Cookies & Q

We went to a wedding in Matarangi in the weekend. It is the most beautiful place – white, white sand and beautiful clear blue water. We had a fabulous time and the weather was stunning. I made the cookies above for the bride and groom. I thought they were quite cute.

Last night I had to take a client to dinner and I chose Q Restaurant at the Westin hotel in the viaduct. It was wonderful! The meal was very delicious – lots of wonderful flavours. The service was a little bit average, but not too bad. We went the whole hog, having an entrée, main and dessert.

My entrée was pumpkin ravioli with sage butter. It was delicious. Lots of parmesan cheese and delicately flavoured pumpkin filling. Perhaps a little more butter than I would have liked, and I didn’t think it was “burnt” enough – you know when you cook butter to a nut brown colour to give it more flavour, I don’t think it was left to brown enough.

My main was divine. I had seared tuna which was served on a small pasta bed, flavoured with olives and pesto. The flavours were delicious and each mouthful was truly a taste sensation. The tuna was seared to perfection – still very rare but not so it was raw in the middle. This was my favourite course. Apart from the ice cream…

Two scoops of the creamiest gelato chocka full of macadamia nuts and white chocolate. It came with a delicate tuile biscuit.

Not quite as good as the French Café, but I would certainly rate Q Restaurant as one of the best I have been to.