The full programme for this year’s Wellington on a Plate has been released today. The annual event will once again take place for the full month of August, showcasing various events and pop-ups. To celebrate, we take a look back at WOAP 2023 and highlight five of our favourite events for 2024, by Adam Pearse.
One of the few drawbacks of sampling various burgers and beers in the morning is coping with a cloudy head and a delicate stomach. So when I sat down to tuck into Myrtle’s Belly and Jelly burger, made with locally sourced jellyfish, the risk was obvious. Fortunately, regurgitation was avoided - largely due to the tasty pork belly and prawn patty, which was accompanied by pickled vegetables in a Myrtle milk bun, seaweed salted fries and sriracha mayonnaise.
It was just one of the more than 200 entries in 2023′s Visa Wellington On a Plate that spanned two weeks in August and was aligned with the Beervana Festival at Sky Stadium. The theme of this edition of Wellington on a Plate was “breaking the mould”. According to event organisers: “It’s about looking to the future, and being at the pointy end of change.
” Myrtle’s creation certainly qualifies. The central Wellington bakery didn’t shy away from highlighting its use of Worser Bay jellyfish in its burger as it played looped footage of the invertebrates on one of its walls. “The reason we’re doing this burger is not for shock value.
I mean, this is the food of the future,” Myrtle co-owner Jacob Bro.