Forget any preconceptions you may have about "slam in the lamb" Kiwi
cuisine with a pavlova for dessert, New Zealand's food scene has forged
ahead in recent years - both in terms of the quality of the food and the
places where it's served.
New Zealand's gastronomic roots were nurtured in the British tradition
of overcooked meat and two nuked vegetables, an unfortunate heritage
which still informs the cooking patterns of older Kiwis and hasn't been
completely displaced at some farmstays and guesthouses. Indeed, it is
only in the last decade or so that New Zealand's chefs have really woken
up to the possibilities presented by a fabulous larder of super-fresh,
top-quality ingredients, formulating what might be termed Modern Kiwi
cuisine. Taking its culinary cues from Californian and contemporary
Australian cuisine, it combines traditional elements such as steak,
salmon and crayfish with flavours drawn from the Mediterranean, Asia and
the Pacific Rim : sun-dried tomatoes, lemongrass, basil, ginger, coconut
and many more. Restaurateurs feel duty-bound to fill their menu with as
broad a spectrum as possible, lining up seafood linguini, couscous,
sushi, Thai venison meatballs and a chicken korma alongside the rack of
lamb and gourmet pizza. Sometimes this results in gastronomic overload,
but more often the results are sensational.
New Zealand ingredients
New Zealanders have a taste for meat. The quality of New Zealand lamb is
matched by that of other meats , beef, chicken and, more recently,
farmed venison, which appears on menus as cervena. Farmed ostrich is
also gaining fans for its leanness and superb taste, though the greasy
charms of muttonbird remain a mystery to most. A traditional source of
sustenance for Maori, each April and May these birds of the shearwater
family are still plucked from their burrows on the Titi Islands, off the
southwest tip of Stewart Island, and sold through fishmongers in areas
with substantial Maori populations.
With the country's long coastline, it's no surprise that fish and
seafood loom large on the culinary horizon. The white, flaky flesh of
the snapper is the most common saltwater fish, though you'll also come
across tuna, John Dory, groper (often known by its Maori name of hapuku),
flounder, blue cod (a speciality from the Chatham Islands), the firm and
delicately flavoured terakihi and the moist-textured orange roughy .
You'll also see a lot of salmon - but not trout, which cannot be bought
or sold, though some hotel restaurants will cook your catch for you. One
much-loved delicacy is whitebait , a tiny silvery fish mostly caught on
the West Coast and eaten whole in fritters during the August to November
season. Shellfish are a real New Zealand speciality, and the king of
them all is the toheroa , a type of clam dug from the sands of Ninety
Mile Beach on the rare occasions when numbers reach harvestable levels.
They are usually made into soups and are sometimes substituted by the
inferior and sweeter tuatua , also dug from Northland beaches. On menus
you're more likely to come across the fabulous Bluff oysters , scallops
and sensational green-lipped mussels , which have a flavour and texture
that's hard to beat and are grown in the cool clear waters of the
Marlborough Sounds, especially around Havelock. Pricey crayfish is also
delicious and if you get a chance, try smoked eel and smoked marlin .
Vegetables too are generally fresh and delicious. British favourites -
potatoes, carrots, peas, cabbage - along with pumpkin and squash are
common in Kiwi homes but on restaurant menus you're far more likely to
encounter aubergines (eggplant), capsicums (bell peppers) and tomatoes.
Pacific staples to look out for are kumara (sweet potato), which crops
up in hangi and deep-fried as kumara chips, and the starchy taro and
sweeter yam, both much more rarely seen.
New Zealanders eat a lot of cheese , yoghurt and ice cream, and all are
first-rate. Small producers springing up all over the country - but
especially around the Kapiti Coast (north of Wellington), Blenheim and
Banks Peninsula (east of Christchurch) - are turning out some gorgeous
individual cheeses, from the traditional hard cheddar-style to spicy
pepper brie. Ice cream of the firm, scooped variety is something of a
New Zealand institution, and is available in a vast range of flavours,
including intensely fruity ones and the indulgent hokey pokey - vanilla
ice cream riddled with chunks of caramel.
Fruit too is a winner, especially at harvest time when stalls line the
roadsides selling apples, pears, citrus and stonefruits for next to
nothing. Top-quality fruit and dairy products are the starting point for
some delicious desserts traditionally variations on the themes of ice
cream, cheesecake and pavlova, though now supplemented by rich cakes and
modern twists on British-style steamed puddings.
This abundance of fresh vegetables and superb dairy food means that self-catering
vegetarians will eat very well, though those who eat in restaurants are
less well served. Outside the major centres you'll find few dedicated
vegetarian restaurants, and will have to rely on the token meat-free
dishes served at most regular restaurants and cafés. Pretty much
everywhere you'll be able to get a salad, sandwich, or vegetarian pizza
and pasta - but it can get a bit monotonous. Vegans can always ask for a
simple stir-fry if all else fails. In terms of snacks, you may find
yourself developing an unhealthy reliance on nachos (a plateful of
tortilla chips with a dollop of refried beans, grilled cheese and a
hearty helping of sour cream), and the ubiquitous vegeburger.
