Top 10 Quintessential Kiwi Foods
April 28, 2009
Since Adam posted on the list of Top 10 Quintessential English Foods the other day and asked his readers to suggest NZ equivalents he has been giving some thought to the matter.
Looking again at the list of English foods it is clear that each is a dish, rather than an item in a natural state – though kippers are just smoked.
Here is Adam’s list in no order of merit:-
1 Bluff Oysters in batter
2 Pavlova
3 Meat Pie
4 ANZAC Biscuits
5 Colonial Goose
6 Mince on toast
7 Whitebait fritters
8 Crayfish
9 Blue cod & chips
10 Whitestone cheese
UPDATE #1: Adolf at No Minister presents his own very tasty list
11 Comments
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You seem to have missed out Beetroot. I can’t understand why every sandwich and burger bought at the corner shop or swimming pool has this colour-bomb and taste-destroyer lurking under the bread.
Yes to the naked oysters – no bloody batter thank you very much. What about lambs fry and bacon too?
I think schnapper and chips rather than blue cod. Bacon and Egg pie ? Rice Pudding ? Trying to be “iconic” here. There are many wonderful dishes available now that weren’t around 30 years ago. Who else can remember the Auckland restaurant scene when it seemed to consist of the classier hotels, Toby Jug, Michael’s Caprice, plus the El Matador etc chain, or so it seemed. And then it all opened up in the late 70′s and 80′s; Obilios and the Bronze Goat, the mad Flambe artistes of Julius Longstockings before it turned in the excellent Empress Gardens, the more casual Epernay & Dejeuner, and then good (and not so good !) restaurants were everywhere. Relates to the topic because many of the iconic dishes were all we had, as good as they were there’s a lot more to eating well now.
What! No plump, juicy Nelson scallops, wrapped in bacon, skewered and BBQ’d?
CK, you beat me to the Bluff oysters. Just shared a dozen with my wife. Yum yum.
Also two big food favourites need to be considered. Oxtail stew on mash with a good red, and corned beef with cauliflour, cheese sauce, mash and peas and carrots smothered in butter.
Oxtail, how could I have missed that. Corned beef as well.
Though you find both in English cookery as well.
Nice to see you use butter!
Blasphemy
Bluff oysters in batter!!! christ… Natural only way to go.
You missed off Lamingtons, pikelets
Mince on toast is for poor people..
Of course Richard Till describes mince as Central Otago Minestrone
You forgot about our most iconic quintessential food “roast lamb and mint sauce, with new potatoes, fresh green peas and sweet corn on the cob, all the latter with lashings of melted butter.”
And then, of course, there’s those wonderful green lippy kutai.
I’d replace the mince on toast with hokey pokey ice cream – and is there a place for vegemite, Vogel’s bread, and kiwi fruit (the latter could go on the pavlova).
Then there’s roast lamb with roast potatoes, swede and pumpkin (the latter is used for sweet pies in the USA but not usually eaten as a vegetable).
muttonbirds and paua patties!