An appetite for winter
Arrowtown has wonderful food and drink, some of which you can take back home with you, writes Anna King Shahab
Arrowtown — population just shy of 3000 — punches well above its weight when it comes to food and drink. A sleepy little town it’s not: Arrowtown is a popular spot with visitors but the key factor really is that its own population is adept at patronising local businesses. Whenever I’ve dined out in Arrowtown, be it on a balmy, still-light summer’s eve, or in inky, chilly midwinter, the eateries and bars have all been humming with locals having a great time. On a recent visit, the welcome felt toasty wherever I went.
Zero faff, plenty fun
Expanding on the popularity of Aosta, its bambino Little Aosta is a more casual, family-style offering from chef Ben Bayly, whose own words on the place are “simple, delish Italian food with zero faff”. Executive chef Steve Sepsy was in the house when we visited, and we were served by the brilliant Vanessa. Little Aosta, like its big brother, nods to the geographical synergy between the north of Italy (home to Valle D’aosta), and Arrowtown in Aotearoa’s southern reaches. This means a bounty of local produce dealt to with Northern Italian cooking techniques — here that means handmade pasta, and things cooked in and on the woodfire oven and grill, including pizzette — smallersized pizzas.
We started with sourdough and cultured butter and fritto misto — winter veg from local Nevis Garden, lightly battered, perfectly golden-fried, and served with tartare sauce, before a procession of hearty dishes filled the tabletop — chargrilled octopus, the signature PPL pizzetta (pa¯ ua, purple potato, lardo), handmade bucatini aglio e olio with Nevis garden elephant garlic, whole Bluff sole topped with woodfired kohlrabi, ice plant, crisp capers and seaweed butter. Stuffed full though we were,
Steve brought over a taster of a pig’s cheek dish he was keen for me to try — it was meltingly tender; if you spot it on the menu, order it! Next time I return it’ll be with my family in tow — the more hungry bellies at the table, the more I can sample from the menu.
Flights of fancy
At the other end of the ambience scale, Amisfield embraces fancy in more than one sense of the word, both in the fanciful creativity behind each
dish, and in the otherworldly way it’s presented. For any diner remotely on social media, the food turned out by executive chef Vaughan Mabee and team is preceded by its Instagram fame (particularly that famous camouflaged “stone” of butter). The remarkable thing for me is that the “IRL” (in real life) experience surpassed my expectations. I dined alone, but felt anything but lonely as I seemed to always have a server, sommelier Marek Przyborek, manager Tony Stewart, or Mabee himself at my table, unfolding the leather-strapped trestle table on which to present yet another elaborate dish, or pouring yet another great wine match.
Among the many highlights for me was the seafood-focused canapes course — the prettiest teeny farmed pa¯ ua you ever did see, poached for a precise eight seconds, Mabee told me, with an impeccable beurre blanc to dunk it into; Alexandra ko¯ ura brushed with ko¯ ura garum; a sea tulip — the latter one of many things I found myself discreetly Googling under the table — and “eel on Vogel’s” which came under a cloche filled with ma¯ nuka smoke. I also dearly loved the moist piece of South Island greenbone (also known as butterfish) topped with a school of whitebait — a beautifully clean, yet wonderfully rich, taste sensation, and the quail and harakeke — covered in pastry “pebbles”, over which Chef shaved truffle. A 2008 pinot noir was amazing alongside. The degustation clocks in at $240 with wine match at $120 — this is a Lakes District adventure you don’t want to miss.
Dishing up delicious
On an icy morning, a late breakfast at The Dishery was the perfect way to warm up, and to fuel up for a half-day e-biking the Arrow Bridge Trail (Bike hire place Better by Bike is right beside The Dishery). The inviting smell of the fire crackling away in the front courtyard gave way to the aroma of freshly ground coffee beans as I settled into a table inside by the window. Most of the menu is available all day and although I was quite tempted to dig into some Royalburn lamb shank for the first meal of the day, I was very satisfied with my eventual selection of cured salmon, avocado mousse, poached egg, pickled onion, and greens on top of rye bread.
Farm to table
The aforementioned Royalburn lamb can be bought in the Royalburn Shop — along with a bounty of other goods, most from Central Otago, and plenty direct from Royalburn Station, Nadia Lim and Carlos Bagrie’s farm on the Crown Terrace just above Arrowtown. The lamb is processed in the farm’s micro-abattoir and butchered onsite — the pave cut (inside upper leg) I brought home and cooked was tender, with amazing natural flavour. Another great item to bring home is the fill-your-own sunflower oil, pressed from the seeds of the almost one million sunflowers that graced the farm over summer.