6 May 2011

COROMANDEL: CAFE CRAWL STAGE 3

The Star & Garter saloon bar was our first stop for the third and final night of our Crawl found us in Coromandel town, and it was a short walk from the Anchor Lodge on Wharf Rd, where we stayed. After a heart-warming whisky and local honey-based cocktail it was onto a bus and off to the Mussel Kitchen for our entree.

Seafood always tastes better when you can smell the sea, so our starter of Coromandel oysters pictured above - our NZ rock and Pacific oysters plus a smoked oyster, followed by mussel fritters with a stunning baby leaf salad with limeade segments were totally appropriate, with the harbour's edge just across the road. (Both these shell fish are grown in open seawater nearby and can be bought at the respective processing plants, almost across from each other on SH25.)

We the headed to the very good Peppertree restaurant in the township for surf and turf, tender eye fillet of beef paired with a juicy crayfish tail. Peppertree has been in Coromandel for years and on Fridays a local market sets up on the pavement outside.

Finally, now groaning after three nights of almost too much food, we ate dessert at Success cafe, and roasted feijoas on the apple cobbler with Manuka honey ice cream and a caramel encased macadamia proved a fitting end to our local homegrown feasting.

What a terrific idea for tourists to follow this fun-filled dining trail over three consecutive days. It is truly and literally, a taste of the Coromandel.