Lance - the blade expert at the Matakana Village Farmers’ Market, just north of Auckland and open every Saturday from 8am to 1pm just below the modern (made-to-look-colonial-rustic) Matakana Village shopping centre. It’s a sad fact - the country’s kitchens are full of uselessly blunt kitchen knives. Get them into a blade professional such as Lance or the House of Knives and have them restored to a productive cutting life. Cheaper than buying a new one.

Lisa - serving the patisserie counter at the La Cigale French-style Farmers’ Market at the top of St George’s Bay Road, Parnell Auckland. Open every Saturday and Sunday morning, the market is a vibrant bustle of produce stalls, hot foods to go and everyone in Auckland who owns an expensive wee dog and has travelled to France and turned Francophile. Look out for the buffalo cheese stall – not French but a New Zealand first.

Eiffel en Eden is a ‘French’ café at the west end of Auckland’s Mt Eden Road (no 985) with range of deli foods and a patisserie section that attracts swarms of the ‘we love France’ crowd and anyone else with a tooth for mouth watering, decadent sweet things that only the French seem to master. For a more substantial snack/lunch you can’t go past the shortcrust pastry pies and the chunky pâte served in crusty bread (photo). Bonus tourism - take a look from the edge of the car park into the working pit of Auckland’s last inner city quarry.

The myriad of Chinese restaurants along Dominion Road in Auckland don’t come much more spacious (or as well lit) than the New Trend Chinese Restaurant at number 344. The owners are Cantonese and so is the food. Our pick is the salt and pepper deep-fried shelled prawns (as photographed) and the duck salad. The roast pork on a good day is a crunchy treat of crackling and soft pork, and their Peking Duck ($35 a serving, or enough for four) is hard to beat on Auckland’s Asian cuisine stretch. It’s licensed, but also BYO – with a quality wine shop next door.  

Among the cuisine row of outlets peppering Jervois Road, Herne Bay Auckland is one very popular café with the beckoning name of ‘5 Loaves & 2 Fish’. Great display of innovative foods to go and one of the most popular dishes has nothing to do with fish or loaves – it’s the bacon and egg tortilla (Mexican style). 

Pete and Kate man the Ooooby Store (not a typo) at the new Grey Lynn Farmers’ Market in Auckland that opened this spring. This clever concept buys produce from producers and even out of local gardens and sells them for a commission. The market operates from 8am on Sunday mornings (except the last Sunday of the month) at the Grey Lynn Community at Grey Lynn Community Centre, 510 Richmond Road. Check out www.glfm.co.nz.