Innehållsförteckning för September 2016 från Metro NZ

Mark Thomas has political experience, as a two-term member of the Orakei Local Board and a member of the government’s Rules Reductions Taskforce (set up to reduce red tape in council operations). He has business experience, running his own companies, and also in corporate management roles (he has been ANZ’s head of group marketing and was in charge of its Restoring Customer Faith project — which sounds like just the sort of thing Auckland Council needs). His pitch is strong on fiscal responsibility (spend on priorities and “cut out the externals”) and on listening to the community. Alone among the mayoral candidates, he promises to let local boards set local priorities and to fund them accordingly. He’s the only candidate with any direct experience of Auckland Council, and he uses…

Petra Shawarma is so much more than a cheap place to eat. It’s a place of empowerment and a symbol of the Omars’ deep family connection with food. “I wish every woman could taste what I taste.” In a literal sense, this was Dalal Omar’s motivation to open a restaurant. When she moved here from Jordan with her husband in 2002, good Middle Eastern food — let alone good Jordanian food — was extremely hard to come by. But she’s talking figuratively, trying to put words to the newfound happiness she’s experienced since starting her own restaurant alongside three of her eight sisters. In Jordan, while all citizens are legally entitled to work, the reality is less rosy. Women typically have to be prepared to do battle with a patriarchal…

Our judges are food writers, cooks and bloggers with expertise ranging over many types of cuisine. Most of them write regularly online about food in Auckland. William Chen www.williamchendesign.blogspot.co.nz Connie Clarkson Simon Farrell-Green www.eatherenow.co.nz Alice Galletly Michal Haines Instagram: @choonmaebokchoy Alice Harbourne Metro food & digital editor, chair of the judging panel. Lynn Huhtala www.cheapeats.co.nz Anna King Shahab www.eatsbyanna.com Delaney Mes www.delaneymes.com Courteney Peters www.gatherandhunt.co.nz Kate Richards Alexia Santamaria www.cheapeats.co.nz Susannah Walker Metro editor Simon Wilson Metro editor-at-large…

Metro invited Work and Income to respond to claims made about Winz in this story. Here, verbatim, is the reply from Ministry of Social Development regional commissioner Blair McKenzie. “Every day our staff come to work to help New Zealanders help themselves to be safe, strong and independent. We understand that people coming to us are in vulnerable situations and often come to us as a last resort. It can be hard, and it can be an emotional time. “We are committed to treating everyone fairly, and with respect. To administer the welfare system consistently and responsibly, we do need to ask people questions, and we do require people to verify their circumstances through different forms of acceptable evidence. Through this process we are able to get a full picture…

Alone, Lolaiy’s terrine is a fine thing indeed. With a glass of Jacob’s Creek Double Barrel shiraz, it’s near-perfect. It’s as if we’re sitting in a little tavern in the Spanish countryside, tempranillo in one hand and wafer-thin slices of aged jamón in the other. Except we’re not. We’re at the far end of Mt Eden, way down Dominion Rd, beyond the fluorescent lights and noodle houses. Though there’s still plenty of wine — courtesy of Jacob’s Creek — and cured meat. There are also stuffed animals, most notably a rather surprised-looking stag on the back wall of the restaurant, a kitschy nod to co-owner and chef Dariush Lolaiy’s background as a huntsman. In the bar, beside a shelf of sherry, hangs a photo collage of hunting triumphs — Lolaiy,…

MALCOLM SMITH GALLERY 35 Uxbridge Rd, Howick, Auckland Open: Mon–Sat 10–4, Thu until 8pm Free entry www.malcolmsmithgallery.org.nz Named after the late local architect, community stalwart and founding member of Uxbridge, Malcolm Smith Gallery is East Auckland’s public contemporary art space. From September 10, the gallery will present Sacred Economies, an exhibition which draws our attention to sacredness, everyday magic and ritual exchange. THE FRAME WORKSHOP 49 Neilson St Onehunga Ph: 633-0218 182 Jervois Rd, Herne Bay Ph: 376-4749 www.frameworkshop.co.nz Not only has our gallery always got new and exciting artists on show, our custom framing is second to none! ARTSPACE NZ 1/300 Karangahape Rd, Auckland Open: Tues-Fri 10am–6pm, Sat 11am–4pm Free entry www.artspace.org.nz Artspace NZ, Auckland city’s contemporary art institution, has collaborated with internationally renowned New Zealand artist Simon Denny…

