Off The Track in the City is not your everyday Asian eatery, but diners will definitely want to check out this casual but classy joint. Run by Chris Whyte and Fiona Le, proprietors of fire-struck Off the Track in Havelock North, this little gem was set up to provide income for the business and employment for staff while Off the Track undergoes a comprehensive rebuild and refit.
The insurer asked the couple to mitigate their losses by getting some form of pop-up running quickly. Meant to be a temporary measure, Chris and Fiona are so proud at what they have created, along with the loyal team who have brought it all together, that they will probably keep it long term.
“The enormity of what happened hit us pretty hard and the first thing on our mind was how do we look after our staff? We’re very conscious that if we don’t have our staff, we don’t have a business. This place has helped us look after them,” says Chris.
While Off the Track was always a family friendly restaurant with lots of space for weddings and events, OTT in the City is a totally different proposition. Fiona is Vietnamese, and she created most of the menu – favourites like Bahn Mi, Summer Rolls and Vietnamese-style mussels.
The couple inherited Off the Track as it was when they bought it just nine weeks before it burned down. But the concept at OTT in the City is 100% theirs and born of their shared vision. It also features a special yakitori menu – something you’re unlikely to find anywhere else in Hawke’s Bay. With breakfast, lunch and dinner on offer, they’re hoping it will attract lunchtime workers as well as casual diners.
“We’ve used beautiful Japanese crockery and linen napkins but we’ve done it at a price where people can come multiple times and still feel a little bit special. There are a lot of plants and it’s quite cozy. We did it all in about three weeks, full kitchen fit-out and all. The experience is like being caught in a really fast river, you’re going with the flow, but before you know it, it’s all happening.”
Chris and Fiona share some of their recipes especially for our LIVING Hawke’s Bay readers. Enjoy! Check out OTT in the City at 217–219 Heretaunga St East, Hastings. Off the Track is set to reopen with a few twists to the old menu in July.
Vietnamese-Style Mussels
for one portion
8 fresh mussels
20 ml cooking oil
1 spring onion
15 g crushed peanuts
Sauce:
50 ml fish sauce
30 ml water
20 ml vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp crushed garlic
1 tsp crushed ginger
ó tsp crushed chilli
Clean the mussels and place onto the cooking tray and bake for five minutes at 180ºC.
Transfer the mussels to the serving plate.
For the sauce, combine oil and finely chopped spring onion and sauté for 3–4 minutes.
In a separate saucepan, combine fish sauce, water, vinegar and sugar and bring to boil. Cool.
Add the spring onion oil, crushed garlic, ginger and chilli.
Pour the sauce over the mussels, top with crushed peanuts and serve.
Lemongrass Chicken Summer Roll
Makes 5 portions
For the filling:
250 g chicken thighs
ó tbsp lemongrass
ó tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp garlic
1 tsp Lee Kum Kee dark soy sauce
1 tsp crushed black pepper
150 g carrots
1 cucumber
150 g daikon
10 g coriander leaves
10 g mint leaves
100 g vermicelli noodles, cooked
100 g lettuce
20 g white and red cabbage
2 rice papers per portion
For the pickling liquid:
100 ml vinegar
100 ml water
50 g sugar
10 g salt
For the dipping sauce:
100 ml hoisin sauce
100 ml water
50 g crushed peanuts
20 g crushed chilli
Cut chicken thighs into long strips and place in a bowl. Marinate the chicken with chopped lemongrass, oyster sauce, sugar, crushed garlic, dark soy and crushed black pepper. Leave for 30 minutes. Cook the chicken in an oven at 180ºC for 20 minutes.
For the pickling liquid, add all the pickling ingredients to a saucepan and bring to the boil, then cool it down. Peel the carrot and daikon, then cut both into long juliennes. Soak these in the pickling liquid.
Wet the rice paper and layer with lettuce, noodles, pickled carrots and daikon, cucumber, coriander, mint and chicken. Roll it up it according to the size you want.
For the dipping sauce, combine equal parts of hoisin sauce and warm water.
Add crushed peanut and crushed chilli before serving.
