Tuesday, 2 April 2013 02:04 pm
Tour Review, Part 2: Food and Music
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deckardcanineSo much for my prediction that an island nation would rely heavily on seafood. Sure, fish and chips was perhaps the most frequently offered entree, but restaurants generally didn't list many other aquatic options. Nor were there many lamb dishes that I noticed, and nothin' labeled "mutton."
The restaurants all over New Zealand are about as culturally diverse as at home, with maybe a slightly stronger presence of Indian and Chinese. (Those that prominently advertise themselves as "licensed" or "fully licensed" struck me funny at first; had there been a major scandal?) Nevertheless, I ate many a given meal more than once. Strange how many places serve festive-looking nachos and no other Mexican food. Generally I avoided American chains unless non-American Topdeck tourists went too, but Subway called to me a couple times. (Dear Subway, please tell your employees not to write "VD" on a Veggie Delite.)
I had not specified a vegetarian preference when I signed up with Topdeck. It seemed like a hassle to others, and I didn't want to sacrifice cultural immersion with exceptional preparations. At first I remained faithful to my usual dietary restrictions. About halfway thru the tour, after a few occasions when the only alternative to meat was hunger (first the Air New Zealand flight dinner, then some hurried sandwich purchases), I started eating meat whenever the veggie fare didn't whet my appetite -- basically every second day. On one day I ate pig parts at all three meals. On another I tried and enjoyed venison. I even ate a little meat soon after returning to DC, by now calling myself a flexitarian. Sorry to disappoint you,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
thefoxaroo.
To my surprise, I rarely ate any pasta, usually something of a staple to me. The vegetarian pasta tended to have pumpkin in it, which didn't sound like a good combination. But I didn't shun all odd combos: Mint sauce complemented a burger nicely enough, and mayo on a pizza turned out not to be just Japanese weirdness. (Fun fact: The most common pizzeria in the nation is Hell Pizza, with infernally titled dishes, some challengingly hot. I didn't feel like going there, but the "333" for kids sounded cute.) Not much ketchup -- or, as they call it, tomato sauce -- let alone mustard, to be found by comparison.
Oh yes: I did try that notorious condiment Vegemite. As with many things of which people say, "You'll either love it or hate it," my feelings are pretty neutral. I finished my portion but didn't bother with more. Other foods I tried for the first time include a cheese and pineapple toastie, a caramel shake, feijoa juice, and Bluebird-brand chicken chips (which have a penguin mascot; go fig).
And then there was the alcohol. Earlier I mentioned going to bars for a change. I made a point to try a different beer, lager, cider, or riesling each time -- except on the last day, when I repeated my first and favorite choice for a sort of bookend: boysencider, not to be confused with poison cider. None that I knew I could buy in the U.S. either, tho in retrospect that may have been a more useful education. While the general purpose was social, I never had more than one bottle or mug per day, so I tended to leave before other tourists went to another bar. I don't regret skipping that; sometimes they would return in the wee hours and have a hard time afterward. (Many of us laughed when a certain roommate of mine reported that he locked himself out of our hotel room and went down to the front desk in his briefs. If he'd only thought to knock!)
A few notes (NPI) on the music: I shouldn't have expected much music from New Zealand in light of its population of 4.4 million. Very few songs were unfamiliar to me; the most notable exceptions were a couple of Maori tunes and Evermore's "Hey Boys and Girls," which our guides made their sort of trademark by playing on almost every ride. I will not link to that one, because it's frankly mediocre and you don't want to risk the earworm.
The oddest experience regarding music was that I didn't hear any nearly up-to-date songs on any radio until I got to the south island. The bus played from different iPods, but even those had mostly numbers from between 1963 and 1998. You name ten artists with hits from that period, and there's a fair chance I heard one of them or a cover thereof while in New Zealand.
ADDENDUM: On our last day together, the guides arranged a TV theme song identification game, with teams divided according to which side of the bus we happened to be sitting on then. Whether or not I had advantages as a 30-year-old American, I was the Michael Jordan of my side. Not bad for someone who's long used his TV only for DVDs and video games. We still tied in the end, so they improvised a sort of scavenger hunt as a tiebreaker; with my frugal packing, I was no help there.
