FOUREYES ON THIS WEEK #18

ALEX - I'm on a little bit of a health kick at the moment (well, I'm trying to be) so decided to try out a place I had heard a lot about - Little Bird Unbakery on Summer Street in Ponsonby. Being a big fan of Korean, I went with the Kimchi pancake made with a chickpea batter, topped with watercress and radish salad. Everything is made from raw organic ingredients and what I had tasted amazing. So much so that I walked out with one of their chocolate brownies… delicious and with no guilty aftertaste.

  
CHIN - Spent the weekend painting. After hours of sanding, masking taping, accidentally stabbing my face with a pair of needle-nose pliers while trying to open the damn paint can, dripping paint on EVERYTHING and painting, I've finally finished (well, two coats anyway) now that I've spent an eternity washing paintbrushes. Got bright white walls now and it was strangely therapeutic.

  
DANNY - This hat. I'd been wanting a cappello romano forever and had this rabbit fur felt one made by Irons Kingan Hats (stocked at Wunderkammer) earlier this year. Now that we've hit full on winter weather I've finally been able to pull it out this week and wear it.

  
MINO - I love discovering new websites and although I've been tuning into this one for awhile now, I thought it was worth a mention. Focusing on just menswear (and not the boring variety), I love checking out the editorials and coverage of international shows. Make sure you check it out: http://fuckingyoung.es

FOUREYES ON THIS WEEK #17

ALEX - Last night we went to a potluck dinner where each of the guests was allocated a main or dessert and also allocated a flavour to incorporate into their dishes (lemon, honey, chilli, walnut or ricotta). I got the combo of dessert and walnut with no idea of what I could make. I had to google "walnut desserts" and ended up opting for afghan biscuits which at least have a walnut on top, which I placed on top of a chocolate mousse (which I had to make 3 times due to certain mishaps). I then decorated it the best I could to disguise the fact that my creation was much more chocolate than it was walnut. This is what it looked like.

  
CHIN - This week we did a hugely fun little shoot of one of our favourite NZ labels for our friends at Remix magazine. Here's just a tiny BTS snap. Can't wait to share the final results with you soon.

  
DANNY - This is a totally domesticated post as I also made a chocolate dessert this week, though I made no attempt to disguise the fact that the recipe called for over 1.1kg of chocolate. It's the Eight-Textured Chocolate Cake out of the cookbook from Sydney restaurant, Quay. It's literally eight separate recipes all put together in one cake. Texture one. Chocolate cake base. Texture two. Chocolate mousse. Texture three. Caramel, vanilla and chocolate ganache. Texture four. Chocolate and hazelnut dacquoise. Texture five. Milk chocolate praline discs. Texture six. Chocolate caramel cream. Texture seven. A dark chocolate top disc. Texture eight. Hot chocolate sauce to melt through the whole thing. Of course, as soon as I started on texture one I remembered that I'm really good at screwing up melting chocolate every single time. Surprisingly I didn't, until the last component, hot chocolate sauce, which I managed to completely write off three times despite it only having two ingredients and a four-sentence long recipe. Anyway, it worked out in the end and it was pretty awesome as you'd expect with that much chocolate in it.

  
MINO - The best kinds of invitations are the ones you can eat or drink so we were super happy to receive a bottle of Absolut Mango Vodka with a real life mango and an invite to the NZ launch. Needless to say, we cracked into it this weekend and it was goooood - the taste of a tropical summer that hopefully isn't too far away!

FOUREYES ON THIS WEEK #16

ALEX - Auckland seems to have a new eatery sprouting up every 5 minutes which is great for us as one of our favourite pastimes is to eat our way around the city. This week, I have been house/cat-sitting a house in Ponsonby and during a walk on Saturday morning, we came across Dear Jervois cafe. It was pretty busy but we thought we would try our luck at getting a seat. I had a the eggs benedict (which wasn't your average eggs bene). It came with bacon, spinach and hash brown and it was really good. Mino has the Soba Noodle salad (which seems to now feature on a few menus around town) and it was also really delicious. They also have Best Ugly Bagels and Six Barrel Soda on the menu so that's an added bonus.

  
CHIN - The four of us played Mahjong yesterday. While we can all now play the game, knowing how to properly score is still something else.

  
DANNY - Still on the same Memphis buzz as Chin, these Memphis Group x Adidas ZX 9000's are on my wish list. Available here.

Photo taken from UBIQ

  
MINO - Kate Sylvester knows how to throw a party and on Friday night, we had the pleasure of attending the 21st birthday bash of one of New Zealand's most iconic and successful fashion brands, complete with a delectable feast including a whole pig that looked like it had just come of the spit, flowing champagne, a burlesque dancer that emerged from a cake and of course a loyal crowd of support that was there to celebrate Kate and Wayne's 21 years in what is a very difficult and fickle industry. Congratulations Kate and Wayne! We look forward to the next 21 years of amazing creativity.

