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Coromandel is celebrating its food, art and New Zealand music this month, with a host of events and special menus at selected peninsula eateries.
In late May a Coromandel food trail will be launched to guide visitors round the region's best homegrown produce, including local wines, macadamias, seafood, cheeses, chocolates, organic produce and more.
The Homegrown Festival is already under way and among the upcoming events are a special dinner on Saturday, May 19 at Peppertree Restaurant in Coromandel town, where the area's chefs will come together to create a five-course meal of homegrown produce and matching local wines.
Special menus are in place all month at Peppertree and these other restaurants and cafes: Colenso, Salt, The Old Mill, Tuatua, Ohinemuri Winery Estate, Sola Cafe and Hot Waves Cafe.
On Saturday May 26, Coastal Flavours and Vines, a free entry event, will be held at Cooks Beach Vineyard, in collaboration with Shakespeare Cliff Vineyard and Cathedral Cove Macadamias.
The same day a special trip on the water will give an insight into mussel farming, followed by a mussel barbecue lunch.
For tickets for the barge trip contact Tourism Coromandel, ph (07) 868 0472. Go to www.homegrownfestival.co.nz for more information about the month's events.
Sounds delicious
Diners at one of Britain's top restaurants are being invited to listen to MP3 players as they eat because its chef believes sound can make the flavours more intense.
Heston Blumenthal already serves up unusual dishes such as snail porridge and bacon and egg ice cream at the Michelin three-starred Fat Duck in Bray, west of London, but now he is pushing the boundaries of gastronomy further by asking customers to listen to the sound of breaking waves to heighten the taste sensation of a new dish called Sound of the Sea. The dish consists of seafood such as baby eels, razor clams and oysters plus seaweed on a bed of tapioca, which resembles sand.
Blumenthal told Square Meal magazine he had conducted a series of tests that indicated sound could enhance the sense of taste.
"We ate an oyster while listening to the sea and it tasted stronger and saltier than when we ate it while listening to barnyard noises, for example," he said. The possibilities, with his menu, are thunderous.
Just reward
Mother's Day is Sunday - in case you'd forgotten - and the Langham Hotel has the solution with the perfect treat. It's holding a special afternoon tea from 2pm-4.30pm complete with live jazz, Laurent-Perrier Champagne, Dilmah teas and a delicious three-tier platter of nibbles. Tickets are $45, with $10 from each ticket going to the Breast Cancer Research Trust. Bookings are essential. Ph 0800 616261 or email akl.resv@langhamhotels.com
Good cause
Another laudable idea for the mother who cares is to extend her sage advice to "eat your greens" by checking out the Gifts that Grow catalogue of ChildFund, so you can gift another child the sort of start in life that all mothers wish for.
A vegetable garden starter kit for a family in a developing country costs $22. See www.childfund.org.nz
The perfect match
Otto's at the Metropolis has been named winner of the Corbans' Perfect Match, a competition where more than 100 restaurants nationwide were judged on their food combinations with Corbans' private bin wines.
