Trying to Cook in NZ

Some of you may be thinking that there is nothing good about food and drink here in New Zealand. In my first food blogs, I have been writing about things I have thought were different or strange here, but now it is time to tell you about some of the wonderful food finds here. This could be a very long entry, so I will try to keep it brief and maybe go back to some of them in the future.

First of all, I have to mention the foods from Asia we have had here. Starting off at Food Alley (see Auckland blog), in Auckland, we were very happy to find amazing Asian food. Nina had Malaysian and Japanese and I had Vietnamese and Thai foods. It was great. As we headed south we ate dinner at a nice Indian place in Wellington and was happy to see that they had peshwari naan, one of Nina’s favorites. It was good there, but the naan we had the other day here in Nelson at the Indian Café was great. It had shredded coconut and dried cherries in it along with the loads of butter and ground nuts. It is the perfect thing to dip in any spicy sauce that you get with your main course. Also, here in Nelson, Nina found a great place to get Pad Thai. The Poppy Thai, a place that I wanted to try for their egg curry, turns out to have a great Pat Thai. It is so good that it doesn’t even need extra peanut sauce. It is too bad because their homemade roasted and ground peanut sauce is excellent unto itself.

The quality of some of the meat is also very good. Kiwis do not mess around with their lamb. Since there are 40,000,000 million sheep here, they don’t mind sending their lambs to slaughter young. The lamb chops are tiny and delicious. In America, your standard rack of lamb might be six bones and weigh over a pound, but here it is less than eight ounces. The bones are like pencils. It is amazing. All the lamb is tiny. This makes for very tender cuts even from parts of the animal that aren’t usually that tender. The fish is also amazing. Nelson is the largest fishing port in New Zealand so the fish we get here is fresh. There are large factory ships that aren’t doing any good to the ecology of the area, but there are also a lot of small fishing boats that bring the fish in fresh. I have yet to smell bad fish here. I might be desensitized from working with fish all day, but the marina doesn’t smell like your normal marina. The varieties are also very delicious. Tarakihi is one of my new favorites. It is a thin fish with nice flaky flesh and a nice mild flavor. Another very popular local fish is the Grouper. That one is meaty like halibut, but not as white. In fact, I might stop by the fish and chip shop at the bottom of the hill today for lunch.

When I am not eating, I like to be drinking. I am sure you have seen my beer list. Just so you know, I really only drink on my weekend. Since, I have started keeping track of the beers I have had, I have tried 22 different NZ beers. Not too bad a start, if I am lucky I can try them all. There are a lot of very good beers here. It is not fair to judge the quality of beer by the major national brews, just like the fact that America has much more to offer than Bud, Coors and PBR. There is even another beer fete in March and the four breweries are each brewing a special beer just for the event, so there are four more right there. I can’t wait. A couple of good non-alcoholic options here are L&P and Lemon with Bitters. L&P or Lemon and Paeroa is a sweetened New Zealand mineral water with lemon added. Sean, a Kiwi at work says there must be something else in it due to it’s color and if it was just mineral water, sugar and lemon, we could all make our own. What ever it is, it is a nice refreshing drink. Lemon with Bitters is a Schweppes concoction that is made by other companies. It is just like a lemon lime drink, but with a hint of bitters that makes it very nice.

As fresh produce goes, New Zealand is just coming into its own both in the short term and the long term. In the short term, the summer produce is just starting to flood the farmers markets. Most vendors sell your standard lettuce, tomatoes and other normal vegetables, but now some are getting in different varieties of peaches and plums. It is turning into a cornucopia. There is an Asian farmer there who has a great selection of uncommon vegetables. He is on the forefront of the long term progress New Zealand is making in its food culture. He offers apple cucumbers, water spinach, five different pepper varieties, a couple different tomatoes, and some different onions. He also grows some Asian vegetables. And that is just small old Nelson. I hear that the markets in Auckland have great selections. I saw one picture of a stand that had four different radishes.

There will be more to come about the food here shortly. On Saturday, Nina and I are going to the Marlborough Wine and Food Festival at a winery outside of Blenheim. It sounds like a big event with food, wine and music. I hear they usually get 40,000 people there, so it should be a very nice way to spend a Saturday. Stay tuned for the highlights, I plan on taking lots of notes.