Saturday, February 17, 2007
Eat Food
Gengy's, Newmarket
So a friend was up in Auckland for the weekend, having recently made the shift to become a Wellingtonian. Being a recent entrant to the workforce, best thought was a meal of something cheap and cheerful. When you think cheap and cheerful, around here, you head straight for the Asian restaurants. Except for Grand Harbour and Sunshine, while they are still not expensive places to eat (compared to mid-top end fusion style places), they're still more expensive than your dinky local Asian place.
Having heard various decent reviews about Gengy's, I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to go try it out. I knew it vaguely as Mongolian barbeque - what exactly is Mongolian barbeque? Well, at Gengy's, it was a round, circular metal stovetop where three or four chefs worked at lightning speed. According to the tabletop information, this stove goes at 400 degrees Celsius. You pick your own sliced meat (plain or marinated, chicken, beef, lamb or pork) and then add some vegetables (everything from sprouts to pineapple), then ladle on some oil (garlic oil, chilli oil, peanut oil... list goes forever) and sauces (soy, teriyaki, curry, so many of them) and then add your choice of seasonings. You then give your bowl of ingredients to the chefs and they pop the bowl's contents onto the fiery hot stove, dicing and turning until the dish is cooked. Which takes all of literally 30 seconds. Can you imagine how the preparation of each day's meals might just go so much faster if that's how long it takes to cook?! (Not considering the amount of time it must take to do the prep work of slicing the meat and vegies etc.)
Well, it tastes great. Assuming you've put all the ingredients together well, that is. You really are responsible for your own flavours, entirely your own fault if you've gone too heavy handed on the chilli oil. Gengy's is a great take on the buffet, because at dinner it's all you can eat for $24.95. Take care that your eyes aren't bigger than your stomach, because there's really far too much to choose from for one sitting. There's also a salad bar and a range of carb items to go with your freshly cooked dish like fried rice and noodles.
Next time you need a cheap and cheerful, go to Gengy's. It's good fun. But don't go if anyone has any particular food allergies, because everyone's meals get cooked straight after each others, so there'll definitely be peanut traces and so forth.
Gengy's has three locations in Auckland - Newmarket, Henderson and Manukau. They have a listing on eatout.co.nz here http://www.eatout.co.nz/customers/cust.104697.html.
Gengy's, Newmarket
So a friend was up in Auckland for the weekend, having recently made the shift to become a Wellingtonian. Being a recent entrant to the workforce, best thought was a meal of something cheap and cheerful. When you think cheap and cheerful, around here, you head straight for the Asian restaurants. Except for Grand Harbour and Sunshine, while they are still not expensive places to eat (compared to mid-top end fusion style places), they're still more expensive than your dinky local Asian place.
Having heard various decent reviews about Gengy's, I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to go try it out. I knew it vaguely as Mongolian barbeque - what exactly is Mongolian barbeque? Well, at Gengy's, it was a round, circular metal stovetop where three or four chefs worked at lightning speed. According to the tabletop information, this stove goes at 400 degrees Celsius. You pick your own sliced meat (plain or marinated, chicken, beef, lamb or pork) and then add some vegetables (everything from sprouts to pineapple), then ladle on some oil (garlic oil, chilli oil, peanut oil... list goes forever) and sauces (soy, teriyaki, curry, so many of them) and then add your choice of seasonings. You then give your bowl of ingredients to the chefs and they pop the bowl's contents onto the fiery hot stove, dicing and turning until the dish is cooked. Which takes all of literally 30 seconds. Can you imagine how the preparation of each day's meals might just go so much faster if that's how long it takes to cook?! (Not considering the amount of time it must take to do the prep work of slicing the meat and vegies etc.)
Well, it tastes great. Assuming you've put all the ingredients together well, that is. You really are responsible for your own flavours, entirely your own fault if you've gone too heavy handed on the chilli oil. Gengy's is a great take on the buffet, because at dinner it's all you can eat for $24.95. Take care that your eyes aren't bigger than your stomach, because there's really far too much to choose from for one sitting. There's also a salad bar and a range of carb items to go with your freshly cooked dish like fried rice and noodles.
Next time you need a cheap and cheerful, go to Gengy's. It's good fun. But don't go if anyone has any particular food allergies, because everyone's meals get cooked straight after each others, so there'll definitely be peanut traces and so forth.
