It’s all good at Chur Bowl
This Te Rapa Rd caravan is a shining example of our mobile food culture.
It’s a bright spot on Hamilton’s industrial Te Rapa Rd, a beautifully shiny ming blue caravan, its catering window open wide and tasty food being handed across the pass. Beth Robertson is at the helm, and this is her Chur Bowl food truck, modelled along the lines of the old-school American Airstream caravans that are distinctive for their rounded shape and gleaming aluminium.
Robertson’s 4m-long outfit was custommade for her in China. She’s nicknamed it Wally after Airstream company founder Wally Byam. Her version is a kitchen rather than a holiday home, the caravan interior fitted entirely in stainless steel. It’s well organised and squeaky clean, the perfect space for her new enterprise.
You’ll usually find her on weekdays parked in the yard of Brown Lightning Bros Coffee on Te Rapa Rd, serving takeaway bowls of colourful food.
Her menu has a handful of items that can largely be prepped in advance and cooked and assembled as customers place orders. The bowls are seasonal, chock full of flavour, and cover various dietary requirements.
Robertson was previously at Hamilton’s Two Birds Cafe´ , specialising in raw baking. She’s originally from Sydney, where she worked in event and hospitality management, and met Kiwi husband Daniel a few years back.
She says: ‘‘I’ve always wanted to do something on my own, and a food truck seemed like the way to go.’’ So she’s joined a fast-growing, mobile chef culture that’s livening up the country’s culinary landscape.
On my first Chur stop, I got the lamb bowl: slow-cooked lamb shoulder with beetroot hummus, barley tabbouleh, coconut tzatziki, pickled onion, lemon and toasted almonds. Terrific flavours and textures, all neatly layered in a biodegradable container. The best $16 I’ve spent in a while.
Robertson’s meltingly tender lamb is a 12-hour process. She sears the meat and slow-cooks it overnight with Greek flavours of brown onion, garlic, herbs, lemon, salt and pepper, cinnamon, white wine and chicken stock.
There’s also a slow-cooked pork bowl with coconut rice, pickled cucumber, veges, jalapenos, spring onion and coriander. Plus a cauliflower taco bowl, sweet pudding pots, and a delicious snacky breakfast ($7) of loaded avocado toast.
Robertson says she had a few non-culinary things to learn when her caravan arrived. ‘‘I’d never towed anything before. I did heaps of practice. My father-in-law was a great help. I now feel very comfortable with it.’’
Then there was Chur Bowl, the name of the new business, suggested by Daniel. The Kiwi slang – typically an affirmative, as in ‘‘chur, bro’’ – was initially a bit lost on an Aussie. But Robertson likes its upbeat style. She says: ‘‘It’s laidback, it kind of fits a nomad lifestyle.’’
The Chur Bowl caravan is likewise fitting neatly into its Te Rapa patch, where you can move seamlessly from food to coffee: the coffee being across the yard at Brown Lightning Bros, the 10th outlet of Raglan Roast from the Waikato’s west coast.
Raglan Roast’s Hamilton premises was once the headquarters of Brown Bros Drilling. In the repurposed industrial space, you’ll find a friendly welcome, plenty of comfy couches and chairs, and best-value coffee: $3 for a cracker flat white (drink in), and $3.50 for a takeaway.
Raglan Roast is widely known for its modest prices; staff member Jed Creser describes it as an honest price. ‘‘We keep it simple here,’’ he says, as he pumps out brews for the Te Rapa queues.
There is no-frills food – Molly Woppy biscuits and packets of Proper Crisps – but the best plan, really, is to match your coffee with something tasty from Chur Bowl. How convenient.