I spent last weekend in Wellington for a conference. I ate at Little Penang on Dixon Street for lunch on Saturday. We had to queue out the door but the food was worth it, very filling and reasonably priced (about $12 for a plate I couldn't finish). Shelby got Mee Goreng, which I tried and preferred to my dish (Mee Siam with chicken). However, mine had a lot of variety in terms of flavours and textures - vermicelli, prawns, roasted peanuts, spicy chutney, coconut milk, potatoes...). A different ordering system would speed up the queues out the door (upon getting to the counter and ordering something off the chalkboard menu you then have to run through a number of options the menu doesn't make you aware of - like I had to choose what kind of chicken I wanted out of about 6 different types, leading to indecision and slow ordering after I had had about 25 minutes to decide what I wanted in the queue). The items in the warmer at the counter weren't labelled/priced, so that also slowed things down as we had to ask the guy behind the counter what things were. However it wasn't hard to find a free table once we had actually ordered.

For dinner we went to the Tasting Room on Courtenay Place. I had chicken breast with mustard mashed potato, brussel sprouts and water chestnuts and Shelby had fish and chips. The mustard mashed potato has inspired me to try mixing wholegrain mustard into my own mashed potato at home. The food was really good, particularly the chips which came with Shelby's meal, which were cooked twice. We then went to Strawberry Fare for dessert. The place itself was a bit shabby, and the service was a bit slack (our meals arrived without us having been given any cutlery), but the desserts were visually impressive and tasty. I had a berry drenched warmed chocolate cake, which the menu described as having a souffle like texture. It was like Nigella's chocohotopots. Shelby had a cranberry white chocolate cheesecake.

The desserts came with slices of feijoa, biscotti and vanilla icecream.

In both my family's homes there was a feijoa tree, the first one good for hiding in due to its nest like branches, the second good for feeding friends with while playing in the treehouse. My primary school also had a feijoa tree, a source of rumour and urban legend. There is a feijoa tree behind our building which drops childhood memories on the concrete which it overhangs. The hard, bruised fruit would waste away if we didn't collect it (and some of the fruit which nature has treated more kindly by dropping onto the grass rather than the concrete). So far none have been ripe enough to eat raw, but the tart sourness of the unripe feijoas makes a good, tangy pudding.

White Chocolate Feijoa Cake Pudding

recipe originally from here

You will need:

• 10 feijoas
• 1 cup water
• 5 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 tsp minced ginger
• 1 cup flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 100 g softened butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• enough white chocolate buttons to cover surface

Directions:

1. peel feijoas by slicing off skins with a knife
2. cut feijoas into 3 or 4 pieces per feijoa, depending on size. You want the pieces about 2cm thick.
3. place cut feijoas in pot with water, tablespoons of sugar and ginger.
4. bring to boil and then simmer for 5 minutes or until softened.
5. remove feijoas from pot with a slotted spoon and place in pie dish/cake tin in a single layer.
6. reduce liquid until you have about 4 tablespoons worth, then pour over feijoas.
7. in a bowl cream butter and sugar.
8. sift flour with baking powder into another bowl.
9. beat egg into butter and sugar.
10. fold dry ingredients into creamed butter and sugar, alternating with milk.
11. spread batter over top of feijoas with a spatula.
12. dot surface of batter with white chocolate buttons.
13. bake at 180 degrees until top is golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean (approximately 25 minutes)