Everybody's Bar & Bistro - Imperial Lane

Looking at the bar.  Entrance on the left and dining area to the

right.  Note the sudden change into the wooden flooring on a

downhill slope - I nearly fell over TWICE! They need to stop

polishing the floor :p so be careful if you wear high heels like

I do, ladies and gents!

Looking for something hip and yet retro with a twist of glamour to relax with your group of friends?  Look no further!  Come to Everybody's at the newly opened Imperial Building, Auckland CBD.  You can access through 44 Queen Street or 7 Fort Lane.  After an afternoon spent looking at the exhibition "Degas to Dali" at the Auckland Art Gallery, this was a lovely place to chillaxe and finish off the Sun afternoon/evening.  Although I have to admit, I only had drinks and tapas there, so cannot comment about their dinner, but the drinks and service was excellent!  Everybody's and Roxy's Executive Chef is Sean Marshall who was the Head Chef at Wellington's iconic Matterhorn while the drinks are designed by Riki carter, who also according to the website is the Cocktail and Spirits Ambassador of Matterhorn, which could help explain why their menu design, layout and style looked familiar...like the one I saw in Matterhorn, Cuba St. Wellignton!

The first impression to anything or anyone is always the most important.  My first impression was that the place is elegant, fashionable and yet not too posh.  The overall experience was top rated, helped by the excellent service.  When we arrived and were offered to be seated, and water was brought over to our table promptly.  The waitress after hearing that this was our first visit took the time to explain to us the history of the Imperial Building - it once housed the Roxy and Everybody's Theatre and recently had a $13-million makeover.  The Imperial Building now houses the Imperial Lane (cafe on the ground level), Roxy (fine dining restaurant) and Everybody's Bar and Bistro.  If you're interested in the new architecture check it out here.  The waitress then offered us to take a look around the upstairs area even though it was reserved for a wedding photo shoot later.  I have to note, we did arrive about 3pm, when it was pretty quiet so we were well attended to.  Even saying so, it was great to see the staffs taking the time to make sure you're settled and more importantly, we had a very entertaining waitress!  She even bought over free sample of Pinot Noir that she became infatuated with recently and introduced to us a little about the wine, which was great as I hadn't try that particular wine before.  I was drinking the 2010 Mt Difficulty 'Roaring Meg' Pinot Noir, delicious!

One of the six bar seating areas.  The seats were leather and comfy, just needing it some

back support there.  I like how they "closed" this little area with just a simple design

featuring a row of plants, an attempt to make it outdoor without deterring from the

glamorous vibe. 

When outing with friends, I really enjoy a good quality wine, and here at Everybody's the wine menu didn't disappoint.  They stock mostly local NZ wines and also added a few overseas varieties that you can have in individual "glass" rather than having to buy a whole bottle.  Sometimes when you're out with a group of friends, everyone has different liking and taste for wine and so you find that you have to opt for your second choice just because your first choice only comes in a bottle,  however, you probably won't find this to be a problem at Everybody's.

Now comes to the only negative part of my review...I didn't 100% enjoy their tapas.  We ordered the "Crab Toastie", "Duck liver & cognac parfait, brioche, pear chutney" and "Tokyo Chicken".  Soon after we received our food, the manager came around once and check that everything was to our satisfaction and anything else we were in need of, which I believe is very important part of hospitality that are lacking in many "posh" restaurants in New Zealand, so kudos on that part.  Aside from this, it is very disappointing when you're at a place drinking delicious wine to be then accompanied with food that do not match the quality wine selection, friendly staff or great atmosphere.  I am sure the chef used the freshest crab in the "Crab Toasties", made their own brioche, but for $14 per dish that was an okay price for size of the food but not for the delivery of the food.  Okay I ADORE CRAB!  Crab is light and delicate and I found by putting it in the butter-rich brioche then "toast" it, I couldn't really enjoy the crab.  It was very nicely toasted, well done on that.  However, if the bistro did indeed have fresh quality crabs, wouldn't it be better turning into other succulent dishes that will bring out the natural sweetness and the delicate texture of the crab?  It was about this time when we need another glass of wine.  T'was great to see the waitress watching our glasses attentively and promptly asked whether we would like another one and collected the empty glasses swiftly.

Upstairs: Love the rich red coloured couches and that luxurious teal couch on the right

hand side, a great contrast yet fitting with the wooden flooring.  When I go back next

time, I want to sit on those couches!

