Foodie news about town and beyond

by | Jul 21, 2022 | News

Melbourne’s MoVida to open in Auckland – Chef Frank Camorra is bringing MoVida to Auckland’s Britomart in August. MoVida ran a month-long pop-up in Auckland in 2016 and has been in talks about opening a New Zealand venue ever since, reports Stuff. Now the top Melbourne restaurant is MoVida set to open in New Zealand, featuring Seafood paellas will be cooked over fire, something the Melbourne restaurants have not been able to do. Find out more here.

Meanwhile Auckland’s Botswana opens in Melbourne – The restaurant, originating in Downton Auckland, now has four locations across New Zealand and Australia, including the newly opened Melbourne spot. The idea of an upscale restaurant chain isn’t particularly well-established in Australia, although my guess is that will change in coming years, predicts Besha Rodell, writing in Good Food, Australia’s Home of the Hats. Turn’s out it’s far easier to simply replicate an already successful concept than dream up new personalities for each new opening.

The restaurant’s food and decor are about as un-African as you can imagine. As Time Out reports, like its Kiwi counterparts, the Melbourne iteration will have a grand interior – but it will also feature a Melbourne touch, thanks to plush booths and long marble-topped bars. And just in case you like a view with your steak, there are two glass-enclosed terraces overlooking Flinders Lane that add another level of grandeur.

Given the restaurant has almost nothing to do with southern Africa from which it takes its name, The proliferation of Botswana Butchery in various locales makes the already odd name even more discordant. Time for a rebrand?

 

Tauranga rediscovered – The city centre is changing and evolving. Yes, there’s still disruptions as major redevelopments take place and store occupancies begin to return to normal, but in amongst all this is an array of incredible eateries, boutique shops and businesses, passionate business owners and operators and great experiences for all. Vicki Ravlich-Horan, Nourish magazine editor and self-confessed foodie checks out Nectar, Casual Kitchen, Picnicka and more on offer.

Brave new world of supermarkets – The country’s newest supermarket is opening in Wairoa this week, with a $17 million New World store in Northern Hawkes Bay’s Wairoa. This is the second new store opening for the Foodstuffs North Island co-operative this year, following the opening of a new Four Square in Auckland’s St Heliers last week. Find out more here.

 

Illegal fishing decreases, but some legit fishers are ignoring the rules, reports New Zealand Geographic.

A study by the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency of illegal, unreported and unregulated tuna fishing has found that the problem may not be as bad as was feared. It estimated that between 2017 and 2019, 192,000 tonnes of tuna worth more than US$300 million was caught each year in the Pacific Islands region by people not following fisheries rules—down from 300,000 tonnes in the 2016 estimate.

Meanwhile, in Asia, the trend towards free range continues to grow – A new report from the international NGO Sinergia Animal, which surveyed more than fifty food companies has found a rising interest in animal welfare among food companies in Asia.This includes the finding that 70% of Asian-based food companies say no to cages, according to the survey.

Juliet Gerrard the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor has just released the first of a series of reports into foodwaste in New Zealand. Turns out the food ending up in the bin is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to food waste. That’s one of the key messages from the first report in the food waste series, Food waste: A global and local problem, made available this week.

Beefing up the border controls – Australian biosecurity measures have been tightened after viral fragments of the disease and African swine fever were detected in pork products, believed to be imported from China, at a Melbourne retailer. New Zealand  ramps up efforts to keep livestock foot-and-mouth disease out of country after Aussie scare.

 

 

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Drop a line to sarah@thefeed.co.nz 

 

 

 

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