Sunday, September 26, 2021

Pea, Pie, Pud

 
Food.  It's a big deal. When we travel or when we decide to live somewhere else in the world, certain foods have a way of bringing us comfort.  That brings me to the humble meat pie.  

My experience with the humble meat pie was the frozen, convenience food variety that we were fed as kids ... to be specific, Swanson Meat Pies.  I loved those bloody things!  I thought savoury pies were the perfect food until I grew up and came to realise how unhealthy they probably were for me.  I never had one again.  That is, until I moved to New Zealand.

Imagine my delight when I arrived in NZ and heard that savoury pies were a normal thing.  These weren't frozen, round, mini-pie shaped things filled with a gravy-like sauce and a few bits of meat.  Pies in New Zealand are (usually) fresh, warm, pastry filled goodness of many varieties.  They are the king of all comfort food, in my humble opinion.  For some, they are like NZ's "fast food" ... the go-to food for a quick meal on the go, increasingly competing with the likes of KFC, MacCers (MacDonalds) or BK (Burger King).
 
When a female teenage family member came to visit years ago, we took her to Milford Sound for the day.  On the drive home that evening, she consumed three mince and cheese pies in the backseat of the car.  That proved to me how much a teenager can eat in one sitting.  I was secretly envious.

A few years later, my sister, Cindy, came to NZ to visit.  I took her to Arrowtown Bakery, which at the time, was the best pie I had ever eaten in NZ.  We bought a few pies and drove to Wanaka to eat them at the shoreline.  They made a chicken and apricot pie that stole my heart.  Cindy couldn't make up her mind between that one and the steak pie.  She enjoyed them so much that she wanted to hand-carry pies home with her when she flew back to California.

I don't live in Queenstown anymore, but I've found a couple of places near my home that are also world famous for their pies.  I try not to partake too often, but the cold weather and the uncertainity of life during this ongoing pandemic drove me to seek out comfort food recently.  So on a winter outing for lunch, we visited our "local" (cafe) for pea, pie, pud.  The pie ... flaky pastry, chunks of chicken, delicious sauce.  And those mashed potatoes ... well, they may just be the best mashed potatoes I've ever eaten.  Well, except maybe for the mashed potatoes that Cindy used to make when I was a teenager.



Wednesday, September 15, 2021

Pepeha

              

  

A few years ago, in preparation to attend a work conference, all employees were encouraged to create their Pepeha.  I loved the idea since I think it's important to embrace the language(s) of where one lives.  But I have to say that I found it quite intimidating, and therefore, I didn't do it.

This week being Maori Language Week, I thought that creating my Pepeha would be a good way to participate in Maori Language Moment 2021.

I researched how to create my Pepeha by speaking with a colleague who championed the Pepeha creation idea at that work conference and by using the websites in the images above. I came to understand what a Pepeha really is.  I love the idea.  I connect with it.  Creating my Pepeha forced me to think about who and where I come from ... who and what I'm truly connected to.  Thinking about these things also has reminded me how challenging it can be to be an immigrant and to be away from your "foundation".  More about this later ...

I know that my Pepeha is going to evolve over time to include my Aoteoroa whanau.  In the meantime, here is my Pepeha ...