Ima, 53 Fort St, Auckland, New Zealand It’s said that Jewish mothers have a lot to answer for, but sometimes they have a lot to be thanked for. Yael Sochat grew up in Haifa, in northern Israel, where her mother taught her to cook. Having migrated to Britain she married a New Zealander, with whom she finally settled in Auckland. She opened a […]
Read moreI’ll never forget the first time I heard a performance of the setting of Psalm 50 (51), the Miserere mei, Deus, composed in the seventeenth century by Gregorio Allegri, a member of the papal choir and sung thereafter in the Capella Sistina. I was listening in another chapel, a dark one, and the soaring top line was sung by one of those boy sopranos […]
Read moreMezze Bar, 9 Durham St East, Auckland, New Zealnd Improbably, a flight of steps off a street in central Auckland leads to a tapas bar, where the cosmopolitan menu has a strong middle eastern orientation. The lentil soup is tasty, despite the absence of mint, and comes with bread and a piece of butter. A lemony hummus is served with a tomato salsa and triangles of […]
Read more