Eating Out in New Zealand: You're Not in America Anymore!

We like to go out to eat. A lot. I chalk it up to the freedom of not having children and being able to do what we want, when we want. I certainly don't think it has anything to do with my aversion to going to the grocery store, and absolutely has nothing to do with laziness. Anyhow, there are a surprising number of little differences between a Kiwi dining experience and eating out in the U.S. of A.

Bookings
They really like you to make bookings (reservations). Even when the restaurant isn't yet half full, you get a cocked eyebrow when you answer, "No, we don't have a booking". And then you might find yourself towards the back...

Anatomy of the Menu
The Appetizer is called the Entrée. The Entrées are called Mains. Bread is never complimentary. Beer and wine aren't hard to find, spirits can be.

Gor:lla. (nope, that's not a typo!) A little restaurant that prides itself on uniqueness, local and organic.
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Language of the Kiwi Restaurant
Bacon: usually called "Streaky Bacon" (no idea why, and I'm afraid to ask)
Biscuits: Cookies
Chips: French Fries
Gherkins: Pickles (sort of)
Kumara: Sweet Potato
Manuka: Honey (technically it's a type of honey)
Rocket: Arugula

Beverages
Frequently you must ask for water. They're happy to bring it to you, just ask. Good for the enviornment! Beer prices are (expensive... and) reflected by their percentage. 4% ABV beer is usually $1 cheaper than 5% and it seems to go up exponentially from there. Wine is similar, but priced a lot more similarly to wine the States. Oh, and everyone's got cider on the list.


What you WILL find
Lots of lamb, steak, chicken, salmon. Lots of smoked salmon. Tons of pies (think pot pie, not dessert pie). Plenty of quiches and fritatas. Breaded foods, deep fried foods. Ethnic foods. Surprisingly, lots of places that cater to gluten free eating.

What you WON'T find
French Toast without bananas and bacon on top. Nice Calfornia-esque green salads are hard to find. Chèvre. Taco trucks, or really any "normal" Mexican food (Scott and I agree to disagree on this issue). Zinfandel, or any California wines... which I know is to be expected but I still miss it.

The BEST place for brekkie.
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Ordering coffee
Oh man, this should be it's own blog post. So, don't bother trying to find drip coffee, it doesn't exist. Coffee is an espresso based experience in New Zealand, and they are proud of it. You will need an open mind and a translator to get a coffee similar to what you are looking for...

Flat White: Most similar to a latte, but with a slightly higher coffee to milk ratio
Short Black: Basic shot of espresso
Long Black: Similar to an americano, 2 shots of espresso poured over hot water. (I fear if one tried to order a "Long Black" in America, you run the risk of being slapped and/or arrested.)
Bongo: A double shot with hot milk in a small cup
Fluffy: Steamed milk (for kids)

Oh yeah, a French Press (the closest you're gonna get to that Peet's coffee that you actually want will require a French Press) is called a "Plunger". Appetizing, no?

Cafe Metro, my favorite little coffee place near our house.
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Gratuity
You may have noticed that your fancy dinner didn't come with complimentary bread, you had to ask for water, and your server dropped off your food and disappeared into a black hole. New Zealand is not a tipping country. Of course they won't turn down a little cash bonus upon your departure, but it is not expected. Ever. I felt guilty the first couple of times we left a restaurant... but now I relish in it. No one asks you 5 times in 20 minutes how your food is. I'm eating it, aren't I?! Sure if you need a new fork, you may have to catch someone as they walk by. I don't mind. The downside? When we return to the States, tipping is going to be so annoying.

Payment
No matter how fancy-smancy the restaurant is, you pay the cashier when you leave. No one brings the bill to your table. This left Scott and I sitting for a long time once or twice. But actually, it's kind of sweet. Don't you hate when the waiter brings your bill while you're still finishing your meal? Maybe you wanted another glass of wine? Or worse, when you need to get to the movie theater but your waitress vanished into that mysterious black hole of a kitchen again. No biggie; here in New Zealand, you always pay at the front.

