First post! 2011 Auckland Seafood Festival

Its my first post for this blog and its about my latest adventure too... something tells me it'll be a while before I manage to write about all of our travels to date. There has been so much and I highly doubt I'd be able to recall all -- but here's hoping.

Anyway, onto my first post!

Welcome to the 2011 Auckland
Seafood Festival!

Apparently the Auckland Seafood Festival is an annual 3-day thing that happens about the time of the Auckland Day weekend. This year, it started from Saturday the 29th of January and ends on Auckland Day, Monday the 31st at the Viaduct Basin.

My partner in crime (PIC) and I went on the Sunday and arrived at around 1.30pm greeted by throngs of people enjoying the good seafood and the wine. Our friends had gotten there earlier, about 12-ish which meant someone had the good sense and great luck to snag a table for the group. The only rule was that there should always be at least one person left manning the fort so we get to keep our table while the rest of the group toured the site and filled up on all the goodies they can find.

It was a good arrangement and a wise one... every few minutes there would always be someone asking if they can have our "extra" chairs so it was definitely a good idea that our little rule was in place even before the food frenzy clouded our minds.

When it was our turn to romp, we set off soaking it all in visually and chomping at the bit to get our food on. Quite frankly, we were left confused as to what to pick first and it took us a while to settle. The endless queues helped us make up our minds though. And while it wasn't truly easy, it was handiest for us to grab a tub of king prawns ($5) with a slice of lemon, and hollandaise sauce, mussels in a warm cream cheese sauce ($2), and mussel dogs ($2) with a spot of sweet chili sauce on top.

Fruits of our first forray into the festival

As soon as we found our way back to our precious table I couldn't care less about PIC and started to dig in. I love mussels and having them as fresh as we had them today was a Godsend. It didn't matter that one was coated in batter and the other was covered in cream cheese, it still felt as if these mussels just jumped out of the sea and into our plates bare minutes ago. PIC wasnt satisfied though, he has this disease where his eyes are always bigger than his stomach so he went off in search of more goodies and left me in my foodie haze. He came back a few minutes later with a small box of prawn tempura (another $2 find) and then set off again to get some beverages. I would have wanted a glass of white wine but he came back with a can of coke for me. Oh well, beggars can't be choosers I guess. Besides, I truly couldn't care less amidst the sea of seafood goodness.

Prawn Tempura,
or what's left of it...

We had worried about whether it would be a good day to be out and about as we've been hit by a cyclone just the other day and that brought lashing rain and strong winds that lasted till midday Saturday. Thankfully, Sunday was all sunny and bright -- which probably explains why the place was packed to the seams. It was literally a sea of people out for good food, good wine, and a nosy. It costs $15 each to get into the venue and I think the ticket price is well worth it considering that the food costs were significantly lower than what you'd normally get on a regular day out in Auckland.

Although there was still much more to sample, we didn't stay long. Our tummies have started groaning from the onslaught that kept coming down our throats. At one point we thought, hey, there's a good band playing, we could always just sit for a bit and explore (hunt) again later. But alas, it was not meant to be. Our bellies are not what they used to be, it is a sign of age I think that we caved in so much sooner than we would have a few years ago.

PIC and I then decided to just explore and if we are unable to eat anymore, we at least wanted to fill our eyes with as much as we can see. So off we went... apart from PIC's close encounter with a grizzly maimed shark, it was mostly an uneventful walk but one filled with characters and sights that left us thinking, this is a good day.