My sister Tessa likes to play a game. The game is simple. For a given time period - a week, a month, the duration of a holiday - you have to identify your favourite or most stand out person, event, activity, food and place.
There are some rules.
The person cannot be your partner. Event is loosely defined - it doesn’t have to be an event in the strict sense of an event, it can be more of an occasion. Activity is also loosely defined. Your favourite place can be, as Tessa says, macro or micro - it might be the best city you visited while on holiday, or it might be a very memorable sunny spot you sat in. If you have a favourite macro and micro place you can share both. You’re allowed only one answer for your favourite event, activity and person. When it comes to your stand out food there’s some leniency. No one is ever able to pick one favourite thing they’ve eaten. You’re allowed - and indeed encouraged - to give the reasons for each of the choices you make.
We played this game repeatedly over summer when my sister and her husband Stéphane were home for Christmas. We gave our answers for the week we all spent together in New Plymouth for Christmas, and again for the week when we spent together tripping around the South Island. Phil and I gave Tess and Stéphane our answers for the five days we spent in Melbourne and they gave us their answers for the five days they spent house sitting at ours. Tess and Stéph played the game at the end of their five weeks in New Zealand.
The night we were playing the game in the sunny courtyard at The Welsh Dragon after our trip to Melbourne, Stéphane said, “Oh not this diabolical game again.” Ever since, the game has been known as the Diabolical Game.
A week after Tess had returned to Brussels from New Zealand I emailed her and vowed that we would play the Diabolical Game every week by email. And so, since then, we have. It’s become a good way to stay in touch and keep each other updated on what’s going on in our lives. We’ve since added a sixth category - the weirdest moment of the week. That is somewhat not in keeping with the premise of the game, which is all about being positive and celebrating good moments. But we find there are weird moments we want and need to share with one another.
As much as Matariki is about marking new beginnings and change, I think it’s a good time to reflect and remember as well. It’s a good time to take a minute to think about all of the things that we’re grateful for. And so, I encourage you to reflect on the last twelve months and play the Diabolical Game with your whānau and friends this Matariki weekend.
Note: I was meant to have shared this post on Friday so that you did indeed have the weekend to do this, but my proof-reader and I got waylaid drinking wine in New Plymouth. Play it tonight!
Here’s my Diabolical Game list for the past twelve months.
Person: Liu Xin and Le Zhong Yin, the owners of The Beijing in Newtown, who have become our restaurant parents and who sold their restaurant to new owners in June after 30 years of ownership. Liu Xin and Le Zhong epitomise generosity. They have been so kind to us. We have had so many fun nights sitting at The Beijing long after the front door has been locked and the curtains pulled and the extractor fan has stopped whirring, drinking Tsingtao and hearing about their family and their experience owning a restaurant in a foreign country and their regular customers. They have sent us complimentary plates of deep fried toffee apples with hokey pokey ice cream and BBQ pork and packed us off home with roast duck legs on numerous occasions. We have become so close with them and will miss them and their restaurant - our second home - dearly.
Activity: In March 2024 I embarked on a mission at work and via my Instagram to gather donations to buy food for hungry kids at the schools my Mum and Dad teach at. It was the most humbling and rewarding experience. I raised just over $2400 and was able to buy 288 cups of instant noodles, 240 packets of noodles, 402 muesli bars, 140 packets of popcorn, 332 small packets of biscuits and crackers, 72 apples and 42 bananas, 132 Up & Go breakfast drinks, 30 packets of cornflakes and rice bubbles, 60 packets of crackers and dip, 6 large tins of baked beans and spaghetti, 116 Pinky and Crunchie bars and 88 Cadbury Creme Eggs. I was blown away by how generous people are, and by how intoxicating it is doing something good for others. It was proof that we all have the ability to do good - we just have to choose to.
Event: We were so, so lucky to be able to go to the Australian Open in Melbourne in January. We saw quarter finals and semi finals (live and on the big screen) and were there to witness Jannick Sinner beat Novak Djokovic, which was the time of my life. We danced to Groove Armada, we ate delicious food and drank delicious drinks in glorious (but not too hot) sunshine. Of course the few days we got to spend in Melbourne were wonderful too, but that Open really is just the most phenomenal event.
Place: In the past 12 months I’ve spent a lot of time at Plimmerton Beach. Phil and I spent time there together over the summer, and I spent some time there on my own when I took an extended period of leave from work over January. And we returned at Easter for a weekend in a bach right on the beach. I love it at Plimmerton. It’s laid back and simple out there. There’s not much to do other than bask in the sunshine, read books, bathe in the water (it’s the best swimming beach!) and sip on drinks and munch on delicious salty chips and pieces of fish from the local fish and chip shop. I spent a lot of time out there thinking about how I wanted to be in 2024. It did me the world of good.
Food: Of course I am going to take full advantage of Tessa’s lenient rules for this category. Here are my top five meals/foods of the past 12 months:
Lunch at Julie Restaurant, Melbourne
Scallops with orange butter and fennel pollen. Dinner rolls with whipped butter. Heirloom tomatoes with charred plum, tahini miso vinaigrette and tarragon. Tromboncino, zucchini in tomato and eggplant, fazzoletti and ricotta. Roast chicken with grilled lemon and rainbow chard. A bowl of hot chippies. Fig leaf panna cotta with strawberry.
Lunch at Flower Drum Restaurant, Melbourne.
King prawn, tofu and mushroom soup. Cucumber in chinkiang vinegar. Scallop siu mai. Prawn har gao. Berkshire pork and prawn siu mai. Quail sang choi bao. Peking duck pancakes. Pan fried red emperor filet with combination fried rice and stir fried seasonal vegetables. Almond cookies.
The Last Supper at The Beijing.
BBQ pork. Sichuan style boneless chicken with spicy sauce (cold). Deep fried tofu with dips. Dumpling soup. Roast duck slices in Beijing sauce with pancakes, spring onion and cucumber. Apple in hot toffee with hokey pokey ice cream.
Dinner at the start of June at Gatherings in Christchurch.
Bowl of bread with EVOO. Turbot cooked on the bone with crayfish bisque and black cabbage. Potato and parmesan risotto with charred brussels sprouts. Salt-baked beetroots with tamarillos, sherry and silverbeet. Mixed leaf salad with mustard vinaigrette. Cardamom panna cotta with wine poached pears. Frozen citrus parfait with Akaroa olive oil.
Phil’s omelettes.
God bless him.
Mānawatia a Matariki x