The Coffee House Cafe & Bistro (pre-earthquake, the wall is gone now...). A favorite.
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The Cost of Things... and other odds and ends
At many restaurants there is a 15% surcharge on public holidays... which, if you'll recall, New Zealand has frequently.
Pizza is available at almost every restaurant, and is a nice choice for those on a budget.
Happy Hour is a fond but distant memory.
Eating out is pretty darn expensive compared to the US, although buying your food at the grocery store isn't too much pricier.
Napkins are sometimes called "serviettes", which I like because one time I taught myself French for 3 months... and now it's totally paid off.

Getting Up at 6am Leads To A Lot Of This...

So Scott asked me the other day, "How many pictures of the sunrise is one too many?" This is a valid question when you see the recent imports from the camera. But I've been getting up at 6am every day for 5 years and I've seen more in the last 4 months than the prior 56 months combined. Then I started bringing my camera to work with me because my drive along the estuary frequently provides a stunning view.

So here... you tell me, how many pictures of sunrise is one too many? Are we there yet?

Saturday Morning

Lets see, what is new?

Scott found a cool bar called The Volstead Trading Company here in Christchurch. They have a real selection of beers, including imports. Among these imports... Dogfish Head 90 Min IPA and Arrogant Bastard! (Take note dad... the later is $21 for a 650ml bottle!!!! How much do they charge at Rellik?) Regardless, so good to know there's a place with familiar brews in times of homesickness!

Sunday Morning over the estuary

In other news, this week's biggest dilemma for me is where shall we go for my birthday? It's not for 5 weeks, but I'd like to get on an airplane and go somewhere. And since Scott's at his new job and we're both saving vacation time... it won't be somewhere far. I figure either Auckland or Wellington.... decisions, decisions. Tough life, I know.

The difference 5 minutes can make, between this photo and the next...

Monday morning (today) over the estuary

This post is much to do about nothing, isn't it? I guess it's just the old saying, "no news is good news"... life is going as planned at the moment. Scott and I have the weekend off together coming up, so hopefully we do something fun- and worthy of writing home about. Literally! 

Keeping Busy on Rainy Days...

When it's raining cats and dogs, I feel like there's not as much to update on. Bike rides become a little less frequent and a lot less scenic. Travel slows down and my bank account breathes a deep sigh of relief. And yet... life still ends up feeling busy sometimes. I suppose it's just because I like it that way. I schedule as much as I can, even if it's just errands, into a day so that I don't feel like I did nothing. In fact last week I over scheduled and effectively overflowed the washing machine and ruined my spatula (and my lunch) just while trying to get ready for work.

R.I.P. Little Blue

Lovely weather this weekend... I know all of you in California feel really bad for us right now.

I've had a stretch of 4 days off though, and the rain really settled in. Actually a cloud settled in, on our house, erasing our view of much of anything. It felt like a good time to relax, read a little bit, and recoup.... so I did 4 loads of laundry, deep cleaned the house, and painted an old dresser we've been hanging on to.

Then today I finally re-arranged the living room. I say "finally", because a) we've had a guest sleeping out here, so for awhile I couldn't... and b) it's needed to happen for a long time because the heater is on the back wall. If you aren't sitting within about 5 feet of the heater, you aren't getting warm. And with our new residence inside the storm cloud, heat is necessary.

So I'm pretty sure that about 4 months ago I promised some photos of the inside of our house once we were "settled in". I'm actually, finally, beginning to feel a bit settled in (which is about to all be un-done in 2 months, but more on that later). So some pictures of my projects and our settled-ness...

I'm really wishing I took a "before" photo of how truly ugly this dresser was. It wasn't really that different. It was just dark brown wood, with lots of chips and stains. But it was seriously dumpster worthy.

I also wish I'd taken more of a "before" photo than the one above. This is more like mid-re-arrangement. Anyways...

After:

Man, everything just feels better with a clean house...

I'm actually pretty happy with how the dresser turned out. Sure, white is a ridiculously boring color. Actually, it's the same color as the walls and the ceiling. The exact same color. Because the paint came from a bucket in our garage. So the color I painted the dresser is actually called "free". Free is my favorite color.

Kinda cozy, no? We inherited this unique coffee table thing from a friend. It could use refurnishing, but I really like it. It's the perfect height to go with our couch, and it has storage drawers. Pretty sweet.

Isn't that a cool piece of furniture?

