ROSEHIP CAFE

RoseHip Reflection

The RoseHip Swirl

Favourite Place To Sit

Aprons on Hips

Spiced Tomato Juice w Antler Celery Stick

 Slow Cooked Lamb On Turkish Bread Slab

Whitebait Fritter

Mini Rounds - Carrot Cake / Chocolate & Hazlenut Cake

Banana Cake

Lemon Meringue Crowns

Take-Out Soya Flat White

#38 Christmas Cake

The Hipster On The Block

This sun-drenched hangout is The Rosehip Cafe in Parnell, Auckland, a breakfast, brunch and lunch café, serving Allpress coffee.  

Aptly named due to its adjacency to the rose gardens, the Rosehip Cafe knows how to do coffee & cakes to perfection.

Rosehip like a lot of fine dining cafes in NZ are child friendly, as testament to the fancy dress Lion aged 7, who walked up to the counter complete with mane and tail and was given a glass of milk with a straw.  Warning! clicking here and feeding the Lions could be dangerous.

The RH is such a popular community cafe that at times they probably play a game of musical chairs to find a place to sit. If you do get lucky, the coffee here is amazing, with Soy Lattes, Cappuccinos and Flat Whites considered by the local clientele as 'probably the best in the world...' The barista here knows how to tread the fine line between piping hot and not burning the bean.

The menu was so full of scrumptious soundbites it felt hard to concentrate. All the passing plates looked delicious, particularly the buttermilk pancakes and Vietnamese-style squid and the Borlotti beans with scrambled eggs and chorizo on ciabatta. Some of the local folks seemed to be voting with their feet and a quick head count suggesting you can't find a better Eggs Benedict in town.

Rosehip also conjure up a fine rendition of the NZ Cafe Culture classic:-

Pancakes with Bacon, Fried Banana and Maple Syrup.

The piece de resistance was the discovery of Whitebait Fritters on the seasonal menu. These tiny little Whitebait are a bit of a rarified treat in the 21st century, now selling at  $135 a kilo. Once upon a time they were in such abundance West Coasters sent kerosene tins of whitebait to their city relatives to dig into the garden as compost. And women on spring picnics would jump out of their pantyhose to use them as makeshift nets, to catch a kilo or 10 for an impromptu fritter tea with their whanau.

The whitebait capital of the North Island runs along the stunning Mokau river on the western coast. Their roadside lay-by fritters are bigger than frisbees at $16 a pop. To the South the whitebait epicentre is the Turnbull river in Haast, where the loveable 91 yr old Whitebait Betty has built her national reputation for baiting patties. 

We left Rosehip with a firm grip on our Take Out Soya Flat Whites. These Allpress coffee masters have one of the most recognisable coffee brands in NZ, underpinned by good colour credentials and successful ventures overseas to Shoreditch, London and followed by an imminent cafe opening in Tokyo.

Whitebait Fritter's and Flat White's are a winning combination.  Perhaps it is time to open a WFFW concept cafe.... 

The Famous Betty Eggling's Whitebait Pattie Recepie

Ingredients
400g whitebait (if frozen, add a couple of tablespoons of flour)
2 eggs
Salt,pepper

Method
Have the whitebait as dry as possible.
Separate the eggs. Add the yolks to the bait, season with salt and pepper and stir together. Beat the whites until they peak and then fold together with the seasoned bait and egg yolks. Cook immediately in clarified butter in a moderately hot pan. 

Serve patties with white bread, salt and pepper, a glass of red wine and mint sauce.

Betty x