William Chen Writer A stalwart of the judging panel for Metro’s annual Top 100 Cheap Eats (page 50), Chen is no stranger to Auckland’s ever-evolving food scene. With home cooking off the menu thanks to a deep reluctance to mess up his designer kitchen, Chen’s eating-out missions are ably abetted by a bevy of Malaysian aunties, who ensure his knowledge of excellent ethnic food is kept up to scratch. The founding art director at Metro for 18 years, he moved on to Cuisine magazine, where he was creative director for 13 years.…

01 Yule be sorry when these council elections are over, eh? 02 Running for office from every orifice? 03 Wouldn’t this have been a better time for Andrew Little to tell Key to “cut the crap”? 04 Should they just change its name to Hemlock North and be done with it? 05 Who are you most glad is not your housewife, Gilda or Louise? 06 Working “What, plus size?” into all your introductions? 07 Champagne lady for mayor? 08 Old Goff and Young Crone: yeah, nah? 09 Finding those council election hoardings really helpful? 10 Will Jack tame Hillary? 11 Seeing as there was no food at the Baby Show, next year can there be no babies at the Food Show? 12 Is Richie McCurse wondering where he left his…

Sophie Roberts says she had an “allergic reaction” when she first read Boys Will Be Boys , Silo Theatre’s show opening this month. Allergic as in skin rash and face all puffed up? Not quite. “It’s such a horrible world — the worst people imaginable doing the worst things.” Sounds like good theatre, I suggest. Yes, she says. And one of the things that’s really good is these people are women. “We celebrate male characters like Tony Soprano and Walter White, but it’s rare to have such strong female anti-heroes.” This “horrible world” is currency trading, where the brutally ambitious and wildly successful Astrid takes on an intern, only to find the intern is even more brutal than she is. “It’s a world where the options for…

“Wild dogs under my skirt”: what images slide into your mind? Bared teeth? The smooth thighs of women? Perhaps you hear snarling laughter? Or do you think of sex…? For seven years, from 2002, Wild Dogs Under My Skirt made its way around the world — Germany, Austria, Israel, Bali, Morocco, Australia, Russia, Hawai’i — shocking, seducing and delighting audiences as it touched on everything from cannibalism to domestic cruelty. It moved from Samoa to Siberia, from Mangere to the Middle East. It was a one-woman show and I was both writer and performer. The last time I staged it, in 2008, I was a new and single mother. The juggle became too difficult. I thought the show had come to the end of its life — and then last…

He sat down and wrote a book, patiently explaining how you could become a better feminist by studying an All Blacks game. Kevin Roberts has frozen to death in Antarctica and a thousand women could not save him. He was 94. Kevin was not a man who simply sold stuff. For Mary Quant, Gillette, Procter & Gamble and Pepsi, he curated beautiful marketing campaigns “for everyone who was ever thrilled by a car chase or wept over a motherless deer”. And then New Zealand, last bus stop on the planet, home of the mighty All Blacks — mightiest warriors ever known — invited him to run Lion Nathan. It had become fashionable to hire people from elsewhere in the world. They were supposed to be geniuses. Also it meant senior…

Jolin Shanghai has a conundrum. According to owner Lei “Kelvin” Zhang, when the Dominion Rd restaurant opened in 2002, the customers were almost always Chinese Aucklanders. Today, about 30 per cent are, as Kelvin puts it, Westerners. He would welcome more custom from non-Chinese but he’s come across an unspoken phenomenon: for a Chinese restaurant to appear authentic in the eyes of a white person, there must be more Chinese people dining there than white people. It’s more of a curiosity than a problem: Jolin Shanghai has never been so busy, despite little advertising. Protecting Jolin’s reputation for authentic Shanghai food is Kelvin’s utmost concern; it’s what set the restaurant apart when his aunt and uncle, Lingling Wang and Weizhing Ni, founded the restaurant all those years ago. Shanghai is…

