The Little Treat Index
On cuteness, connection and some personal recommendations. And: a snack that is also a treat.
Nau mai, haere mai. Welcome to The Boil Up, The Spinoff’s weekly food newsletter.
It’s cold, it’s wet, every time I read the news I want to curl into a ball, and I’ve said yes to too many things. For you it might be some other combination of ills, but this time of year tends to be pretty rough. There are no holidays coming up to look forward to and the washing won’t dry. At times like this, we deserve a little treat.
Little treat culture has been spinning its web for a while now, probably since the dawn of humanity (or at least the advent of capitalism), but definitely since the pandemic when myriad articles defining, endorsing and lamenting the trend started to appear. For the uninitiated, little treat culture is basically giving yourself a small, inexpensive treat, say, a pastry or a bubble tea, as a reward for doing something – or for doing nothing, or as a pick me up after something bad happens, or are celebration of something good, or for any reason at all. What makes it a “culture” is that everyone is doing it, and posting about it.
In a sense, little treat culture feels like a new twist on the classic lipstick index with matcha lattes and cinnamon rolls replacing cosmetics as “affordable luxuries” people can grab for a quick mood boost in times of economic hardship when they aren’t able to shill out on pricier items such as jewellery and designer bags – or restaurant meals and nice bottles of wine. However, various aspects of little treat culture tell us it is a slightly different beast.
Firstly, there’s the cuteness implied by the phrasing – it’s not just a treat, it’s a little treat. The fact that we are using this kind of coddling, infantilising language to describe something as basic as picking up a coffee suggests something about the collective psyche, that we’re aching for comfort and nurture. Then there’s the way people are documenting and sharing their journeys to fetch and consume their little treats, filming themselves eating a donut in the car, uploading it to thousands of supportive eyes, hearts and comments.
Language teacher Noël Wolf has posited that little treat culture might be a sign of the collective loneliness felt by millennials and Gen Z, but that it could also offer a cure for that loneliness. By labelling these routine experiences as little treats, we are creating a shared vocabulary, connecting with one another through naming our shared experience.
When I really think about the little treat posts that appear on my feed, what I like most about them is seeing what other people are eating, what they consider a treat. But I also love getting ideas for my own treat journeys, and so here are some little treat suggestions from me to you.
Favourite little treats of late:
Einspänner at Kompass Coffee – my latest addiction, and a top tier treat for the way it combines two treats into one: a barista coffee and a sweet treat. In this case, the sweetness comes from a generous dollop of cool whipped cream the flavour and texture of melted vanilla ice cream. With a hot coffee, the temperature contrast is gorgeous, but I’m predicting the iced Einspänner matcha is going to be a regular summer treat.
Binggrae Banana Milk available at most Asian grocers, but I love being able to have one with my meal at Nene Chicken. The best banana milk in the game.
Hot chips from the local roast shop – need I say more?
Tiny Kinder Chocolate Bars – I keep a box of these in my pantry, they’re the perfect size to soothe a sweet tooth and I love how milky and nursery they are. Also 10/10 for packaging.
Pink bun from Beabeas – Absolute witchcraft, the softest bun I’ve ever had.
Egg tarts from Plus Chicken on Lorne Street – It could be any egg tart, I love them so much, but these ones call to me from the streetside warmer where they sit alongside piles of golden fried chicken. They are wonderfully eggy and not too sweet, plus you can get 3 for $10, which means little treats for you and your mates.
Raspberry lamington with cream from a classic bakery (my favourite is from the one in Green Bay).
Takeout Kids is back with the stories of five tamariki and rangatahi growing up in their parents’ shops. In episode one we meet Priyan, who keeps the counter and stock in check at his family’s superette and bulk food store in Auckland. It’s his first week of school, and in class Priyan gravitates to the toy shopfront not unlike his parents’ own, where he plays the pretend version of the job they do for real. Follow Priyan as he deals with lessons in ABCs, cricket and making friends in the return of Takeout Kids.
Made with the support of NZ On Air.
Weekly bites
As purse strings continue to tighten, restaurants are struggling to keep the doors open. This week, the Herald published a round-up of recent high-profile closures, while over on RNZ, Chinese restaurant owners in Auckland’s CBD have reported that turning a profit is now worse than it was during Covid. "At this stage, running a restaurant in Auckland's CBD isn't about making a profit - it's about survival," says Yue Zhang, owner of Xi’an street food restaurant Biang Biang. For anyone looking to dine in the city, there’s still one week left of Restaurant Month with some hot deals on the table, such as $30 for a two course Korean dinner at Seoul Night, including options like octopus carpaccio and rose tteokbokki.
Having shut the doors of her K Road bakery last year, Jordan Rondel AKA The Caker has now announced the sale of her elevated, boxed cake kits company. For fans of her mixes, don’t fret – it sounds like the cake kits will continue to be sold in Aotearoa and Australia while Rondel herself will remain in LA, developing recipes and working on collaborations, no longer as The Caker. Meanwhile, there is an absolute bounty of independent cake makers (some of whom cut their teeth in Rondel’s bakery) operating in Aotearoa at the moment, including some of my personal faves, Nana Jacobson @jakethechef and Ashleigh Payne @tiniestyos_table.
What comes after a Brat winter? It seems like the answer is a very Demure spring, thanks to viral TikTok sensation Jools Lebron. Now that the entire internet is claiming to be very demure, very mindful, Eater has done the decent thing and published a response to the question on everyone’s very cutesy lips: what is demure food? There’s more than one answer here, but I do like the reactionary option which posits that demure food is simply the inevitable response to the dominant maximalist trends that have begun to wear thin.
Snack Review
Mazafati Bam Fresh Dates 550g for $8 from Caspian Persian Shop (also available at various supermarkets and specialty stores)
Most, if not all, of the snacks I review fall into the little treat category. Which got me thinking, what is a snack I often eat that isn’t a little treat? A difficult question for someone who loves fruit and nuts as much as I do, although truthfully, I would never reward myself with a mandarin and a handful of almonds. But what about sweeter, more indulgent fruits that could be considered both a snack and a treat? What about nature’s caramel; what about soft, plump, sticky dates?
Unlike the classic Camel dates sold in bags in the baking aisle, mazafati dates are fresh fruit. They’re sold refrigerated in cardboard boxes, perfectly packed rows of dark gem-like fruit. Cold from the fridge, a mazafati date is soft and faintly chewy, a crinkle of skin giving way to fudgey, honeyed flesh. Eaten warm, they simply melt in your mouth; one of my fondest travel memories is buying a box of dates from the side of the road in Morocco, eating sunkissed fruit on the edge of a red cliff and spitting the seeds into the valley.
Perfect just as they are, there are also endless things you can do with fresh dates: stuff them with peanut butter or salty cheese; dip them in chocolate and leave to set in the fridge; chop them up and swirl them through yoghurt, porridge, an apple crumble; fill with walnuts and douse with an aromatic roux, crushed pistachios, maybe rose petals, to make a traditional Persian ranginak. Less expensive than their cousin, the much-celebrated medjool date, I find mazafati dates are very similar and possibly even better than medjools. 10/10
Mā te wā,
Lucinda