Today (Monday October 24) is the last day for locals to give their tastebuds a treat with Eat.Taste.Central’s culinary offerings.

Cafés, restaurants, and cellar doors have been competing in various categories for the Regional Menu Awards.

Judges have been surreptitiously dining on pies, burgers and sandwiches, and main meals over the last month to find the dishes that best represent Central Otago’s flavours.

Barry, co-owner of The Courthouse Café and The Packing Shed, has a number of entries in the event and has been pleased with the number of patrons actively looking to purchase the entries. 

He’s also had plenty of positive feedback about the dishes, particularly the lamb main at the Packing Shed which comes complete with its own pottery dish and some dramatic smoke. 

Rita, manager at Dansey Pass Hotel, has been pleased with the traffic the competition has brought. With lots of advance bookings over the summer for accommodation, she is hopeful the uptick in patronage is setting the scene for a busy season for the hotel. 

The restaurant has been selling plenty of open steak burgers, their 2022 entry.

In the interests of research, this reporter sampled the generously proportioned burger last weekend and can confirm it is worth the drive to the historic venue.  

And if you are not a meat eater, don’t be put off. The chef is very accommodating and turned the steak burger into a mushroom burger for the vegetarian in our party.

Back in town, the Alexandra District Club is also doing a roaring trade with both its burger and pie entries.

 The Otago Fruit Pie is the only sweet entry in the pie category and is a delicious combination of sweet shortcrust pie, charred apricot ice cream and a lemon and honey cream with accompanying garnishes. 

Chef Sam Farr explained his summer desserts tend to reflect the dry Central Otago landscape so invariably end up golden in colour.

The Gold N’ Burger has been the club’s most popular entrant, though, and with two red tussock venison patties anchoring the dish it’s not hard to see why.

PHOTOS: The Central App