schoc therapy

Schoc chocolate opened at the end of 2002 but it took me another five years to discover them. However once tasted, it was hard to go back to the everyday, better quality supermarket variety. The flavour choices in other lines are comparatively dull after sea salt or lime and chilli.

The highlight of my recent trip home was a visit to relatives in Greytown. This once sleepy town in the Wairarapa is now a hot bed of high real estate prices and boutiques run by Khandallah housewives (for Australian equivalent think Trude and Prue from Kath and Kim, I swear last summer I overheard two store owners that were their doppelgangers). Just like Victoria’s own Daylesford, Greytown is a small town with an ever growing tourist trade wanting gourmet food, homewards and other accoutrements of status.

Which brings us to Schoc. Run by Murray and partner Roger in a cutesy 1920’s cottage. While there is an espresso bar with Schoc outlet in central Wellington, Greytown is the home of Schoc. This is where the goodies are made and there is marginally more space to display the wares and take your time tasting the tiny chips of the tablet range from little wooden spice boxes. However on this visit the place was swamped by a busload of women who probably thought the flavours were peculiar and couldn’t work out why it cost so much more than a block of Cadbury’s.

Schoc is obviously created by people who love, eat, sleep and breathe chocolate. This is obvious when you read the delivery notes setting a deliberate mailing schedule to avoid their precious cargo sitting in hot postal warehouses over the weekend. It also explains why we can’t buy it in Melbourne. Murray has yet to find an outlet that understands chocolate to his own high exacting standards. (“David Jones!” he scoffed, “they know nothing about chocolate”).




While many connoisseurs will head straight to the extensive truffle range such as Smoked Tea (Lapsang Souchong Tea infused ganache dipped in dark chocolate) or Tequila, Lime & Salt (Mexican Tequila, dried lime & flakey crystal sea salt in a white chocolate hand-painted mould) due to my problems tolerating dairy I head straight to the dark section of the flavoured tablets (ranging from 53-76.5% cocoa mass). If I had more time or the busload of philistines hadn’t been there I would have like to have explored the single bean and country of origin blocks this time.

Instead I picked up a couple of old favourites – lemon and black pepper and limechilli, as well as rose which is fast becoming my latest obsession. I got to have a quick chat to Murray (I was with my aunt who knows everyone in town which was quite handy) and tell him how much I loved his products.



While the Australian dollar is strong it is tempting to place a bulk order to be shipped over when I run out of my current supplies but gluttony (and not fitting my summer clothes as it) is aside, I like the ritual of sampling and buying a select few tablets each time I visit. But if I’ve peaked your appetite you can order directly from Schoc and taste their great chocolate for yourself.

spring at last

I have four posts jangling around my cranium. Back from NZ for 36 hours this is the first moment that I have had in front of the keyboard without work or domestics pulling me away. Though now I sit comfortably, the glorious warm spring air blowing through the open doors, I know that although I feign relaxation there are at least fifty other things I feel I should be doing right now.

But I’ll knock the top off the first post by saying this will not be the weekend that I start my spring detox.

Not just because I have a fresh source of Schoc.



Or because this was the first thing I bought at the market this morning



zucchini and carrot fritters straight out of the fryer, hot and crispy

Possibly not even because of the duty-free purchases.

But because there is a detox I need to do first on an entirely different level.

The relationship between what we eat and how we feel is not exactly rocket science. Although outwardly I am calm, somewhere near the intersection of sub and full consciousness there is an iceberg bobbing on the surface. The SE put it best when he said on the way to the airport last night (it’s his turn to go away this time) “If you knock off both bottles of brandy and all the chocolate this weekend I wouldn’t blame you after the week you’ve had”.

I’ve found there are a couple of things that determine whether my full on Spring Clean is going to flow freely. Firstly, timing is crucial. Last year's was cut short a day or two early with the unexpected arrival of a friend I hadn’t seen for over a year. The way you come out of a detox is as important as all the good organic fruits and vegetables that fuel it. This weekend was the perfect window to commence my annual ritual, I’m not sure now if I can find two weeks without major social distractions from here on in.

The second is preparation. For someone who is food oriented to switch off from oral gratification involves some psyching. Not best to start amidst the ravages of PMS, during exams or at a time of emotional lability. I’ve had a week with my family taking care of my mum who has slipped another notch into the dance with Alzheimer’s. It’s not fun. There were tears. But some laughter too. I need to sit with this latest experience for a while. Not starve myself of comfort.

I certainly hope I can find a space this spring to give my body a rest. While I am actually a little sceptical about claims that the so called toxins can be eliminated from a body of this age in a mere week or two on basic, unadulterated whole foods diet, I do know that by the end of the first week my energy picks up (even without the coffee) and my focus changes. I enjoy the detour from my usual daily diet of reading food blogs and being sedentary, to savouring the unexpected sweetness of vegetables and moving my body more.

The good news is the garden is providing the bulk of our green vegetables at the moment and you can’t get fresher than that. The season has taken a delightful shift. The air is scented with jasmine and the parrots were courting loudly this morning when I parked my car on the fringes of the CBD. This is such a sensual time of year so that if nothing else, I can at least indulge smell, sound, touch and sight with equal fervour as last winter's over reliance on taste.



