Remuera is home to a brand new espresso bar, Tosca and it’s set to be a firm local favourite. The cosy 10-seater space might be small in scale, but you’d be surprised at how many tricks this humble little shop has up its sleeves, including the likes of cold-pressed organic juices, Webster’s organic loose leaf tea and cabinet sandos and treats. Not to mention, bespoke playlists designed especially for the space by Jaimie Webster Haines from ZootMusic
Coffee takes centre stage at Tosca, using Atomic Coffee Roasters beans and a varied selection of milk such as coconut, soy, almond, oat and even macadamia. For those who need an extra morning kick, opt for the Awaken juice, which comprises tangelo, orange, green apple, lemon and beetroot.
Vegan slices from Real Rad Food alongside sandwiches and wraps that have been made fresh, every morning fill the cabinets, making Tosca the perfect spot for Remuera locals who are on-the-go and need a quick, yet quality fix.
Opening hours: Monday — Friday: 7am until 4pm Saturday: 8am until 3pm Sunday: Closed
The ECC sale is upon us once again and this time around we are expecting a stampede to the store, for the pieces on offer are especially alluring. There is furniture aplenty, from sprawling sofas to outdoor additions, an array of captivating lighting fixtures and a plethora of enticing home accoutrements — here are some of the most notable highlights.
As far as the home furnishings are concerned, we’re particularly in awe of the Laze lounge chair. With its unique shape — akin to that of an oversized leaf — and its seating crafted from cleverly strung polyester filaments, the chair is a piece that epitomises luxury outdoor living. So, too, are we taken with the Claude Easy Chair, which combines leather seating with a sleek timber frame to create an ultra-elegant piece.
Left: Caadre Mirror Right: Claude Easy Chair
An array of exquisite lighting offerings are ensuring that the much smaller of the home accoutrements are not overlooked. Both the Noctambule Floor lamp by Flos and Ingo Maurer’s Yoruba Rose lamp blur the boundaries between lighting fixture and decorative sculpture, the former of which harnesses cylindrical see-through glass modules, while the latter sees a delicate sheet of Japanese paper circularly stretched onto light metal wires. The Lucid 200 hanging lamps too, crafted from premium materials like alabaster and satin brass, stand out as a particularly dazzling highlight.
Left: Noctambule Floor Right: Yoruba Rose
Arguably one of the best sales yet from the masters of design, with pieces that span all aesthetic tastes and design schemes, we suggest you make tracks to Nugent Street — or peruse the online store, here — while you can.
The traditional Chinese bao was taken to a peak of creativity by the vision of Judge Bao’s owners and operators, Jamie Johnston and Debbie Orr. The duo understandably gained a loyal customer base willing to follow them from one food festival to the next, and it was a sad day when the partnership announced their dissolution and business closure last year. The food truck scene just has not been the same since.
Debbie Orr
Johnston moved on to maestro the kitchen at Onehunga’s Everybody Eats as executive chef, while Orr has now made the wise decision to return to the food truck scene. This time around, she’s trucking solo. Doing what she does best, Orr continues to hand-make her steamed buns, but under the new name — BunHun. After a mouth-wateringly good comeback at February’s Laneway Festival 2020, the word about BunHun has begun to spread and the queueing is once again becoming the norm.
With her own secret and faultless recipe from her Judge Bao era, Orr’s plush and pillowy steamed baos are officially back, but with enhancements and enchantments. We could not be happier. Fellow former food truck operator, Steve Ko of Coreano, has shared the recipe for his spicy pork with Orr, which she has tweaked by swapping out the grilled meat for a tender three-hour braised pork. Orr has acknowledged Steve in the new bao title: The Fireman Steve. The drizzle of creamy yoghurt sauce, spring onions and aromatic sesame over the spicy pork are beautifully enhanced when paired with a side salad, for a contrast of leafy freshness with the scintillating spice.
Fireman Steve
Ensuring everyone can share in her creations, Orr has included a vegan-friendly option on her menu. The Agedashi Tofu Bao seasons two slices of crispy deep-fried tofu with kombu and shiitake powder, to create a powerful and memorable umami flavour. The bao is lined with a murmur of mushed edamame peas, a delight of daikon and a saucy suggestion of vegan miso mayonnaise.
Agedashi Tofu
The beauty of BunHun is that baos are not the only delicacies to be found. With the option of swapping out the bun for a bed of fluffy jasmine rice or the Korean Fried Chicken that uses the same spicy sauce as The Fireman Steve, this is a food stall that lives and breathes the idea of something for everyone.
Korean Fried Chicken
Bun Hun is currently touring Auckland, stopping at our seasonal and sensational food events and festivals. By following the Bun Hun Instagram page, you will have regular location updates. When you’re lucky enough to have Debbie Orr truck her treats near your area, make sure you try the bao at its new and delicious peak.
Have you ever wondered what it is that makes certain skincare so iconic? To be crowned with such a coveted title the product must transcend the fickle nature of beauty trends, standing tall in the face of a continual flood of emerging new brands, products and technologies. If that were to be the definition of iconic skincare, alongside it in the dictionary would be one stellar example: La Mer. More specifically, La Mer’s supreme The Eye Concentrate.
Regarded as the holy grail of eye creams since its inception, combining the brand’s famous Miracle Broth with radiant ferments to bring to life an impressively powerful formula. Thanks to its ability to revitalise the thin and very sensitive skin around the eyes, as well as diminishing dark circles, while also promising to even out skin tone, this eye cream will remain in prime position in the bathroom cupboard long after other products have come and gone.
So impressive is La Mer’s The Eye Concentrate that it’s difficult to imagine it being open to any corner of improvement. But, ignoring the old adage of ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’, La Mer has chosen its mission of doing just that — by making one small, but mighty, tweak. For the new and improved The Eye Concentrate, the dosage of the famed Miracle Broth has been tripled.
The Miracle Broth, a mysterious elixir that harnesses the intense healing properties of a particular kind of sea kelp, resides at the heart of every La Mer product. It was created by the brand’s founder, Aeroscientist Max Huber who, after sustaining burns while experimenting in the lab, went about creating a concoction that would aid his recovery. Twelve years and 6,000 experiments later, Huber stumbled across a remedy that he found not only healed his skin, but also would aid people all over the world for years to come.
With an already winning formula, now improved by the tripling of its wonder ingredient, there’s no question that La Mer’s new The Eye Concentrate will not only retain its predecessor’s cult favourite status, but will also give the term iconic a whole new meaning. The eyes have it on this one.
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