Sep 15, 2023 Metro Eats
Kia ora koutou,
Bad news (or good news, depending on who you are) – I am leaving Metro. After nearly five years (!) with this cool magazine, writing about all the places I love to eat, compiling Top 50 lists, penning personal essays (of varying quality) and, also, sending out a little newsletter every Friday (ah, nearly), I have decided to quit and go do something else (a something else I’m excited to be doing).
There’s always a part of leaving that really sucks, and that is especially true of doing it at Metro. I could not imagine eating and writing this much at any other job, and I don’t think I would be so into Tāmaki Makaurau – living here, working here, dining here – if I hadn’t spent the last five years attempting to convince everyone just how worthy it is of your attention (and I think I really believe it!).
I am going to keep this short and sweet, because I am intending to bust out a truly long, self-indulgent newsletter on the 29 September (my last ever Metro Eats, so I hope you open that one!) which will include some giveaways to say thank you, an interview with a friend, my last personal essay on food and identity (ever? say it ain’t so), and goodbyes to the team I’ve worked very closely with for the last few years.
However, I had to break the news this week, as Metro is putting a call out for someone to replace me. You can find out more information about that here. I would encourage you to apply – you don’t necessarily have to have an encyclopaedic knowledge about the food scene in Auckland, except you should have a curiosity, and also, ideally, a desire to develop interesting things to say about it. And be a good writer. I would love to see someone step into the role that can bring in another perspective to the publication; who maybe saw what I was writing and thought, “She could be doing this better” (hey, that’s how I got the job). There is endless potential with what you can do within the brand, working with a small team that has a lot of fun while also making something real – a physical tome that by default becomes a piece of history within a timeline which spans all the way back to the magazine’s inception, from 1981.
See you all in a couple of weeks for my Big Goodbye. In the meantime, I will be working to get my last issue as Food Editor to print, which is out on stands 2 October.
Kia pai tō rā whakatā,
Jean
What’s happening
I’m leaving!
Oh, and: This Sunday 17 September, Gemmayze St is pairing up with Hugo Grrrl, Pinkie Promise and Rita Menu to present a four-course dining experience with a drag extravaganza for ARCADIA. Dinner and a show, baby! Tickets are $135 – menu is custom-made, plus they will also be serving lip syncs and comedy.
Negroni Week is this week, and we have a genuinely great prize to win, on offer via our Instagram here. A reminder that if you want to celebrate the launch, there’s an event to kick it all off at Rooftop at QT on Monday 18 September. See you there!
There’s a pop-up collab between Luntian (a plant-based Filipino spot) and Nanam on 27 September. They’ll be preparing a plant-based, “Filipino-inspired, Pan-Asian” menu. Ticket details impending.
What’s good
I just got home from having dinner at Mr Charcoal on the top end of Dominion, which I pass by on my commute everyday and always think about going but never do. I did tonight! I really liked it – the food was unfathomably salty, with that generic spicy-sweet sauce/marinade over everything, and all the skewers felt like they had more char on it than comparable ones at Maya BBQ or Gogo. I fear I am going to wake up in the middle of the night thirsty as hell.
I recently had dinner at Tempero (which, I must disclose, is co-owned by new Metro employee Tiffany Low, who is handling subscriptions and ad stuff for us, so if you want to get in touch, you should!). I think if you go, definitely get the pão de queijo, the new soft-shell crab dish, and the acarajé, all of which may be unfamiliar to you (my favourite things to eat!). Also, the rice that comes with some of the dishes is delicious.
It’d been awhile since I visited Ockhee , but I did this week, and had my favourite dish from there (jang kal guksu) and also tried something new (the mandu). Would recommend both; these two older white dudes on the table next to us despaired that we hadn’t ordered the fried chicken, but while the fried chicken is good here, I always tell people to branch out.
I went to Orphan’s Kitchen to try out their new night-time service, which is definitely more wine-bar-with-food than restaurant-pretending-to-be-wine-bar. The best dish was the raw tuna with pickled egg mayo – I also liked the smoked kahawai but wasn’t crazy about the waffle it came with. It’s still a really nice room to be in.
My sister is visiting from Singapore and got me this Hainanese Chicken fan girl tee, which I’m like, wow, she nailed it?
What’s new
A new casual Japanese eatery, Katsu Katsu, has opened up in Newmarket recently. It looks quite cool inside (the fit-out is done by hospo experts Millé), and, from what I can tell, it is the sister restaurant to Remuera’s Waku Waku (ah, hence Katsu Katsu), so it is probably going to be good! 485 Khyber Pass Rd.
In other fried chicken news, Flying Chicken is now officially open next to Machi Machi on Corinthian Dr in Albany. I saw on TikTok that one influencer waited 2.5 hours for their chicken despite being invited, so I would say expect a bit of a wait if you want to go on its first week.
And in more fried chicken news, Nene Chicken on Lorne St has just opened, and our resident fried chicken expert, Henry, has already given it the tick of approval.