Oh the duck liver & cognac parfait...I heart parfait and I think the chef did very well here.  The parfait was smooth and light textured with intense liver flavour that was not overpowering, as it can sometimes happen when they get the balance wrong.  I just wished there were more brioches to go with it... or should I say better brioches... I wouldn't say I am a brioche expert, but I've had enough brioches in my time to say the one I had from Everybody's bistro was below par.  There are many styles of brioches, some are savoury and some are sweet.  The accompanied brioche for the parfait was thin, and so crumbly that I spent more times picking up the crumbles from the table than eating it.  I didn't really feel the "richness" that usually comes with brioches.  The parfait was slightly sweet; together with the pear chutney just did not match well with the brioche which was also slightly sweet.

Cute and cosy two-person seating for people who just 

want to enjoy a couple of drinks and nibbles.  The 

seating allows you to look down into the dining area,

I think this is a fabulous design and great use of space.

Lastly the Tokyo Chicken - the friend I was there with was as puzzled as I was about what exactly is a Tokyo chicken?  On the menu there was no description of what it is, a very negative part of their menu as there are other items that you would not be able to guess from its name alone.  When we asked the waitress she described it, as I quote "like popcorn chicken from KFC"...I thought it was cute and humours but why would I want to pay $12 for popcorn chicken when I can get it for $5.50 from KFC?  Also the description was not very helpful from the waitress.  Wished she knew more about the dish.  It was basically bite size chicken meat, lightly coated with flour and herbs, deep fried and served with what I suspect was Japanese mayo.  The dish was good, not mind blowing but not bad.

At the end of the evening there was a DJ entertaining us with some hip music, wish they would play Jazz...but that's just me!  Not sure how loud this place will become with the music and people chattering, with a high roof and wooden flooring I suspect there isn't  much sound dampening available here so you may struggle to hear when the crowd gets bigger.  So if you finding it hard to hear for all sort of reasons or just like to enjoy chit-chatting rather yelling at your friends, there is an outdoor option for the clear and sunny occasions.  Nevertheless, I think this is a lovely place to hang out whether you're in a small or large group.

OVERALL

FOOD: The tapas were okay.

PRICE: Reasonable.

WINE SELECTION: Very good selection.

SERVICE: Excellent!

ATMOSPHERE: Glamorous! and I really enjoyed the grandeur design of this place with tasteful furniture.

Summary: So here you go my personal review.  I have also read reviews from others on the website and unfortunately, majority aren't so good so far, however, it is still early days!  Personally, I would return and be soaked up in the atmosphere with excellent service and drink my wine but will try out other tapas dish.  For the next visit I would like to sit on the comfy couches upstairs and try out the duck fat potatoes, surely you cannot go wrong with anything fried in duck fat especially potatoes!

Soft-Centred Chunky Chocolate Cookies

Freshly baked Soft-Centred Chunky Chocolate Cookies - YUM!

I have been baking a lot lately in an attempt to help fundraise for my little brother's Ice Speed Skating Club: Hauraki Racing Club at Paradice Ice,  Avondale.  The cookies have been an absolute hit and raised lots of money for the club.  So I thought I would take this opportunity to share this mouth-watering Soft-Centred Chunky Chocolate Cookies recipe with you.

Who doesn't love chocolate chip cookies?  I didn't grew up with chocolate chip cookies, I know how shocking!  In Taiwan, we have many delicious cookies that are mainly short-bread based and coated with sugar or chocolates, and many varieties of wafers.  Growing up in Taiwan also meant eating many traditional snacks that seems to be a lost art these days, so I didn't really needed a fix from the Western cookies at the time.  It wasn't until the mid 90s, when my family immigrated to New Zealand that I was slowly introduced and later hooked on by these delicious chocolate chippy cookies.  First introduction was your normal supermarket brand cookies that you'll have during morning teas, or at camps.  Later in primary, we had "technology" days were we went out to Orewa North Primary School and learnt different skills such as woodworking, sewing and of course cooking.  I will always my first encounter with the Vanilla Chocolate Cookies, I still have the recipe!  Over the years, as I was busy concentrating on important things rather than "how to make myself a good house wife or baker", I began to buy the Double or Triple Chocolate Cookie Times!  During my varsity years it was the chocolate cookies from Subway just down the road.  However, none of which is or will ever be as good as the ones bake at home.

