Right at the end of Layla Tweedie-Cullen's new design studio and bookshop is the definitive, if not exactly retro, chat room: a four-metre by three-metre alcove, defined by a wrought-iron coffee table, chunky designer seats, a pair of battered-looking chairs from a French classroom, and lots of foliage.

Just like his cooking, Govind Armstrong is so hot right now, writes Kirsten MacFarlane

by Kirsten MacFarlane

Water buffalo don't moo like cows. It's a throaty drone, close to a strangled note from a didjeridoo.

Helen Dorresteyn and her four-year-old daughter Saskia are doing a splendid imitation.

"Hmmmmh ... come here my beautiful girls," she implores of a small herd of milking buffalo mooching around in a paddock near Clevedon in South Auckland.

`There's nothing like eating it fresh," says Helen Dorresteyn, dipping her hand into a tub of brine and pulling out a fist-sized ball of porcelain-white mozzarella.

"Keen to try it with some fresh tomato and basil?"

A simple dining pleasure enjoyed by the Italians for centuries, in New Zealand, this platter of freshly sliced mozzarella represents a milestone for the cheese industry.