Originally from Gujarat, the Ambanis have always been traders. Ajit Ambani was a stock-broker for most of his life, which meant his son Gaurang grew up in one of Mumbai’s many well-appointed apartment buildings. Street vendors would routinely arrive on the doorstep proffering chaat, a variety of traditional savoury snacks typically based on fried dough, such as bhel puri, pav bhaji and samosas. When Gaurang moved to New Zealand in 2002 to study engineering, he had no idea Mumbai street food — and his mother’s cooking — would soon form such a big part of his life. After a spell of bad luck on the stock market, Ajit moved to New Zealand in 2006. By that stage he was, as Gaurang puts it, “a broken man”. He’d undergone a double…

A @BANGKOK 438 New North Rd, Kingsland ANGIE’S KITCHEN 17 Mount St, central city B BAMBOO HOUSE 9 Commerce St, central city BANZAI 583 Dominion Rd, Balmoral BARILLA DUMPLING 571 Dominion Rd, Balmoral BAWARCHI 519 Sandringham Rd, Sandringham BIAN SUSHI 183 Symonds St, Eden Terrace BIG J’S TAKEAWAYS 4/1 Melton Rd, Mt Wellington BIKANERVALA 214 Universal Drive, Henderson BIRD ON A WIRE Ponsonby Central, 136 Ponsonby Rd, Ponsonby BI WON KOREAN BBQ 29 Link Drive, Wairau Valley BOY & BIRD 222 Ponsonby Rd, Ponsonby BURGER BURGER Ponsonby Central, 4 Brown St entrance, Ponsonby C CAFE ABYSSINIA Tulja Centre, 190 Stoddard Rd, Mt Roskill CHINOISERIE 4 Owairaka Ave, Mt Albert CHONGQUING CUISINE Shop 7/Unit 6 119 Meadowlands Drive, Somerville CINTA MALAYSIAN 454 Dominion Rd, Balmoral CURRY CORNER Food City,…

As one of Australia’s oldest vineyards, it makes sense that Jacob’s Creek would employ innovative techniques for ageing their wine. Their most recent range of double barrel aged reds have been generously oaked in French and American barrels before a second sitting in whisky casks. It’s a process which has taken two years to refine, and has produced two full, ripe wines — a Barossa Valley shiraz, aged in Scotch whisky barrels, and a cabernet sauvignon, which has been aged in an Irish drum. There’s heat in the fruit of these wines, with the shiraz offering dark-chocolate notes with vanilla and liquorice on the nose, and the cabernet showing bold tannins, olives, caramel and mint. In the context of a game-focused restaurant like Cazador (or dinner on a wintry night…

GOOD TO KNOW HAVING A POKÉBALL: WHY POKÉMON GO IS SO POPULAR • Gives the illusion of pet ownership to millennials who will never have their own house and aren’t allowed animals in their flat. • You save a fortune on vitamin D supplements by actually going outside. • It provides the same acquisitional thrill as online shopping, with the only price being your dignity. • Delivers a gritty hunting experience for gun-averse liberal city dwellers. • Listing “Pokémon Master” on LinkedIn helps fill the gaps in work experience. • It’s the closest most of us will get to a gym this year. GOTTA GETTA FLAT: PERKS OF LIVING IN A GARAGE • Oil stain on the floor makes a fun slippery skating rink for the kids. • Cage trailer…

This issue of the magazine is alive with beauty and madness and heart-breaking contradictions. Just like Auckland. Is the land on which this city sprawls soon to become the only common ground its residents share? Reading this issue of Metro , you might just start to wonder. Published amid the growing clamour of anger about poverty, property prices, the cost of living in Auckland, and the crushing consequences of each of these, this issue of the magazine provides a particularly stark study of the contrasts with which we live. One of things Metro seeks to do is hold up a mirror to what’s going on in Auckland, and reflect some of that back to its inhabitants. It’s a selective and curated picture and what it reveals —…

AT THE LATE AT THE MUSEUM HE MANA, HE WAHINE EVENT AT AUCKLAND MUSEUM AT THE SEMIPERMANENT SYMPOSIUM CLEO WADE POETRY & SELF-LOVE EVENING AT THE SEAFARERS CLUB…

“THE COOLEST THING I’VE REALISED ABOUT BEING AN ENGINEER IS THAT YOU REALLY DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE” It was a 1974 Ford Escort that led Suzanne Naylor to engineering. When she started the somewhat overwhelming task of picking a study path, she had just purchased her sweet wheels and needed somewhere that had good parking – a problem familiar to most city dwellers. Her closest campus was not only an easy drive, but it had free parking. Job done – all she had to do now was pick a degree. Because she loved the environment and animals, Suzanne went through and circled all of the courses that featured those two buzzwords. It also had to be a degree – to please her parents – and what was left at the…

