Matakana Farmers Market on Saturday mornings is one of Auckland’s top foodie destinations and is always crammed with shoppers and visitors seeking fine food grown and made in the region. There are loads of choices of good food to eat, and fine coffee roasted right there in the market. My idea of a late breakfast down by the river that runs alongside the market is a combination of hot and cold. Grab a tray of freshly shucked oysters, farmed in the nearby Mahurangi Harbour, served with locally grown fresh lemons to squeeze, and combine that cold snack with a warm whitebait fritter, cooked to order. Manaaki whitebait is New Zealand’s only farmed, truly sustainable whitebait and their generous fritter is tucked between two slices of buttered white bread sprinkled with plenty of salt and freshly ground pepper.