New Zealand’s Cuisine

One of the great things about getting your online culinary certificate is the confidence you’ll have when traversing the world’s culinary scene. The Oceanian region in particular features a rich culture of food and festivities. Many of New Zealand’s restaurant items can be traced back to the island’s indigenous tribes. In more recent years, many foreign flavors and styles have influenced the development of New Zealand’s contemporary dishes.

Traditional Maori 
The cuisine of the Maori, the indigenous peoples of New Zealand, has evolved from basic wild game and native plants to incorporate a mixture of Polynesian and European influences. Most of the Maori dishes are prepared in hāngi, or earth ovens, using heated rocks in pits.

Distinctively Maori fare includes “pork and puha” and the boil-up. Pork and puha combines native and borrowed ingredients. Puha is the traditional name of the sow thistle, a plant used in Maori cooking quite often. The boil-up is a common dish that is somewhere between a soup and a stew. It involves boiling meat – usually pork – sweet and red potatoes, watercress, pumpkin and dumplings.

Contemporary New Zealand cuisine
Since the majority of New Zealanders come from Pākehā – or European/British – descent, many of the dishes prepared today have similarities to British cuisine. Scottish settlers looking for a new life made their homes in New Zealand and brought with them pastries, scones cakes, muffins and other sweet baked dishes.

New Zealand’s cuisine also borrows from Chinese, Mediterranean, Thai and other Southeast Asian cuisines. The Immigration Act of 1986 allowed an overwhelming number of immigrants to relocate to the islands, resulting in the addition of couscous, sun dried tomatoes, pasta, and raw fish to the modern menu.

Kiwi barbecues are a tourist favorite and use several different kinds of meats and vegetables. At any given beach party, beef, lamb and seafood can be found roasting on a grill while residents drink wine from one of the country’s 10 wine regions.

Chick pea and tahini salad is a flavorful vegetarian dish that is very easy to make. All you need to do is mix onions, chickpeas, tomato, coriander and mint in a bowl, then whisk tahini lemon juice, garlic and water in a separate container. Toss the dressing with the salad and you’ve got a tasty meal.

Tuna and sweet potato patties include mashed sweet potatoes, eggs, tuna, parsley and breadcrumbs. After all the ingredients are combined, you can form the mixture into individual patties and fry with extra virgin olive oil on medium high heat.