It has been a year since the life-changing earthquake first struck on our beloved garden city, Christchurch in the south Island, and it will be a year since I first tasted these "Soft-Centre Chunky Chocolate Cookies" made by Nishani Dayaratne.  Many of us put our science into good use and created delightful baked goodies to fundraise for the people in Christchurch, this was when Nishani made her cookies.  Come to think of it, she hasn't made the cookies since, where I have for multiple occasions - what can I say?  I HEART COOKIES!  I later discovered the recipe is very similar or near exact to the one I already had from the "Taste" magazines I ordered one year, the differences are the types of sugar and how the ingredients were measured - one by weight and the other by volume.  Not sure how many of you are keen bakers out there, although from a scientific point-of-view, I do have to agree that measuring dry ingredients by weight is more accurate than by volume.  However, it is so much quicker to do it by volume and if you're only baking something like cookies, a slight error wouldn't matter too much!  So this is the recipe I like to share with you today - the one measured out by volume.  It is delicious!  If you warm up the cookies in the microwave for 10sec, it'll become heavenly!  Enjoy :)

Soft-Centred Chunky Chocolate Cookies

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp baking soda 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted 1 cup of firmly packed light brown sugar 1/2 cup granulated sugar 2 large eggs 2 tsp vanilla extract 250-280g dark chocolate, cut into approx. 1cm2

Preheat the oven to 160°C.  Line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment.  In a medium bowl, sift through and mix together the flour, salt and baking soda. In a large bowl, whisk the melted butter and sugar.  I tend to cream the butter with sugar until it becomes paler (Image 1).  Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, until well blended (Image 2).  Whisk in the vanilla.  Using a wooden spoon, stir in the dry ingredients until combined (Image 3).  Stir in the chocolate (Image 4). Using a spoon, scoop up some dough and roll it into a ball and place it onto the baking sheets leave a 5cm gap between each doughs (Image 5).  I make sure there’s at least 2 pieces of chocolate chunks in each cookie and weigh them (32g per ball).  It is important to make sure the chocolate chunks are on the top, so it won’t melt away from the side or burn at the bottom of the cookie. Bake for 12min and check (depending on your oven) until the centre has melted and slight colouring in the edges (Image 6).  Let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheets or a wire rack.

How do you know if you made a good cookie dough in this particular recipe?  By hand actually!  When you roll the dough out in your hand, it should not stick and all it should leave on your hand is layer of glossy butter and melted chocolate afterwards.  If your dough is too wet, adjusts slightly with some more flour, but be careful not to add too much!  When you whisk in the eggs, don't overdo it - just enough to incorporate the eggs into the mixture.  When I do it, I whisk it slightly to breakdown the egg and then mix it in by stirring.  I tend to bake cookies one tray at a time since I like them evenly browned, however if you're short on time, baking two trays in one go still yields good results.  If you like your cookies to spread out more, then press it down gently before you bake them, I like my cookies chunky as it tend to retain moisture better.  You can also try making the cookies in 40g, they are also quite good but I wouldn't make it bigger than 50g each.

Bœuf Bourguignon aka Beef Burgundy

Since the New Zealand weather has becoming less and less predictable, and getting colder by the day, it almost feels like WINTER even though it is still only March.  I thought I would prepare everyone for the winter to come with this hearty Bœuf Bourguignon recipe!

Bœuf Bourguignon just like its name is a beef dish from the famous wine region Burgundy in the eastern part of France.  It was very popular back in the 1960s at dinner parties.  This rustic and rich comfort food is slowly creeping back onto the restaurant menus and into our homes.  Bœuf Bourguignon is one of those classic peasant dishes that have been refined slowly through time.  Since it was a peasant dish of origin, back then tougher cuts of beef were used and then slowly tenderised through slow and low simmering.  Nowadays, more luxury cuts are used so shorter cooking time is required.  However, thanks to the recession and inflation, maybe slowly we'll return back to the peasant days...which will make this dish even more perfect!

In my possessions I have 3 different versions of Bœuf Bourguignon; these are not "Julia Child's" version (which is Sauté de Boeuf à la Bourguignonne) that seems to be very popular since the release of the movie Julie and Julia which is slightly different from the original recipe described by Auguste Escoffier.  In my possession I have one from The Cook's Companion: The Complete Book of Ingredients and Recipes for the Australian Kitchen, the other from Cook: How to Cook Absolutely Everything (Australian Women's Weekly) and lastly for those read Chinese from this book 高級法式料理. One may think it is only a simple casserole dish, how different can the recipes be?  Well...they are VERY DIFFERENT!  The one from "The Cook's Companion" uses blade/chuck steak brandy, orange zest, flat mushrooms, shallots and bacon cooked slowly in a 170°C oven for 2 and 1/2 hours.  While the one from "Cook" uses gravy beef, bacon, mushrooms and shallots, it is cooked slowly on a stove for 2 hours.  The one from 高級法是料理 uses celery, carrots, tomato and tomato paste, and cooked in a 180-200°C oven for 1 and 1/2 hours.  