The snow capped mountains of the South Island from across the Cook Straight

tasting New Zealand

Monteith’s Radler bier

It’s got to be hot for me to want a beer. Let’s be honest, when I say ‘beer’ it’s inevitably a shandy – a lager with just a dash of lemonade. I don’t know why as I am not that keen on sweet drinks but there is something about the lemony-ness that I enjoy. Hot days in Wellington are a rare thing. Surprisingly we had quite a string of these delightful days. The first of which found us in the small courtyard of a suburban brewery bar. The sun beat down on us and it was declared ‘beer o’clock’ but what to drink in this foreign land?



The unusually efficient barman told us to not worry – he’d bring us a sampler to the table and thus begun a pleasant relationship with the Radler. A fruity lager, with a hint of lemon and lime and just a dash of sweetness. I liked it so much that I sampled it on many occasions, to the point that “I’m Radled” became a constant cry.



Another Wellington surprise

When having a drink in the sun (Monteith’s Khandallah, St John’s Bar) at some point a barperson will appear with sunblock. You need it too, with sun that beats down stronger than the thermometer implies. A great twist on ‘drink responsibly”.

Schoc chocolates

Oh boy – I need to discover a new chocolate obsession like I need a hole in my head. I was a little nonplussed when I approached the cute cottage on the outskirts of Greytown offering ‘chocolate therapy’. I admit it, I am a chocolate snob and I really doubted that small town New Zealand would be able to deliver something other than sickly little callebaut knock offs. But just one look at the single country of origin tablets in varying percentages of cocoa mass (including one 100%) and a taste of the vast array of dairy-free 53% flavours and I was hooked. (Sure they do truffles and dairy milk ones as well).

Favourites included: Limechilli, Lemon and Cracked Black Pepper, Rose, Sea Salt and toasted coconut but really, I could eat the lot.

Oh dear – I’ve just discovered Schoc chocs are available in this part of the world.



Nostalgia

Not up to Schoc standards but purely for nostalgia I gave into a Whittaker’s peanut slab now available in a dark, dairy-free version. At high school I could nibble a peanut slab through recess, stringing it out for 20 minutes. On the nostalgia trip I took over 24 hours to get through one. Thanks for the memories Whittaker’s.



Fish and Chips

It begun innocuously enough on day 2 when I popped in for a quick visit to see some friends who produced a bag of fish and chips for afternoon tea. Afternoon tea?! I had a little nibble of the very passable chips and a bit of fish from a place in Karori. Unfortunately a couple of days later, after helping another friend move house, all that was on offer on a public holiday in her neighbourhood was a much more inferior version. Strangely 1 serve of fish equalled 3 pieces, quite a common thing I was to discover. Despite Island Bay being by the sea, it’s fish is nothing to write home about. But worse was to come. I won’t even utter the name of the local ‘fisherman’s’ chain that I was taken to the next day. The salad bar comes in a boat and under such circumstances the old faithful fish and chips or burger was a marginally better option.

For a dairy-free, no-meat girl in NZ fish and chips becomes the default option. So many vegetarian dishes are laden with milk products, it is a nightmare. Fortunately the final dose of F&C, once more the only thing I could eat on a bar menu, came at the upmarket Martinborough Hotel, perfect chips and a good tartare sauce which I washed down with, you guessed it, a Radler.

Hopefully I’ll not have to face a plate of fish and chips again this year, or at least til my next trip home at Easter!

More smoked seafood than you can poke a stick at

New Zealand is smoked food heaven (though smoked tofu still isn’t readily available). In most good supermarkets there is a wide variety of seafood lovingly smoked – mussels, eel, kingfish, cod, NZ salmon and much more.  It always inspires me to make kedgeree.

I discovered Chow, a better than average chain of Asian restaurants which I have previously mentioned, has a great smoked fish salad which I managed to make a fair copy* of for New Years Eve, though the smoked eel rolls packed less of a punch.

On a less fishy note, another discovery at Chow was the Kaffe Eis sorbet served with saffron syrup. The passionfruit was a real stand out.

One last bit of food nostalgia

The Significant Eater did a valiant Tour of Duty, helping me with my family visit. I think after his recent effort I am to be replaced in the will. My parents are committed carnivores, while their surviving offspring are not. The SE however jumped at the chance to make them a roast with premium kiwi lamb. Scouring the ’70’s era cookbooks he came across a simple marinade of a scant amount of olive oil and red wine, then slowly cooked the lamb the next day at 160c. Complete with spuds, kumara, onions and pumpkin caramelising in the juices of the roast (us vegetarian girls cooked ours separately) he added the Italian touch of a heap of simple salads on the side. Mum knocked up some fresh mint sauce (mint, sugar, malt vinegar) while I resurrected a decades old skill by making the gravy - it was perfect and looked so good I only just resisted sticking my finger in for a taste. It turned our smooth and glossy, with a perfect lump-free texture and all that stirring was a pleasant, therapeutic almost, experience. It was a memorable meal.




* Kiwi New Years Eve Smoked Fish Salad

smoked Kingfish fillets (or similar firm fish)
a generous handful of Asian herbs eg: coriander, Vietnamese mint (or mint and basil)
rocket or salad mix
cucumber, sliced
cherry tomatoes
spring onion, sliced on the diagonal
red chilli, finely sliced

Toss together with a dressing made from fish sauce, lime juice and a little palm sugar.