signature dishes

/ food by state - click here for the original, larger version /

i miss a lot of american food. it's not that you can't find similar things, but you just can't find the same things. sure, you can get thinly sliced beef, a long bread roll and cheese, but you can't get a philly cheesesteak. you can get pizza, but you can't get new york pizza. you can even get kfc, but the skins are lacking crisp and i'm sure the colonel's 11 spice recipe is missing at least 9 of those spices here and to top it all off NO buttermilk biscuit! it's not as though i would eat these things on a daily basis, but sometimes i want to walk into the supermarket and pick up a can of new england clam chowder for dinner.

so i'm beginning to wonder - when we move back to the states, will we miss new zealand's food?

now new zealand isn't exactly known for their culinary masterpieces, but there are some things they do quite well, like meat pies and lamb shanks. i am also pretty partial to golden kiwifruit and the sweet variety of lemons that grow in most people's back yards. reuben could eat feijoas until he busts and my brother informs me that finding feijoa juice will be the first thing he does when he lands in auckland. 

luckily, we will be in the new york area because there is a very tasty looking restaurant called kiwiana bringing (the good parts of) kiwi cuisine to the us. i even like the sound of manuka-and-marmite-braised baby-back ribs, despite the fact that marmite itself is pretty repulsive. nelson blue is down by the seaport, but the menu doesn't sound particularly kiwi - come on, fish tacos?? i do like their extensive nz wine range, though, especially the martinborough pinot noirs :) my family scouted out a delish pie shop in the chelsea markets and in checking out their website, tuck shop actually has three locations in manhattan.

so i guess we'll be set if we do have a hankering for kiwi cuisine, but maybe i should learn how to make  lamb roast before i leave anyway. just in case.