Germans and Swiss emigrated to Argentina and set up a chocolate industry there. On his second day he was planning his shop location.
Interestingly I found this tidbit on the Queenstown Heritage website “45 North and 45 South are very different worlds. In the temperate zones, global winds flow West to East round the planet. In the North that journey takes them through heavily populated and industrialised regions. In the South, there is only Central Otago and Patagonia. While well over 100 million people live between 44º and 46º North, there are less than 400,000 living in the Southern strip. This reflects in a lack of pollution and disease pressure – there is no vineyard in Central Otago within 200 kms of a traffic light”
He started off with 1 shop in nearby Arrowtown and was an almost instant success so after 6 months opened his Queenstown store. After 2 years he extended the chocolate range to include desserts and coffee. One of the biggest decisions at this stage was whether to invest in an ice cream machine, with machines costing about $200,000 it was a big decision but one that continued his swift trajectory with sales doubling month on month. An average day for ice cream sales sees him selling 400kgs (880pounds) of ice cream a day, on a particularly sunny or hot day he can sell an enormous 700kgs (1540 pounds) of ice cream.
The best selling Tramontana flavour
Ice cream appears to be his passion. Indeed it is painstakingly time consuming as all elements are made on the premises and he makes 30kg of dulce de leche a night to fulfill the ice cream demand and all waffle cones are made on the premises too. The only thing that isn’t done themselves is the roasting of the coffee beans (which is done locally). His best seller is the Tramontana which sells between 40-80kg a day alone. At first glance it looks like chocolate chips but he explains that it is actually butterscotch balls coated in chocolate. And yes I drooled a little when he told me that.
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My friends are amazing people. They’re always on the lookout for me, finding restaurants or eating experiences or story ideas as well as finding treasures to cook with. One of my longest standing friends is Queen Viv, a woman who terrified me at our first meeting 15 years ago such was her regal demeanor. Soon after I realised what a genuine, warm person she was, and still is. She, along with Miss America often accompany my husband and I on our eating adventures and they’re always willing to give things a go. Queen Viv raised her son who happens to be about my age the same way. Indeed when we went to Uighur Cuisine, he and I were the ones eager to try the Lungs much to everyone else’s horror.
I digress, the reason why I’m speaking of Queen Viv is because after our recent jaunt to a restaurant one evening, we retired to her house to partake of some gorgeous Coconut & Vanilla Pannacottas with Grilled fresh figs. It was deliciously voluptuous and creamy and my husband scoffed down 2 of them. The lighting was a touch dark so a photograph of these was not possible but I sought to recreate them myself at home and she shared her recipe for them. Then after I’d finished copying down the recipe in my Moleskine, she produced the most gorgeous pannacotta moulds from her cupboards. She bought them at a market and I was instantly in love. She let me borrow them for cooking and I was eager to make these.
They’re fabulously simple, hardly requiring any cooking at all. The hardest bit is waiting for a couple of hours for them to set. They’re also dairy free for those of you who desire something deliciously creamy and who often have to forsake the gorgeously wobbly Pannacotta because of dietary issues. If you want to, you could leave out the coconut if you like that easy smooth texture or if you want to use the coconut, choose the texture you prefer. Obviously shredded coconut is less fine than dessicated. The coconut cream will make it more a white grey and if you need a pure white colour simply replace the coconut cream with 2 cups of cream and 1 cup of milk. And because these are gorgeously, tremblingly wobbly, don’t leave them out of the fridge too long in warm weather. Their delicate constitution will wither and melt and that would be something worth crying over.
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The view from our room
Baah!
I’m embarrassed to say that despite being only a few hours away from New Zealand with only a relatively small sea between us and having lots of friends from New Zealand, this is my first time visiting the country. It was only after having a glut of frequent flyer points ready to expire and conveniently, having just the right amount for a visit that I decided to visit what I would later call, one of my favourite places to visit ever. Silly me for waiting so long. After a 4.15am alarm, we flew the requisite 3 hours where I passed the time watching “W” (my favourite line was Bush discussing Guantanamo Bay “We have that Guantanamera Bay”) and sleeping, we touched down in Queenstown and picked up our rental car. Queenstown is known as an Alpine village during Winter where ski-lovers and adventure seekers congregate. Planning for this trip, in particular the eating was done with the help of my friends Queen Viv, Teena and Julie from the Crowne Plaza in Queenstown.
We unload our bags at the Crowne Plaza hotel which is lovely, and yes there’s a nice room along with all of the amenities you could want including a Pillow Menu, aromatherapy oils and a gorgeous view (we ordered 4 types of pillows, and I think the delivery guy thought we were nuts -either that or having a pillow orgy in our room). My husband makes use of the hotel’s sauna which he says is so huge, it can fit in at least 50 people. We then set off for Arrowtown, a small town about 15 minutes by car outside of Queenstown.
The Village Green
The Blue Door Bar
Patagonia Chocolates
We drive past paddocks and paddocks of lamb, sheep and deer frolicking in lush green fields and resist the urge to get out and have a closer look at them. We reach there and park and unlike all tourist destinations of Sydney there is no metered parking. The town itself is lovely, reminiscent of the Cotswalds in England. There are lots of lovely little boutiques selling all things NZ including Patagonia Chocolates, the famous chocolate shop in NZ but more on that later, as well as lots of eateries, a well known Blue Door Bar which has no sign, just a blue door signifying its presence as well as a delicious fudge and lolly shop, called The “Remarkable Sweet Shop” which happens to sell some fantastic fudge.
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I admit I am not over the moon in love with Mars Bars. They always seem too cloyingly sweet for me. Unless of course I am low on blood sugar at 4pm on a workday afternoon and am craving sugar. Then they’re just about right to my slightly skewed sense of proportion. This cupcake is an homage to that super sweet and sugar chocolatey confection that I usually shun except for during my witching hour when only sweets will do.
The cake itself is a caramel mud cake topped with a chocolate icing. It’s sweet yes and inside and on top is a piece of Mars Bar to make it even sweeter. Please forgive the photos if you will, they were made last minute for a work fundraiser for the bushfires and due to the late hour, they lighting wasn’t as good as I wanted. And I broke my rule of not eating Mars Bars past 4pm and had one of those at 8pm at night. It was delicious, and not just for a 4pm sugar rush.
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