Got Milk?

Ah those crazy little ads from the American Dairy Association.  I'm not sure what they are running today, but I do recall the milk industry doing a little marketing to keep us all consumers.  America is the number 2 milk producer in the world with you know 300 million people and all.  But did you know that New Zealand is the 9th largest dairy producer? Ninth... 3.5 million people.  That's a lotta milk per person.

Dairy is king here like corn is king in Nebraska.  New Zealand is still a very agricultural nation where milk export prices are tracked as closely as petrol.  Kiwis give their dairy a fair go too.  The standard cheese increment is the 1 kg block.  That's right, a normal Kiwi is picking up 2.2 pounds of cheese at a time and usually in a couple of flavours.  That's a lotta cheese.  We have a whole isle devoted to milk.  Each brand has different categories which I can only break down by cap colour.  They have names, but different brands use different names.  However, they all use the same cap colours.  You got your standard blue cap for whole milk.  Then you have green for light or what we would call 2%.  Then yellow for "enriched" milk in some way--like vitamin D or calcium added.  Then light blue which I think really skim milk.  We also have cream, but curiously no half and half.  Now what I have recently just discovered may explain this hole in the milk market.  It is "silver" cap milk and it is somewhat difficult to find.  It goes back to some "old school" days when milk was still delivered to your house.  Not so long ago in New Zealand.  I can't really define silver cap, but it is damn close to half and half.  It sorta looks like milk that may have only been homogenized and not separated.  But I couldn't really tell ya.  It has a thick coating of cream on the inside you have to shake up.  I worry it will turn to butter.

Dairy is entirely different here.  And great milk makes some pretty fine ice cream.  Just saying.

A Real Pickle

Okay this may seem weird, but I can't find a dill pickle in all Wellington.  NZ seems to have 25 kinds of sweet pickle in all the sliced and whole varieties, but they are all very distinctly sweet pickles.  I would say in general every sauce or familiar dish in NZ is sweeter than the American equivalents.  Don't mention this to Kiwi's as they universally deny having a "sweet tooth".  Strangely although every meal might be sweeter than the norm, the don't indulge in many purely sweet deserts.  Their pasteries are often just a shade or two from bland.

But back to pickles... Can't find them.  I've decided to experiment with the least sweet pickles I can find and adding my own dill to them and see how they turn out.  Any fellow expats and/or Kiwis know of these things called Dill Pickles?

Yum Cha: A Kiwi Experience?

    What is Yum Cha you might ask.  Kiwi’s here will know, but I don’t think Americans will immediately understand it.  I think it is similar to Dim Sum, but since I never experienced that in the US, I don’t really know.
    So… Yum Cha might be a strangely Kiwi-Chinese experience.  This is how it goes.  You walk in to a something that looks like a cheap Chinese food restaurant.  You will be greeted by an Asian person who typically speaks about 2 words of English.  These words are “Yes” and “No”.  You are directed via smiles and gestures to sit down.  You’re given tea, a set of chop sticks, a blank bill, and a small empty plate.
    Now the fun begins.  An Asian woman will come to your table with a tray of 6-10 plates and ask you (with gestures and badly accented phrases) if you want one of these items she has.  You really only get to say “No” as anything other than an emphatic and clear “No” will get one of these plates on your table.  She will then make a tick mark on your bill.  More Asian women will follow with perhaps a dozen trays of fairly random bits.
    The small plate you just ordered will usually have 3 large bite sized portions of food on it.  Perhaps a pork bun, or 3 spring rolls, or something similar.  However many things are unrecognizable.  But don’t ask about them as you may end up with 4 plates of them by accident!
    The first time I experienced one of these places I quickly adapted to the concept, but in my attempt to order water and a fork I inadvertently got 5 more plates of food.
    I have now accidentally ended up eating Yum Cha twice now.  It is not immediately obvious that any particular Chinese restaurant is serving it first off.  Second is the obvious language barrier.  But I also think they owners use these two factors to their best advantage! “Oh, stupid American… give him 5 plates!”
    Luckily I happen to be fairly non-particular about what I’m eating.  But I am sensitive in the pocket book.  Usually Yum Cha is a great deal for 3 people (as most plates have 3 “portions”), it is much less so for one person.  You can expect to pay $20 NSD for a Yum Cha meal.  While weird, it is pretty tasty.

Alyssa's Bakery

I think I will dedicate this blog to my bakery.  You see, ever since I moved to Wellington, I have developed an affection for cappuccino.  While there are perhaps 8 places for me to buy coffee in a 1 block radius from my office, there is only one true bakery.  There are many places to buy pies, scones, buns, and pastries, but only one “we bake in the stove in the back” bakery.

 

While the name of the place is Alyssa’s Bakery, the shop gal that manages the counter is named, Tam.  The owner is a very tall bald man.  I am relatively sure his name is not Alyssa.  The shop is on the south side of Courtney Place.

 

Tam greets me every morning with a loud, “Good Morning, Curtis! Coffee?” I often do not get a chance to even agree before she’s at the machine making my cappuccino with extra chocolate and two sugars.  Tam chatters on about random events.  We talk about the last episode of Battlestar Galactica, or parliament, the weather, or the exchange rate.  I have been going to the same shop for a year and while I’m sure that her friendliness is all part of her customer service ethic, I appreciate it none the less.  It makes me feel like I live just down the street.  I feel a bit more contented knowing that I have a real bakery and not a Kwik-E-mart—that I can joke with the shop girl and look forward to an apple pie.

 

The shop offers cakes and scones.  They have about 6 kinds of pastry.   Custard twists, biscuits, and sandwiches fill the glass counters.  Finally, there are the pies.  Oh the pies! Mince, steak, mushroom, chicken, veggie, and my favourite—bacon egg pie.  All created in the back kitchen.  I find these all delicious, but each of them is still somewhat strange to a Nebraska boy.  Yet something is familiar about the bakery.  I know it is more than the food—more than the service that keeps me coming back.  Maybe it does remind me of dusty old Nebraska some how or maybe it reminds me of how I want home to be.