My seasonally confused indoor tomato crop

Scott gathered a batch of local succulents together for me. He "planted" them in the kitchen window (and in my favorite tea cups... ha!) to bring a little cheer indoors whilst Mother Nature wreaks havoc outside.

Well, there you have it. A little tour of the part of my house that is clean... Now I'm going outside to enjoy the sun, cuz it's back and gorgeous outside today! Take that California!

Healthy Eating

I'm very pleased to say I've discovered some organic grocery stores in Christchurch. For the first 8 weeks we lived here, I relied on the local "Countdown", which is actually the nicer of the two chain grocery stores. Nevertheless, finding local, organic, or gluten-free items proved to be a challenge. It took me 6 weeks to find steel cut oats (hidden in the "health food" section...?) and the same to find black beans (in the gluten-free aisle, with the raw almonds...?). Their organizational logic amuses me.

Anyways, I don't know why it didn't occur to me sooner, but I'm glad it did at all. Google. Google: Organic Grocery Shopping Christchurch. Low and behold, not one, but two stores. 

I went to both, my favorite being Liberty Market. Both are small, and a lot of things are pricey. But the good stuff (organic non-spray produce, raw nuts and seeds, alternative flour options) actually wasn't much more expensive than the Countdown. And some of it, the same as in California. This is both a relief, and detrimental to the pocketbook. Now full-boar cooking has once again commenced.

One thing brought a huge smile to my face... I'm not a huge juice drinker, but the Knutson's juice  pictured below is produced in my "hometown" of Chico, California. We used to drink it by the gallon- Morning Blend aided many a hangover- and we drove by the factory frequently. A little piece of home... 5,000 miles away. Cool. (Actually the Santa Cruz apple sauce bears a misleading name, as it is also made in Chico!!)

Never mind that I looked like a creep taking a photo in the grocery store

In other news, this weekend is the enduro race in Craigieburn, which I am mostly (so not) ready for. I have been running and riding regularly, and eating well thanks to Liberty Market... so hopefully this race treats me better than the last. Either way, it will be fun, which is why I do it.

I also started a tab up at the top, next to About Me and My Daily Reading. On my new Christchurch Recommendations page, I'll post links to restaurants and sights that I think are must see, must do, and must taste experiences in Christchurch. Hopefully visitors and expats can find this page useful, and the rest of you will be swayed into coming for a visit! All of my recommendations are, of course, unsolicited. 

Last... the view from my house as I type this very second. It never gets old.

Kiwi-isms

I know every culture, speaking every language, has it's own slang. But being that we've only been here 6+ weeks, we still find Kiwi slang funny, and sometimes confusing. For any of the rest of you who are curious, or who've been confounded by New Zealand words and phrases, I've compiled a little list of "Kiwi-isms". This is by no means a complete list.... there's so many that sometimes I think they just make words up. But the following are used frequently enough for me to understand and thus remember them:

All photos from last weekend in Nelson

Aye: Kind of like the Canadian "eh?". This is said at the end of almost every Kiwi sentence. It's kind of like they don't want to offend or be too blunt, so at the end of every sentence they throw an "aye" on at the end to see if you agree. (Pronounced like you say the letter "A")
Context: We should get a bottle of wine instead of beer, aye?

Bird: A hot girl.

Bloke: A guy, a dude, usually someone you don't know. Our friend told us a bloke is usually a bachelor type.
Context: She went on a date with some bloke who didn't even pay for her dinner.

Boy Racer: Teenagers and young men who drive super fast, have obnoxiously loud stereos and exhaust, and who are the culprits of doing street races and doughnuts in intersections.

Bush: The wilderness. (Not a presidential failure... here.)
Context: Sam and his family are on holiday at that house they have out in the bush.

Chemist: Pharmacy

Chilly Bin: A cooler (a great example of how Kiwis like to change an ordinary object's name into something cute.)

Chips: French Fries. (And "chips" as we know then in the US, would be "crisps".)

Cuppa: A cup of. Coffee or tea, specifically.
Context: I can't function in the morning without my cuppa.

Dairy: A convenience store or corner store that sells essential food items and lotto tickets, like a 7-11.

Dodgy: Bad or unreliable. Scott says he hears this one every 30 seconds.
Context: I wouldn't ride that bike, it looks dodgy to me.

