New Zealand Food

This posting is dedicated to New Zealand Food

In the spirit of full disclosure, we are Americans. As such, we carry the baggage, rightfully or wrongfully, of all the stereotypical food habits of Americans or the American Food Industry. With that said, we are probably not the typical consumers. We generally don't buy highly-processed or pre-prepared foods.

The familiar are here: McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Subway, more.

Why go to American style food places when there is so much to sample in N Zed?

High Spots:

• Chocolate
• Fresh vegetables tend to be lower in price when in season. We have had very good results with oranges and apples. They are far better in taste and slightly lower in price especially honey crisp. 
• Yogurt is better quality and cheaper in NZ.
• All dairy products are better tasting, fresher. 
• Ice Cream is smoother and softer. We don't need the industrial strength ice cream scoop to get it out of the container. And better tasting. The down side is there are not as many choices in flavors; maybe about 1/4 of the choices one might find in a big US store. 
• Cold Cereal (breakfast) is more expensive but much better in taste and lower in sugar and preservatives. 
• The number of choices are limited. In fact, across the board, the number of choices of any food type are limited here. But then, I don't understand why we in the US need to have dozens of different sugar-laden breakfast cereals?
• There are not that many corn-based foods.
• No Mexican food.
• Hot Chocolate with Coconut Cream (Non-Dairy)

Low Spots: 

• I have checked the price comparison tools which seem to say that NZ food prices are lower than USA. We have data points in three different food chains and three different cities. Even when considering the "red-hot: dollar ($1 NZD = $0.64 USD) our experience is that food prices are higher. Perhaps it's what we buy, but on average, we say food is more expensive here. 
• Meat, Eggs, Milk are all higher here. Meat can be double the price. 
• Tomatoes are about $4/LB, for example. 
• Not many corn chips and those there are, aren't as good as we are used to. 
• Can't find dried beans. In fact, when we asked people about beans, they give us blank stares. 
• Bacon is called "streaky bacon" while sliced ham (6" x 4" oval) is called bacon. And Streaky Bacon is $9.50/LB. I haven't been able to find bulk breakfast sausage. The link sausages are not like anything in America. Thank you , thank you Jimmy Dean.
• No Mexican food.

Why is this?

We have been told that New Zealand prices in general are driven by the European Union but, oddly enough, the Union is not the major trading partner. The dairy industry went wild sometime since WWII. They are the world's 8th largest milk producer. That's astonishing when considering the country  has the same area as the state of Colorado (same population as Oregon).

It's heritage! The Maori cultivated a type of sweet potato (Kumara - which looks like a sweet potato but tastes more like a potato. They harvested what they could find in the forests, rivers, lakes, and ocean. The British colonizers (pakeha) brought the foods they were used to eating. That probably explains why there are not many food items like corn, hot peppers, dried beans, etc.

Prepared Food:

Most places have "Take Aways" which are usually places with little of no seating. Hence: you buy  the food and you take it away. They come in in many cuisines: Fish/Chips, Chinese, Indian, Mediterranean,

Dairy Stores = Ice Cream Places
Bakery = It is what you think of a bakery except you can get savory dishes such as meat pies, sausage pies, etc.

Random Food Terms:
Mince = Ground Beef
Kai = Food, Meal in Maori
Pumpkin = What we would call squash
Hangi = Slow cooking underground - Unusually a volcanic geothermal steam vent

Food from a Chinese "Take Away"

Banoffee Pavlova and Chocolate Mousse

Yes, that's a duck hanging in the background

Hangi

Kumara - Kinda' Sweet Potato

Roast Lamb 

Hamilton Mission "Red Neck Milkshake"