Thursday, January 17, 2013

Grog and Tucker (Drink and Food)

My jeans are being a bit squeaky tight -  I blame the Kiwi food (never my fault of course).  In NZ my favourites are easily procured at the chippy or petrol stations: individual steak and kidney pies, battered oysters and Vogel toast with butter and marmite. The new fruit ciders my cousins were drinking were too good, I banned myself from them.

My second cousin Libby (a trained opera singer) and the new Isaac's Cider

I tried to teach Harley, 15, to make toast with butter and marmite.
 "Needs more butter" I said.
"You and your family"Harley replied "it's a wonder you're not all really huge. It's always 'more butta, more butta.' "

Mum's ham tastes like butta too

There was a new store over the hill called  Whakatane International which sold round-the-world packaged foodstuffs and vintagey things like Tab. It seemed under-stocked to me, but Kevin thought the displays were deliberately like that in a cool and Warhol-esque way. Clearly I married a cup half-full guy.

Whakatane International store

Of course the best place to eat in Ohope Beach was the "T&L Restaurant" Tallulah, 11 and her cousin Leah set up. For a couple of days they sat all day at our cottage waiting for customers and we took pity on them and booked in for two meals each. (Though Cy, 8, was eventually banned for complaining.)
I suggested that maybe they could drop off flyers to the neighbours.
"We're not sure we want to serve people we don't know" said Tallulah.
Not sure that business model is going to work...

Dad, dressed in one of his gifts, paying Tallulah 
Restaurant Bookings for the week and one of Cy's complaints scribbled out
You know I'm the lazy mistress of the quick and dirty recipe, er easy assemblage, and here are two I picked up from my sister Sharon and friend Kerry.

Sharon's Fresh Rolls:
Rice paper, matchstick-sized carrots and cucumber, lettuce, vermicelli, shrimp fried in garlic (frozen is fine). Dip the rice paper in warm water for a few seconds till it softens, plop on small amount of the rest, roll up and voila! Shoot, forgot the dipping sauce...Oh just buy that.


Kerry's Kumara and Pumpkin Seed Salad:
Roasted cubes of sweet potato, toasted sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds, small raw florettes of cauliflower and broccoli and cooked bacon. Mix together with a small amount of mayonaise.

What was your edible nemesis over the holidays - have you banned it now?




57 comments:

  1. Wow I can see that it wouldn't be hard to gain some weight eating this delicious looking food! Your trip looks like it was a lot of fun!

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  2. I'm pregnant; food is all I've got.

    The banning will come once I've popped this kid out.

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    Replies
    1. Tremendous philosophy and the only one you can have!

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  3. Ok I am going to make those fresh rolls - they don't seem so hard!

    Banning perogies and cabbage rolls until Easter (at least), even after!!

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    1. The cabbage is all good though? Olga, Mum to our childhood friends Zofia and Helena's made them growing up and it was the only way I would eat cabbage.

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  4. Oh right up my alley, more butter. I lost count after the twelfth stick for our Thanksgiving dinner.

    Love the concept of the T&L Restaurant. How hilarious.

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  5. Butter - mmmm. Salted butter with crystals - MMMMMMM. I just stuffed my face over Christmas and New Year, but back to normal now. Well, I still have a box of chocs I'm hogging (as they were a pressie to ME).

    The T&L restaurant is a classic. How much did they charge? :)

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    Replies
    1. Actually it was in Ohope Beach but they were charging New York prices - they got that part of it bang on!

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    2. Also have not heard of butter with crystals - crystals of salt?

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  6. I've been reading your blog for quite a while now, and being an Irish girl married to a kiwi, I always have a little chuckle at the kiwiana! My husband is always reminiscing about pies and Vogel toast, but we're strictly vegemite in this house.

    The fresh rolls look great, I'll definitely try them.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by and reading anon! I kept meaning to take a photo of one of my pies because some of my American friends could not envisage how they were sold. But ate them before the camera came out. By the end of the vacay I was eating two in one go. My 15 year old reckons he's going to study how to make them and bring them to the States.

