Friday May 10: Cake, Mini Burger and Hotdog Week

This week at work has been a particularly good week in terms of food. It started off with a double birthday on Tuesday, meaning birthday morning tea. We were treated to mini burgers from one of the birthday people and chocolate slice from the other. They were both delicious and there was quite a few absentees that day so there was plenty to go around.

Mini Burgers & Chocolate Slice

Sausage Feast

Later on Friday there was another birthday, this time it was celebrated by chocolate cheesecake and some other chocolate type cake. I only had the cheesecake this time. Also on Friday was a special ‘Friday night drinks’. This week it was German/Austrian themed. The catering was organised by an Austrian guy who works with me. He organised German sausages with mustard mayonnaise and curry powder. Apparently, curried sausages are all the rage in Berlin. He also got in a mini keg of Krombacher, and some other German beers that I could not pronounce. It was a great change to the regular chips and dip. To go with the sausages and beer there was French fries (apparently it’s traditional). But un-traditionally we got the fries from the Burger King across the road. I didn’t complain because BK is awesome and it only added to the awesomeness of the over-abundance of sausages and semi-exotic beer (semi-exotic as in not the Steinlager we normally get).

It was a good week on the food front and helped as a good distraction to the lack of invites that we have been receiving to free food events. 

Saturday March 23: Urbis Design Day

I don’t know if it’s because I am getting busier now at work and don’t pay enough attention to catered events that get spammed to my email, or that there have been very few lately. But it would seem that I’ve hit a massive dry spell in the ‘free food’ events department.

I was hoping that this year’s Urbis Design Day would end all this with a great canapé overload, but I was totally disappointed. Unlike previous years, where the nibbles were plentiful and the Champaign was free flowing, this year’s Design Day was lack lustre. I was lucky that I managed to get a couple of free passes to the Design Day (thanks to Resene Paint – I will never specify another brand again) so I really can’t complain, but I was one of the public that bought my $40 (or so) pass, I would be pretty pissed (and not because there was too much wine).

First of all, there were only about six venues. In previous years you had to plan your day properly and pick the ones you wanted to go to, because you may not end up seeing everything. This year I hit all venues, plus went off for an extended BBQ lunch, and got home before 5.

Most venues didn't even have nibbles, which was the sole reason I went. I mean, lets be honest, if I wanted to see a tap sample I could easily ask them to bring it into the office. I wanted mini burgers and meatballs on a stick. Sure if their nibbles are good enough I could possibly specify a product of theirs (probably not because it will be cost engineered out).

Because of the lack in food, I only took one photo. This was of a mini roast beef sandwich with horse radish at the Mini (as in the car manufacturer) garage. They served them with Red Bull (not alcohol!)

Other venues had cheese and salami with bread and one place had Peroni beer, but nothing really like the last time I went.

Mini Roast Beef Sandwich

Bring back the chocolate fondue and the tasting shed! Hopefully next year they will step up again and deliver. 

Thursday August 23rd: A Splash of Color

Tonight was the annual Resene Color Awards, and this year it is back in Auckland meaning I can attend. As usual Resene did not disappoint when hosting a party. Our office entered one project for the awards, that I did help out a bit (not really), but it gave me the excuse to go along and pretend to be part of the team. We weren’t expecting much, especially since upon arriving some projects looked like they were designed with the sole intention of winning color awards. However, we won in our category as well as winning overall. This was awesome (and pretty surprising).  

Anyway, back to the important stuff, the food and drink.

The table of booze

When we arrive we were greeted by our Resene Rep, Simon Blincoe, on side note Simon is the man he remembers everyone by name and is awesome with his product. After a brief chat we were confronted with a table of booze (see photo). There were the usual merlots, savs and beers but also Verve was on the menu tonight. I stuck to beer tonight to try to look as manly as possible. The crowd I came with was pretty keen on drinking, most likely because there was a lack in events such as this lately.

The Whitebait Fritter

The food was a little slow to arrive, and there wasn’t as much of it as last time (at No1 on High Street). But there were a couple of outstanding nibbles. First off we were offered a whitebait fritter on a crusty toast base. It was topped with aioli. Some of my colleagues really enjoyed it. But I felt it was a little too fishy and needed a bit more citrus to tone it back. Lucky for me there was an ample amount of Heineken to wash it down with. Next up was a round of your typical deep fried samosas. These are the same potato filled ones you get at all of these. Don’t get me wrong samosas are delicious but they are pretty boring.

There was a break in the catering when the awards were presented, but that didn’t last too long and it was back into drinking after that.

Samosa

Due to our recent success we increased our drinking rate, which may have made the next lot of canapés seem even better than they actually were. Next, we had a chicken skewer with a sort of tangy BBQ sauce. It was really tasty from my recollection. This was followed by some deep fried crumbed thing with a soft centre. It didn’t really taste like anything to me, more like fried matter. But one of the guys I came with later informed me that it was a lamb thing. Anyway, it was ok once you dipped it into aioli.

