West Auckland and The Waitakares

Whenever I stay with the Dancing Sister at Titirangi I find it fairly easy  to ignore all family obligations and head out on some food/retail expedition. West Auckland, the Waitakares and the West Coast cannot be explored in a couple of days.  West Auckland Info is an invaluable research tool if you are travelling to Auckland but don't necessarily want to stay in town. The tourist trail can get busy on weekends as you are competing with Auckland residents as well as out of towners.

 The Dancing Sister and I visited the Titirangi Markets one Saturday. Details can be found on the above site. We picked up a good coffee at the mobile coffee cart before venturing indoors to taste and buy some great cheese from the Over the Moon Dairy Company. Isn't that just the best name for a cheese making company! We bought some bread to accompany it from two different stalls. The pumpkin seed one pictured was sensational, as was a ciabatta from another stall.



We did make an attempt to  veer away from the food stalls and I purchased a wooden hanging for the old house at Narooma. I always have a think before purchasing wooden items because of the hassle of taking them back into Australia. This was (according to the gift of the gab guy selling it) a painting on an old piece of Rimu timber from his house in Taranaki which had been damaged in a storm. It did delay me on arrival home as I had declared it but I had no problems once they saw it.

Next pit stop was the cured meats from the Salash Delicatessan stall. I bought some spicy fresh chorizo which ended up at the brother's get together later that night down Huia Road. Just sliced and thrown on his little verandah bbq (and if he had some Pedro Ximenez sherry it would have been splashed on at the end) it made a delicious beginning to the evening meal. The brother had marinated a butterflied leg of lamb overnight and it came up a treat. He is a bit of a bbq afficionado (well, he is by birth Australian)
and just enjoys being out on his deck cooking.

Thanks to my insistence we also shared a paua fritter at the markets. I am not sure it needed the slice of white bread that went with it but the fritter was tasty enough with a squeeze of lemon. I'd go for the mussel fritter next time.

We had a leisurely walk home and then it was over to Mum's to demolish the day's purchases.