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  7. All of the food looks wonderful...I could eat and eat, haha!! Wonderful pictures doll...I hope you have a marvellous weekend xx

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  8. Wow, that ham looks divine! Love this account of your hols; sounds like you all had a fabulous time. In theory I'm staying away from the grog (I almost had to have the wine glass surgically removed after Xmas) but in reality ... pah! Not working so well:(

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    Replies
    1. Have those sentiments myself - the drinking during the week thing is not going er, that well. Is Thursday a week day? Neither is keeping the weekend drinks to just two. Sigh..

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  9. "More butta, more butta" even though I hate the stuff, that'll be playing in my head all day! Chocolate biscuits are my nemesis - all year round. That ham looks delicious.

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    1. And actually with the kiwi accent its: "more budda, more budda" which plays in your head in a much more annoying way - sorry!

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  10. The food sounds delicious! My in laws live in Italy, so we always come back a few pounds heavier than when we started. Very happy, though! :) Glad you had a wonderful holiday!

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  11. I love Shreddies and Heinz tomato soup, both of which can be found in the foreign foods isle in my local New World at extortionate cost - They must ship each tin in it's own container from the UK. Loving the thought of you hanging out in Ohope - did you go and swim at the Top10 campsite? They have an ace pool x

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    Replies
    1. My sister stayed down there and took the kids, they loved it and I must visit next time. Loved the mame " Top10" - Top10 in the universe? it works.

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  12. Looks like it was G&Ts all round.
    I'm still trying to work through half a dozen boxes of Christmas shaped Walker's shortbreads...yum!

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    1. We got some friends to bring those over from Brit a couple of months ago and I kept nibbling till they were all gone, job well done.

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  13. ha! that looks a tad like the bench over at my sister's house! every time I'm in NZ visiting her it is simply pointless to be good about what we're eating! My brother-in-law has bangers with every meal as tho it is just a regular side ... and there are shandies all afternoon with wine at dinner. Lord it's hard not to love it all!

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    1. Shandies - now there's a retro drink - fabulous...didn't they (Ena Sharples and her sidekick, can't remember her name) use to drink them in The Snug, in Coro St?

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  14. Minnie Caldwell.....the sidekick in Corrie............how old and sad that I know that fact, but I have loved Corrie since I was a nipper. Marmite toast....heavenly. Your hols sound and look amazing.

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    1. Good old Minnie, how I looked forward to viewing her doings, (when she was allowed to talk) those were the days my friend.

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  15. Can't beat real butter, on everything - the ham looks tasty, I think I can smell it from here!

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  16. I agree with the above comment.. there is NO replacement for the real deal. Food is something I always look forward to when traveling. It's fun eating things that I normally don't.

    Looks like you are having lots of fun!

    xxL

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  17. The holiday table is all about comfort foods of childhod. And at our house my dad does the holiday cooking. Which means EVERYTHING has a German bent to it.... we've eaten our fill of Weiss Wurst, Gulasch Soup, Sauerkraut, Spaetzle, Lebkuchen and Marzipan. Nevermind the bottles of Riesling that have been downed!
    Needless to say, I am happy for the extra calories breastfeeding requires!!!!

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  18. You will have noticed from my blog posts that when we travel, eating is a big part of every trip! Your Mum's ham looks delicious. It must have been such a treat going home and enjoying all your favourites.
    http://missbbobochic.blogspot.co.uk/

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  19. I always think more butta is the answer too! Luckily for me, after the holidays I acquired a little flu bug coming home from NYC. A few days in bed without eating and *presto* my skinny jeans fit wonderfully again!

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  20. I so very much want to visit New Zealand! And now that I've read this I'm actually anxious to try the food there, too. It sounds great.

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  21. Jody- The Beekman Boys in our neck of the woods feed their Christmas tree to the goats on Ephiphany, we here feed the squirrels picked-over sad, stale, slanting gingerbread houses on the deck.

    No more gingerbread. For a long time.

    Loretta

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  22. Panetonne and any cookie not containing oatmeal are my current banned items. I'm going to have to try that salad recipe before I end up having to ban bacon, too!
    Love the T&L Restaurant bit - what fun!

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  23. I wanted a restaurant like the T & L when I was a kid, good for them!

