Digesting a delicious week in Ōtautahi
On lessons learnt over noodles, the unceremonious drop of Goody Goody Gum Drops, plus comedian Janaye Henry's favourite kai.
Nau mai, haere mai. Welcome to The Boil Up, The Spinoff’s weekly food newsletter produced in partnership with Boring Oat Milk. Written by me, Charlotte Muru-Lanning. It’s lovely to have you here!
My stomach, and my heart are full. As I wrote last week, I’m in one of my favourite places: Ōtautahi.
The whole week has been a whirlwind of kai. Sumac-laden rice, astonishingly squishy kare pan from the mall, ramen better than any other I’ve had in Aotearoa, my first-ever Crepes Suzette, dozens of plump, sea-kissed oysters – I could go on, and on. And on.
I’ve found poetic similitude between seemingly-disparate eateries while trudging across the city. Two days ago, I had a conversation about eggs, while sharing a boiled egg over lunch (for a later instalment). Yesterday, I spoke to a cake-maker about social media boundaries, among other things (also for an upcoming newsletter). I’ve made elderflower cordial in a hotel room from a bag of the dainty blossoms foraged from the Red Zone. Somehow, despite only being here five days, I’ve eaten eight dinners. That is to say, much of this week, I’m hoping can be spun into stories – especially since I’m so conscious of expanding this newsletter beyond my hometown. However, I’m still digesting, both literally and figuratively.
As I do that, I wanted to briefly tell you about Korean Noodle Lounge: a teensy shop tucked in The Windmill Centre on Christchuch’s Riccarton Road. From the outside, the shop looks decidedly unremarkable. In fact, I’m embarrassed to admit that when I lived in Christchurch I intentionally bypassed the spot in favour of the neighbouring Korean restaurants. Back then, it didn’t fit into my breathtakingly narrow view of what “good” Korean food looked like.
You won’t find copious banchan (sides) on the tables here, nor will you find the words bibimbap, bulgogi or sundae on the menu. That’s because Korean Noodle Lounge specialises in Korean-style Chinese food, which includes uniquely fusion dishes that can likely be traced back to the settlement of ethnic Chinese people in the west coast port city of Incheon in Korea, in the latter half of the 19th century.
Hundreds of years of culinary exchange find their way onto Korean Noodle Lounge’s menu which is brimming with Korean-style Chinese requisites. We ordered Jjajangmyeon, a glossy bowl of chewy fresh wheat noodles coated in a wondrously savoury black bean sauce and studded by diced pork. Mussels, squid, prawns and clams(!) were suspended within a vividly spiced bowl of Jjamppong, a spicy seafood noodle soup. Then there were the gargantuan fried Mandu, Korean-style dumplings, similar to Jiaozi in China. Between slurps of soup and noodles we crunched on slices of danmuji – a pickled daikon radish served on a minute dish. Lesson learnt: there’s a lot to miss out on when you make assumptions. If you’re in town or you live in Christchurch, I whole-heartedly recommend you stop in for a visit.
As the couple sitting beside us finished their meal, they stacked their empty plates, bowls, cutlery and serviettes into a neat, thankful pile for the waitstaff.
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Weekly bites
Often topped with freshly-cut roses, copious freeze-dried berries and unpretentiously smeared icing, Jordan Rondel, better known as The Caker has made a name for herself with her distinctive cakes. Rondel started her baking brand more than a decade ago in Tāmaki Makaurau and has steadily gained an international following due to her move to LA, and her luxurious take on box cake mixes, which included a recent collaboration with model Chrissy Teigen. However, celebration surrounding that co-lab turned from sweet to sour this week with Rondel accusing Teigen of plagiarising her cake mixes in both concept and design. I will say, it does seem a little suspect. The Spinoff’s live updates editor Stewart Sowman-Lund has created a timeline of the whole palaver – take a look to see what you think.
New Zealand food bag company Woop was at the centre of an Employment Relations Authority hearing which took place over two days this week, reports RNZ. The investigation began after allegations of worker exploitation were made in relation to international student work experience internships in 2018. Complaints about the company were made by interns, who had travelled from France to New Zealand. During the hearing, the labour inspectorate said the agreements did not meet employment standards and a witness said there was a failure to pay employees their minimal entitlements. In a statement to RNZ, Woop said it discontinued the internship programme as soon as it was made aware of the breaches. The authority will receive first submissions from the Labour Inspectorate in two weeks.