FOUREYES ON THIS WEEK #11

ALEX - I had been meaning to try out RAD in Mt Eden Village for awhile as it's pretty close to home so checked it out yesterday with Mino and everything about it was good!! As soon as we walked in, we left suburbia and entered a bustling cafe with menu options that had us confused about what to order (because everything sounded great!). We are self-confessed over-orderers and between the two of us, we had the garlic prawn and mild chorizo on lemon linguine, the Vietnamese inspired beef lemon grass on vermicelli noodles, Grandma’s Pork Bánh mì, The Tang Tang juice and a coffee - all quite different dishes but all so great, I couldn't pick a fave. The service was great, the interior interesting and I will go there again with 100% certainty.

  
CHIN - Earlier this week, I watched the video of Madonna's 1990 Blond Ambition Tour. A segment inspired by the movie Dick Tracy happened and it made me want a yellow trench coat. A butter yellow, double-breasted trench coat to be exact. I've searched the whole internet but can't seem to find one. But I did find this promo photo for the movie and the original one worn by Warren Beatty. I guess I'd find a flimsy version at a costume hire place or something but that's not what I'm after.

  
DANNY - I've had a sale alert on these for the past ever and yesterday a buzz came through on my phone. The Saks Fifth Ave sale is on. They're 30% off. They're still a whole giant load of money. Money which I don't really have because I'm supposed to be saving for a possible trip later this year. Plus you know, bills and stuff. But I really love them. Should I just get them? I'm leaning towards a rational, money-wise 'no', but I could be swayed.

  
MINO - While I was in Sydney a couple of months ago I discovered Ciroc Coconut Vodka on the rocks with lime. While this might be old news for some, it was good news for me - delicious! The only thing is, I don't know where to get it in NZ so when this bottle runs dry, I will have a good reason for a trip to Sydney.

FOUREYES ON THIS WEEK #10

ALEX - This week, we each ordered a pair of sunglasses from www.clearly.co.nz and it couldn't have been easier. They have a great selection, a very user-friendly website and I can't wait to see my purchase. More on this later.


CHIN - I'm thankful for the cooler weather. It's allowed me to look in that section of my wardrobe I've ignored for too long. Knitted from an Eighties Vogue knitting pattern, I rediscovered this gem of a woollen jumper given to me a couple of years ago by a friend.

DANNY - My workplace currently has this 20 kilo wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano sitting in the fridge. Just because my work decided that a 20 kilo wheel of cheese was a very good thing to have. You know, for just in case. I think the pit we've made in it so far is adequate evidence of a good week.

  
MINO - 3-day weekends are the best. I had the perfect end to the week in Matarangi in the Coromandel with 11 of my closest friends. We ate (a lot), drank (a lot), laughed (a lot), played board games (it got pretty competitive -you know who you are…), and just walked along the beach enjoying the fresh air and good company. Does it really have to be Monday tomorrow?

FOUREYES ON THIS WEEK #9

ALEX - On Monday night (yes, Monday!), we found ourselves at Sky City celebrating the fabulous Colin Mathura-Jeffree's 42nd birthday. Colin always manages to throw a great party and the theme of this one was James Bond and guests were asked to "dress to thrill" which most did, including one guy in a full wetsuit! Thanks Colin for the amazing night and for making 42 look so good.

Image by Norrie Montgomery
  

CHIN - One of the highlights for me this week was high tea at The Langham. I recommend the Silk Road Blend tea with it.

  
DANNY - Meet the newest addition to my household. It’s a robot vacuum cleaner. Indulgent right? It was actually a many times combined birthdays/Christmas gift from family, but I still feel a slight twinge of guilt at owning one.  I feel like future historians will either look upon these kinds of things as the pioneering first steps towards a brilliant future or the thin end of the wedge of decadence that brought about the end of our society. I’m hoping for the former, because it’s pretty awesome. We’ve named her Lupe in honour of Lucille’s downtrodden housekeeper in Arrested Development.

  
MINO - This week (Friday) was my birthday and while some people don't like the celebrations that come with a birthday, I make my birthday more like a birthday week! On Friday, I had the pleasure of dining at The French Cafe which I have heard so much about but until now had never tried…it was one of the best meals of my life! We had the tasting menu; a 9-course meal with matching wines that took almost 4 hours to complete - 4 very enjoyable hours! I enjoyed every single mouthful but a couple of highlights were the roasted quail with wild mushrooms, chestnut, bacon, croissant and truffle butter and also the Buttermilk Granita with feijoa, apple cream, blueberries, elderflower and meringue. The service was perfect and the food was to die for. Can't wait for my next visit!

