#10 USSCO Bar and Bistro in Gisborne

Gisborne... east coast town, famous for its chardonnay, oranges and the home of USSCO Bar and Bistro, as featured in "The Great NZ Cookbook".
Thomas Boyce was born and bred in Gizzy (as Gisborne is affectionately referred to) and provides recipes for two dishes. Sesame beef dumplings were inspired by a family trip to Japan and includes the addition of seaweed gathered from the local beaches. The stuffed chicken roll and roasted kumara and pan-fried haloumi looked delicious in the photo.
Unfortunately, neither dishes featured on the menu the night we visited on our Gisborne holiday nor was Mr Boyce present in the kitchen. The menu presented was seasonal and our waitress informed us that they had recently limited the selection.
A quick review from the daughters rated this as highly expensive and with nothing that looked appealing to them. So rather than suffer through we made the collective decision for a quick exit for the girls whilst Jamie and I carried on with choosing our entree and main. The agreement being that family was to text each other's culinary selections for the evening.

I started with the crispy prawn dumplings with soy ginger dipping sauce, slow, pickles and nuts ... $17.

   Me: Prawn dumplings... reckon I could do this one - tasty, nice balance of greens 6/10

  Daughters: 4 chocolate snails made today for $2.29 ... bargain

    Me: Duck... the main... moist and tasty, salad not that wonderful... overall a good balance on the palate, a little fatty but I did eat the skin! 7/10 $45

   Daughters: We are at Burger King - 9 nuggets for $2.95, large fries for $3.80, with $5 sorbet from Pak'nSave

 With a glass of chardonnay each @ $15 each, the total menu price was substantially more than the girls! It would have been nice to see Mr Boyce in action, however, them the breaks. Jamie did a great impersonation of the leaning chef as per photo in the book, and it looks like I will have to re-create the two dishes myself!

Impersonation of Mr Boyce

Mr Boyce

Dumplings

Duck




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