Entertainment picks: Kick back and make time for kai

TV
Here's a recipe to start off the week. It's called Batter Puff Tuangi (cockles) with Corn and Bacon Sauce and it's just one of the scrummy recipes chef Pete Peeti, and his sidekick, Kingi Biddle, will prepare for us in the new series of Kai Time On The Road (Maori, Thursday, 8pm).

Here's how you make it ...

Place tuangi (cockles) into a saucepan to steam open. Remove meat and chop. To make batter, sift flour, cornflour and baking powder into bowl, make a well in the centre and stir in egg, water, olive oil. Allow batter to stand for 20 minutes to "relax".

Heat oil in a saucepan and add tuangi to batter and drop small spoonfuls into hot oil. Then, to make corn and bacon sauce, sweat bacon and chilli in pan with butter, add corn, tuangi stock and cream and reduce by half. Sprinkle fennel into sauce and season with salt and pepper. Serve with battered tuangi. Yum.

For more exact instructions click on the links below.

Kai Time is a great show because the two hosts are classic cousi-bros who love their kai and are into weird and wonderful ways of preparing and cooking it. Plus they go into every nook and cranny of the country to talk to whanau, friends and strangers on their journeys. If you haven't seen it, it's not a big-budget show, but it's tasty and fun.

On this week's Intrepid Journeys (TV One, 8.30, tonight), musician, cartoonist and all-round crazy nice guy, Chris Knox, heads to Southern India, where he ventures into villages and jams with the locals.

For a look at some swanky pads there's House Of The Year 2005 (TV3, Thursday, 8.30pm) which showcases this year's finalists and includes a peek inside the supreme award winner.

Also worth checking out, even if it's just to see what they'll try next, is the final of Eating Media Lunch (TV2, Tuesday, 10pm), and just in case you didn't feel like showing up, TV3 screens Christmas In the Park 2005 at 7.30 tonight.

Meanwhile, in the silly-season-TV-show-file we have Filthy Homes From Hell (TV One, Thursday, 8.30pm) and Raise My Kids (TV2, Thursday, 7.30pm). The first one speaks for itself, but the second is a local show where couples who want kids get to look after some to sample the agony and, of course, the ecstasy of parenthood before they take the plunge.

And Shortland Street fans, wake up, the final for the year is at 7pm on Friday and then you can sit down and watch America's Next Top Model.

Music
Since school's out forever - okay, just the summer - here's something for the older kids to kick off their holidays with. The Kids Are Alright is a series of all-ages gigs being organised by BlackBox, a company set up by Alex Hoyles.

Sick of the poor quality, and general lack of all-ages events around Auckland, Hoyles plans to put on monthly concerts around the Auckland area.

The launch party is on Saturday at the Britomart Pavilion in Customs St and with a line up of Deja Voodoo, the Have, the Rabble, the Fanatics, and My Life Story, the $10 cover charge is value for money.

About 80 bands, including the D4, the Checks, and Die! Die! Die!, will be involved in the ongoing concerts, which kick off proper in January. Good on ya, lad.

If you're keen on a bit of sinewy and sexy rock'n'roll, then boy-girl duo the Kills are playing the Kings Arms on Tuesday. Their debut, Keep On Your Mean Side, was one of my albums of the year in 2003 and their latest one, No Wow, is far more inviting, especially the country ballad, Rodeo Town.

Aussie metallers Parkway Drive kick off their Killing With A Smile mini-New Zealand tour this week, too. They play the Hamilton Boating Club on Thursday, the Ellen Melville Hall, Auckland on Friday, and Saturday at the Kings Arms, Auckland.

There's a bit of a country music vibe hitting town later in the week, with Wellington's Grand Prix teaming up with Melbourne-based Kiwis Cassette on Thursday at the Odeon Lounge on Mt Eden Rd. On Friday, Grand Prix, who are celebrating the release of their excellent album, The Way of the Racer, also play Edens Bar with the Situations.

Speaking of Cassette, their new album will (finally) be out in April. The band, fronted by former Head Like A Hole guitarist Tom Watson, have a country-meets-rock-meets-comedy thing going on when they play live but the music is sublime, and sometimes head-banging, so worth checking.

And, for a night away, head to Leigh to see former Muttonbirds man Don McGlashan with his new band the Seven Sisters at Leigh Sawmill on Saturday.

Movies
You can't blame the other movie producers for not wanting to go up against King Kong and the mighty Peter Jackson. So, apart from the films that are already on, Kong is the only movie to see because no others are brave enough to tackle the giant gorilla in its opening week at the New Zealand box office.

King Kong it is then, and what else is there to say except it had better be good.

Social circuit
If you've got time, with all those other social Christmas engagements, then get an invite to the Real Groove magazine and Groove Guide party at Galatos on Thursday, 6.30pm. On the bill are the Checks, Motocade, Autozamm, North Shore Pony Club and a bunch of DJs.