Plenty Of Flavour - a Kia Ora Magazine story

This article first appeared in Kia Ora Magazine. Words by Sue Hoffart.

Starched napkins and city pretentions are not on the menu for the Whakatāne region’s flourishing foodie scene. This corner of the Eastern Bay of Plenty leans more toward homegrown than hipster. Sure, menus might feature local truffles and organic microgreens and yes, the coffee beans may well be single origin and small batch roasted. It’s just that, around here, freshness and flavour tend to mean more than slick decor. The food found in rustic rural barns or casual coastal eateries is often dished up by the people who grew or cooked it, and everything is served with a smile.

A Taste of Greece

Inland from the pōhutukawa tree archways over State Highway 2, Yiayia’s Little Kitchen is a delicious ode to childhood memory. Caterina Murphy’s home-based catering business conjures dishes from her Greek-Cypriot mother’s kitchen, using locally harvested honey and lemons from her garden in the tiny rural settlement of Awakaponga.

According to family tradition, walnut baklava demands 30 layers of phyllo pastry, while the rice filling for dolmades must include onion and a touch of dill. Look out for her cooking lessons, launching later this year. In the meantime, visitors can pre-order a generous vegetarian picnic for two that includes those stuffed vine leaf dolma parcels, as well as homemade strips of lavosh crackers and a stellar walnut and mushroom pate. With notice, she can also do slabs of vegetarian or plant-based moussaka and other Mediterranean-Greek dishes.

Out The Window

In Ōhope, Paul Patterson has taken the name of his Fisherman’s Wharf restaurant literally. When he’s not serving customers, the Fijian-Kiwi chef likes to cast for kingfish out the window of his waterfront workplace. It’s a far cry from his life in Paris, where he launched more than a dozen eateries, flew to England’s Glastonbury music festival to cook for celebrities, and collected an award at the barbecue world championships in Memphis.

Fishing and hunting opportunities helped lure Patterson to the Bay of Plenty beach town, though he also loves his restaurant’s exceptional location. It’s an ideal spot for sunset gazing, and his raw fish kokoda, or the prawns with nectarine salsa accompanied by a glass of Herringbone rosé courtesy of local dairy farming winemaker Karen McLeod. Patterson has a new harbour’s edge garden bar and a counter near the front door that does a roaring trade in fish and chip takeaway meals.

Figs to Native Tea

Across the water, bivalves hauled from Ōhiwa Harbour are sold mere metres from the shed where they are shucked. The Tio Ōhiwa oyster farm also offers barge tours and excellent garlic smoked mussels.

Follow the Pacific Coast Highway to find Gregoli Olive Grove, where two engineers produce high quality cold pressed oil in a commercial kitchen that Greg Reid built himself. He’s a plantsman and a potter while Russian-born Olia Alpatskaya is a multi-talented former mining engineer who makes perfume and panforte, clothing, cosmetics and fresh cheese. Visit their home in the hills to buy a jar of semi-dried figs, steeped in honey and balsamic vinegar. Be warned, their olive oil sells out every year.

Further up Stanley Road, on an old air strip, Dan and Laureen Andrews farm tea. Certified organic native plant tea, that is. Hedgerows of mānuka and kānuka give way to plantings of kūmarahou, kawakawa and horopito, all propagated and tended by ex-teacher Laureen and former vehicle finance employee Dan. They also harvest, dry, distil and package everything themselves, at their Native Tree Farm headquarters next to the family home.

Their leaf tea, flaky salt, mānuka leaf powder and edible petals are all food grade certified, and they recently exported mānuka leaf to a British tea company. Visitors can find their products online or at Whakatāne Organics store in town.

Pāua Power

Call in to All the Sands to sample the Native Tree Farm kawakawa latte, though it’s pies that have put this coffee lounge on the map. Specifically, a creamed pāua filling encased in flaky pastry crust, made in the tiny kitchen that’s visible from the counter. These pies race out of the warmer quickly.

Luckily, they also make outrageously big iced, drizzled, crumble cookies the size of small cakes. Cookie flavours change regularly but might include biscoff or a strawberry shortcake laced with strawberry puree. Service is warm, and the dark, house-blend coffee is excellent thanks to capable young entrepreneur Rikki-Maria Pakuria-Hay. The cafe owner finished her Waikato University Management Studies degree with a newborn baby and spent last summer juggling her cafe, a pop-up cafe and a coffee cart.

Break Bread

Time it right and bag a baguette straight from the oven at the back of Roberto Chanca’s L’Atelier eatery. He also does the best sourdough around; crusty and made with a rye, wholemeal, white flour mix.

The Spanish pastry chef hails from Basque country, though he skipped across the border to train in neighbouring France. As his pain au raisin and mousse-filled banana pastry domes prove, he learned well. Opening hours are limited – this is a one-man band – but find him at Whakatāne Sunday Market, where locals buy hundreds of perfectly crispy, buttery croissants every week.

Look out for locally grown truffles and macadamias at the same market, alongside stallholders Seong-yeon Cho and Dongjun Lee. These two draw legions of fans seeking sesame-laced Korean fried chicken with sticky gochujang sauce. The rest of the week, they focus on the downtown restaurant where he cooks, and she welcomes diners. The South Korean couple started with a sushi restaurant but missed dishes from their homeland so they decided to open a place of their own.

Cigol – meaning small town in their native language – is beloved by locals for its contemporary Korean fusion food and attentive service. They do a mean bibimbap and their take on rack of lamb involves a 24-hour marinating, char grilling process, and is accompanied by leek aioli, tofu puree, Sichuan chilli and truffle oil.

Bean and Brews

One block over, Volk & Co, is a haven for caffeine lovers. This busy little downtown cafe is all about coffee, be it espresso, filter or cold brewed, a classic double shot or a Vietnamese coconut coffee. Beans are roasted by the owner’s aunt at Excelso Coffee up the coast in Tauranga and the cabinet food includes well-stuffed pastrami sandwiches and a Whittaker’s Hazella chocolate mousse bar.

Across the road from the Whakatāne River, Cafe Awa has a particularly good brunch menu and strong salad offerings in the cabinet. Wash it down with a bottle of locally made honeyed Wai Mānuka soda and watch comings and goings on the river, with peeks of Moutohorā Island from the deck.

Those who want a little more pep in their glass should visit family-owned Mata brewery taproom on the northern side of town. Find live gigs as well as lively craft beer and cider courtesy of brewer Tammy Viitakangas. Her award-winning feijoa cider is wonderfully zingy.

Tis the Season

Year round, Ōhope Craft Market – held at least monthly – hosts a remarkable number of artisan makers and food producers selling everything from truffle oil to flavoured salts. On Saturday mornings look for the line of cars on Harbour Road, alongside the Sweetwater Farms’ roadside stand where savvy locals delve into piles of beautifully arranged organic produce, sold via honesty box.

Other regional seasonal pleasures to be found include a string of berry farms off the highway north of town, Ōhiwa Oyster Festival, and the summertime fleet of food trucks found around the Wharfside venue at Port Ōhope. And every year, the Local Wild Food Festival brings together thousands of chefs, foodies, foragers and hunters to celebrate this abundance from the surrounding land and sea.

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