Great Friends, Great Food

I can never appreciate enough having friends that I’ve known since before I can remember. Crystal and I have known each other since we were at least three years old. We’ve had many adventures together in high school, and again when we roomed together on and off during university. I was reminded again today how great it is to be hanging out with someone who really knows me.

I’d mentioned a few items I wanted to try while in NZ, like the pickled green walnuts. Crystal mentioned that she needed to pick up a few things for the bbq tonight, so we headed to a little food shop nearby, called Rare Fare.

I walked into the store and made an immediate beeline for the cooler that contained a great selection of cheeses and Manuka (a local tree) smoked venison salami and a tube of walnuts and figs pressed together like a pâté. I grabbed a blue cheese, a Brie-type cheese, and a harder sheep’s milk for a nice balance. We also discovered some Manuka smoked rock salt and Manuka smoked fresh garlic. That’s going to get roasted and enjoyed with the cheese.

Couldn’t find any green walnuts, but Crystal said, “We should just ask the woman at the counter.” The woman at the counter cheerfully answered, “Got ‘em!” And led me over to them. So there you have it!

We topped that off with some garlic-marinated black olives, and I think our picnic lunch for our trip to Mt. Somers tomorrow is just about ready.


Our "Meet the Canadians" BBQ was popular with the Kiwis for one very important reason: Jeff's homemade hamburgers. People here don't make burgers for BBQs, apparently, so the they're a hit. One more thing that we take for granted that we don't realize is unique to North America.