bioneural.net » food

New Zealand tipping over the edge?

Bruce — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:17:44 +0000

Are New Zealanders, the People on the Edge of the World, about to tip off the edge and into cultural homogeneity with the United States? I was surprised to read in The New Zealand Herald that the a new edition of the Lonely Planet travel guide is advising visitors to leave a tip of about 10% for good service. Tipping was not part of the culture when I was growing up, and nor was it an overt practice during my last stint at home during 2006–2007. It would be unfortunate if visitors to Godzone came with the expectation that they had to pay over and above the advertized price. All goods and services in New Zealand are subject to a 12.5% Goods and Services Tax (GST), included in the displayed price. I was also under the impression that most employees (such as wait staff) were adequately remunerated so that they did not need to rely on tips for income, as I believe is the case in the USA and some other countries (where workers aren't properly paid). I don't like the phenomenon of tipping. I've always found it uncomfortable as a traveller knowing when to tip and by how much. I want to look at a menu and know in advance what I'll be paying—just as I can buy a new keyboard for a fixed price without thinking about the 10–15% extra it might cost if the sales assistant demonstrates competence with the card reader. But more than that I resent ...

Eating out in Wellington

Bruce — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 04:50:13 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Sure, you can eat in and eat well, but there's good food to be had if you choose to eat out in Wellington. We hear that there are more cafés and restaurants per head of population in Wellington than in any other city worldwide. If you're taking in an event and need a quick bite, or in the City specifically to go menu shopping, the difficult thing is being confronted by too much choice. You can find reviews in magazines or online, but here's a quick summary of our dining out experience. One of the first places we discovered was the Leuven Belgian Beer Café on Featherston Street. We've eaten there a few times, if you count just desert! For example two glasses of dark Belgian beer ("Leffe Dark", on sale in New World at 1/3rd price, and "Forbidden Fruits") with a generous portion of bread & butter pudding and a serving of triple brownie can be had for close to $40. It's a nice but noisy environment, with a decent breakfast menu if you fancy brunch. Coyote Street Bar & Restaurant on Courtenay Place do pretty well for a chain: a glass of Matua Gewürztraminer and a half-pint of Tui, with a burrito (plus aioli & fries) and steak sandwich, cost a reasonable $47.50. Tui is a malty & sweet darkish beer—quite drinkable for those not ordinarily too keen on beer! The jazz music did seem a little incongruous, however, in the overtly Mexican-themed setting. Zibibbo on Taranaki Street do a ...

Bake like it's 1914

Bruce — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 10:28:34 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

Do you recall what is was like to eat home-baked food? Food that didn't contain E numbers? For pre-ADHD delights, try the Edmonds Sure to rise cookery book. There's a complete copy in PDF format for download on the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre website (1914 edition). Edmonds brand of baking powder was invented by an English grocer from Lyttelton (Christchurch) in 1879. Edmonds Cookery Book is the biggest selling book in New Zealand history. The factory on the cover of later editions was a local landmark until it was demolished in 1990. The story goes: One day Mr Edmonds was asked if his baking powder was "any good". Struck by the question he replied, "It is sure to rise, Madam". Recognising the aptness of this comment he used it to design the famous trade mark SURE TO RISE with the rising sun, which is one of New Zealand's most durable, colourful and recognisable trade marks. Sure to rise: apparently the Dominion favourite Every good Kiwi should know how to make pikelets, containing the best-selling Edmonds Baking Powder, of course: 1 breakfastcup ﬂour 1 dessertspoonful sugar 1 egg (well beaten) 1 teaspoon Edmonds' Baking Powder 3/4 breakfastcup milk 1 oz. butter Mix ﬂour, sugar, and Edmonds Baking Powder together, then mix egg and milk, make a well in centre of dry ingredients, and mix to a smooth paste with milk. Cook in small lots on hot greased girdle. Find out more about this icon here.

Obesity arithmetic

Bruce — Fri, 25 May 2007 22:15:20 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

We took a couple of days between Anzac Day and the weekend to make a short holiday on the Wanganui River. At the place we stayed we were presented with meals that were impossibly huge, a diet that would super-size us in no time. In 2002-2003 one in three adult New Zealanders was overweight (excludes obese) and one in five adults was obese (MOH). Some people are quick to ascribe their weight problem (if they identify it as such) to extrinsic factors, such as genetics, time or financial constraints, marketing, or poor social support. However you rationalise it, being overweight or obese comes down to simple mathematics. The only certainty among all the theories is that energy and mass are interchangeable. Einstein had the answer Einstein's famous equation, E=mc2, relates the concept that all mass has an energy equivalence, and all energy has a mass equivalence. On this basis: You cannot create mass from nothing; The source of mass is energy; Less energy in leads to less mass out; Mass can be reduced by conversion to energy. Now energy isn't bad: we need it to keep moving, breathing, or even thinking. Think of yourself as like a car: you need a certain amount of fuel to get from A to B. If, when you come to the end of your journey, you still have fuel in the tank, you can store it there for later use (in the case of the body, as fat). If you finish the journey with an empty tank, you're going to have ...

Eating at home in Wellington

Bruce — Sat, 05 May 2007 09:41:24 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

It is said that Wellington has more cafés and eateries per head of population than any other city in the world. But what can you buy to eat in, how good is it, and is it value-for-money? Well, we're eating very well thank you. Not only does Simone have good access to German comforts, but our local New World offers an impressive range of local favourites (kumara, yams, tamarillo, feijoa, Vegemite, etc.) and international (especially Asian) treats. It goes without saying that some imported foods are more expensive. Basic foods will also vary in price and quality depending on where you shop (and where you shop can offer quite a different consumer experience!). In general we spend approximately the same per week on groceries as we did in the UK, maintaining a similar diet—the difference being that it is relatively harder to earn the $NZ to pay for it. We could easily continue to eat healthily but more frugally, but chose not to. Moore Wilson at the corner of Tory and College Street is good for fresh produce at wholesale prices. They mainly serve trade customers so many displayed prices are exclusive of GST (tax on goods and service), and those customers get preference at the checkouts. Both vegetables and meats are worthy of interest, as is the large selection of New Zealand wines. Commonsense Organics on Wakefield Street are good for home-made muesli ingredients, and offer a good range of raw foodstuffs and some processed foods. Meat On Tory is a butchery-cum-deli café ...

German comforts in Wellington

Simone — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 01:58:59 +0000

From http://www.bioneural.net :

When you leave your home country for any length of time it's natural to look for the tastes of home. As luck would have it, it's not too difficult to find German eats and treats in Wellington as Germany and New Zealand share a love of good food and drink. Bread I left Germany fourteen years ago, spending 13 years in small-town England and the last 6 months in New Zealand's capital city. What has never left me in all those years is the desire for good German bread: sourdough and rye, heavy set and crusty. It keeps for weeks and—just getting a bit dry—is still perfectly edible if you have the will and good teeth. I call it "real bread", as opposed to the "white fluffy stuff" that has more E numbers in it than I care to think about and that Bruce loves to munch (you can't really say "get his teeth into" as this action is impossible, if you know what I mean). I took to baking my own bread some years ago in the UK, after a fellow German gave me a sourdough starter and an earthenware baking pot, the latter helping to imitate the heat patterns of a bread oven on a small scale and turning out perfect loaves every time. Needless to say that the baking pot is big, heavy, cumbersome and not suitable to be transported half way around the world to New Zealand. Luckily New Zealand has had a long-standing history of German immigrants ...