If you are taking a rafting expedition or 4WD tour on which food is
provided, give them plenty of notice of your dietary needs - otherwise
you might be left with bread and salad.
Food and drink terms
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butternut |
type of pumpkin
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capsicum |
bell peppers
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cervena |
farmed venison
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crayfish |
a slightly sweeter and
pincer-less type of lobster |
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eggplant |
aubergine |
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entree |
appetizer |
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feijoa |
fleshy, tomato-sized
fruit with melon-like flesh and a tangy, perfumed flavour
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hogget |
the meat from a year-old
sheep. Older and more tasty (though less succulent) than lamb,
but not as tough as mutton |
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hot dog |
a rather
disgusting-looking battered sausage on a stick, dipped in tomato
ketchup. What the rest of the world knows as a hot dog is known
here as an American hot dog |
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kiwifruit |
hairy brown egg-sized
fruit with a juicy green centre which swept the world in the
1980s to become the garnish of choice. The New Zealand-grown
variety is now marketed as Zespri
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kumara |
particularly delicious
type of sweet potato and a long-standing Maori staple; often
served as kumara chips with sour cream |
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lamington |
sponge cake coated in
chocolate or pink icing and rolled in desiccated coconut
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muttonbird |
gull-sized sooty
shearwater that was a major component of the pre-European Maori
diet and is said to taste like oily and slightly fishy mutton -
hence the name |
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paua |
the muscular foot of the
abalone, often minced and served as a fritter pavlova sickly
meringue confection topped with cream and fruit that's claimed
by Kiwis as adamantly as it is by Aussies |
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pikelets |
small, thick pancakes
served cold with butter and jam or whipped cream |
|
puha |
type of watercress
traditionally gathered by Maori saveloy particularly revolting
but popular kind of sausage served boiled |
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silverside |
top-grade corned beef,
cured in honey and often served with tangy mustard |
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swede |
rutabaga |
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tamarillo |
slightly bitter,
deep-red fruit, often known as a tree tomato |
|
Vegemite |
a dark savoury
yeast-extract spread that mystifies most people but is much
loved by antipodeans, who insist it is far superior to its
British equivalent, Marmite |
Restaurants, cafes and bars
The quality of restaurants in New Zealand is typically superb, the
portions are respectable, and with the current low value of the NZ
dollar will seem wonderful value for money - especially at BYO
establishments, where the cost is eased if you "bring your own" wine,
sometimes for a small corkage fee (typically $2-5). In most restaurants
you can expect to pay upwards of $15 for a main course, perhaps $30 for
three courses without wine. Service tends to be unpretentious and
helpful without being forced, and there is no expectation of a tip,
though a reward for exceptional service is always welcomed.
New Zealand's range of ethnic restaurants is meagre by international
standards, with only the major influx of east Asian immigrants
enervating the scene and lending a strong Chinese and Japanese flavour
to the larger cities, alongside a smattering of Mexican places. Maori
food is barely represented in restaurants at all, but you shouldn't miss
the opportunity to sample the contents of a hangi , an earth oven
producing delectable, fall-off-the-bone meat and delicately steamed
vegetables.
Often there is little ground between restaurants and the better café/bars
which have sprung up all over the land and offer food that's just as
good and a few dollars cheaper. Here, dining is less formal and you may
well find yourself elbow to elbow with folk only there for the beer or
coffee, but dining is very much part of the café/bar scene. Simpler
cafés may only stretch to breakfasts, grilled focaccias stuffed with
Italian-inspired fillings, salads and cakes but always produce good
coffee and keep long hours.
Though common in the more cosmopolitan cities, cafés are less prevalent
in the country towns, which are still ruled by traditional tearooms ,
daytime (most close around 5pm), self-service places that are low on
atmosphere but high on value. Most are now equipped with a coffee
machine, though espresso incompetence may mean you're better sticking
with the staple of tea, usually accompanied by a cellophane-wrapped
sandwich, uninspiring savouries and either "Devonshire (cream) Teas" or
home-style cakes - the carrot cake and ginger crunch are generally good
bets. On main tourist routes, long-distance buses usually make their
comfort stops at tearooms.
Some of the more civilized bars serve pub meals , often the best budget
eating around with straightforward plates of steak and chips, lasagne or
burritos, all served with salad for around $10. One to look out for here
is the nationwide Cobb & Co. chain, formerly used as waystations by
stagecoaches and now offering reliable, if uninspired, meals and good
last-all-day breakfasts.
