Feijoa & Coconut Cakes and The Narrow Table

We have a monthly meeting at work and every now and again I bring in something to nibble on while we have it. I was given a bag of feijoas and thought I would make these little feijoa and coconut cakes for the meeting. The cakes are lovely and moist as they are drenched in lemon syrup after baking. If you didn’t like feijoas, you could top them with sliced plum or blueberries or even just leave them plain. The recipe is below.

I also wanted to tell you about the dinner we had out for my husband’s birthday on Tuesday. We went to The Narrow Table in Mairangi Bay. This is a new restaurant and is French bistro style. It has had some really great reviews in Cuisine and the Sunday Star Times. See the Cuisine review here. Incidentally the prices were much higher than mentioned in the Cuisine review. It has also had a very average review in Metro. On Tuesday night it was very average! In fact it was almost below average.

Firstly, the wait staff were very indifferent. We ordered a glass of wine to begin with (quite expensive for suburban dining, starting at $12 a glass). The menu was broken into entrees, mains and dessert. I didn’t want an entrée but would have quite liked some bread and nice oil or even butter to nibble on while we pondered the menu. There was nothing on offer – even when I asked. My husband had pacific oysters done in tempura batter. He said they were nice but not startling.

Then for our mains we were told that the fish of the day was hapuka. There was no fish of the day listed on the menu, so I assumed this was a special. However, when my husband ordered the tuna from the menu, he was told that it wasn’t tuna today, but hapuka. Why don’t they just list fish of the day on the menu rather than specifying a fish they don’t have? Then I heard the waitress tell the next table that the fish of the day was salmon – why weren’t we told that? It took 15 minutes to establish that we could have either. I chose salmon and my husband chose hapuka.

The mains were served with baby spinach leaves in a yummy vinaigrette and baby potatoes. I am not sure what variety the potatoes were, but they tasted very bland – I suspect that they were Nadine, a variety referred to as the “dumb Blonde” of the potato world. The meal was tasty enough, just not the 4 stars I had expected from the Cuisine review. We didn’t have pudding, opting to go home for birthday cupcakes instead. I don’t think we will be going back.

Feijoa and Coconut Cupcakes (makes 15)

150g butter
¾ c sugar
3 eggs
1 1/3 c flour
¾ c coconut
1 ½ tsp baking powder
6 feijoas, peeled and sliced

· Cream butter and sugar; beat in eggs, one at a time
· Stir in flour, coconut and baking powder
· Spoon into cupcake cases and top with a few slices of feijoa
· Bake at 170c for 25 minutes
When cold, spoon over hot syrup made by stirring ¾ c each of sugar and water and juice of 3 lemons over low heat until sugar is dissolved, then simmer for 5-10 minutes.