Good local food is more than a matter of taste

We're at the beginning of a food revolution. Photo/File

As the holidays approach, thoughts run to the intimacies of family and food.

Food is on my mind as a daily matter of survival and beyond that, pleasure. To put in my oar in the family duties, I do almost all the food shopping. Luckily, in Wanganui I can indulge my bias toward freshness through local sources.

I was clued in to George's Fisheries, next door to the cinema, a while back, by someone in the fish business. This fish and chip shop-cum-restaurant has been here a long time under different management. A few years ago it was taken over by the Robinsons, Greg and Yvonne, assisted occasionally by son, Jacob, and a very able staff. Greg had been a commercial fisherman which may go far to explain his insistence on finding sources for the freshest and best conditioned fish .

What had been in its former incarnation a good local fish and chip shop has become something of a cut above, a place that can accommodate every level of taste from the humble straightforward fish fry to the more elaborate restaurant meal to the source of highest quality fish available for home cooking. These days when people care enough, and take time enough to provide the highest quality food available, it's a pleasure just to go there.

I've always had a thing for delis. In the States they were the go-to places for prepared comfort food - pot roasts, brisket, salami. Here I'm chuffed to find Ambrosia, the local deli on Ridgway, run by Nevanah Turner. Her penchant is for the Mediterranean cuisines, but the deli covers a far wider range. The lamb tagine is savoury, with a perfect balance of Moroccan spices. The scotch eggs, from a different, more familiar tradition, are splendid.

Nevanah, who also does catering, makes mouth-watering pastries, which I try hard, but often fail, to resist. Ambrosia has an attached coffee-house restaurant, La Bolsa Negra, which serves a luncheon menu showcasing her talent. That talent was recognised in the Dominion Post's inclusion of Ambrosia's recipe for coffee and walnut slice in its recent restaurant menu collection.

On sale are a wide variety of speciality ingredients, some simple, some exotic, from cheeses to strawberry dust. Whenever I'm looking for a hard-to-find recipe ingredient it's usually here.

Sushi took about 20 years to become a familiar staple in the US. An American friend, who once claimed he'd prefer torture to eating raw fish, has become something of a connoisseur of the different varieties of raw bluefin tuna.

Judging from the growing number of sushi places in Wanganui and the absence in any of a Hoshizaki, the Japanese cooler and display case of raw fish, it's clear we're at the beginning of the revolution. Our luck is that there are several fine spots serving sushi, including even New World. I frequent them all. My own favourite is in Trafalgar Square Mall, OCGGI. OCGGI is an offshoot of one originally opened in Palmerston North. This small bar run by Jason Lee, assisted ably by chef Yoshitaka Maeda, serves a similar menu to that more widely available - various rolls featuring raw salmon or cooked chicken. The difference is in the rice.

I never understood the significance of the rice to the fish, simply accepting what was offered. Then I saw the movie Jiro Dreams of Sushi, about the 80-year-old proprietor of a sushi bar in a Tokyo subway station that's been awarded three Michelin stars. An assistant chef who studies with the master spent 10 years learning to cook rice.

It's that kind of concentration and focus that is reflected in the rice at OCGGI. It does enhance the experience of the fish, giving it a light, moist, yet solid texture and taste. It may not have Michelin stars, but I'll give it two of mine.

We do have some great food choices here. Now all we have to do is rebuild the old Polytech Cooking School.