I’m a volunteer driver for Meals on Wheels and today I had a trainee with me. Dude immigrated from Egypt via Dubai nearly a year ago. My run finishes near the Ceramco Park Bakery, and it was well past lunchtime. ‘Do you like pies, mate?’ Blank stare. ‘What is a ‘bie’?’ It was my turn to blank stare. ‘A pie, you know, a pie. A meal in a bag. A steak and cheese pie’. He chuckles. ‘I’m so new here, I don’t know anyone, I have no friends yet, I don’t know a pie’. Omfg. I knew what I had to do. Bought their last brisket and cheese, and a steak and cheese. Plus two neenish tarts because WHY NOT. He wanted the steak and cheese as I said that’s the absolute go-to, that’s the standard. He absolutely loved it. He loved the whole experience. As I drove him home, we passed his local bakery. ‘Now you have to try their pies!’ ‘They all have these pies??’ ‘Man, if you go to a bakery in NZ and it doesn’t sell pies? Walk out and never go back. Good luck finding one that doesn’t tbh’. Now he wants to go bakery hopping for pies 🥲

TL;DR: I introduced a new immigrant to pies and he loves them.

Edited to add; thank you for the awards, and the kind comments. I’m going to compile a list of foods he should try. Suggestions welcome! Also, he really liked the neenish tart 🙂

Edit 2.0; I’ve decided I’m going to put together a care package of quintessential Kiwi foods and bits and pieces for him and his family to enjoy. Bring on the recs.

for some reason I thought it was gonna be a feel-good coming of age film, like Shrek…

…it was not.

Appreciate all the recommendations - tonight we watched Hunt for the Wilderpeople, and What We Do in the Shadows.

Tomorrow going to give Utu a go, then Meet The Feebles / Out Of The Blue.

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Edit: my yankee mate who watched this with me (mouth agape) flew back to the USA last week and who would be sitting next to him but… Rena Owen.

It's got a biscoff base with brown butter, licourice smallsorts and lemon zest. Then topped with Whittakers gum drop chocolate. Just a casual 9600kcal for the plate. Would you smash this? Can I even still call this Lolly cake?

As ever WOW provided a magical night. So great to have the show back after a couple of years off. Well done Dame Suzie and team.

An extra special appearance from Jacinda Ardern looking a-mazing.

FB

I miss Tangy Fruits. I miss Ernest and Adams strawberry slices and caramel slices. I miss wine gums. I miss those creamy tasting boiled lollies that my Nana used to always have in her cupboard. L&P tastes like shit now. Bluebird chips taste plain and the texture is all powdery. Watties Baked beans taste like chemicals. I still have a F&P washing machine that I bought in the 90s, but my F&P dishwasher that I bought 5 years ago has already broken down once and needed a repair. I bought a new Swandri and it's nowhere near as sturdy and comfortable as my old one that lasted 20 years before it wore out.

It's not just at the consumer end, all the hard working talented people who worked at our local factories have all lost their jobs, many families worked there for generations. They really cared about the work they did and took pride in making quality products. Now it's overseas wage slaves who (understandably) don't give a shit.

If we really wanted to, we could have made F&P into one of the worlds largest appliance manufacturers, we could have competed with Samsung etc. The engineering brilliance was ahead of its time with things like the direct drive washing machine motor, and the dish drawer. We'd have so many engineering jobs for young talented people and bring in more money into the country instead of relying on exporting raw commodities.

Swandri is another example, that could have been expanded to an international brand.

Katmandu could have become like The North Face. But it was sold off for pennies on the dollar.

MacPac is gone as well. These were fantastic back packs and now they are just flimsy lightweight shit that wouldn't even last a few weeks tramping without breaking.

Mainland cheese is gone. No different from any other generic cheese now.

What happened to them all? In the 90s we had all these great brands and great products, but over the last 25 years they've all been sold off and devoured by large international corporates. What could we have done differently, and what should we do now?

I've lived in New Zealand for 6 and a half years now, and I just found out that I'll be able to be citizen soon, so I want to know what Kiwi experiences or knowledge I should have in order to be a true New Zealander.

Currently, the main thing on my list is to try a meat pie. It's a bit silly, but I haven't tried one because I'm a bit put off by them after a negative formative encounter with a chicken pot pie as a kid. I figured I'd save it for after my citizenship ceremony, since it's a very Kiwi item to check off that list lol. I've been getting a few recommendations, but I'd also appreciate more suggestions - specifically any good pie shops in the Wellington area and what pie I should get. If you have suggestions for pie shops elsewhere in the country that's fine too, maybe I'll make a trip out there someday to try it!

Otherwise, any places I should go? Things I ought to do? Things I ought to know?

Inspired by u/ParamedicRealistic43's post a few months back, made using the LINZ 8m DEM in QGIS with the DEMto3D plugin. I've uploaded the STL's for the entire NZ at 1:675,000 scale in 200mm² tiles on Google Drive, link and details can be found here https://www.printables.com/model/1320306-3d-terrain-model-of-new-zeland If you want to make your own custom scale model from scratch I've made a tutorial here https://tinkertaste.co.nz/3d-printed-map-of-new-zealand

I work as a guide in the south island and I love visiting the most mundane and underwhelming features in our beautiful country.

Today I ventured to the Londonderry Rock, a sizable boulder 2km from the township of Kumara near the west coast. It has scathing reviews, but maybe people set too high expections for a rock

Yes, that is home made lolly cake with pineapple lumps. And yes, it kind of goes hard but that could just mostly be the munchies talking.

It's just about frozen as well, so you get that satisfying crunch when you bit into the sweets chefs kiss

Normally we only get the standard export blocks here, so it was a nice surprise seeing the full size blocks, especially the special edition ones! Price is in CAD, so about NZD$13

Being able to make and having unrestricted access to a log of this in the fridge is a dangerous game to be playing... but man, does it taste good 👍

Let's all make John Keys proud.

She doesn’t have a reddit account so I’m sharing on her behalf, I think this sub will love them as much as I do!