Review: Fiddlesticks Restaurant, Christchurch City

Aug14

Hi y’all! I meant to review my restaurant experience this past Sunday when I visited Fiddlesticks but time slipped away from me. I’ve been to Fiddlesticks only once before and it was a great first impression so when I went back for a second time it was all the better, finding yet another item on the menu I’d fall in love with. Ian and I started our morning at Riccarton market and we thought we’d be able to keep ourselves busy for two hours but our fun didn’t even last half an hour, I’m sure we would have stayed longer if we were having lunch from one of the many international food vendors, but we had reservations for lunch at Baretta’s in Christchurch City. We decided to drive around the city and see what progression had occurred since the last time we visited (incase you don’t know, the city had two major earthquakes in the past few years that did some unkind damage). We had time to kill so I suggested a snack, just somewhere to sit out with a coffee in the sun at a little cafe. Since Fiddlesticks is right in the city I knew I wanted to pay them a visit since it had been since last year when I ate there.

I enjoyed a hot chocolate and french fries (no, not chips, they were actually fries-shoe string fries). Fiddlesticks is the only place that I know of other than Mcdonalds that has shoestring fries, which I’m used to in the states and it made me so happy to have a food that reminded me of home and to top it all off they had American ketchup!!! I know it’s a silly little thing to get excited about but tomato sauce that everyone dips their chips in is actually sweeter than ketchup. Kiwis will say they taste the same but to an outsider, I can taste a difference. The fries came in a cute little wooden box with the restaurant’s name engraved on the side, with two slots for mayo and ketchup, but the condiments came in egg cups- what a cute, clever way to keep it neat and mess free!

Now onto the hot chocolate- oh what’s not to say about it! Just like with ketchup and tomato sauce I can taste a difference in US and NZ cocoa and it doesn’t always leave me satisfied. I’ve noticed NZ cocoa taste very gritty, and when I’ve gone over to someone’s home and they offer me a cuppa, they use straight cocoa powder so it cuts the taste buds and I think it’s something I won’t be able to adjust to (sorry kiwis, no offense to you!). Fiddlesticks’ cocoa was thick, creamy, smooth and sent my taste buds straight up to chocolate heaven. I was beyond happy to find a cocoa that did the name justice! Just talking about it makes me want to spend the time driving into the city from Rolleston, and indulge in the flavors all over again. Definitely my to-go place for hot chocolate, with Salt on the Pier in New Brighton a runner up in second.

Also just a bit of a side note- our waiter was an American guy so that was pretty neat, now I know a whole whooping four Americans in this country- me, my father, the waiter at Fiddlesticks and the waitress at Barettas. I won’t say too much on my meal at Barettas. It was fine- nothing over the top, I had a BLT with wedges on the side, but last time I went I wasn’t that taken with the pasta dish I had, just didn’t do it for me and the cocktail I had was like drinking pure sugar, so hard to take down. So if you’re ever in Christchurch City, stop for a hot chocolate at Fiddlesticks, take a walk around the city and sit out in the sun by the Avon River.

http://www.fiddlesticksbar.co.nz/

http://www.saltonthepier.co.nz/

http://www.riccartonmarket.co.nz/i

http://baretta.co.nz/

My first carrot cake!

Aug8

I attempted my first carrot cake last night because my boyfriend Ian wanted one, so it gave me an opportunity to put my apron on and bake up something yummy in the kitchen, I’m always keen for a new baking experience. I took to google to assist me in finding the right recipe, well I got hundreds of results so I didn’t know which one to pick, considering that one website says they have the best cake but scroll down and you’ll find someone else apparently has the best cake so who do I trust?!

