Food that happens to you

On rotisserie chicken, Tim Tams, serendipity and algorithms.

Nau mai, haere mai. Welcome to The Boil Up, The Spinoff’s weekly food newsletter. I hope you’re hungry!

A serendipitous roujiamo. Image: Lucinda Bennett.

There comes a time in every bout of illness where the novelty wears off. For some – those who are rarely sick – it comes very early on, grown-ups reduced to childish tantrums – “I just want to feel normal again!” Me, I’m pretty sanguine. I’m a homebody with a history of chronic illness; spending long days inside doesn’t really rattle me. And yet here I am, in my second week of Covid, losing my mind – but not my appetite.

I’ve reached an uncomfortable stage where I’m hungry, but there’s nothing I feel like eating – not in the pantry, the freezer or on any of the delivery apps, anyway. What I want is to be out and about, living my life, nipping into a bakery and seeing the cakes and sandwiches laid out before me, choosing my snack on a whim, being led by my senses rather than trying to imagine what might satisfy them. I want to smell the savoury, flaky, meat-stuffed pastries in a street-side pie-warmer and decide right then and there that I’ll be having one for lunch, eaten from its greasy paper bag while sitting on a damp stoop (I’m thinking of the pork and green pepper roujiamo I recently grabbed from 来来凉皮Lailai Liang Pi – the Shaanxi street food stall that now occupies the old No. 1 Pancake window on Lorne Street in Auckland). I want discovery, happenstance, food serendipity.

There’s a review of Gambian Roast Chicken spot in London that describes my desire perfectly. Jonathan Nunn is explaining the very particular place rotisserie chicken holds in his heart, describing how he can make a perfect roast chicken at home, but it requires planning in advance, anticipating that he’ll be in the mood. “Rotisserie chicken,” he writes, “is different. Rotisserie chicken happens to you.” On the sofa, scrolling delivery apps, I don’t crave a specific taste; I crave the analogue experience of encountering food that meets a need I didn’t even know I had.

Speaking of rotisserie chicken, though. Earlier this week, before making my first order via rapid-delivery grocery app Milkrun, I read Shanti Mathias’ article on the pitfalls of such services. In it, Mathias notes that hot chickens are a particularly popular item, which made me wonder: can rotisserie chicken happen to you online?

As I added boring items to my virtual basket – cough medicine, onions, canned tomatoes – I found myself virtually traipsing aisles I didn’t need to, considering items I wouldn’t give a second glance at the IRL supermarket. On a whim, I added a sleeve of Tim Tams to my order – I can’t remember the last time I had a Tim Tam. When everything appeared on my doorstep less than an hour later, I was thrilled by the biccies and scoffed two straight out of the pack, even though they’d given me the wrong flavour. But did Tim Tams happen to me? Was this food serendipity?

A screenshot revealing the algorithm.

The short answer is, not really. In an era ruled by Search Engine Optimisation, our online experience is determined by a blend of algorithms and machine learning which sift through data to decide what to show us first, or most, or most often. Sure enough, when I go back to check the biscuit section on the app, Tim Tams are smack bang in the centre of the top row. My whimsical purchase, while delicious, was not fated but engineered.

As I sit on the sofa, munching another Tim Tam, I start to wonder if food serendipity is possible at all, even in the physical realm. When was the last time you ate somewhere you haven’t seen online? No media or influencer recommendation, no ad delivered on socials, no search for “best tacos in Auckland”, no quick look at the Google rating before stepping inside. For me, it was probably that roujiamo – and I can’t stop thinking about it, maybe because it was so good (it really was), but I think also because it just happened to me. This is not to say that when I return to the world, I won’t seek out places and pop-ups and dishes that I’ve seen online, but rather to remind myself, and anyone else, that when food happens to you, you should let it.

Visa Wellington On a Plate: tickets go live Friday!

The largest culinary festival in the Southern Hemisphere, Visa Wellington On a Plate is set to take over the capital this August. Almost 100 events will take place across the region. Think murder mysteries, fashion shows, Shakespeare and even some pro-wrestling.

Capacity is extremely limited for some events. Get in quick to avoid disappointment. Get your tickets from Friday, here.

Weekly bites

This Friday is not only winter solstice but also World Localization Day (and if you’re in Ōtautahi, it’s also right in the middle of Feast Matariki), and Eat New Zealand are inviting us to celebrate with The Shortest Meal. There’s not much to it, it’s simply about sharing a meal that comes from your local food system or represents NZ food for you, perhaps using ingredients you’ve grown yourself or foraged, or purchased local producers, growers and markets. Learn more about how to get involved here.

NZ Food Safety is currently investigating Samyang noodles after Denmark recalled three lines of ramen for being “too spicy”. The noodles in question are Buldak 3x Spicy & Hot Chicken, 2x Spicy & Hot Chicken, and Hot Chicken Stew, each of which show Hochi – the adorable fat chicken who is the Buldak mascot – on the packaging with an inflamed red face, sweating and eyes streaming, flames in her little beak. If you’re a fan of dangerously spicy food, now would be the time to stock up!

While browsing the quickie shopping app Milkrun, I noticed something odd. For what is a limited supermarket selection, there’s a hell of a lot of bacon options – 43 by my count, and this is just rashers, mind, not products that include bacon as an ingredient or plant-based “bacon”. It’s fair to say we in Aotearoa are pretty obsessed with bacon, and so of course we have an annual award to honour the best salty, porky products on the market. The New Zealand Bacon and Ham Awards kicked off last week with winners to be announced on the 24^th of June, but while we wait, you can have a read of Hera Lindsay Bird’s ranking of the best fake bacon products currently on the market.

Join The Spinoff Members

“The Spinoff has given me my faith in good journalism back.” – Anja, Spinoff member since 2020.

If, like Anja, you value our work and want to support us, please consider becoming a member today. Already a member? Ka nui te mihi, your support means the world to us.

Snack of the week

Little Bird Organics Good Cookie - Double Chocolate 70g, $6.29 from Commonsense Organics

I bought this cookie to review, but also with the vague notion that if it was good I might try and replicate it in my own kitchen. The ingredients list is made up of easy-to-acquire whole foods – oats, coconut sugar, coconut, brazil nuts, cacao powder, cacao butter, buckwheat, flaxseed, vanilla extract, sea salt – boding well for my recipe development plans, but would this extremely worthy-sounding cookie prove worthy of reproduction?

On first bite, I wasn’t so sure – this is one tough cookie, literally. Anyone with a weak jaw should steer clear. But once you’ve bitten off a good hunk, it’s bloody good. Dry, crispy, nutty, chewy – the brazil nuts are a particular stroke of genius, their buttery flavour creating an unexpected richness that works beautifully with the bitterness of the raw chocolate drizzled on top. I ate it much faster than I intended, the whole thing gone before my cup of tea had even cooled to a drinkable temperature.

Although dense and generously sized, at $6.29, this is one expensive cookie, certainly not something I could justify buying regularly. If price weren’t an issue, I would happily keep a few of these in the pantry as a convenient, on-the-go treat that caters to a range of different dietary requirements (plant-based, gluten-free). But price is an issue, and so I am going to have a crack at making my own version – I’ll let you know how I get on. 9/10 on taste alone, but 7/10 adjusted for value.   

Mā te wā, 

Lucinda

Listen to episode 2 of Juggernaut – ‘The Nation Is at Risk’

Victory for Lange in 1984 comes with a cluster of economic and constitutional crises. Roger Douglas launches a revolution, to transform New Zealand’s creaking economy from the developed world’s most regulated to its most market embracing.

Follow now to make sure you get every episode.

Juggernaut was made with the support of NZ On Air.