NZ Sandwich Memoirs

What do you remember of your school lunches? I began to relate to Stew the sandwich fillings I remember and it very quickly got weird... but then I came up with the one I'd serve Maestro Rick Stein if he came for lunch... and he just might, he's in the country soon though it appears he might have a few other things to do

My favourite NZ childhood food memory from Ohope and The Mount.... Pipi sandwiches (this one for Rick...)

Lovely white bread - I still have cravings for white bread - that's been buttered and stacked in a pile. Pipis collected that morning, digging feet into the low tide sand to feel for the shells. Handfuls brought up between waves and dropped in the bucket with waves washing in. Crabs nipping, kids squealing. Left in fresh water to spit their sand out in a bright coloured bucket under the pohutukawa, then quickly onto the wood-fired barbeque. You could feel the heat trying to beat the sun. Pull them out of the shells, collect in bowls, a dash of vinegar, then everyone gathering to make their sandwich. Salty and tasting of the sea, butter and vinegar combining for a tangy bite.

Lunch with the staff at Hell's Gate in the 90's... Mashed egg and potato chips

It became a staff favourite. Beautifully fresh wheaty bread, eggs just past soft-boiled, mashed with mayonnaise and lots of salt and pepper. Mash them warm for that scent of a winter Rotorua dawn. Add potato chips in a layer, Ready Salted for preference. If you're not expecting this filling, it's like biting into broken glass...

Sandwiches for lunch at Intermediate school in the 70's: Jam and whipped cream

Friends would share lunches, and once they were used to the novelty of my creation, berry jam with whipped cream on white bread, I then took jam and shaving cream... but only once.

Dad's attempt to gross us out as kids... Chocolate Biscuit sandwiches

He would use biscuits called 'Crunch' which we can't buy any more. Shame, because they were gorgeous. Hokey Pokey flavour, crisp texture, a round buiscuit with a full chocolate coat. Sandwiched between 2 slices of bread and eaten without cutting...

Fond memories of Chip Sandwiches

.. and I know people still do eat these, though my fish and chip encounters are few and far between now. But the thought of that lovely soft and yeasty white bread, thick margarine (never thought I'd say that - but it really is better than butter for this), plenty of Barbeque or Steak sauce for spiciness, wrapped tightly around a good handful of hot salty chips. How many can you do?!

Cultured friends

I culture my friends rather as I do my container garden... just enough love from me to elicit their response. With the plants, it's in the way of growth and, hopefully, produce. With friends, it's now you see me, sometimes you won't. In other words, I'm not to be relied upon to be thorough and slavish.

My policy with house plants always was, if they can survive without relying on me then they're welcome. At this time in my life I have no house plants. They all died. But this is not to say my friends are treated with similar disdain! After all, they at least can reach the fridge unaided.

But seriously, the best response I can get from a friend is the gift of their kitchen labour. Whether in the way of a  meal, or as above, their preserves. This one is a liqueur quince syrup to have on icecream. It's a vibrant jewel, and often I stand such treasures on the windowsill to remind me of the summer sun that's around the corner.

Nasties

I've had a few conversations lately about food aversions and where they come from. For me, it has a lot to do with the things I was forced to eat as a child.

Peanut Butter: we 3 kids had it in turn (week about) to make the school lunches for everyone. My brother would make peanut butter sandwiches every  time.... and there's the problem. Even now I can't stand people eating it near me, putting their peanut butter-covered knife in my jam, breathing in my direction. It is indeed heinous.

Broad Beans: mother dear (such a good cook in other ways) why oh why did we have to eat frozen broad beans, boiled within an inch of ther lives and served in piles... and with our father insisting that all good children had to eat everything on their plate we were loathe to eat anything else until those beans were gone. Anything else seemed like a reward after them.

Kidneys: this is an odd one: I don't in fact have an aversion to these, I just haven't cooked them for years. However my cat eats them almost exclusively, and now I associate them in my head with cat food.

Brussels Sprouts: see broad beans above... however I'm almost convinced to give these another whirl after my brother (see Peanut Butter above) announced them to be his favourite vegetable. I've cooked them lots, I'm simply not convinced.

Black pudding: dad loved this, and I have cooked it, but still I imagine the floors of the butcher shop with the sawdust and other unimaginable sweepings going into the casing...

There are also some foods that I've tried and found to be very disturbing. Amongst those would be

Kina: having hunted this shellfish down in a Waihau Bay rock pool I can honestly say I've eaten these under the best possible circumstances. Never again.

Tongue: sorry, but I can't get my head around this one. A picture in my head of a very large, very blue cow's tongue cannot be controlled.

Mango: something about the flavour and the texture of a ripe mango makes me retch.

Hell’s Gate recipes and memories

As a family we used to manage Hell's Gate in Rotorua - a volcanic visitor attraction. Mum and Dad were the first to run commerical hangis (food cooked in steam and usually eaten with the fingers) in Rotorua in the evenings, mostly with international tourists in bus parties. This was the 1960's to 1970's. Us kids would plait flax baskets in the shop during the day, and help with getting the food ready: chicken and mutton, peeling potatoes, setting tables. All the food was cooked in big steel containers in the steam boxes... natural steam, piped through stainless steel milk vats where the food would sit with big tight covers over it.

Then the food was lifted out and served into the flax baskets for the tourists to eat at long trestle tables with their fingers.

Dessert was always this Steamed Pudding, cooked in covered basins also in the steam, and served in wedges in the same flax baskets, with great piles of whipped cream.

Hell's Gate Steamed Pudding

1 ½ tbsp butter

1 ½ tbsp sugar

1 ½ tbsp marmalade

1 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

Enough milk to mix.

Put sugar, marmalade and butter in the oven to melt the butter a little, then add flour and soda, and milk to mix (pouring consistency).

Steam 1 hour

Serves 4

You can just double the recipe for more.

Often on the mornings after we'd done a hangi, Dad would cook up the left-over pudding for breakfast.
Thick slices of the steamed pudding were fried in butter and served with runny cream. It would have a crisp crust on it and of course for those of us with dairy addictions, New Zealand in the sixties and seventies was the place to be. Or, at least, at my Dad's breakfast table.