S is for Serendipity…

You may be wondering about the title…I will get to it at some point.

I ate so much this weekend, and it was all pretty good food.

I don’t think I ate anywhere starting with s though.

I think i will cover the title first after all.

Saturday

Saturday I had every intention, up until Saturday, of going to McWhirters finding all the S named places within walking distance and rolling a dice.

What actually happened was that I went to Eckersley’s to get nibs and ink. I left the store and was approached by a man who asked for a dollar so he could by some food. I only had about fifteen cents in change at the time, so I gave him a five dollar note. He was very grateful and we walked and talked for a bit, before he wandered off in a different direction.

I couldn’t be arsed walking into the Valley, so I went to the Winter Garden instead, after my favourite fried chicken place, Nene chicken, turned out to be full. After a couple of laps I settled on going to Hokka Hokka. Hokka Hokka is a fresh noodle bar, with a few different menus available. It has a list of quick stir fry, a list of laksa and soup, a selection of generic chinese food (fried rice, beef in black bean etc) and a bit where you pick your noodles, vegetables, meat etc. I ordered BBQ pork stir fry. I received a ticket with the number 20.

This was when the universe decided that people need to make mistakes in my favour.

This is the serendipitous moment from the title.

A lady, not the one who served me, called out 20. She was holding a BBQ Pork Noodle soup. She called 20 a couple of times but, due to it being soup, I was hesitant. No one else came forward so I showed her my ticket. She smiled, said yes and handed me the large bowl of soup. I found a seat, which happened to be in sight of Hokka Hokka, and thought maybe I had made the mistake with what I had ordered. I had a mouthful of the soup. It was pretty tasty.

Then I saw the lady who took my order waving at me and pointing at the plate of stir fry in front of her. I went to take my soup back, explaining that I had already had a sip. She ordered the cook to make a fresh one for the intended recipient of the soup and told me to keep it, and the stir fry.

Wahoo free seconds.

The universe had decided one plate of food was not enough.

My stomach decided, that one plate of stir fry and three quarters of a bowl of BBQ Pork soup was.

Thank you universe.

Friday

Non serendipity day, but just as good.

On Friday I went to Eat Street in Hamilton.

I have never been to Eat Street before.

It was a collection of shipping crates turned into a series of street food vendors. It was like a condensed version of some of my Saturdays walking around Southbank or the Valley. All different types of food, and a few different product vendors.

We started with Calamari. It was good, I have had better, see Sunday’s entry, but it was still pretty good.

Then we got oysters. I love Oysters, not as much as mussels or scallops though. My friend got oysters kilpatrick and I got Tasmanian Jumbo Oysters. I preferred these, but the oysters kilpatrick were good too.

This was followed with a lot of wandering around, and eventually finding a potato tornado. This is a single potato cut into a spiral strip down the length of a stick and I am pretty sure it is then deep fried. It was pretty tasty, and a lot of fun to eat.

Then death by chocolate cheesecake, with cocoa pops and some other chocolate gravel thing. This was pretty tasty and the man selling it certainly new his cheesecake. Almost. There was a thing that was two lattice squares, dipped in chocolate, with a dollop of cheesecake in the middle. My mum’s are better. Sorry cheesecake guy, but it’s the truth.

Peking duck was next after a brief wander and watching the fire dancer. The peking duck was ok, I have had better. It wasn’t bad, it was just very bland as far as duck goes.

We finished the friday with doughnut fries. These are exactly what you think they should be, fingers of cinnamon doughnut covered, in our case, in marshmallows and nutella. Oh damn it was good, and soooo sweeet.

I got home and almost fell straight asleep. Yay food coma.

Sunday

Sunday was a little sad. It was the last day of my improv class. On the upside, I can now do the Improv Jams on Tuesday nights.

I had lunch at The Lonely Boy cafe. This consisted of a Mal’s Maple Bacon Burger. I love anything Mal makes, so I may be bias in this, but it was awesome. The maple flavour blended perfectly with the gherkins and mayonnaise and egg. And, my mouth is drooling.

Also a lemon curd tart, again awesome.

They shut early though, and some of us wound up at 321 Water Street.

321 Water Street is tucked away in a little nook of water street. Worth the search though.

I had salt and pepper calamari from here. Firstly, it was not rings or strips, but looked like they had cut the squid itself up at the restaurant. The squid was soft, the crumbs were crisp and light and the accompanying salad was awesome. I am coming around to salads that look like they uprooted a weed bed and drizzled oil on it.

Maybe it’s because of the bugs I ate from Thailand.

Eat well all.