I'm going to write about the food today. I mentioned before that I thought that improbably gained 10 pounds on the airplane alone!! There has just been soooo much food. However...we HAVE run into a couple of things that are...strange? Odd combinations? Tasteless? Yep!
On the airplane, we had kind of a regular dinner. I think we had chicken and rice with a 1/2 of a cooked Roma tomato, all over a bed of cooked spinach. I remember having to eat canned (?? Mom? Was it canned? Or just yucky?) spinach as a kid and thinking, "what was Popeye doing eating this crap so often? Nasty!" As an adult, I love to wilt spinach and eat it with other dishes. The kids seem to enjoy it. Hmmm... How is it so different here? It just tastes nasty out of the can and somehow not so much when its wilted. It's the same thing, right?! Apparently not. So...we had it again at breakfast #1 and breakfast #2. Ok. I think that's enough.
At the Christchurch hotel and restaurant, I think we probably had the best food yet. Maybe everything was just still so new? We had pumpkin soup, which we later found out that is kind of a traditional dish. They served us cooked mixed vegetables family style to go along with salmon over rice or chicken over rice. We finished off with lemon-passion fruit pudding or a dark chocolate tort. Oh, my. It was perfect for our first night and for sleeping on a full tummy. The next morning, we had a wonderful breakfast buffet with scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, cereals, yogurt, fresh or canned fruit...yummy! We were full and happy, for sure.
The Maori tribe fed us lunch the next day. Pumpkin soup, egg salad sandwiches, chicken wraps, fresh fruits and veggies. I have been very surprised by the amount of fresh fruits that have been available. It's not just for the tourists, but seems readily available all the time.
Yummy buffets seem to be the norm here. We almost always have some form of cooked tomatoes and lots of bread. It all kind of blends together. Really, it's been a lot of good food, but a lot of similar food. After the third time having pumpkin soup, most of the kids were over it. I like it because its the same and different every time. The flavor and consistency. Is just a little varied.
We all, or most of us anyway, tried Vegemite. How to describe it? It's this brown jellyish looking stuff that you spread on toast. It is made from yeast, leftover from hops during the brewing process. Like a lot of traditional foods, they are made for survival and wisely using resources. Taste is not important. The trick with the Vegemite on toast is a little butter and a tiny amount of Vegemite. It tastes like soy sauce. It's very salty and I don't see the draw. It's one of those "things". I don't need to eat a Vegemite sandwich, but I can say that I ate it, and if I had to eat it again, I could.
Finally, the most important issue for me, besides my quest to find Russell Crowe, of course, is to satisfy my deep, deep need for good coffee. I actually had a bit of a panic before leaving the US. What was I to do without my latte daily? I've gotten myself a bit addicted over the past few months of school. For me, coffee is a comfort, much like macaroni and cheese or mashed potatoes are for other people. When I'm stressed out, i just need a cup. There have been times when my students or my son (he's famous for asking me if i need coffee!!) will ask, "Have you had your coffee? Should you maybe have another?" The whole world can be literally falling down around me, but if I have my cup of coffee in hand, bah! Who cares. I will admit that I did put a pretty good stash of Starbucks via in my suitcase, just in case. I just wasn't willing to take a chance. Just before we left, I was reading up on New Zealand, and guess what? They are serious about good coffee, too! Our lovely guide, Sarah is an addict, like me. So, she has pointed me in the right direction, usually right behind her.
I can get a latte here. I have even gotten one with soy. As far behind the times as New Zealand is (per Sarah), they are on top of the coffee scene, thank goodness! The New Zealand version of a latte is called a "flat white". I'm not sure how its different from a latte, but I do see both on the menus. I usually order the flat white, you know...to blend in. Heehee. They also have the flat black, which is just a shot of espresso.
We are all eating well and, in my case, drinking coffee well. I haven't heard one complaint from my kids about food; really not from anyone else's kids either, although I did hear through the grapevine that someone (not mine, no worries) went without lunch because he didn't like the options. I had one kiddo who was sick and didn't eat anything that stayed down for very long. Poor thing! She got a bug or something. 24 hours later, she is fine :) and eating normally!
I guess we are off to take a cross-country ski lesson, so I'd better get bundled up. I'll talk more about the weather soon. It's "4 seasons in 1 day"...kinda sounds like Portland at times, huh?
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