Bœuf Bourguignon - this is what it should look like at the end.  NOTE: this was made 

with Chicken stock as I didn't have beef stock or 8 hours to cook my own veal stock,  

so the colour is a lot lighter than you would expect a bœuf Bourguignon to be.  

It should be a dark rich reddish brown colour, closer to the colour of your red wine.

The recipe I'm providing here is from the 高級法是料理 recipe book in Chinese that I bought in Taiwan written by three famous French Chef whom apparently are "Professors of French Cuisine"...this makes my PhD in Bioengineering and Physiology so minuscule...However, I am unable to say whether this is the "authentic" version or closer to Julia Child's version or some other modernised version since I don't have Julia Child's book nor read French.  I enjoy this particular recipe because personally I don't believe in using brandy in this dish and don't like putting bacon into a beef dish, and lastly am not a fan of mushrooms, but these are not the mains reason why I chose the 高級法是料理 recipe.  The colour from this recipe is impeccable thanks to the part where you reduce the red wine into a thick sauce and then added into the casserole, and also there's a recipe at the back of the book that allows you to make the rich veal stock (fond de veau) - if you want amazing flavour then definitely make the stock.  Nevertheless, we are all pretty busy and cannot spend 8 hours making this - yes you read it correctly 8 hours!!!  This is when a handy dandy slower cooker comes in handy or supermarket pre-made beef stock :)

This recipe uses beef belly - and it was on special the other day ($9.99 per kg) so I just had to buy some.  I originally intended to make another dish, however after realising that I didn't have beer at home (yes, the Chinese Braised Beef Belly uses draft beer and yes it was also shocking to find that I didn't have any beer at home!), so I decided to make Bœuf Bourguignon instead - t'was equally delicious, though would be even more AMAZING if I had used the veal/beef stock!  It is on rare occasions that I didn't stock any beef stocks in my pantry so I had to use chicken stock...  I served this later with creamy and fluffy mashed potatoes and garlic butter zucchinis/courgettes and accompanied by a good bottle of Shiraz! (this was the left over wine - I used a cheap bottle for the 750mL part and good bottle for the 250mL part).  The Cabernet Merlot also goes well with this recipe.  I hope you will all enjoy this recipe!  Bon Appétit!

Bœuf Bourguignon

800g beef belly (cut into 4 pieces) 200 g onion, cubed 100g carrot, cubed 100g celery, cubed 30g butter 20g flour 130g tomato, skinned and chopped 25g tomato paste 1L red wine 500mL Veal/Beef Stock 2 cloves garlic, crushed 1 bouquet garini*

Preheat oven to 180°C.  In a pan, heat some oil (preferably vegetable oil like canola as it has a higher smoking point).  Salt and pepper the beef, place in the hot pan and brown the outside of the beef well.  Remove and drip dry the oil on a wire rack.  Make sure not to crowd the pan with the beef as it will not sear but instead stew. Tip away the excess fat from the pan then add in about 250mL of red wine and reduce (I tend to reduce it to 1/3 of its original volume or more). In a heat proof pot (like a casserole pot), heat the pot then add the butter.  Stir fry the onions, carrots and celery in the butter until a slight change in colour or slightly softened.  Add the flour and mix well (make sure you don't burn the flour). Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, beef and 750mL red wine into the pot.  Boil the mixture for about 5min until the alcohols are burnt off. Add the reduced red wine from Step 3 and the veal/beef stock turn the heat on high and boil.  Reduce the heat after the mixture has boiled and skim off the debris from the top. Add the bouquet garini, garlic, and salt and pepper, place the lid on and cook in the preheated 180°C oven.  After 1hr and 30min, remove the bouquet garini and check the seasoning and adjust with more salt and pepper accordingly.  Serve with creamy mash potatoes or fettuccine.

* Bouquet Garini - 1 bay leaf, 1 sprig of thyme and 2-3 stalks tie together in a string.  Not all of us will have these fresh herbs in stock, so if you don't, omit the bay leave and use dried thyme.  It is vital that you use "European" celery and not the "Chinese" celery, as the Chinese celery fragrance overpowers the stock.

As you've noticed, this recipe requires 1L of red wine.  Most wine comes in a 750mL bottle, so what to do with the remaining wine?  I tend to drink a glass while I am cooking, but you can always save the rest and serve it with the Bœuf Bourguignon.  Depending on your oven, the recipe suggests a range of 180-200°C, I suppose this will depend on the type of beef you use and how well you know your oven.  My new oven tends to increase in heat over time, so I usually use the lower temperature as it will heat up later any way.