Do you love the nightlife? Do you love the roti? Then you will probably love the Southeast-Asian Night Market.

Tomorrow night (August 16) from 2pm to 10pm you can sample the sights, sounds and tastes of an Asian night market. The local Indoesian, Malaysian, Filipino, Singaporean, Thai, and Vietnamese communites have come together and offer a feast of kick-boxing, puppets, games and, naturally, food.

Wonderful, spicy, tasty, oily food!

What: Southeast-Asian Night Market
Where: TSB Bank Arena
When: 2pm - 10pm

Rumbles Wine Cellar (32 Waring Taylor St) is having a sake and shochu tasting today (yeah sorry, it started at midday).

They have several varieties available (and some Japanese beers) and some specials on said beverages. There will also be "free Japanese delicatessen to taste".

Kampai!

The neglected Molesworth area of Wellington (or as we like to call it, Wellington's "fifth quarter") is the work place of many hard working individuals who, for some reason or other, need to be nearby to the houses of Parliament. But what do they do when they have to feed?

Jo and Hadyn decided to find out.

Word of Mouth

Word of Mouth is a semi-deli with some really really tasty food. The trouble is, the portions are tiny, and the prices are large. Still, with a choice of six different salads, a hot dish and soup every day, as well as divine thin crust pizza, an assortment of baked goods from Pandoro as well as their own muffins, a good range of (small) sandwichy things and nice Café L'affare coffee, it's hard to resist returning here, even though it's expennnnnnnnnnsive.

At least they cram as much as possible into their salad containers, but their coffee loyalty cards will make you buy 10 coffees rather than 9 before you get a free one. Everything is available for takeaways, but if you have the chance to eat in, do.

They have an extensive range of magazines, and easy access to water jugs, which should never be underrated. If you're starving and on a serious budget though, you can get a fresh bread roll, bagel or crossiant with butter for around $1.50 to take away, which is very handy for those two-days-to-pay-day emergencies.

Also the breakfasts are fantastic. The option of wholemeal or 5-grain toast and crunchy bacon are my favourite bits.

Click read more for the rest of Molesworth's hidden eateries.

Item! The next Cellar-vate dinner, which we have drooled about before is on July 9, featuring Ngawaka wines, and it costs $40. Give the lovely Rebecca a call to reserve your tickets.

Item! The supercute Green Land Cafe under the Ministry for the Environment on Kate Sheppard Place is running a competition to win a bottle of the famous olive oil grown on Mt. Vic. Buy a coffee, pick an number and go into the draw. Actually, don't, because it's a gorgeous green virgin, and I wants it. So back off! Also, how lovely are the staff there? They totally buttered my scone for me, if you know what I mean. And of course what I mean is I think it's part of their waste reduction responsibilities.

Item! It's not near Molesworth Street, but it's just as bleak - Stanley Road on the corner of Victoria Street and Willeston is running Happy Hour from 4pm-6pm, with all kinds of beers (Corona etc) for just $3.50. It's not a particularly cosy spot, but hey, given how dry this part of town is, consider it a good oasis to stop at while you cross the desert of Willis Quarter.

We've mentioned Habebie Restaurant before (well, actually I can't find a link, so maybe we didn't actually) but we have exciting news - it's BYO now (and may have been for a while now), but more importantly, from Monday-Thursday, all mains (except seafood) are $17. And since prices for mains usually go from $22-28, and that includes meze starter platters, we're telling you to get your asses down there for some awesome big piles of meat. But take a cardie - it's not the warmest place ever.

After our post about flaming drinks and the laws and hazards thereof we received a nice post from the council:

Greetings Wellingtonistas - just reading the piece about setting fire to drinks. Contrary to the comment of the mystery barperson in the mystery bar, there is no Council bylaw that prevents drinks being set on fire in bars.

However dangerous and moronic behaviour (ie setting fire to patrons, staff, or the bar itself) will definitely bring the bar to the attention of the Council, Fire Service, Police, District Licensing Agency, ACC, OSH and the news media.

cheers
Richard MacLean - Wellington City Council

Anyone feel like a Zombie?

It's Queen's Birthday Weekend this weekend and I know that for most of us that means singing the Holiday Cafe Surcharge Blues. "Why?" we wonder, "Why do cafes and the like believe that they alone are allowed to bump up their prices for the holidays? And why is it always 15%?" (though I have seen some places go up to 20% in recent years)

But don't worry kids Uncle Wellingtonista has got the goods on where to eat at the usual prices.