    Mo' buttah, sounds like my house. I'm now working on the "last 10" instead of the "last 5".

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  24. Great Pics ,love the last one!
    follow new ,mind follow back? :)

    kisses

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  25. The food looks and sounds delicious.
    We have many international stores in the city where I live and its good to try out different things.
    Maggie x

    Nuts in May

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  26. We are off anything we really love ie chocolate, wine, crisps, fatty foods so we are all pretty miserable moody and grumpy. I think I am a happy fat person and a sad skinny person. How long this will last I do not know. Great fun post

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  27. Wouldn't it be lovely to have a business where you only deal with people you know!

    I find these days I can keep my weight stable by starting my day with porridge. I can eat any old rubbish, and plenty of butta/budda, as long as I do my Goldilocks impression at breakfast time.

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  28. America is my nemesis - the portion sizes - aargh!

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  29. Ha, I love the restaurant. No lemonade stand?

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  30. Just spent a good sunday morning catching up on your blog. Always love stopping by for a dose of hilarity. Is it weird that I love saving up your blog posts to read all at once, kind of like what one does with captivating television shows. By the way, that bespoke blue cocktail dress is a stunna, love the richness of it and the belt detail was perfect! My current nemesis is biscotti, they'll soon be banned from the household just as soon as I finish what's left in the jar. Can't let them go to waste now can we?

    xx Jenee C.
    {camo meets couture}

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  31. you make those rice paper rolls sound so easy....and delicious!!

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  32. oh, those rolls look yummy! will have to try for sure.

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  33. Thank you so much Jody! It's great to hear from you. Actually I was just talking to my partner yesterday about you, and how much I enjoy reading your articles, and about how when I'm SF, I definitely have got to catch up with you!! I'm not flying international anymore, for "work" as such. I'm heading to Europe for 3 months in May, though, which I'm really looking forward to. I'm working full time now as a jewelry designer, working independently as well as with retail outlets. But of course, I'm also doing photography. I plan to travel further South of New Zealand in September when I get back from 4 months overseas... Which should also be a great moment. Hope you are having a great week so far! xx

    p.s I love the photo of your dad. He plays the role so well!

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  34. Oh it all sounds so delicious! And that ham was so beautiful, I'd love a slice or two or three, HeHeHe!!!
    What a fun holiday you all had. Ours was very toned down this year. Husband and I were by ourselves this year!
    Love Di ♥

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  35. Firstly, I LOVE Vogel bread and in fact have just had a piece of Vogel toast with peanut butter and Manuka honey on it.

    Secondly, this looks fabulous! I'm such a foodie (note, I didn't say 'posh foodie', just foodie--I love food) that I can so relate to this post. And what fun to discover the international/retro food shop! Warholesque or not.

    I have a Christmas Eve party for which I overbuy every year, justifying it by saying 'it'll get eaten' as we have so many family memebrs coming by over the hols. Sadly 'it'll get eaten by me', is usually the case. Cue balloon impression...

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  36. Oh those roll-up's sound gorgeous….my friend makes something similar and I've always meant to ask her the recipe. Must try these and impress her! Avril x

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  37. anything sweet i have banned, other than this cinnamon bun I'm presently consuming

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  38. Right now I'm eating anything that tastes good so you can send some of that my way :)
    {love jenny xoxo}

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  39. Great easy recipes! My holiday food weakness? My older sister -- aka The Rescue Baker's (http://www.therescuebaker.com/) -- amazing Christmas cookies. Nine types, made from the finest/freshest ingredients, and all fresh from the oven... delicious and deadly for my waistline. Though anything with "butta" sounds tempting, too... xo style, she wrote

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  40. Nooooooooo! You ate those pies?! I remember trying not to puke when I bought those minced pies (packet stated minced beef but I'm pretty sure they'd dumped horse/ostrich/kangaroo meat in there) from the school canteen. Foul! I choked it down on numerous occasions when I forgot to make my own lunch.

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  41. I ao want to play the restaurant game and I'm with Tallulah about customers. They were the one flaw in my old shop:)

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  42. Sausage rolls... I eat them all... and then they regroup above the waistband of my jeans. The buggers.
    Sx

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