The restaurants all over New Zealand are about as culturally diverse as at home, with maybe a slightly stronger presence of Indian and Chinese. (Those that prominently advertise themselves as "licensed" or "fully licensed" struck me funny at first; had there been a major scandal?) Nevertheless, I ate many a given meal more than once. Strange how many places serve festive-looking nachos and no other Mexican food. Generally I avoided American chains unless non-American Topdeck tourists went too, but Subway called to me a couple times. (Dear Subway, please tell your employees not to write "VD" on a Veggie Delite.)
I had not specified a vegetarian preference when I signed up with Topdeck. It seemed like a hassle to others, and I didn't want to sacrifice cultural immersion with exceptional preparations. At first I remained faithful to my usual dietary restrictions. About halfway thru the tour, after a few occasions when the only alternative to meat was hunger (first the Air New Zealand flight dinner, then some hurried sandwich purchases), I started eating meat whenever the veggie fare didn't whet my appetite -- basically every second day. On one day I ate pig parts at all three meals. On another I tried and enjoyed venison. I even ate a little meat soon after returning to DC, by now calling myself a flexitarian. Sorry to disappoint you,
thefoxaroo.To my surprise, I rarely ate any pasta, usually something of a staple to me. The vegetarian pasta tended to have pumpkin in it, which didn't sound like a good combination. But I didn't shun all odd combos: Mint sauce complemented a burger nicely enough, and mayo on a pizza turned out not to be just Japanese weirdness. (Fun fact: The most common pizzeria in the nation is Hell Pizza, with infernally titled dishes, some challengingly hot. I didn't feel like going there, but the "333" for kids sounded cute.) Not much ketchup -- or, as they call it, tomato sauce -- let alone mustard, to be found by comparison.
Oh yes: I did try that notorious condiment Vegemite. As with many things of which people say, "You'll either love it or hate it," my feelings are pretty neutral. I finished my portion but didn't bother with more. Other foods I tried for the first time include a cheese and pineapple toastie, a caramel shake, feijoa juice, and Bluebird-brand chicken chips (which have a penguin mascot; go fig).
And then there was the alcohol. Earlier I mentioned going to bars for a change. I made a point to try a different beer, lager, cider, or riesling each time -- except on the last day, when I repeated my first and favorite choice for a sort of bookend: boysencider, not to be confused with poison cider. None that I knew I could buy in the U.S. either, tho in retrospect that may have been a more useful education. While the general purpose was social, I never had more than one bottle or mug per day, so I tended to leave before other tourists went to another bar. I don't regret skipping that; sometimes they would return in the wee hours and have a hard time afterward. (Many of us laughed when a certain roommate of mine reported that he locked himself out of our hotel room and went down to the front desk in his briefs. If he'd only thought to knock!)
A few notes (NPI) on the music: I shouldn't have expected much music from New Zealand in light of its population of 4.4 million. Very few songs were unfamiliar to me; the most notable exceptions were a couple of Maori tunes and Evermore's "Hey Boys and Girls," which our guides made their sort of trademark by playing on almost every ride. I will not link to that one, because it's frankly mediocre and you don't want to risk the earworm.
The oddest experience regarding music was that I didn't hear any nearly up-to-date songs on any radio until I got to the south island. The bus played from different iPods, but even those had mostly numbers from between 1963 and 1998. You name ten artists with hits from that period, and there's a fair chance I heard one of them or a cover thereof while in New Zealand.
ADDENDUM: On our last day together, the guides arranged a TV theme song identification game, with teams divided according to which side of the bus we happened to be sitting on then. Whether or not I had advantages as a 30-year-old American, I was the Michael Jordan of my side. Not bad for someone who's long used his TV only for DVDs and video games. We still tied in the end, so they improvised a sort of scavenger hunt as a tiebreaker; with my frugal packing, I was no help there.