The hangi
In New Zealand restaurants you'll find little or no representation of
Maori or Polynesian cuisines, but you can sample traditional cooking
methods at a hangi (pronounced nasally as "hungi"), where meat and
vegetables are steamed for hours in an earth oven then served to the
assembled masses. The ideal way to experience a hangi is as a guest at a
private gathering of extended families, but most people have to settle
for one of the commercial affairs in Rotorua or Christchurch. Though
you'll be a paying customer rather than a guest, the hangi will be no
less authentic.
First the men light a fire and place river stones in the embers. While
these are heating, they dig a suitably large pit, place the hot stones
in the bottom and cover them with wet sacking . Meanwhile the women
prepare lamb, pork, chicken, fish, shellfish and vegetables (particularly
kumara), wrapping the morsels in leaves then arranging them in baskets (originally
of flax, but now most often of steel mesh). The baskets are lowered into
the cooking pit and covered with earth so that the steam and the
flavours are sealed in. A couple of hours later, the baskets are
disinterred, revealing fabulously tender steam-smoked meat and
vegetables with a faintly earth flavour. A suitably reverential silence,
broken only by munching and appreciative murmurs, descends.
Breakfast, snacks and takeaways
New Zealanders generally take a fairly light "continental" breakfast of
juice, cereals, toast and tea or coffee. Visitors staying at a homestay
or B&B may well be offered an additional "cooked breakfast" probably
along the lines of the traditional English breakfast of bacon and eggs;
if you're staying in motels, hostels or campsites, you'll generally have
to fend for yourself. In the bigger towns, you'll often find a bakery
selling fresh croissants, bagels and focaccia, but increasingly New
Zealanders are going out for breakfast or brunch, aided by the
proliferation of cafés serving anything from a bowl of fruit and muesli
($5) to stupendous platefuls of Eggs Florentine and smoked salmon
($12-14).
In the cities you'll also come across food courts, usually in shopping
malls where a central seating area is surrounded by a dozen or so stalls
selling bargain plates of all manner of ethnic dishes. Some have outlets
for fast food , a market dominated by the ubiquitous McDonald's, Pizza
Hut, KFC and Burger King. Meat pies are a stalwart of Kiwi snacking:
sold in bakeries and from warming cabinets in pubs everywhere, the
traditional steak and mince varieties are now supplemented by bacon and
egg, venison, steak and cheese, steak and oyster and many others, though
there is seldom a vegetarian version.
Undeterred by US fast-food hegemony, traditional burger bars continue to
serve constructions far removed from the limp franchise offerings:
weighty buns with juicy patties, thick ketchup, a stack of lettuce and
tomato and that all-important slice of beetroot. At one stage,
McDonald's even succumbed to consumer pressure and produced a Kiwiburger
laden with beetroot and not a pickle in sight.
Fish and chips (or "greasies") are also rightly popular - the fish is
often shark (euphemistically called lemon fish) and the chips (fries)
are invariably thick and crisp. Look out too for paua fritters, a
battered slab of minced abalone that's something of an acquired taste.
Self-catering
If you're self-catering your best bet for supplies is the local
supermarket: the warehouse-style Pak 'n Save is cheap and found in most
large towns and usually stays open until at least 8pm every day. The
less common Big Fresh is also good with many products available loose in
bins so you can pick as much as you need. Failing that, you'll notice a
marked drop in scope and an appreciable hike in prices at the
neighbourhood superette - IGA and Four Square are the biggies.
Convenient corner shops (or dairies), stock the essentials, but along
with shops at campsites, also tend to have inflated prices, more so if
located in isolated areas or anywhere with a captive market.
Drinking
New Zealand boasts many fine wines and beers, which can be sampled in
cafés and restaurants all over the land. But for the lowest prices and a
genuine Kiwi atmosphere you can't go past the pub , often known as a
hotel from the days when all drinking establishments were required to
have rooms for revellers to sleep off a skinful. The pub is a place
where folk stop off on their way home from work, the emphasis being on
consumption and back-slapping camaraderie, with ambience and decor
taking a back seat. In the cities, where competition from cafés is
strong, pubs are sharpening up their act and comfortable, relaxed bars
are more common, but in country areas little has changed. Rural pubs can
initially be daunting for strangers, but once you get chatting, barriers
soon drop. Some pubs are still divided into the public bar , a joyless
Formica and linoleum place where overalls and work boots are the
sartorial order of the day, and the lounge bar , where you are expected
to dress up and are charged more for the privilege.
There is barely any limitation on the hours you can drink, most bars
shutting up around midnight on weeknights if it is quiet, more like 3am
at weekends. Until December 1999, arcane Sunday licensing laws forbade
the sale of alcohol in shops and pretty much anywhere else unless it was
accompanied by a meal. However, on Sundays you can now buy beer as well
as wine in supermarkets, and get a drink without eating. The drinking
age has been lowered to 18 (from 20) and anyone looking under 25 can
expect to be asked for identification.
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