You’ll Only Find a Brownie Like this Once in A Brew Moon…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

We’ve come for lunch to the Brew Moon café and brewery just outside Amberly,  north of Christchurch New Zealand.

There’s a cabinet of food on display … it all looks delicious but I can’t eat it all so I choose a slice of  bacon and egg pie .

(I see a definite  theme in my menu choices this holiday LOL!) but to be honest it looks too good to resist and all of the previous examples have been fabulously tasty.

This piece of bacon and egg pie  turns out to be no exception and I’m delighted with my meal. The kids didn’t end up having lunch because they weren’t hungry having eaten a late and substantial breakfast/brunch of toast and sandwiches, so they enjoyed a simple ice-cream later for “dessert”.

For dessert I choose the chocolate brownie with ice-cream (actually as is our habit, Himself polished off the ice-cream because it makes my asthma worse). I’m supposed to have a low dairy and egg diet,  but am willing to suffer some wheeziness for  a treat like the bacon and egg pie on occasion but I know better than to add an extra dairy item during these days as I don’t want things to get out of control.

The brownie has to be without doubt the best I have ever eaten. It was super chocolatey without being too terribly sweet which is no mean feat.

I of course  cheekily asked if the recipe might be available and my request was not surprisingly declined with a smile, but I’d go so far to say that I’d happily make a future trip back out here just for the chocolate brownie, it’s that  good.

We will be stopping here on future trips!  Dining here is really relaxed, the weather is perfect, we are sitting in the shade, the kids are playing on the machinery out the front and are posing for silly photos that I am taking of them from the table.

The icing on the cake is that we buy a few bottles of  Brew Moon beer to take home and share with beer-loving friends in the Netherlands. Perfect  lunch all round.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

We only got Here On Time, once in a Brew Moon…

Quick post today because we have a massive family Party going on…. and I’m doing the buffet for it.. the kitchen calls. I’ll share recipes later, things so far are tasting goooood….

If you head out of Christchurch, The biggest city on New Zealand’s South Island and travel north for just over half an hour, you will come to the small town of Amberly.  Just outside of Amberly (one maybe two km’s) you’ll find a local  independent  beer brewery.

It’s called “Brew Moon” .. if they brew only once in a Blue Moon I have no idea… but Himself wanted to stop in and grab a few bottles to try.

Now I have a confession: I adore the smell of beer, I could inhale the smell all day long, but the taste is wasted on me completely. Honestly I have tried hard to like it, but to no avail.

That’s probably why I now discover that I completely forgot to take a photo of the bottles,  (Beer lovers amongst you please don’t get your hops in twist, I know I’m just a Pineau de Charantes drinking philistine LOL). We  intended to go to the cafe, but family appointments were so much fun that we always stayed later than we intended and thus have always managed to pass by here very late in the evening or on Public Holidays, ie. only at times when the place  is closed.

On this occasion we have luck, it’s open, we turn into the carpark in time to see them putting stuff away, it’s early evening and they are about to close, Himself races inside to buy a few bottles before they close up the till whilst I wait  by the car with two tired kids, and take a few photos.

Himself finally has success in obtaining some brew to try, I have less success with the photos, probably due I think,  (ok, I know), to the not so small distraction of two tired kids beginning what sounds like World War Three in the back  of the van.

Note to Self:  Next trip we need to come back here, Himself says the dark beer is very favourably comparable to Guinness and if the beer is good then I’m hoping the the food in the cafe is too.

It’s on my Wish List of places to look further into next trip…

Meantime, If you like a Guinness style brew and are passing by Amberly, then stop in at Brew Moon, pick up  a few to take home  and you won’t be disappointed.