Next up were lamb mini burgers. These were really good. The meat was juicy and the sauce was excellent. I had to have seconds (and thirds) of this burger. Lucky, one of the group managed to persuade the waitress to exclusively serve our group.

Overall the night was a fun night, the next morning, however wasn’t so fun for some of us.

Chicken Skewer

Lamb thing

Mini Burger (No2)

Additionally, the next day we had a special Friday night drinks, as one of my co-workers was leaving us. Our Administration Manager made these awesome gourmet sliders. There were three types, the first was a roast beef and gherkin one with horse radish. The second type was a smoked salmon one with capers and cream cheese. And thirdly there was a turkey and cranberry one.

Friday Night Sliders

I would have to say that these sliders were much better than most of the catered food made by professionals at most events. 

Thursday December 10th: Merry Christmas

With the year coming to an end, Christmas parties have started to pop up. Last Thursday the firm I worked for had their Christmas party. Usually, we have awesome days out with a great lunch, but this year was different. It was our 25^th year as a practice and the Christmas party was to be combined with our anniversary party. At first I felt a ripped off, as our Christmas parties were awesome and something to look forward to, however I warmed up to the idea of the anniversary/Christmas party when I found out what was happening.

The Chicken Patty Thing, Held by my drinking partner in crime

The company had hired the old ‘6 pack’ silos down at Wynyard Quarter and cleaned them up for the night. In addition, there was a marquee put up beside them to house the 300 guests that were apparently invited. There was going to be some great catering and an ample amount of wine and beer.

Of course, because all out clients and consultants were also invited it meant that we had to be on good behaviour (well at least until they all left).

Mini Bruschetta

It was a good day on Thursday, it was sunny and warm and the sea breeze helped keep the place fresh. Upon arrival we were greeted with waiters handing out cocktails. The ‘Silo-tini” (the cocktail of the event) was a martini with a hit of lemon juice. It was pretty strong and to me very sour. I needed to down that quickly and move on to the other drinks available.

I kept to wine and beer for the rest of the night, drinking the Pinot Gris, until that ran out then moving to Heinekens. The food on offer was pretty top notch. The first dish that came around was a mini bagel with cream cheese and salami. It was ok, but sort of too big to have in one mouthful and quite hard to bite in half. Next were a few different variations of mini Yorkshire puddings with either rare beef on top or a grilled mushroom. These were (especially the mushroom ones) delicious. And due to their size you could really chow down on them.

Prawn Skewer, wrapped in basil, Silo-Tini in the background

After mingling a bit with some of my office colleagues and some randoms I had never seen before in my life, I had to go around and take photos of the event, something that was tasked to me…meaning I could not get totally inebriated or I would probably lose or break my camera. I did this for a bit before another round of canapé goodness.

Next on the menu were mini summer rolls, mini versions of the fresh spring rolls you can order at Vietnamese restaurants. They were ok, but if your been to a Vietnamese restaurant more than once your would have already had your fair share of these. After these mini rolls came mini bruschetta with a caramelized cherry tomato on the top. This was quite tasty and the tangy tomato mixed with a savoury paste which I couldn’t figure out what was made of was a great combination.

Mini Summer Roll

It was now well in the night and the sun had set, meaning it started to get cold. We all huddled into the marquee and continued to drink away. Feeling the beer kick in, I had to look for more food. I found a tray of little chicken patties with some sort of noodle thing on top. I assume they were pretty good, from what they looked like, but at this point my taste buds had almost decided to call it quits due to too much drinking.

By the end of the night, I was quite satisfied with the food and drink. There was plenty to go around and it was all pretty tasty (well at least the stuff I ate at the beginning of the night). The venue was done up very nicely as well. 

Thursday September 8th: No.1 High Street Launch

A shot of pumpkin soup

Ever since I can remember, there has been on-going construction work happening at what formally was known as Met Bar. And after about 2 years of listening to constant drilling and hammering, they finally re-opened their doors as a bar and restaurant called No.1 High Street.

To say thank you for putting up with the persistent noise coming from the construction, many of the tenants of the surrounding buildings were invited to their opening launch. And due to the close vicinity of the bar, a few of us from the office decided to go check it out.

Upon entering, we could tell that a lot of money had been put into the place, the place had totally transformed from what use to be a seedy club to something that looked pretty good.

For the night, there was a selection of wines and Heineken beer on offer. And after securing a table, we kicked off the drinking. The waiting staff were pretty good at encouraging us to sample their nibbles on offer, which was pretty good as I had built up an appetite. The first bite sized morsel that I had was a fried gnocchi with some sort of tangy plum relish on top. It was ok, but had a weird chewy texture. That however, didn’t stop me from having a few more when another round of them came by. Next was a pâté on toasted bread. This was a little intense for me, the pâté to bread ratio was way out of proportion. I needed a top of beer after I had that mouthful of liver. After a round or two of the regular meatballs on a stick came a tray of shot glasses filled with pumpkin soup. This was a little unexpected, and I wondered if they took a cue from the soup in shot glasses from the Engine Room marquee at Design Day. The soup was pretty ordinary but was good to wash down the after taste of pâté.

