October #17
We’re under no illusion this newsletter strikes a bougie tone a lot of the time - especially when it comes to food and eating out. But with austerity front and centre in both local and national politics, I have been thinking a lot about how we measure the value we get from spending in public services, because I think that gets lost in the conversation purely about cost cutting. For example, if you have a child or children, and you wanted to maintain a really good bookcase - that could cost you hundreds and hundred of dollars. Or, you can have a library card. Perhaps you don’t have children, but you swim. Think those are too bespoke? Do you know how much it would actually cost you to get rid of your rubbish if we didn’t all go 1/165,000ths, and individually paid a company that expected to turn a profit? (Auckland Council recently got rid of a bunch of public rubbish bins, only for social media to light up with comments along the lines of, why are our parks and streets now so filthy?)
So, I’ve been thinking about this a lot, about how there needs to be some line-by-line coefficient or ratio for various bits of public spending - eg a dollar spent on refuse actually saves the average household, say, five bucks, and see if it would change the way we think about expenditure, and help us to think more communally again. (Or, maybe it wouldn’t.) I also think about how a little newsletter like this fits into that ecosystem - because for all the IG posts of orange wine, we also try to include family events that are free or low cost, or include stories like the new Hamilton Council Food Map (see Scuttlebutt). We get more and more submissions every month - please keep them coming to hello@thewaikatodraft.com
We also have our first Draft baby! Our theatre editor Louise Drummond welcomed her daughter Charlotte Ella last month, and we are thrilled. And so we take a little break from our usual theatre listings, but have plenty besides.
Scuttlebutt
We have covered Andrew Bydder before, the Hamilton Councillor who in June told Waipā mayor Susan O’Regan to “get off your fat arse”, calling Waipā council staff “r******d, s*****c c***” in a public submission online. This was found to be in breach of the council’s code of conduct. This man, representing our city, doesn’t even live in Hamilton. And he will tell the public he’s “going rogue”, while telling the council that, for the record, “I am genuinely sorry for any hurt caused to the public”. There were complaints from the usual corners about the money spent on these proceedings. Seems to us that the best way to have avoided that spend was to have been for Bydder to have been collegial in the first place. Anyway, that’s enough words devoted to him.
As we mentioned above, the Hamilton Council Food Map launched this food map this month, pointing users towards free or low cost kai. Originating from the Kai Collective (a covid initiative from another era), it’s brought together more than 40 community contributors under the one umbrella. If you know of any paataka kai, food banks, community fruit trees or community gardens that aren't featured they’d love to hear from you: kaimap@hcc.govt.nz
Hayes Common crew Lisa and Brent Quarrie talked to RNZ about the difficulties facing the hospitality sector.
Many of us had noticed the uptick in increasingly circumferential abortion protests around Waikato Hospital, really since our abortion law reform. So well done everyone who made the new extended safe zone happen.
We also have a lot of readers that work at the hospital, and as some of them wrote to us because their subsided half-priced bus fares ran out this month, and will not be renewed. (The hospital employs more than 6,500 people, more people than the population of some towns). Which is a shame, least of all for patients who are already running late due to increasingly rare appointments at cost-pressured clinics, because of parking.
And the Gardens have officially brought in their $20 cover charge for out of towners. The big push for locals to get the Garden’s Pass seems like a faff - we just want to rock up with our power bill, please.
We got invited to a private function at Reggie’s (Mr Pickle’s new boozy pasta place upstairs at Made) in November, and they attached a menu - specifically for the event in question, and so we didn’t think it fair to include it here, but it was everything we’d hoped for.
We’re very into shoots of local regrowth, springing up where chains have failed along Grey Street. The retreat of Bird on Wire opened up a spot for local Salam Afghan food, which we’ve mentioned before and will mention again. Now with the demise of Lord of the Fries we’ve been watching with interest and are eager to try the Thai place that has risen from its ashes.
What’s on
IRL
More cross pollination within Made: Little ‘Lato and Neat are doing a five course degustation pairing gelato and spirits. October 23, tickets $75. Meanwhile Amphora x Pasta Paradiso on Monday nights continue, with a changing menu each week.
Barbie is the School Holiday Garden Place movie this Saturday, October 5. Free, but weather dependent. Bring a blankie. Mr Twist will be open for business.
The Hamilton Collectable Market has a bit of everything, and is happening October 19 at the Barn at Claudelands - Gate 3 Brookland Road. Bring cash - eftpos is limited.
November 2 (just before we publish our next newsletter), is the Hamilton Urban Wine Walk - see here for the list of venues including Mr Pickles, Last Place, Madam Woos - each one representing a different wine maker. All within staggering distance of each other.