• Chow: Chow are not only open and surcharge free on Monday, they are also retaining their 1+1=1 Monday special! It's almost the reverse of the surcharge.
• Floriditas: Floriditas have led the way every year by never having applied the evil manky surcharge to their fantastic food. And bloody good on them
• The Chocolate Frog Cafe: The old CFC is doing something for the little guy (us). Surcharge? No frogging way.
• The Goblin Cafe: As mentioned in the comments, the Goblin was surcharge-free over Easter and so may be again this Monday. Thanks Mike for the tip
• Astoria: Astoria may make you wait at the counter for your coffee like some second-class citizen but they will not charge you extra on a public holiday. Thanks Julie for the tip
• Maranui:You may not be able to get a seat but at least the food will be normal prices
• Lone Star:Giant plates of food with Elvis-themed names will be at regular prices this Monday

Check back later as this list may be updated (sorry RSS lovers)

And remember, if the retailer does not inform you that there is a surcharge it is illegal for them to charge you.

UPDATE: Here is the rules for working on a public holiday.

For working public holidays the employee is entitled to time & a half for hours worked provided that is greater than their normal daily pay.

As a fly, I am obviously disgusting and therefore a National voter. But it is entirely possible that you are a better person than me, and you might,therefore, be interested in mingling with others who are that way inclined, which is where this email we received might come in handy:

Drinking Liberally - promoting democracy one pint at a time
Like politics? Like drinking? If you answered yes to both these questions then join us for the launch of Drinking Liberally, a fortnightly event aimed at building ties among left-leaning people. So come along on Wednesday, grab yourself a pint and meet our guest speaker Nandor Tanczos, Green MP.

WHAT Launch of Drinking Liberally Wellington
WHEN 6pm, Wed 21st May
WHERE Southern Cross, Abel Smith Street
SPEAKER Nandor Tanczos, Green MP
CONTACT wellington@drinkingliberally.org

As part of the "city's trendy urban class" (as we have been called) many of us choose to exist in the heart of the city. A place where a garden is a luxury and where growing your own food (beyond a crappy herb garden on the windowsill) is not even thought of.

But now Wired.com's How-to Wiki has come to the rescue of inner-city farmers, with it's Square-Foot Garden.

Square foot gardening is a variation on what's known as the French Intensive or Biointensive method of farming.

...while you might only be able to fit one tomato plant in a square, it isn't hard to stuff in a whole bunch of carrots, onions or other smaller vegetables.

On the downside, you won't be able to create a corn maze come October. But with a little work, you should have fresh veggies on the table well through the end of summer.

So get to it greenthumbs. And when we discover how make a square-foot dairy farm, we'll tell you.

Well, we expect a $6 lunchtime pizza in the usual standard from where we usually get it and for it to take a reasonable time.

And if it will take a bit longer or won't be as good we expect to be told so. We wouldn't mind, honestly, we just have to plan our lunch hours.

And finally if we complain about the wait or the quality we like to be treated a bit nicer.

So if you really wanted to know "what do you expect on a Tuesday?", that would be it. Thanks for asking.

About half the Wellingtonista now call Newtown home, so we thought it was about time we did some exploring of the area. Therefore, on this coming Saturday, we're going to be doing a Newtownista Pub Crawl, and you should come with us!

We're going to start on Riddiford St down near the zoo around 7.30pm, and work our way back towards town, aiming to end up at Amigo's for tapas. Most of us haven't been to most of the bars, so we'll be intending to give them all a go-to, even the dodgy ones - but we may change our minds on the night when we look in their doors.

To come along, either show up in that area at that time, get in contact with a cellphone number so we can text you our progress, or follow my twitter account as hopefully I'll remember to update it as we go along. We're going to boldly go where some people have gone before, and it should be a jolly good time.

Gorgeous photo by Dead Possum, yanked from flickr

In two weeks Amigos, the Chilean restaurant in Newtown, will be expanding in to the space next door. Their plan is to keep the restaurant going until 9pm and then have live music and tapas into the night every night of the week.

The Wellingtonista heavily approves of this move as we are fans of Central/South American food, late night dining, music, tapas, and drinking. So, wanna get your Pisco on? Then I'd recommend popping down to Amigos, order a pitcher and flamenco the night away.

Now, don't get me wrong: we Wellingtonistas are not usually parsimonious when it comes to paying for drinks. On the other hand, we're a canny and logical bunch, and it only takes about 10 free glasses of house wine to save up enough for a Mega Mai Tai, so in the long run it pays to seek out gratis grog.

Let's start with the obvious: gallery openings and launches. You can get lucky by simply cruising the streets on a midweek night seeking the tell-tale sounds of clinking glasses and poststructuralist discourse, but dedicated cheapskates know that the best way to guarantee results is to get on the mailing lists.

Poster tells it all, really...

The good folk who brought you the Berlin Bonanza invite you to savour the sights, sounds and flavours of Berlin once more. Relive the city's ubercool vibe with the Saturday market, get the true Berlin with a mondo doco, dig in to hot'n'heapin' plates of currywurst, thrill to the heady mashup of ping pong and country music, groove to alt-country cowpokes channelling the Heimat, and finish the night with a flourish of Deutschland disco dancing.

Full programme after the break...

At the Wellingtonista we don't often give props to less consciously hipster places like One Red Dog, even though their continued success shows they have a devoted following. Today we discovered one of the reasons why this devoted following might exist.

Review after the jump.