Food bites: A yuzu vodka, a Cassia/French Cafe pop up, and two food festival announcements

Hawkes Bay's winter F.A.W.C. festival is back. Photo / Supplied

Two regional food festivals have been announced, a flood has moved Cassia temporarily into The French Cafe, plus two unique boutique vodka releases made with locally grown yuzu citrus and umeshu plums.

City flash flood leads to a delicious new pop up

Wild weather hit much of the country last week and Auckland's central city Cassia was no exception. The restaurant's Fort Lane site was damaged extensively in the downpours, and found themselves having to shut shop. But crisis breeds opportunity, and now for just three weeks, Cassia will be operating a fabulous pop up at The French Kitchen, the private dining rooms to the side of Symond Street's Sid at The French Cafe. The Cassia Kitchen is offering a five-course Cassia tasting menu for $90 per person - the menu includes tandoori fish, lamb seekh, pork belly and a chocolate and raspberry dessert.

Open for dinner, Tuesday to Saturday, until April 16. To book, email info@cassiarestaurant.co.nz

The Cassia Kitchen, a pop up at The French Cafe until April 2022. Photo / Supplied

Flavours of Plenty

The Bay of Plenty is hosting a new regional food festival, Flavours of Plenty, in April and tickets are on sale now. There are tonnes of events to choose from – five-course fine dining meals, tapas nights, hangi, plant-based feasts, craft brewery events and much more. Some of the events have already sold out so go to flavoursofplentyfestival.com quick smart.

Flavours of Plenty, a new food festival coming to the Bay of Plenty. Photo / Supplied

The winter F.A.W.C. returns

The dates of Hawke's Bay's legendary winter F.A.W.C. have just been announced. This year the winter food and wine classic will run from June 7-26, with more than 40 events packed in over four weekends. The full programme and tickets will be released in early April – late autumn is a beautiful time to visit for harvest wine tours and the changing seasonal colours, plus the event is an annual sell-out, so keep a lookout at fawc.co.nz and hawkesbaynz.com

Hawkes Bay's winter F.A.W.C. festival is back. Photo / Supplied

Local yuzu and umeshu + vodka

Neville and Junko Chun, farmers based in Horowhenua, just outside Wellington, are pioneers in growing yuzu (an Asian citrus fruit now finding its way on to New Zealand menus) and umeshu plums (commonly used to make Japanese plum wine). Now the Chuns have teamed up with Scapegrace to create two varietals of vodka with these unique ingredients. Both vodkas use the whole fruit for these varietals – skin, pith, flesh and seeds – with just 2500 bottles of each variety being released, so act fast. scapegracedistillery.com

Horticulturalist Junko Chun, who grows yuzu in Horowhenua. Photo / Supplied