NZ South Island Food Odyssy 2012: Part 1

Cray fish - poor mans lobster but just as delightful

You can't beat a good Kiwi Platter

I planned my south Island NZ trip not just around catching up with old friends & seeing some of the most amazing naturally beautiful spots in the world but also around foodie destinations. Through the power of the internet and with the help of Cuisine magazine [NZ’s answer to Delicious] I hunted down the best and award winning restaurants along my route. The South Island offers some of the best quality produce I have ever come across and it was incredible to be able to sample these along the way.

Cray fish in kaikora:

After a stomach churning stormy ferry ride from the North Island we landed in Picton  in the South, where we picked up our hire car. It was wet, cold and miserable weather and we decided to get the hell out of there asap. So our South island foodie trip really started down in Kaikora. In Mauri this actually means Cray-fish. Kaikora is reknowned for amazing seafood and the local speciality is, yes you’ve guessed it, crayfish.

It is cheapest and often freshest bought at road side caravans by the beach. Nins Bin is the one made famous on the internet but it is 30min drive north of Kaikora. It is just as good and possibly cheaper to stay in town and drive down to the end of the beach for a breakfast treat! You get to choose your cray out of a chill bin and they will simply grill it for you with garlic butter. It was an amazing experience. I loved it!

The spectacular seafood in this region also invariably included NZ Green Lip Mussels - famous all over the world and gigantic in nature ...

Recommended restaurants:

1.The White Morph:

This seafront resto delivered quality posh nosh from a room with a view. It was fairly expensive but totally worth it !

Kaikora

NZ Lamb



2. Pegasus Bay Winery: Winner of Best Restaurant in a Winery

This gorgeous place gave us some of the best meat I have ever tasted and spectacular views of their art adorned gardens. Generally NZ lamb tends to get exported to us in the UK and it is actually more expensive to buy it in NZ. Some clever places however keep some of the best cuts for themselves and boy oh boy was it was mouth wateringly good..

Beef carpaccio

NZ lamb chops on a bed of Aubergines

We were blessed with great weather as we made our way down the west coast. We stayed with old friends in Christ Church and they took us to Akaroa for some of the best Fish and chips down south!

Akaroa

3. Riverstone Kitchen: This won the best casual dining awards last year and was further south of ChCh near a place called Omaru. The chef here has become famous for his use of simple local ingredients and associated recipe books. I therefore had very high expectatiions and I am happy to report that I was not disappointed. It was a family friendly venue i.e. lots of noisy children running around in the gardens and creche area and lots of harassed designated drivers/parents, but nevertheless the atmosphere inside was relaxed and friendly. The food was sensational!

More NZ lamb!

Steak!

When you drive around NZ there seems to be more cows, sheep/lamb and venison in fields than there are people or cars. It was just great to get to eat the incredibly tasty meat from the next field in these locally sourced resto's. You don't need to do much to food if it tastes that good to start off with and the meat in NZ has so much flavour!!UK butchers do have amazing produce but let's face it, how many of us can always afford meat from the butchers? Sometimes the budget can only stretch to supermarket quality - which I believe is improving in the UK but not always this good.   Luckily we have NZ lamb available to us in the UK supermarkets for a lot cheaper than they have it here!! Hurrah!