FOUREYES ON THIS WEEK #5

ALEX - What better activity on a rainy Easter Sunday than explore a newish cafe in an area that you don't normally frequent? This morning Mino and I checked out L'Oeuf cafe in Mt Albert and it was definitely something a little different (in a good way!). With names like "The Architect", "The Queen", "The Cambodian"and "The Peasant", the menu was a really interesting read and it made it almost impossible to choose what to have. We opted for "The Nest" (pictured below), sunflower seed crumbed soft-boiled eggs in a pastry nest with beetroot ketchup and rocket salad, "The Geisha", a soba noodle dish with sesame dressing which was so good, a couple of coffees and an orange and mango lassi. Everything was so tasty that we got greedy and ordered a Banh Mi, a chicken filled roll which was equally as good! Switch up your usual eggs benedict and try something new at L'oeuf - 4a Owairaka Ave, Mt Albert.

  
CHIN - I've owned a bathtub for over 4 years now and have only ever used it once. This evening I felt compelled to use it a second time. A pretty neat way to deal with the cold and wet weather that's happening in Auckland. It was nice and it looked like this.

  
DANNY - It's a long weekend. A really long, long weekend. We've been away so much in the last couple of weeks, it's been great to spend it in Auckland, catching up with visiting friends and getting domestic at home. My whole house has been tidied. And I baked bread. Actual bread, not in a breadmaker. Ciabatta. OK, so it's a disfigured unique shape and heading towards the burnt side of well done, but it tastes pretty good and has holes and everything.

  
MINO - I always make a point to also check out the "girls section" of the stores I go into as you never know what you are going to find - I saw this coat on our recent trip to Sydney in the Acne store and fell in love with it. It's easy, it has awesome volume and layering potential and I can't wait for the weather to get a tiny bit cooler so I can actually start wearing it.

FOUREYES THE BOOK: THE OFFICIAL LAUNCH PARTY

For the past few months we have been working on our biggest project to date and on Thursday night, we officially launched our new book FOUREYES: New Zealand Street Style at the Nathan Club in Britomart. 

We decided on a gallery style event where guests could walk around and look at some large prints that represented a few of our favourite images from the book and mingle to the music of our DJ Charlotte Ryan. It was great to see so many key fashion industry, family and friends attend.

We had some awesome sponsors that helped make the night a lot of fun. We served celebratory bubbles provided by Lanson Champagne, refreshing beer by Peroni, Otakiri water, cocktails that we designed ourselves using Blue Duck Vodka and Black Robin Gin (more on this later) and the classic Six Barrel Soda made from all natural ingredients in NZ, served in some really cute brown bottles. Bluebells Cakery created some delicious and beautiful treats which were very popular throughout the night.

The book is out now and you can either ask for it at your favourite book store or get it online here (they deliver worldwide!) You can also visit Beatnik shop at 11 New North Road, Auckland if you want to check it out in the flesh. 

Check out the rest of the photos from the night after the jump!

FOUREYES ON MISS CLAWDY

We attended the launch of new restaurant Miss Clawdy down at Wynyard Quarter in Auckland last week. We were treated to a selection of sharing plates from the menu which specialised in flavours from the South and Central Americas. Having not had a lot of soul food, we weren’t terribly familiar with it. Always game to try new things, we plowed through the dishes and enjoyed all of it. Stand outs for us were the Southern Fried Jerk Chicken, Jambalaya and the Snapper Ceviche. It wasn’t until we finished the dishes that we realised we hadn’t photographed any of them (that's how good they looked!) Fortunately, we were better with the Cinnamon Beignets and the Key Lime Pie we had for dessert. Click through to see our shots from the night.

BRITOMART FASHION SESSIONS

A couple of weekends ago we attended the Britomart Fashion Sessions, a series of public fashion shows organised by Britomart to showcase the designers who've set up shop in the precinct. We spent two days straight down at Britomart exploring all that it has to offer. Apart from the amazing retail spaces, we also tried out a couple of wonderful new restaurants including Ortolana, which saw us return time and time again. Click through to see what we got up to including runway pictures of some of our favourite New Zealand designers: Zambesi, World, Kathryn Wilson, Kate Sylvester, Taylor, Juliette Hogan, Trelise Cooper. We had an amazing time and hope you check out Britomart if you haven't already!

See more of our shots from the weekend after the jump.

FOUREYES ON BALI

Alex & Mino spent the last week in Bali and had an amazingly relaxing 9 days - 9 days of sun, great food, culture, people, cocktails and beautiful sunsets - one of our favourite holidays ever and we didn't even shop!

