The dish

Picture / Carolyn Robertson

Cookie time


It's never to young to get started on organic food. Abundant Earth's Healthy Handfuls bite-sized cookies for kids are free from artificial colours, flavours and preservatives and come in organic banana-strawberry and apple-pear flavours. It's the pictures by 5-year-olds on the resealable bags that make them so attractive. $4.99 for 125g. Abundant Earth's Organic Hot Chocolate doesn't have works of art all over it but it is 97 per cent fat-free and made with Dutch cocoa. $9.99 for 150g. From selected supermarkets and health food stores.


Berry good for you


Call off the concealer. Blackcurrants may be a new wonder food if the research by Meiji Seika Health Food Research Institute in Japan is anything to go by. They've got more vitamin C than oranges and truckloads of antioxidants, but the most exciting thing about them is they can help reduce discoloration around the eyes. It's simple: slow blood flow means blood is darker due to reduced oxygen levels and because the area below the eye is thin, dark red blood is visible through the skin. The polyphenol in blackcurrants helps improve poor blood circulation. The season may be from December to January but blackcurrant products should do the trick for the rest of the year as the antioxidants are stable and active after processing.


World class winery


Hunter's Vineyard Restaurant in Marlborough has won an accolade from top American travel guide Fodor's, appearing as its only New Zealand listing in Fodor's Choice for 2006, a round-up of hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions from around the world described as so good you've got to go there.

The restaurant at the gold medal-winning winery was said to show "how seriously the best New Zealand winemakers have food in mind". Local produce, like mussels, star on the menu.