The charm factor

A bit of charm goes a long way, as I recently discovered during two quite different dining experiences.

After months of good intentions, I’ve finally got round to trying KungFu Noodles at 636 Dominion Road (Balmoral), a north western Chinese restaurant that had been recommended to me for its tasty kebabs and handmade noodles. Rumour has it that Shaolin monks run the place, although none were in evidence during my visit.

Despite being warned that the upstairs dining rooms were little changed from their earlier incarnation as a shopkeeper’s residence, I was somewhat taken aback when led up a very dark, dingy and narrow staircase into what may have previously been a bedroom. The carpet was filthy and badly stained, and the room smelt like wees. The sensory assault continued when a table load of Chinese patrons swooped in and noisily power slurped their lunches down right behind us.

Undeterred, we got ordering.

North western China is predominantly Muslim so – unlike most of the Chinese regional cuisine I have tried - lamb, rather than pork, features heavily.

I’ve got to take my hat off to the Chinese. Unlike us Westerners, most whom turn our noses up at the mere thought of variety meat, the Chinese waste nothing – not even chickens’ knees.

You’d think that eating chicken’s knees would be a knobbly and unfulfilling experience but you’d be wrong. They were surprisingly nice in a mildly cartilaginous way. The knees were threaded onto needle sharp thin metal kebabs, which I’m sure must have been hidden from sight when the restaurant was given its health and safety grading, and tasted charcoally and delicious.

The only thing to get the thumbs down were the deep fried battered lamb chunks, mainly because whatever flour they used resulted in a weirdly soft batter. The taste was fine, but the flaccid texture failed to win any of us over.

Although I liked Kung Fu Noodles’ food, the overly aromatic ambience of its upstairs rooms means I’m unlikely to be a regular customer.

A few days later I enjoyed an eating experience at the opposite end of the charm scale; Mapiu’s cafe.

Before you go rushing to Google Maps, Mapiu is the only settlement in the 63 km wilderness on State Highway 4 between Te Kuiti and Taumaranui. Apart from the cafe, it boasts a community hall and a primary school attended by 22 kids. It’s not the sort of place you’d expect to find a cafe, much less a good one.

The cafe is run by a retired couple, who make all of the food (pastry included) themselves. The husband looks after the customers, while his wife bakes 35 pies and all sorts of tasty cakes, biscuits and slices every day.

All of it is good old fashioned, tasty Kiwi home cooked fare prepared with care and a clear sense of pride in what is made. My steak pie was chock full of meat (no gristle, fat or excessive gravy here!), and was served on bone china with a side dish of homemade tomato chutney. The fruit crumble slice was filling and tasty, and the coffee was good.

Mapiu cafe is located in the former general store which, the proprietor informed us, used to be owned by his father. Memorabilia and object d’art adorn the interior, creating a deslighfully quirky ambience.

As much as I love trying weird and wonderful food from other cultures, Mapiu’s cafe provided a welcome opportunity to reconnect with excellent and unpretentious traditional Kiwi food in a lovely setting. What a fantastic find!

The cafe's interior was charming; almost like a little museum.

Downtown Mapiu.

From Mmmmm! to Hmm...

A foodie friend recently gave me a can of mouloukhieh that he’d found in a Middle Eastern grocery. It was something I’d never even heard of, much less tasted.

Also known as mloukeih, molokhia and Jew’s mallow, this leafy green vegetable has – according to the Internet - a mucilaginous texture and laxative properties.

As the owner of a large can of mysterious green slime that may possibly play havoc with my bowels, I decided to bide my time and wait until I was in the right frame of mind to do it justice.

Meanwhile, on Saturday night I enjoyed a considerably more conventional food experience in the form of dinner at Molten Restaurant in Mt Eden. I’ve eaten there a number of times over the years and, after watching The Food Truck on telly (when Molten’s chef Michael Van de Elzen tries to create healthy alternatives to a range of fast food favourites), Don and I thought time to reacquaint ourselves with his slow food.

And I’m glad we did because the food and the service were faultless. My entree of vine wrapped Meyer lemon scented goats cheese, Melba toast and peperonata was delicious.

Unless it’s salmon, which I hate cooking at home because it makes everything stink, I almost never order fish at restaurants but Molten’s crayfish crusted hapuka with walnut fritters appealed. It was a delicious choice, which I’ve been thinking about ever since. It even inspired me to buy some fish, with the view to baking it in some kind of a crust for dinner tonight.

Don’s beef croquette entree and six week old Scotch steak main were also lovely. Neither of us had eaten such well hung meat before and found it to be fine-grained, tender and not at all gamey. We shared a panacotta with baked pears – also divine.

I expected to be confronted with
a can of slime, but the mouloukhieh
was quite watery.

Unfortunately I can’t quite say the same today’s mouloukhieh lunch even though the canned version is blissfully free of the mucilaginous properties that its fresh cousin apparently has.

Using an Internet recipe for inspiration, I fried some onion and chilli then added chicken stock, tomato paste, a bay leaf, some cooked chickpeas and the mouloukhieh. To the cooked soup I added a mixture of garlic, salt and dried coriander than had been pounded to a paste then fried in butter.

It was okay – quite tart and lemony like sorrel – and was very green and healthy tasting (so much so, that I had to have a piece of cake afterwards to recover).

I had seconds, but don’t have plans to repeat the performance with the large pot of leftovers now gracing my bench.

Mouloukhieh soup, anyone?

As luck has it, I’m catching up with my friend for lunch tomorrow. No prizes for guessing what I’m going to give him!

Molten Restaurant (open for lunch and dinner)
422 Mount Eden Road
Mount Eden 1024
(09) 638 7236
www.molten.co.nz