RESTAURANT
Mar & Tierra
In 1927, New Zealand’s first fish cookbook extolled the health benefits of kaimoana, stating “fish is more easily digested than meats and for this reason it is particularly adapted for those of feeble constitutions and sedentary occupations”.
The book was produced by Sanford’s, a business with more than a small vested interest in a tome titled Eat more fish — hints for the Housewife and Cook on the proper treatment of Fish as Food.
I’m no housewife, but I am enthusiastic cook who lives with an even more enthusiastic kayak fisher.
In our house, “snapchat” means a text to say he’s onshore with three pannies.
My week starts with sashimi and finishes with a smoky pie. Is it possible to resent a fish? You wouldn’t believe how securely snapper scales stick to a lino kitchen floor (also your face, clothes and hair).
At the Auckland Fish Market, someone else has done the difficult work. Specifically, Sanford’s. That company that wrote the book on how to cook fish is still at it, with a little help from the multiple new restaurant tenants in its refurbished Jellicoe St buildings.
Prawn dumplings, pork bao and chicken karaage for the teen ($40 all up). Fish and chips ($22) for her little brother who was dismayed when he couldn’t find the Watties. A fish burger ($18) for their mum. Next time, definitely, a billypot of mussels or a laksa or a woodfired pizza. General consensus: this fancy, fish-themed food court is great for a group with disparate tastes.
On our side of the table (the side doing the reviewing), we’d gone South American. Mar & Tierra is Spanish for sea and land. In an Auckland gone mad for Asian fusion the menu is a welcome respite from soft-shell crab and green papaya salad. Give a nod to terra firma via a decently fatty and coarse chorizo sausage ($20 with the flattest, driest arepa I’ve tasted) but remember you’re in seafood central — if you don’t
order the swordfish skewer ($22) you are seriously missing out.
The fish was woven with strips of a crunchy root vegetable (later identified as daikon) and served with a tangy green tomato salsa and a quarter of creamy, blackened avocado. There was absolutely nowhere for the chef to hide and the performance was stellar — the meat was pearlescent in the centre, opaque (but still moist) on the edges. Forget your delicate, crowd-pleasing snappers and gurnards and go for seafood-as-steak; fish for people who really want to feel like they are eating fish. (As someone who lived through the 1980s, I had my doubts about the avo, but it’s not as cooked as the menu suggests.)
We boosted our order with garlicky plancha prawns ($22), which were, I think, slightly overdone — the flesh was mealy rather than succulent. Octopus, by contrast, exercised the OMG muscle. It was supertender and served with charred, sweet watermelon and creamy mashed potato ($18). A few summers ago I went to Spain and after three weeks my body was approximately 25 per cent vino blanco and 75 per cent pulpo gallego. Mar & Tierra proffer the best take on that dish I’ve found in Auckland (and their chargrilled broccoli is equally excellent).
It’s hard to review service at a place that is, essentially, a food court, but the folk across the counter were pleasant and helpful, pointing out that the prices on the printed menu were higher than those we would actually be charged. The chorizo was, for example, $6 cheaper than is listed online — a situation they need to sort, because the competition is not even next door.
Our group had ordered from three eateries and the buzzer from Mar & Tierra was the last to light up by about five minutes. The snapper was quarter-gone before the swordfish arrived. But patience is a virtue, good things take time and, to be fair, they did have the bigger fish to fry.