A few of the things we loved :

• Potato Head Beach Club - The perfect way to spend the day eating, drinking and swimming - quite a few of our days were spent here! Best cocktail - Bells & Whistles! Lilin, an Asian tapas style restaurant is part of the club and is also definitely worth a try. Check it out here.
• Mama San Restaurant - specialising in pork, we loved everything we tried and recommend the 'La Lot'. Check it out here.
• Sarong Restaurant - A beautifully designed restaurant using recipes sought out from street vendors - amazing! Check it out here.
• A day trip to Ubud - We visited the monkey forest, the rice terraces and had lunch at Indus which looked over the Tjanpuhan river - a view to die for.
• A day trip to Jimbaran - We spent the day at the Karma Kandara Resort from which we had to take a cable car down the the private beach. From here we went to the Ayana to see the stunning sunset from the Rock Bar and then to a seafood BBQ right on the beach at Surya seafood restaurant - the perfect day.
• Our villa - We stayed at The Amala and actually got to try each type of their accomodation including the spa villa, pool villa and their 3 bedroom residence! It was bliss and very difficult to leave every morning.

FOUREYES ON MARTINBOROUGH

This past weekend, a couple of us flew down to Wellington with a few friends and made our way to one of NZ's wine regions Martinborough to relax and cycle around the beautiful vineyard - four days or pure indulgence!

The vineyards we stopped at for wine tastings on our cycle circuit included Martinborough Vineyard, Ata Rangi, Margrain, Schubert (a personal favourite), Vinfields, Alana Estate and Te Kairanga.

What we loved :

• The great company of the friends we were with
• Tasting the amazing pinot noir for which this wine village is so well known
• The NZ small town hospitality and friendliness we experienced everywhere we went
• The delicious food we had at Wendy Campbell's French Bistro
• One of the best pies we have ever had at the Main St Deli in Greytown
• The hot tub at the house we rented
• Lunch at  Vinfields  where we enjoyed a couple of platters and flights of wine.

Regardless of whether you are visiting NZ or living here...this is NZ at it's best!

By Alex & Mino

FOUREYES ON ROOM 228 + ZUS & ZO

Last weekend we enjoyed a delicious brunch at Zus & Zo cafe in Herne Bay (if you haven't already gone, go!). While we were there we took a peek at Room 228, a cute little space accessed through Zus & Zo which is home to a collection of clothing, shoes and jewellery among other things. From tomorrow, Room 228 will collaborate with Sherie Muijs and will showcase the designer's simple and beautiful shirts for which she is well known. We hear that she has even done a men's shirt which we are very keen to get our hands on. Check out our photos below and take a look here to see Sherie's shoot of her recent shirt collection. Enjoy!

FOUREYES ON KOKAKO

Danny and I recently visited Kokako Cafe and Roastery in Grey Lynn. Click through to see what we saw.

The Space:

• The light, airy space has a clean and contemporary decor. 
• Look closely and you'll see, dotted around the room, remnants of the post office that previously occupied the building. 

The Food:

• The menu is vegetarian and many ingredients are described as organic, Fairtrade or locally sourced. 
• The coffee is batch roasted certified Fairtrade organic coffee and it was good. 
• Danny had the Organic Potato Hash and I had the Kedgeree - both were delicious. 

The Things We liked:

• The coffee.
• The colour palette of the space.

By Chin

FOUREYES ON DELHI

I can't say that Delhi was high on my list of places to go but when work took me there for a few days in Feb, I was excited for the experience. Not much of a fashion destination but eye-opening all the same! Check out my photos below.

The Good :

• The beautiful cool weather in Feb (a fact I was ignorant about before checking the weather forecast before I left)
• The convenience of rickshaws that will take you anywhere and everywhere!
• The best curries I have ever had! (makes sense really...)
• The low prices!

The Bad :

• Traffic like I had never imagined
• The honking that went with that said traffic
• Not making it to the Taj Mahal due to full trains! (note to self : plan in advance!)

The Must-Sees :

• The Red Fort
• A restaurant called Punjabi by Nature (photos below). Amazing!
• Jama Masjid
• Humayun's Tomb
• Chandni Chowk Market

By Alex

FOUREYES ON MEXICO

After the opening party of Kate Sylvester's new store on Wednesday night, we felt a little peckish. We braved the drizzly rain and walked a block away to our favourite eatery of the moment, Mexico. The space is endearingly colourful and the atmosphere is always relaxed but buzzy. Getting a table here is not easy if you're not early, but one of their super lovely staff members (picture below) managed to wrangle one for us that night. And we were glad she did. We had chicken quesadillas, soft shell tacos, fried chicken, crispy squid and, of course, a couple of jugs of margarita. EVERYTHING was delicious! This was the perfect end to an eventful weeknight.