Done and Dusted: All done. Finished. (This is one of my favorites, I don't know why. It's just fun to say!)
Context: I finished that report for you. Done and dusted.

Entree: NOT your dinner! In New Zealand, your entree is your appetizer!

Fit: to be attractive.
Context: Dude did you see that bird? She was sooo fit!

Gidday: Universal Kiwi greeting, ie: Hello!

Good as gold: Good to go.

Good on ya: Good job. Way to go.

Gumboots: Galoshes or rubber boots.

Heaps: Tons. And it doesn't have to be something that can physically be in a heap or a pile.
Context: Did you see all his tattoos? He had heaps.

Holiday: A vacation, anywhere from one day to months.
Context: Dr. Smith won't be here until March. He's on holiday.

Jandals: Flip flops/sandals

Jersey: Sweater or shirt.

Kia Ora: Hello in Maori language. The favorite word of New Zealand tourism adverts.

Knackered: Super tired. Also "buggered" and "stuffed". Every term cracks me up.
Context: After that bike race I could barely walk I was so knackered.

Long Drop: An outhouse. (HAHAHA)

Loo: the toilet. No one says "bathroom", and they all kind of look at you funny if you do. I personally can't bring myself to say "loo", so I just say "toilet".

Mad: Crazy. Nuts. Insane. (Used a lot in nursing. Nurses, just think about the 5150 and DT patients. They're all "mad".)
Context: That lady with all the cats is completely mad.

Mate: Friend. Scott says this all the time now, and it makes me giggle.
Context: Hey babe, I'm gonna go have a couple of beers with my mates. (I hope he continues this phase when we're back in the US. I want to see the look on his mate's faces... haha.)

Nappy: Diaper. So a diaper bag is a nappy sack. No one says diaper.

OTT: Spoken abbreviation for Over The Top. (Kind of like saying "TMI" instead of "Too Much Information.")
Context: That patient's stories are just OTT.

Oz: Australia

Partner: Boyfriend or Girlfriend, of the same or opposite sex. SO CONFUSING at first! I figured every person I met was gay... But unlike in the states, a person's life partner is not identified as male or female during your first conversation with someone, and thus their sexual identity is theirs to reveal when they so choose. They don't use the terms "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" here after high school age. The terms "husband" and "wife" are used the same as in the states.
Context: My partner and I bought our house when we graduated college.

Pie: A meat pie. Typically in a single serving size. They're cute. (This is a source of national pride, Kiwis are known for their pies. For me, it was source of personal frustration, because I'm known for loving fruit pies. Several disappointments happened before I learned. If it's an apple pie, they specify that it's a fruit pie.)

Plaster: A band-aid, but also a plaster cast. Must be discerned by context.
Context: Can you go plaster his broken arm please?
Context: Can you put a plaster on his IV site please?

Puffed: Short of breath.
Context: I was way too puffed to run all the way up the hill.

Rubber: an eraser! A co-worker of mine told me a funny memory from her study-abroad in Illinois when she asked her hot professor if he had a rubber she could borrow!

Singlet: A tank top/sleeveless shirt for men or women. Not just gym-rat (guys) wear tank tops here. Everyone does... but they're called singlets.

She'll be right: It's all good. Don't worry about a thing. Re: Good as gold.

Suss: to figure something out.
Context: I'm not sure if he's coming to work today, I'll suss that up and get back to you.

Sweet As: A term used by every Kiwi, young and old. It basically means "cool" or "sweet". Not to be confused with Sweet Ass... the Kiwis would never be so vulgar! It's confusing to us expats because we're thinking, Sweet as what? The funny thing about Sweet As, is the first word can be replaced with any word. Cold as. Expensive as. Lucky as. Basically any time Americans would say Such and such is soooooooo               .
Context: "That new bike is sweet as." or "It must be 40 degrees out! It's hot as!"

Tea: We are not talking about the beverage folks. For some reason "tea" is slang for dinner. And no, it's not because they drink tea with dinner. And it's not in the afternoon at what I would have called "tea-time".
Context: "Kristen, it's 9pm, why don't you take a break and have your tea?"

Tramping: Hiking

Uni: Short for University, which they say instead of "college".
Context: Uni starts up again next week, so this weekend we gotta get drunk as.

Ute: A truck.