The news that ice cream brand TipTop had ditched two flavours sparked swift outcry from fans across the country. The lolly-flecked Goody Goody Gumdrops and Cookies and Cream (which won the Kids' Choice Award at the New Zealand Ice Cream and Gelato Awards last month) have both been dropped. Somewhat surprisingly (but also perhaps totally unsurprisingly), the end of the contentious Goody Goody Gumdrops amassed an especially impassioned response. Some expressed dismay, “Make peace with your gods Tip Top. Vengeance is coming,” wrote one commenter reported in The Guardian. Conversely, others, like minister of immigration Michael Wood who tweeted “GGGD is a blight on Western civilisation and sometimes the tough calls are the right calls,” were happy to say goodbye. The response serves as a reminder: no matter how seemingly unlikeable a food item is, it’s always someone’s favourite.
As a result of simultaneously being a slow reader and having subscriptions to more magazines than I can keep up with, I missed this wonderful essay in Metro by Sunita Patel in which she asks a salient question, why – despite Rēwena being unique to New Zealand – do we not eat more of it? It’s a short, and necessary read.
In a notable win for workers, thousands of Countdown supermarket employees will receive a pay increase of around 12 percent, with a further 7 percent increase next year in a new collective agreement between First Union and the supermarket chain. As reported by Rebecca Macfie at Newsroom, the pay rise goes far beyond the rate of wage inflation across the economy, measured by Stats NZ’s Labour Cost Index at 3.7 percent. “The Countdown settlement is particularly significant because of its scale – it directly covers 8500 workers who are members of First Union,” write Macfie. “Many of the core terms of the deal will inevitably flow on to non-union members through their individual employment contracts.”
In the first instalment of our food newsletter I wrote about sharing bowls of boil up over big round tables at my marae. Each week, as I sit down and write the newsletter, my hope is that each of you feels in some way part of a big shared table where we get to talk about the vital political, social, trendy, personal and delicious aspects of this country’s diverse and ever-changing culinary landscape. It’s so lovely to have you here, and we rely on our members to make that possible. If you’re not a member already and want to support us, please consider signing up. Tautoko mai, let’s keep a good thing going!
Five places with comedian Janaye Henry
Ahead of her upcoming solo comedy show, I asked Janaye Henry (Ngāti Kahu ki Whangaroa) to share her favourite places for kai. Here’s a note from Henry on her picks: I’ve always thought of myself as a foodie and only as an adult have I realised an intense love for chips, an aversion to meat and eating often like a 12-year-old at a birthday party isn’t actually what a foodie is. However, I’m bravely writing free from the chains of bougie, pretentious food culture to tell you 5 food places, adventures, items that I am literally obsessed with. What a seamless plug, Literally Obsessed is my solo comedy show at Basement Theatre from 8-12 November, you can buy tickets here. Onto the food!
Jack ‘n’ Jill Corn Curls, at all good dairies: You cannot purchase these from the supermarket – making them *exclusive*. Where do they come from? Why are they neon orange? Is a whole bag too many? All valid questions to which I have no answers. These taste like if Twisties had a secret love child with the Eta brand Cruncheese. I have intel that these taste yum with a meat pie? What I do know is these cost between 99c - $2 and are heaven in a bag. You can taste the chemicals and I love it.
L’Oeuf, Mt Albert, Auckland: We’ve gone from dairy chips to a cafe with a French name – welcome to my brain. Everything on this menu is yum, I’ve always gotten a table - if that changes I will be making The Boil Up remove this recommendation. I order the Avo-Lanche, do I hate ordering a food item with a pun as the name? Absolutely. Is the taste worth it? Absolutely.
Sand Bakery and Cafe, Tauranga: I grew up in Tauranga and return back often. Every time, I make time for this place. My dad actually recommended this to me because he likes their toast. I went and it’s literally $1 white bread with butter and do you know what? Literally obsessed - I am sick of sourdough you can’t cut with a knife OVER IT. Just give me plain toast. Their scrambled eggs are yum, it’s pretty cheap and I always pair whatever I order with a Fresh Up Big Fizz – incredible stuff.
Oiko’s, Wellington: I go to Pōneke quite a bit because I love to have a lover in the capital. Oiko’s is Greek cuisine and is the bougiest I can go at a restaurant. Any more bougie and I feel uncomfortable. They have a baked sesame feta which is what happiness tastes like. I come here with my bestie Gabby and we love to order far too much food but still bravely make our way through it.
Slushies, anywhere you can find them: This is just a phase for me, but I’m deep in my slushy phase. I don’t have a particular place because a slushy is rare and elusive. Bowling lanes are a good place to start, some bars will do a frozen marg. Slushies are great because they’re too sweet – they taste like a melted zombie chew.
Talk next week!
Hei kōnā mai, Charlotte
