We experienced a Taste of Rotorua, tasting the local culinary delights of blueberry pies, Maori bread, koura and venison flavoured with indigenous herbs, as No. 1 Queen Street became a corner of Rotorua in Auckland’s downtown…
We experienced a Taste of Rotorua, tasting the local culinary delights of blueberry pies, Maori bread, koura and venison flavoured with indigenous herbs, as No. 1 Queen Street became a corner of Rotorua in Auckland’s downtown.
Destination Rotorua has brought a slice of the popular tourism of Rotorua to promote its city’s offerings during Rugby World Cup and over the next seven months at the high profile spot with 25,000 people passing between Britomart and The Cloud at ‘Party Central’ each weekday.
Thread attended their culinary media event, Taste of Rotorua, on 5th October and enjoyed small bites prepared fresh by chefs, including TV chef, Charles Royal, pictured left.
The award-winning chef has rediscovered wild herbs and edible ferns – generally overlooked since early M?ori settlement – and has elevated them to contemporary fine food status. I’m looking forward to trying the sachet of his Dried Horopito; Maori Pepper.
Below: Guests at Taste of Rotorua.
Charles Royal.
Horopito, piko piko (edible fern) and kawakawa (M?ori bush basil) appear on the menus of many top New Zealand restaurants and are helping to establish a local food identity.
Below: Charles Royal kept the koura crayfish alive and fed for 5 weeks before serving them up. Thankfully, he didn’t name them and think of them as his pets by then!
Below: A taste of the cuisine served from Rotorua’s Mokoia Island, cooked on the spot by executive chef Ervin Garde.
My favourite dish of the day was the mini pavlovas atop avocado and kawakawa ice cream. So, so good.
Guests washed the food down with beers from a small boutique brewery Croucher’s Brewing, run by award-winning brewer Paul Croucher who carefully hand-crafts high quality premium beers.
Below: Village PR’s Bridgette Paton-Tapsell with Louis Robinson.
And it’s not all about food; other attractions at No.1 Queen Street include the amphibious Rotorua Duck, OGO inflatable globes, mud facials, massages, a live hot spa, a wildlife petting zoo and an eye-popping mock-up illustrating the 7m height of the highest commercially-rafted waterfall in the world.
Destination Rotorua is trying to attract tourists seeking adventure, luxury spa treatments, family activities and a sophisticated food and beverage scene.
And we got to take a taste of Rotorua home, with the edible goody bag – or should I say, goody kete.
They had me at horopito.
Megan Robinson
3 October 2011
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