Think Global

I have just written a new menu and given it to the kitchen; they look at it from a different point of view from anyone who is merely going to eat off it. They will cook these items many times over, they look for how much prep work there is in the dishes, what new products they get to use, and what culinary jag I am on at the moment.
This menu is a little bit Hispanic, some Spanish, , a little bit Cuban, and lot Opera Kitchen.
I am a chronic change junkie, this means that nothing stays on the menu long at Opera Kitchen and we are in constant search for the new things. What has surprised me lately is how we are finding these new things, it is almost completely online. I have always been a technophobe, no active mobile, no texting, no facebook or twitter, but how things are changing. The primary cause of this change is that I cannot stand missing out on anything! I have always travelled a lot and although I love living in Napier I cannot stand the thought that by doing so I might miss out on something new. I have become a trawler of the internet looking for some little reference in a blog or review that will hook me into a new world.

The items on the menu at Opera Kitchen are often the result of this trawling, the Momofuku pork buns we have had on the menu twice came from a chance reference I read followed by the coincidental sighting of the ‘ Momofuku’ recipe book. It introduced us to some fantastic new flavour combinations; we learnt anything is better with bacon, even dashi. David Chang is of Korean descent; he writes about kimchi and bulgogi, it meant exploring a whole new section of the Asian Market we use.

Taco, OK style

The Korean slant of David Chang led us down a strange path that ended in L.A., at a Kogi truck. The popularity of these trucks was spread exclusively by Twitter, they tweet their location, from that to being invited to present at the Melbourne Masterclass! It’s all about a really well trained chef looking to inject some of his ethnic background into his food. We are doing chilli hotdogs and Cuban Pork taco’s on this menu as our ode to Kogi, and to bring a little bit of L.A. to Hastings.
I am amazed at how quickly I have become addicted to food blogs and restaurant websites, my magazine consumption has drastically reduced, they seem immediately out of date. This is the reason that we have a new web page, a face book page and even twitter, I like the immediacy of communication this brings, opening a means for dialogue between us. I would like to share the background to this menu and hear what it is like to eat from you.