I enjoy moist cakes, I think it makes the taste of the cake so much more enjoyable. The second recipe I’ve linked seemed tempting but as I was reading it, I started to get nervous about it being too moist so I went with the first link, also that it was a two layer cake which was what I was after. In her recipe she suggested three cups full of grated carrots, she tried two but it was a disappointment. The saying “less is more” is not suitable for carrot cake, more the carrots the stronger the taste, so don’t skimp on those carrots! She used 1 cup of pecans in her cake, I used just a small handful of crushed walnuts just for a wee bit of a taste in my cake. She put two pans into the oven at the same time, well I only have one pan so I had to take the slow path. I used a typical round pan, and baked at 350F/175C for 20-25 minutes, I checked the cake at 20 minutes and then let it bake just a teeny bit more so it would spring up more when I lightly touched it, making sure it came out dry when poked with a toothpick. Nothing worse than a dry or burnt cake that was meant. Both cakes came out nice and golden and when I flipped them over onto a plate, they just slipped out which was fantastic because it’s no good when the cake crumbles at the bottoms trying to get out of the pan. I used butter and then sprinkled flour on top to make sure I’d have an easy time getting the cakes out, success!!

Now onto the frosting…. as you might have guessed by those three periods, it didn’t turn out great. I’m used to buying Betty Crocker’s premade frosting back at home which I’ve always been plenty content with, but here they only have three flavors none of which were cream cheese frosting so I had to make my own. I tried last year to make cream cheese frosting but it turned out way to runny, and I had a dinner party to finish setting up for so I didn’t have time to play around with an annoying, stubborn wanna-be frosting! I looked up a few frosting recipes but most of them told me the same thing about powdered sugar or confectioner sugar, which I didn’t have either of those, only icing sugar so maybe that was one of my mistakes. I used icing sugar, heavy cream, light cream cheese (for some reason it made me feeling a bit better, like I wasn’t totally killing my diet, but come on, I’m eating cake coated in frosting, ain’t nothing healthy even if it does have carrots and nuts in it!) and a bit of lemon juice since Ian asked for that. I followed the directions but it wasn’t turning fluffy so I let it chill for 45 minutes in the fridge but that didn’t do too much so I added a bit more heavy cream and icing sugar but nothing too different from before so I started to getting bummed out and disappointed. I made such nice cakes and I didn’t want the frosting to be the thing to get in the way! But I couldn’t really figure out a solution so I just went with it and frosted my cake. Since it was a layered cake I put frosting in the middle but since it wasn’t fluffy it couldn’t hold the cake’s weight so when the top layer went on, it just oozed out leaving very little in the middle so that made it a big frustrating mess. I frosted the rest of the cake, decorated the top with crushed walnuts and decided to let it set a bit more over night.

In the morning I checked it out, it seemed out, seemed to sit together a bit better than sliding all over the place. Since it’s Friday today I got a little crazy and had a slice for breakfast, I know, I’m a rebel. It turned out better than I thought, the frosting didn’t really ruin it and since it wasn’t a thick amount of it that was fine by me since I’m not a big fan of frosting. So I’m happy with the cake but I do want to practice making more frosting so my future cakes leave me smiling the whole time. Looks like I’ll be making more baked goods soon, practice makes perfect!

Not that happy about the frosting, but A for effort?

http://www.inspiredtaste.net/25753/carrot-cake-recipe/

http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2013/03/11/super-moAist-carrot-cake/

Making my entrance!

Aug8

August 8th 2014

Hello!!! First day at the blogging second attempt. I plan to review just about everything from recipes, restaurants, beauty supplies, tourist attractions, movies and every day things that pop into my lovely lil’ head. Not sure if anyone in this world will even find this blog and if they do, if they’ll think anything good about it but it’s just something for me to do in my free time so why not!

I should introduce myself, tell you a bit about myself so it’s not totally like we’re strangers on a blogging site- more like friends from all over. My name is Fiona Dorothy, a 19 year old American living in New Zealand aiming for her residency to this amazing country. Living with my partner and crazy cat Gracie in Rolleston, which is near Christchurch city but in Selwyn district. I enjoy dancing, singing, traveling, photography, baking and sewing costumes. I have an unhealthy obsession with: pomeranians, Disney, donuts, swimsuits, pajamas and sleeping.

Hope you enjoy my blog!