My beard stays unkempt and people look at me as if I’m doing it in some desperate attempt at hipsterism. I used to have a cleaner when I lived in a flat and it was the best way of making sure someone actually washed the floor. I tried to convince her to come to Beach Haven: it was too far to drive. Now we don’t have the money, and what would be the point? We have a big black dog who likes to roll in mud and swim in the creek and a one-year-old whose idea of a good time is to stagger around like a drunk person wreaking havoc with our house. Ira spends most of his day walking around, cooing and aahing and eughhhing at the sheer delight…

Five months after opening Madang in the central city, Eun Hee Park has yet to take a day off. The Korean restaurant serves lunch and dinner seven days a week, so each morning, its chef and owner shops for ingredients, then gets onto preparing soups, banchan and kimchi (everything else on the menu is made to order). But Eun’s not complaining. In fact, when she’s not at work, she enjoys cooking at home for her friends. “That’s her happy moment,” says Madang’s manager, her son Kwang Keon Choe, “when people eat her food and love it.” Main dishes at Madang — mostly seafood, chicken, lamb, beef and tofu — come with soup, rice or noodles and four small side dishes. Salty and spicy, the sides may include cabbage, cauliflower, spinach…

Fennel seeds, tamarind, lemongrass, chilli, prawn paste, turmeric, coriander powder, ginger (“a lot”). As another weekday lunch service winds down, Jim Ling and Charlotte Ng have momentarily emerged from Mamak Takapuna’s kitchen to reel off a rapid-fire list of the mainstay ingredients of their Malaysian street food. The pair own the restaurant with manager Jeffrey Ng, brother of Jim and husband of Charlotte. “I run this business, they run me,” says Jeffrey, laughing. They opened the spacious North Shore restaurant a year ago after selling a much smaller one (also named Mamak and also in our 2016 Cheap Eats list) in the central city. The mainstays of Mamak Takapuna’s menu range from noodle and rice dishes such as char kway teow (noodles, squid, prawns, egg and beansprouts) and kari sayur…

To be considered for this list, an outlet had to be open for dinner and offer a reasonable range of options for $20 per person (or less), excluding drinks. The judging process began with a list of all the places we knew might have a chance to make the cut, or were new and needed inspection. We then debated the merits of these places at length at a big judges’ meeting, whittling down the list by almost half. Next, we went out and ate. As always, we visited anonymously and paid for our meals. A final meeting consolidated the list, and the crucial Top 10.…

THE MEXICAN CAFE 67 Victoria St West, Auckland CBD Ph: 373-2311 Lunch & dinner 7 days. www.mexicancafe.co.nz Serving Auckland for 33 years. New menu includes salmon, mussels, scallops & lamb plus your old favourites. Good vegetarian range. Salsa dancing every Friday night. $5 parking offer. Original owner. BRACU 49 Main Rd, Bombay Ph: (09) 236-1030 www.bracu.co.nz Offering elegant and contemporary dining in an exceptional setting, Bracu is Auckland’s finest country restaurant. CAFE MIDNIGHT EXPRESS 59 Victoria St West, Auckland CBD Ph: 303-0312 www.cafemidnightexpress.co.nz Located in the heart of Auckland’s CBD and with its unique décor, Cafe Midnight Express offers Mediterranean and authentic Turkish cuisine, fine wine and a pleasant ambience. Group bookings available. FRIDA MEXICANA 87-89 Customs St West, Auckland CBD Ph: 935-67090 Open: 12-3pm and 5-10pm bookings@frida.co.nz www.frida.co.nz Proudly Mexican…

I got this for my husband’s birthday party here at home. All the ladies dressed up. I bought this dress (main picture) in LA two years ago. It’s from Etro. I love the prints that they do. It’s very feminine and the cut is super-flattering. I got it for my husband David’s 50th birthday. He had a party here at our home in Coatesville and all the ladies were dressed up. We met 19 years ago now. I was on holiday here. I was on the ferry going from Russell to Paihia and he came over and started talking. I’ve lived in New Zealand for 17 years. I was living in London and modelling before here. I was born in London. My mother is still there, and a couple of…