Wee: Little. They say this as often as "aye", maybe more.
Context: We're off to get a wee cuppa and go for a wee walk down on that wee beach by the ocean.

Zed: "Z", as in the last letter of the alphabet.
Context: (a wee one learning the alphabet would say " X, Y, Zed...")

Funny Food Names:

Capsicum: Pepper
Courgette: Zucchini
Kumara: Sweet Potato
Porridge: Oatmeal

In addition to these terms, to fully understand Kiwi speak, you must understand 4-year old speak. Say what? Kiwi's have this habit, which I haven't decided if I like or not, of shortening every word and adding "ie" (or a "y") to the end. As a result, you have a nation full of folks talking like toddlers:

Breakfast = Brekkie
Cousin = Cuzzie
Christmas = Chrissy
Kindergarten = Kindie
Mosquito = Mozzie
Present = Prezzie
Sandwich = Sammie
Sunglassess = Sunnies
Wellington (the capital of NZ) = Welly

"I hope my cuzzy likes the sunnies I got for her as a prezzie for Chrissy."  If you didn't know better, you'd think this bloke was still in nappies!

Obligatory duck picture. They say there's more sheep than people in NZ... I reckon this also goes for ducks.

Ridiculously Easy Tortillas

I admit, I realize that 98% of my readers are in the United States, and probably 80% are in California. And in California, there is no shortage of decent tortillas. So basically, this post is for 2-20% of you. But in any case...

Tortillas! Living in New Zealand has already proven to be a culinary adventure, and this is the next chapter. I have read on several kiwi blogs that while tortillas aren't that hard to find in New Zealand, decent ones are pretty rare. Complaints range from 'brittle' to 'weirdly elastic' to 'tastes like cardboard'. Instead of subjecting myself to disappointing tacos, I decided to just go for it and make my own. I mean that's what all the other over achieving show-off foodie Kiwis are doing. And while I was prepared for a major cooking disaster, they turned out pretty darn good.

The recipe is from a fellow blogger who was also on the hunt for decent tortillas. It's got very few ingredients and steps, which both increase my chances of success. Especially with the poor excuse for kitchen utensils I have at the moment (come on, big boat in the ocean!), like Bachelor Ben's Bowl.

(And a side note: I had a quick lesson on preparing Mexican food with a good family friend before the holidays. I feel the need to say I'm sure these tortillas are nowhere near her standards. Also, I have yet to find lard in the stores here, which I think may be a key ingredient to the perfect tortilla. But if you're reading, Cynthia, I'd be keen to see your recipe!)

Anyways, our key ingredients:

Ridiculously Easy Tortillas:

3 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/3 cup canola oil
1 cup hot water

Combine flour, salt and baking powder. Whisk together. (Here is where I forgot to take a picture with Ben's Bowl.) Add canola oil and mix together with your hands to create a uniform "crumby-ness". Lastly, add hot water, knead together with hands.

Let dough rise minimum of a half hour, or place in refrigerator overnight.

Divide dough into 12 equal balls. Mine were just a tad larger than a golf ball.

Roll them out with flour, until they are about 8 inches wide and uniformly round. Unless you're into oblong tortillas... that's cool too.

I don't actually have a rolling pin at the moment (re: boat somewhere on the Pacific...) so I used my trusty Enloe stainless steel thermos. Scott pointed out after all dinner was consumed that a wine bottle would have been a great rolling pin. Why didn't I think of that?

Fry tortillas on a dry frying pan on med-high heat. It only takes about 30-45 seconds per side for the perfect brown bubbles to form, and then it is time to flip.

My taco fillings: black beans, sautéed onion, bell pepper, and salmon, with tomato,
avocado, cheese, and sour cream. Mmmmm!

I discovered the hard way, if the heat is too low, the tortilla turns into more of a cracker. Or a frisbee.

I stored the final product in the oven, on low, while I finished my cooking. This worked perfectly.

Don't they look like real tortillas!?

Serve warm, with lots and lots of yummy ingredients!

This picture makes me truly sad that there are no left overs right now!

Lastly, look at what we got!

Nope, not good beer. Carlsberg is awful.