The bilingual play Where our Shaows Meet, developed with funding form the New Zealand Sign Language Board and on tour thanks to Creative New Zealand. It’s is a mix of “physical storytelling, live instrumental music, New Zealand Sign Language, and spoken English” - pitched at d/Deaf and hearing audience members. At the Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts, October 26.
The Northern end of Wi Neera Walkway in Raglan is now open.
And then October 14, Mystery Creaks Ceramics is holding an event Craft to Chaos, an evening of “creativity and fun” outside their Made store, with “interactive making experience”. We’re not sure what that means, exactly, but there’s also food afterwards. If you’ve even seen one of their seconds’ sale (the line goes out the door and around the corner”, you’ll know they can really pull a crowd.
Halloween
For Halloween, don’t forget a trip to American candy store International Foods in Pukete. We’ve heard the odd complaint about the expiry dates: but can this stuff even go off? Where’s your sense of adventure? Exscite, at the Waikato Museum are also doing a Kooky Spooky Crafts spesh - also October 26. Their entry is now riverside, incidentally, due to construction.
Art
Signals! Solutions, a solo exhibition by frenetic artist Jack Hadley, opens at Laree Payne Gallery, this Saturday
Opening today is Kahurangiariki Smith’s exhibition, What if my best friend was a Taniwha? At the Ramp Gallery, Wintec, until October 26. The collection including video games, 3D renderings, toy dinosaurus, as Kahurangiariki explores her whakapapa to Ngati Rangiwewhi and her two taniwha - Pekehaua and Hinerua.
Gigs
By Adam Fulton
Reef Brazendale & the Backstabbers. October 11. Last Place. Tickets.
Reef Brazendale, drummer and vocalist for Ōtepoti punk outfit the Dud Uglys, is touring a selection of his own tunes alongside his backing band the Backstabbers. His Bandcamp page leads to nowhere, but I wouldn't expect a significant departure from the Dischord records inspired output of his previous bands.
Bad Taste and Ripship. October 18. Last Place. Tickets.
Bad Taste a Pōneke project, featuring rapper Young Gho$t and beatmaker Alphabethead, a slightly hazy combination of atmospheric dub and UK hip hop. Also a duo from Pōneke, Ripship play an almost disturbingly lucid brand of psych rock, quite unsettling.
Foundation Fest. October 19. the Local, Te Rapa. Tickets.
Cementing Kirikiriroa as the cultural capital of NZ Hardcore, foundation Fest brings together a slew of genuinely quite excellent hardcore and punk acts from across the country. Including but not limited to Dredge, Martial Law, Standover, Pressure and Gravel Pit.
Dougfest. October 25 & 26. Last Place. Tickets.
Two nights of music spanning that vast chasm between the eggpunk stylings of Cootie Cuties, and the melodic post-hardcore Barracks.
What We Put In Our Mouths This Month
I want to eat seasonal, but I struggle in winter. But from this month it gets so much easier around now. For those of us who love it, asparagus is here! Which also means baby potatoes, and then strawberries aren’t fair away, and then stone fruit. And corn. And really, really good tomatoes. Which always makes our household miss the farro cherry tomato pick and mix - so if someone knows a local alternative please let us know.
We have been eating a lot of herby quiche and tarts - with courgettes, asparagus, and we are lucky enough to have an old friend supplying us with fresh, free range eggs. And we have elotes corn recipes at the ready.
We are eating a lot of goats cheese - on the above, and by itself with crackers. The Provençal soft goat cheese, a delicious soft puck of garlicky and herby goodness, by Cranky Goat of Blenheim, is available alongside a great range of cheeses from the good buggers at Expleo.
We made a six hour slow cooked pork shoulder ragu with pappardelle from Vetro. We’re really loving the fresh pasta options there and it can really elevate a dish.
We got an email from a reader singing the praises of The Crust on Collingwood Street - we’ve featured them before and we don’t mind doing a re-do. Our reader made a similar comment to the one we did: this place has no ambience, at all, but the pizza is sensational and perfect for take out.
We have yet to actually catch the Amphora x Paradiso Monday night pasta. But we did cheat recently and went and got Paradiso pasta on a Friday lunchtime, and then walked down to Amphora, and ordered a glass of wine, which is not painful at all. We could drink whatever wine sommelier Kieran Clarkin serves us, and regularly do, but also recently enjoyed the Peddlers Gin from Shanghai he’s carrying in a GnT.
We also have this funny habit of catching the changing Mr Pickles menu just as it leaves? Like we go there, it’s fucking sensational, and then the next day I check IG and it’s Mr Pickles telling me the menu is changing. And mean to return the following week.
The chocolate mousse from the NYT. Literally fail safe.
