oh no I did Yum Cha again!!!?

SISTER ANN’S REVIEW: Yum Cha once more …this time with Harry and Kathrine in Elliot Street Auckland at the Dragon Boat. I remembered going there in 1991 I think when it opened. The food was a-maze-ing!!!  Kathrine had not tasted Yum Cha and loved green tea sowhat better reason? Tenuous - but any excuse really. Kathrine is out running now and that is also where I should be…but is there Yum Cha at the end of it? No there is not. How many days til I can go back to Yum Cha? I'm saying perhaps one. Or two.

AMBIENCE  7/10                    SERVICE  10/10                       FOOD  9/10

Obesity in NZ

I read a terribly worrying article in the NZ Herald last weekend. It refers to research by Professor Philip James from London who was invited by AUT to speak in Auckland and Hamilton. Professor James is an advisor to World Health Organisation and president of the International Association for the Study of Obesity.


His main message while here is that New Zealand has one of the highest rates of obesity in the Western world at 25%, and additionally that New Zealand’s obesity controls have fallen behind the rest of the West. In his view the reason for obesity is a genetic predisposition in an environment that allows it to happen with an “out-of-control” food industry and over-use of cars – in Britain it’s been accepted by the Cabinet that it’s not your fault if you get fat. Professor James says, “It’s a normal human response to get fat in the NZ environment”.

What he advocates (and he is astounded at the National Government’s reversal of the decision to allow only healthy foods to be sold in schools) is strict controls in schools, a food labelling system, bans on food marketing to children, tax breaks on fruit and vegetables and more cycle ways. He warns that without changes of this nature, obesity and the diseases it causes will overwhelm health services.

Let’s do everything we can to support anyone or any group that is trying to make these changes.

Source: NZ Herald 8 May 2010

Sunday Breakfast

the best way to entertain. Breakfast after a row or a bike ride, friends over for a casual breakfast, no-one expects anything sensational but it's friendly and relaxed - and the sun (unexpectedly for April) is shining bright.

what better gift from a breakfast attendee than home grown eggs... fabulous shapes and very very fresh

yum. When's lunch?

I was thinking - Archive

I had a discussion and a few thoughts of my own about overweight lately. My feeling is (and I'm no expert!) that our behaviour around when and how we eat has changed over the last several years and I do wonder if this is having an impact on our weight. Remember when we all used to sit at the table for meals, Mum, Dad and the kids, and talk... thus taking a longer time to eat and respecting the cook's efforts. We also never bought food on the run - to eat alone in the car or sitting on a pavement amongst rushing people and traffic. My question is, does the absence of structure around meal times and the presence or otherwise of a social setting - so the context of eating - have an impact on whether we gain weight? My strong belief is that it does indeed. I'm trying to be aware of making meal times an occasion again, and giving food reverence. I'm approaching the purchase, preparation and consumption of food with more respect.