Food!

We've had some interesting meals since we arrived. So far, we haven't eaten anything we regretted. For some reason, there's a ton of Cambodian places near work, where you can eat noodles for a cheap lunch. In New Zealand, lamb is cheap and available. A couple of weeks ago, as we landed at the airport, we could see fields and fields of sheep ... thousands of sheep standing in the rain, waiting patiently for me to eat them.

In fact, at the 24-hour convenience store a block from where we work you can buy a bag of chips and a takeout lamb shank for $6NZ (about $5US). The person at the register will select a nice meaty lamb shank, rub it around in the thick dark sauce in the pan, and throw it in a paper bag for you to take home.




And sausages! Sausages galore! Sausages everywhere! At the grocery store, there's a dizzying selection of sausages. There are chipolatas, bratwursts, frankfurters, Irish bangers, battered sausages, chorizos, saveloys, cheese and onion sausages, smoked sausages, pre-cooked sausages, gluten-free sausages, soy protein sausages, chicken sausages, turkey and beef sausages, venison sausages, and oddly, if you look in this photo, you'll see a pack of Purplos, or purple sausages. Purple sausages. Seriously, who doesn't want to eat purple sausages?




Finally: The muttonbird. I haven't eaten one yet. It's on my to-do list. As far as I understand, the muttonbird is a local species of seabird. It's also called the short-tailed shearwater. It lives in tunnels underground here on the South Island, which makes it very vulnerable to predation. It's a legally protected species and can only be harvested by the indigenous Maoris. People who apply for a permit have to prove their lineage before they're given access to breeding areas. Muttonbird isn't widely for sale and isn't too easy to find. Apparently, there are a few restaurants in Invercargill, a couple of hours south, that serve it. Grocery stores in predominantly Maori areas sell it too. At some point, I might have to make friends with a Maori and convince him/her to stick his/her hand down a muttonbird tunnel. Once cooked, it supposedly tastes and smells very fishy, and the meat has a very oily texture. Supposedly, the harvest season is approaching, when Maoris harvest the chicks from tunnels, boil them, chop them in half, rub them in salt and vacuum-pack them for long-term storage. Erm, yummy? (CK)