On My Plate – May 23

Denise Irvine shares some recent menu highlights, in the first of a new Waikato Foodies series:

• Full-of-flavour Vietnamese dishes at Rice Rice Baby, Grey St, Hamilton. This vibrant eatery – all decked out in pink and turquoise – has only been open a short time but it has pumped with people from the get-go. It’s the twin sister of the hugely popular Rice Rice Baby, on Mt Maunganui’s main street, serving Vietnamese favourites in a singular, no-frills style. There are plastic stools, plastic plates, shared tables, a short but adequate drinks list, cheerful staff, and they turn the tables fast. It’s fun, it works, and the food is the big thing: our crowd cheered at the crispy pork spring rolls, tamarind and prawn bites, Vietnamese duck salad, crispy pork belly in sticky sauce, and waterfall chicken (chicken poached in spicy broth, deep-fried and served with ginger rice and fresh salad). The grilled chicken noodle salad is recommended too. Everything served with spot-on lovely dipping sauces and sides.   Large plates are well priced, in the $20+ zone. Open each day, 11am-late, walk-ins only, (be prepared to wait), plus there’s a takeaway menu. Catch their happy hour, 4pm-6pm, for some drinks discounts.

• A lovely plump fillet of crumbed snapper, from T&S Takeaways, 447 Grey St, and another recent addition to Hamilton East’s eat street. The three generations at my dining table happily foraged in the big package we’d ordered, and gave collective thanks for a job well done. T&S’s fish is perhaps a tad more on the expensive side (snapper $11.20, gurnard and tarakihi $9.70) than some other takeaway places but you get decent-sized fillets, the real thing, and they’ve not been bulked up by batter.  I loved my snapper, lightly crumbed and perfectly cooked. Others also rated the battered fillets (almost tempura-style), the crunchy fries and double-decker burgers (bursting with beef patties, cheese, bacon and salad).

• Creamy cauliflower soup, from Acuppa Café, 529 Grey St, Hamilton East. This is a lunchtime treat, $16.90 for a generous bowl of cauli soup, topped with microgreens, parmesan, and crispy bits of bacon for texture and extra flavour. The creamy consistency comes from the cauliflower itself rather than lashings of cream. It’s served piping hot, in warmed bowls, with sourdough toast and butter on the side.

• Toasted bagel with pastrami, pickle, Swiss cheese and mustard sauce, at Demi Urgos Espresso, 865 Victoria St, Hamilton. Demi Urgos is one of my old favourites, right from its opening in 2011. It changed hands in February when founder Aaron Maisey sold to Dennis Hsueh, previously at Grey Street Kitchen, in Hamilton East. Dennis is a local hospo pro, he’s maintaining Demi’s reputation for Supreme coffee and he’s neatly tweaked the cabinet food, continuing with some Volare baked goods alongside bagels (Best Ugly) and various toasties, baps, savouries and sweet slices. My bagel, the Yodi, $16.90, is one of five on the made-to-order menu, and this one is perfect for mustard lovers!