Gengy's has three locations in Auckland - Newmarket, Henderson and Manukau. They have a listing on eatout.co.nz here http://www.eatout.co.nz/customers/cust.104697.html.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Eat Food
La Zeppa, Freemans Bay
Tapa places have taken off in Auckland over the last year or so. I love them myself - I always get jealous of other people's orders if they turn out better than mine! Not that it's stopped me from plate-sharing or swapping halfway (gasp!). But tapas - this is the perfect way to have your cake and eat it too. Food sharing is such a great way to interact with others as well - nothing like bonding over a tasty morsel or eight.
La Zeppa is a great place to do some serious bonding. I went midweek for dinner to celebrate the upcoming wedding of a colleague and friend. 10 of us women, all raring for a decent drink and delicious food after a hard day's slog. La Zeppa is the perfect place for this - midweek and it was packed, and that's saying something, especially when La Zeppa is a pretty big place.
Each of us ordered a couple of dishes to share - so we had LOADS of food all over the table. Heaven I tell you. There was squid, chicken twists things, mushroom empanadas, risotto balls, veal, kumara bites, peking duck, toulouse sausage, prawns - the list goes on. I really can't remember what else we had, because we had so many. It was the best thing, going with a group of people - otherwise there's no way you could taste so many different dishes.
All very well accompanied by a few bottles of Spy Valley Pinot Gris.
And dessert...we were already quite full, but of course, a table full of females - we're not passing up dessert. You really shouldn't at La Zeppa. The list is just delectable - you'll get hungry just reading them. Once again, we all picked one dish (exception of one particular sweet-toothed lady who picked quite a few! Much appreciated though). There were little meringues with cream and berry coulis, these delicious Valhrona chocolate truffles in wafer cases (huge and SOOO chocolatey-evil), Eton Mess, ginger creme brulee, cheeses - honestly, it was incredible. And all so delicious.
Good value too, La Zeppa - you won't go hungry, that's for sure. I thoroughly recommend this place - if you're with a big group, do make sure you book a table, as it's popular!
I'm hungry just remembering that great meal.
La Zeppa is at 33 Drake St, Freemans Bay, Auckland (just behind Victoria Park Markets).
La Zeppa, Freemans Bay
Tapa places have taken off in Auckland over the last year or so. I love them myself - I always get jealous of other people's orders if they turn out better than mine! Not that it's stopped me from plate-sharing or swapping halfway (gasp!). But tapas - this is the perfect way to have your cake and eat it too. Food sharing is such a great way to interact with others as well - nothing like bonding over a tasty morsel or eight.
La Zeppa is a great place to do some serious bonding. I went midweek for dinner to celebrate the upcoming wedding of a colleague and friend. 10 of us women, all raring for a decent drink and delicious food after a hard day's slog. La Zeppa is the perfect place for this - midweek and it was packed, and that's saying something, especially when La Zeppa is a pretty big place.
Each of us ordered a couple of dishes to share - so we had LOADS of food all over the table. Heaven I tell you. There was squid, chicken twists things, mushroom empanadas, risotto balls, veal, kumara bites, peking duck, toulouse sausage, prawns - the list goes on. I really can't remember what else we had, because we had so many. It was the best thing, going with a group of people - otherwise there's no way you could taste so many different dishes.
All very well accompanied by a few bottles of Spy Valley Pinot Gris.
And dessert...we were already quite full, but of course, a table full of females - we're not passing up dessert. You really shouldn't at La Zeppa. The list is just delectable - you'll get hungry just reading them. Once again, we all picked one dish (exception of one particular sweet-toothed lady who picked quite a few! Much appreciated though). There were little meringues with cream and berry coulis, these delicious Valhrona chocolate truffles in wafer cases (huge and SOOO chocolatey-evil), Eton Mess, ginger creme brulee, cheeses - honestly, it was incredible. And all so delicious.
Good value too, La Zeppa - you won't go hungry, that's for sure. I thoroughly recommend this place - if you're with a big group, do make sure you book a table, as it's popular!
I'm hungry just remembering that great meal.
La Zeppa is at 33 Drake St, Freemans Bay, Auckland (just behind Victoria Park Markets).