The Gnochi

The pate and bread ratio = bad 

At around 8pm, we had noticed that the room was starting to clear out, I thought it was probably a good time to leave, but then a colleague of mine decided it was actually time for a another round of drinks. So naturally I had to stay and keep them company. I was starting to feel the effects of alcohol kicking, which was great as it enhanced my taste buds making the next round of canapés extra tasty.

Chorizo sausage with date came next, and chorizo being my favourite sausage (coupled with drunken taste buds) made this toothpick meal super good. I had to have two of those, and being semi-drunk I didn’t feel embarrassed about. Then they started to get fancy. Next was shrimp salad with cantaloupe and cous lettuce…pretty hard out, but kinda hard to eat without cutlery. Unsurprisingly, I made a mess of myself. And then as a final dish before I departed, mini portions of chunky fries with a homemade aioli.

Chunky fries

The spread was defiantly impressive, but due to how close the restaurant is to my work, I’m probably unlikely to ever have lunch there.  I would probably pick the shrimp salad as a pretty notable  canapé to serve up on a free function like this.  

The shrimp salad

Chorizo and date combo

'Cloud' Nine on Canapes

Queen's Wharf & the 'Cloud'

Rugby World cup is only a month away now and Auckland’s party central is almost complete. As a thank you to all the contractors and consultants, there were drinks and canapés served in the ‘Cloud’ situated on Queens Wharf. Because I was involved in a bit of work on Queens Wharf (not the ‘Cloud’) I got to tag along. At first I was like this is great, finally a non-public opening the food is going to be great. But a few days before the night disaster struck.

First of all, I caught a cold and was put on Anti-Biotics. This meant no drinking on the night. Secondly, I was told by the big guys at my firm that there was an ulterior motive for bringing me a long. I had to take photos to document the night and the space. On a side note, myself and a girl I work, with have accidently become company photographers for a while now. For me, it was after I took a few photos on a company site visit which turned out not too bad. Anyway, back to the food… my cold meant I couldn’t drink and could hardly taste anything and my photography role meant I was almost entirely preoccupied the whole night taking photos of the building rather than enjoying delicious canapés.

The 'VIP' area, where the event took place

Quite an awesome space

I arrived with the some others from my office at around 4:30pm. The event was held at the northern most end of the ‘Cloud’, in the ‘VIP’ area. The area itself was pretty impressive, with a spectacular view out into the Harbour. You could see (and hear) ferries zip past on their way to Davenport. Although the interior had yet to be finished (see photos for the blue tarpaulin on the ground), I could tell that there were going to be some awesome parties come world cup.

A bar was made up serving wine, Monteiths, Steinlagers and of course Heinekens (this is probably the last time anything apart from Heineken beer will be seen on the wharf). Trays of finger food were scattered around the room, in a self-serve manner.

I started off with a few pieces of chicken sushi. Since sushi is already pretty tame in the flavour department, I pretty much couldn’t taste any of it. I always find it funny seeing sushi at events such as these, the giant wasabi ball always turns an un-appetizing grey and there are always only 3 sets of chop sticks. I then looked towards the bar to see if there was anything non-alcoholic. To my delight there was lemonade and real lemonade too.

Following my drink I had to go all over the wharf taking photos of the ‘Cloud’, the landscaping and furniture outside and the Shed 10 refurbishment.

Chilling out on the balcony

Finally, after going trigger happy with the camera I could get back to the appetizers. I tried out some of the more elaborate dishes next (unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of the food as I was pre-occupied taking photos of the building). I had some crumbed gelatinous seafood thing, which was very interesting. Of course I couldn’t taste it, but it felt like chewing on jelly with chunky bits. Next was the typical bruschetta and meatballs on a stick. But what was new, were these mini tart things with some sort of cream cheese and roast beef topping. I could just make out through my minimal taste capacity that they were delicious.

So overall a good night for canapés, and next time I will endeavour to take a few snaps of the food.   

Mini Burger Monday

The firm that I work at has a very peculiar birthday tradition, where the birthday person brings the cake (or any baked goods) to share with the rest of the office. It’s kinda weird as it is usually that person who receives the treats rather than dispatching them. However, because everyone does it, it even outs and we get frequent little morning teas spread out through the year.

This Monday was one such day where someone had to bring the (baked) goods and share with the rest of us. But this time is was special. In addition to a cheese cake the birthday girl had also made mini burgers!! In my ranking of awesome food you get at a catered event mini burgers is pretty up there, probably just behind the mini asparagus rolls. So to see mini burgers at a Monday morning tea was a pretty big ordeal for me.

The burgers were pretty awesome, firstly, the bread buns were home-made. They weren’t chewy and were a great golden color, lasted great too. There were two types of meat filling, a small chicken patty or small slices of sausage. I thought the sausage was a good change from a regular patty, as the circumference of each slice was ideal for the miniature nature of the burger buns. They were conveniently bite sized and packed a lot of taste (see photo).

To top this off, there was another birthday on Wednesday. This time there were cakes. But having two birthday morning teas in one week has been brilliant.