The astute reader will remember that I have been holding out for a kitchen table. We've got a bed, 2 chairs and a sofa, but haven't had a table for the last 5+ weeks. I found this lovely piece on TradeMe.com for $120! It's in beautiful condition. Hiring a trailer to haul it (behind our Subaru Justy, no less!) was quite the adventure, but alls well that ends well, and we ended up with a great table! Now we can finally have guests over!

Grocery Shopping

There is a term that I kept hearing before we left, and keep hearing since we've arrived in New Zealand. To be honest, I am sick of this term. It's used too much and probably inappropriately used, really. It's also pessimistic and in my opinion, comes from downright laziness, which are 2 of my very least favorite things. Lazy pessimists, get off my island. The phrase?

"New Zealand/food/petrol/cars/accommodation/_fill in the blank   is so expensive."

Yes, some things such as your frozen lean cuisine from the US or your 64GB imported limited iPhone 5 are truly expensive. It's an island. Stuff has to come here on a boat. From really far away.

But on the whole, if you are creative and tenacious, you will not be broke.

This brings me to the event that was my biggest fear: grocery shopping. Everyone (mostly expats and Americans who have visited NZ) gripes about the prices of food. I've read sporadic articles about how if one is able to shop with regard to the season (no bruschetta in winter ya'll, get over it) then it shouldn't be so bad. But more commonly, I read and heard about how unreasonable all food is here, to the point that some expats have left New Zealand and returned to America, land of government subsidized poison GMO ridden mass-produced food.

So how'd it go? Well it went pretty damn great. I have a habit of doing "mental math" while I shop to see how close I can get to the actual price when it's all rung up at the end. Weird, I know. I admit, I was pretty distracted by all the super weird brands and packaging to really focus on my math game, but regardless, we came in $25 under what I expected, with a total of $125. For perspective, we bought a lot of essentials... food for a brand new flat, cleaning supplies, a few kitchenwares, etc.

Fun facts:

Tomatos cost $2.99/kg. Thats roughly $1.30/lb, which is unheard of in the states. Oh, and they aren't from hothouses in Mexico.
There is peanut butter, and everyone that told us that there isn't is a liar.
There are also tortillas. In varying shapes and flavors. More lies.
Eggs aren't refrigerated. And the yolks are so yellow they look orange.
Bell peppers are called "capsicum".
Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and especially boysenberries are all cheaper (but probably only for this month. Things are very seasonal here.)
Honey is a solid, kind of like a butter color and texture.
Wine is barely more expensive, if at all. Beer is astronomical. (Stella, gross, on sale for $20/12 pack.) Liquor is more expensive, but not like beer.

One of my favorite things was the "confection free" line. There are 2 check-out lines dedicated to having no candy, and therefore no grubby hands grabbing wildly, no toddler meltdowns, and probably even a reduced temptation to those who would otherwise grab that un-needed Snickers. The confection free line does offer raisins, nuts, etc. however. The other mama-friendly tidbit I noticed was "family parking" right next to the handicapped parking places. Pretty cool.

The best deal were the venison hamburgers we got, 6 patties freshly made with seasoning and everything for $7. They are AMAZING. Oh, and the salmon fillet we got. Big enough for 2, caught 12 kilometers out of Christchurch, $8. A very, very tasty win.

Anyways, since I didn't take any pictures of my groceries, I'll leave you with a picture of a little trail up at the top of our street.

Home!

As mentioned earlier in my grinch-y post about not having internet access, Scott & I finally moved into our new house! And now it finally has internet.

As it turned out, we weren't able to move in until the day I started work. I worked Thursday & Friday this week, so I wasn't really able to enjoy, unpack, or decorate (ha) until today. Decorating, unfortunately, won't really happen until our boat full of stuff arrives on January 11. But we did receive some festive stockings to hang from Scott's folks, and the view luckily serves as decoration enough for now.

Here's a few pictures of the inside of our humble abode, pre-cleaning.

Living Room

Cluttered Kitchen, pre-paint

Atrium (and front yard down there)

Today Scott & I scrubbed and washed just about every surface, cabinet, baseboard, and appliance in the house. Scott also painted the entire kitchen and bathroom, which honestly made the whole place look new. After our belongings arrive I'll post some "after" apartment pics. I'm excited to get some furniture, decorate the rooms and back yard, and generally make the place ours.

Tonight's our first night out on the town, hopefully we'll meet some interesting people and hear some good music.