Food, glorious food

I didn’t have a lot of expectations before coming to New Zealand; I hoped to see sheep, taste wine at small local wineries, do some hiking and see beautiful scenery. Check, check, check, and check. What I didn’t know was how good the food would be.  And remember, we aren’t doing fancy.  We did have one night out very early in our travels for Lloyds birthday (at which a neighboring male diner expressed what I took as shock with a hint of horror when we teasingly told him we were all Lloyds wives- probably left thinking “Damn those Americans have some crazy ideas!” I say Americans because at first guess that’s where everyone thinks we are from).  That dinner was in a lovely oceanside restaurant with top notch service and food to match.  Since then we have been on the fly with no reservations and often a last minute decision to eat ‘Here!’ for lunch.  Breakfast and dinners continue to be almost always at home- economical and healthy for the most part. 

We had an interesting experience last week when we stopped along the highway at a middle of the nowhere small, old hotel with a sign declaring “Most interesting café in New Zealand.”  Perhaps it is, stuffed as it was with old bits of nostalgia items, much of it western themed and brought over from the US for the very purpose of decorating this most random of ancient accommodations.  And interesting was the food too…… turns out the guy who took our order at the cash was also the cook and the server.  And the dishwasher.  Lloyd’s burger order was on point.   Jo and Brenda ordered, from the burger menu, veggie burgers- an offering that explicitly said ‘with veggie patty’.  But in fact, came bereft of any such thing.  It was stuffed with lettuce, tomato, pickle and relish but not a hint of a burger beyond that.  Laughter inducing for sure.  I had asked if he could adapt the chicken, brie and cranberry panini for me by omitting the chicken.  He agreed and then served me a fried sandwich with a few traces of brie and a smear of strawberry jam.  Most interesting of cafes indeed……..

But apart from that we have discovered the most amazing food, often at randomly chosen cafes.  And you should know, every community, no matter how tiny, has a café.  Every single one we have driven through.  Which is quite amazing given that the population of this country is just over $5 million.  No one in our little group of 4 is a coffee drinker so that I can’t comment on but the café offerings have been so good.  Often a few hours into our day we will look for a place to stop and have a snack so I am becoming kind of a connoisseur of New Zealand scones (which might contain spinach, onion, cheese and onion……) trying as I am to stay away from the really sweet treats.  Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting is on offer everywhere in all different shapes and sizes.  And we have stopped numerous times for lunch- Oh I think it will be a long time before I forget last weeks grilled cheese sandwich on sourdough bread.  The cheese was fondued complete with white wine….. with slices of tomato inside which persistently slipped out, and my fingers dripping in melted cheese, I was in culinary heaven.  (It helps perhaps that I absolutely love grilled cheese sandwiches and consider myself a bit of a grilled cheese maker expert.)   and this in a café in a community that was a blink and you’ll miss it kind of size. 

We have also bought a lot of our produce from roadside stands.  It has all made for really tasty dinners, a wholesome refueling before we haul out the cards for our nightly game.

In case you are wondering, staffing issues are a challenge here just like they are in other parts of the world.  There are hiring signs up in a lot of cafes and grocery stores as well as signs imploring us to be good and patient customers as they are short staffed and don’t want their run ragged employees to quit from being treated poorly.  Oh, and we haven’t been able to get fresh lemons here for ages so I finally asked a produce clerk who said- “Lemons?  Oh no, they are out of season right now.”  Cool concept right?  Eating what is in season.  🙂

And thus the travels continue.  We are now three and a half weeks in so have passed the halfway mark of our long anticipated trip to this country.  A few more days and we will catch the ferry and start exploring the North Island.  Stick with me; this happy retiree will have more travel and lifestyle stories to come.

Xo

PS: working on The Mining Captain dating story as promised!