Trying to Cook in NZ

Two blog posts in three days? Amazing. Now that Nina and I are homeless, unemployed and living in a tent down by the river, I have some more free time. I can also plug the laptop in at the library and type away in a nice warm building. Today I am going to write about food.

First off, the food of Wanaka. Nina and I have been here for three days now and have had lunch in three different chip shops. The eating options here are slim. The town is very very small. Only 2000 permanent residents live in Wanaka itself, but there must be around 2000 homes. Most are holiday homes for rich Kiwis and people like Shania Twain. There are two or three Indian, two Italian, one Mexican, and two Thai restaurants. The Thai restaurants have the same menus though. They are actually identical, the same dishes, fonts, colors, pictures and everything. We haven’t eaten at them yet, but we will have to try them out. There are also five to ten nicer restaurants and around five pub type places. The quick/cheap options are a bit slim. There is a Subway (which I hate), a Turkish kebab/fish & chip place, a Chinese/fish & chip place, a fish & chip place and a little NZ style bakery. We went to the kebab place a few days ago and I had a pretty good Lamb doner wrap. It wasn’t the best I have had, but it wasn’t the worst. Nina had a spring roll, it had mutton in it. Needless to say, we won’t make that mistake again. We tried the Chinese place this afternoon. Nina got a vege spring roll and kumara fries and I had the big burger and fries. The fries were good, but very greasy. As I write this my stomach is kind of complaining about the grease intake. But, maybe just maybe, it was the burger. The “big burger” was a beef mince patty that had the texture of a sausage patty, sautéed mushrooms, sautéed onions, cheese, sweet tomato sauce, some kind of white sauce, a huge slice of ham, a fried egg and a pineapple ring. It was huge and also pretty good. I don’t know if I have to get it again, but it was filling and cheap by NZ standards. Once we get jobs, you can expect some more thoughts on Wanaka fare.

On our way up from Dunedin, Nina and I decided to have our second, once monthly fancy dinner (postponed until further notice) in Moeraki at Fleur’s Place. It was highly recommended by all three of our guide books and it didn’t disappoint. The restaurant was the only restaurant in Moeraki and looked very ramshackle on the wharf. The inside was very nice though. Unlike most of New Zealand’s spiffy cafés with stainless steel, white painted walls and light wood, this one was all warmly stained wood with lots of great angles, nooks and crannies. The tables were all set with nice flatware and had a single long taper candle. It was a very cozy romantic spot. The special board was amazing. They offered grouper, terakihi, warehou, gurnard, flounder, sole and petrale. The main menu offered salmon and blue cod. I have never seen a restaurant have so many fish. The town is a day port and the fishermen unload some of their catch directly to the restaurant. We started off with bread and dips along with an Emerson’s Bookbinder dark bitter ale for Nina and a 2006 Pinot form Central Otago for me. The bread was a nice mix of different flavors and the dips were nice too. My favorite was a fish and sorrel pate while Nina’s was a kumara hummus. Our mains were a different story completely. One of the traditional dishes of New Zealand is Titi or mutton bird, it is a seabird. I can’t think of another seabird that is commonly eaten and there may be a reason. It is a very acquired taste. Nina ordered a half bird. It came to the table following a bowl of warm lemon water and a tea towel for her hands. The bird itself was served with potatoes, sautéed spinach and some sort of parsley sauce. All of which were overpowered by the bird. I think the bird was brined and then smoked in the traditional way to preserve it. It was very salty. The meat itself was incredibly dark, like mutton and very very greasy. The flavor was of salt and the ocean, kind of like kelp (possibly its only food source). I don’t know much else about it, but I will do some research. I had a more conventional blue cod filet wrapped in house smoke bacon with a cream sauce and cockles. It was very good. Dessert was a nice chocolate tart with roasted figs and rum raisins. We want to go back if we head toward Dunedin again.