Whats cooking in Wanganui?

Before arriving in NZ, we had heard about high food prices and expected the worst, but whether due to a very favorable exchange rate at moment, or because of some conspiracy to misinform me, we have not found this to be the case at all.  It helps that we have not been eating out, but rather cooking every night.  More even than enjoying the cooking, I have really enjoyed procuring food and finding the best deals for our daily meals.  Whereas in Evergreen I pretty much frequented King Soopers Supermarket...here in Wanganui I am visiting a grocery (Pal-N-Save or Countdown,) a butcher (The Mad Butcher,) a fruit and vegetable market down by the river, a bakery, and a fresh fish market as opposed to just a supermarket.  I am even contemplating driving to a farm and getting our eggs, butter, cream and milk.  I know...I am taking this a little too far, but an older woman at the supermarket told me that the milk I was about to purchase "wasn't really milk."  (Talk about conspiracies...) At any rate, prices here have actually been lower than US prices on produce and fish, comparable on meats, and a little higher on general dry goods.  Consequently we have been having lots of fresh fruit and veggies, and fresh meats and fish.... which has been awesome.  Here's a pics of the local grocery store...

Also, whereas in the US things go on sale and save you a little, things here seem to be purchased and brought to market in bulk, so whatever is in season can be downright cheap, but on the flip side, if you are looking for something specific for a recipe, and its not on sale, then you can pay crazy prices for something. Take a look in specific at the fruit markets with the huge pallets of fresh produce.

The produce is specifically awesome here.  It seems very fresh...so fresh indeed that they don't really seem to wash it.  At all.  But there is also no doubt that this seems to have been picked yesterday.  And, the fruits and specifically veggies have much stronger flavors.  If you don't grow your own carrots (and among the readers of this post, probably only my parents do,) you may have forgotten what a real carrot tasted like.

If you are not as cheap (for a nicer way to put this, think bargain-hungry) as me, you might not appreciate how much I enjoy finding these food bargains, but either way, it just seems to make sense to just go to the markets with no specific menu in mind, and acquire the foods that look the freshest and have the best prices.  I doubt I would have planned the following menu for a day I did a week ago - lamb stew in the low cooker, sautéed brussel sprouts w bacon and onions, and then kale from the garden...but it was a great meal.  Here is Lindsay having a kiwi fruit (79 cents a Kilo = eats lots of kiwi fruits)

The Mad Butcher is just that - a giant freezing meat locker where you actually put on your jacket to go into the store, and then just past the meat bins, there is a window and a lot of carcasses hanging on the other side.  At least you know where the pork in the package came from, and that its "fresh".  Something always seems to be on sale, and is inexpensive, and everything else will be in turn more expensive.  Here are a couple pics from the butcher - "mince" is their term for ground beef.  I know that these pictures are not going to win "Blog of the Year prizes" but I am looking for diehard readers : )

We also have our own gardens with lots of lettuce, spinach, kale, beets, cabbage, silverbeet (Swiss Chard,) herbs, and then lemon and orange trees.  We were lucky that the owner of our house had all of these gardens and with lots already planted and we only had to add a few other things we wanted. So its pretty often that one part of our meal is coming from the garden, and here we are in winter... Here is a picture of Lauryn picking a lemon - we made lemonade today - I wish I had my brother's old lemon juicer...

We have made a lot of fried "crumbed" fish with potatoes (Fish-n-chips) and had baked hoki fillets.  And today I got a great two-fer.  It is Father's Day in NZ today, so I got my second Father's Day of 2015 (probably to make up for the fact that i will miss out next year) and the kids got me a 12 foot river casting rod, tackle and a fillet knife.  Since we live backing up to the tidal Wanganui River, and also are only a km from the river mouth at the ocean, I am hoping to catch our own salmon/trout type fish (kahawai) for dinner starting this week, either from the dock out back, or from this spot right at the mouth.  Sorry, my intrepid fly fishing guides of EVG...no fly fishing planned yet.

Last, we kind of knew something was up when our flight over had free wine...and indeed the wine is excellent and very affordable here, with great choices of sauvignon blanc, pinot gris, chardonnay, and pinot noir.  So, whereas the beer here has been pretty uninspiring, NZ wines are great.   Kendra is even partaking a bit - the legal age is 18, and she is even able to serve alcohol at her new job at a restaurant.  She doesn't seem to like the wine at all and makes a great shuddering noise every time she has a taste, and she is sure that beer is even worse, so we figure she isn't going to be "lost to the sauce."

Well, foodies, I hope you enjoyed that...for other updates...as mentioned, Kendra got a part-time gig as a barista at a hip place called Mint, Lauryn got back from her trip to New Plymouth for a soccer tournament with her HS team.  I hope to write and post pictures about Lauryn's trip, about our first outing, maybe some on golf and Jen still plans to write about her job and the health system here.

Pete, Jen and girls