Saturday, July 10, 2010

Wellington Food Blogger Lunch - Duke Carvell's

I got an exciting email a couple of weeks ago - a group of Wellington food bloggers were planning to meet up for lunch. Exciting because not only do I get to spend time with people who are as obsessed with food as I am, but I (hopefully) won't get judged for whipping out my camera at the table!

The venue of choice was Duke Carvell's, which has fantastic decor (fantastic chandeliers, portraits everywhere - overall a very comforting feeling venue). The company was wonderful - there were nine of us, all up - who knew Wellington was so awash with food bloggers? - and we ended up taking almost three hours over lunch. It was great hearing about people's motivations to start blogging, and also how amazingly varied our 'real lives' are.


My lunch was the very alluring picorino and spring onion potato cake with poached eggs, chorizo and cherry tomatoes. My photography sadly still leaves a lot to be desired but the look of this dish was nothing compared to the aroma it had anyway, and I definitely don't have the magic to convey that through the intertubes! The chorizo was rich and full of flavour, without being oily. The potato cake was soft and nicely flavoured and perfectly complemented by the tomato mixture. I could have lived without the eggs - they were fine but I'm just not such a fan of eggs - but they did still fit well with the other components of the dish.

We all demolished our lunch (all the other dishes looked pretty good, too, and I'm guessing we might hear about some from the other bloggers present soon) and kept chatting away. Though we waved away the dessert menu we did order some drinks to keep us going - and I chose a hot chocolate. It was amazing - check this out:


It was so thick and chocolatey, and topped with actual cream - oh, the gluttony! Everyone exclaimed over the decadence and I believe I was the envy of the table for a short term I also liked the cute spoon - I didn't take a close-up but it's a Wanaka souvineer spoon.

Our waitress was very helpful and attentive and I'll definitely be back to Duke Carvell's - it was a great spot for a leisurely weekend lunch. I also hope there will be many more gatherings of the members of the Wellington blogosphere - I thoroughly enjoyed the company.

Links to the works of my fellow diners, for your delectation:
Hungry & Frozen
Lovely Wee Days
Treehouse Kitchen
Gusty Gourmet
@ Down Under
Something Else to Eat
Domestic Scene




Duke Carvell's is located at 6 Swan Lane (off Cuba Street), Wellington, ph 04 385 2240, http://dukecarvells.co.nz/

8 comments:

  1. Great write up Mrs Cake! It was a lovely lunch - great food & fine company. I am definitely going back for one of those hot chocolates!

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  2. It was lovely to meet you all !

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  3. Libby, any time you need company for a hot chocolate at Duke Carvell's say the word and I am there! ;-) Definitely highly recommended!

    Vanille - it was so nice to meet you too, to see the genius behind the amazing photos!

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  4. I'm so glad you actually took your camera out and snapped these pics - I totally forgot to!! Too wrapped up in conversation, I guess :) It was a pleasure meeting everyone and I hope we can do it again sometime!

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  5. So nice to meet you all! Thanks for the links as well, I'm going to add them all to my blog. The potato cake was definitely a good choice :)

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  6. Yummy food AND company - simply the most glorious way to spend a Sat afternoon.
    Thanks everyone!!

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  7. Dont worry Millie, I got a great shot of the mushrooms on toast, Ive just been a lazy blogger these past weeks, burning the midnight oil with work and what not.... Mrs Cake! Didn't get to chat too much to you, being at the other end of the table but I am sure we will meet up again sometime! x Lou

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  8. We'll definitely have to do it all again sometime - and boy, am I craving one of those hot chocolates right now!

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