Growing hungry

It’s feijoa season here, and every one I eat is flavored with a tinge of sorrow when I remember that we don’t have these delicious fruits in Iowa. Feijoa fruiting season is a short one, but it makes up for that with bounty. People bring them into work, anonymously leaving them, hoping that they will disappear. Neighbors drop them off by the bagful at the doors of those who don’t have a tree. It’s a little like zucchini season in Iowa, where someone once joked that you don’t leave a car window down in August or you’ll end up with a bushel of zucchini in your front seat. Except, unlike zuchinni, you can slice through a fruit, scoop out the milky white flesh, and polish off a half-dozen in one sitting if you tried!

Missing feijoas gets me thinking about other foods I’ll long for upon our return to Iowa. The abundance of seafood, though I’m not brave enough to prepare it, will be sorely missed. New Zealand scallops, which for unknown reasons look different than any scallop I’ve had elsewhere, are rich and delicious. Mussels, oysters, rock lobster, crayfish, and a variety of sea fish are all frequently seen on menus, always fresh and well-prepared. The strange but delicious whitebait dishes will be missed, too.

Another item that I’ll grieve the loss of will be hokey pokey ice cream. I know I’ve written about it before, but it really is deserving of a second mention. The creamy, butterscotch-y base, with small but perfectly dispersed hokey pokey bits that crunch appealingly with each bite… Surely someone would import it.

Another little change, which was commented on by a New Zealand visitor to the Midwest, will be the lack of wine in all but the nicer restaurants. Here, wine is available at most little cafes, thus providing a light, inexpensive meal but still offering the pleasantness of a good drink for your evening out.

Cory is probably less worried about the wine than I am, but he will be sorrowful for the loss of Peachee. Peachee is a carbonated, sweet drink, flavored with peach nectar. He could drink one a day if the bottles came in something other than a four-pack. (He does, often, ask me to buy more than one pack when I grocery shop.) Again, someone must be willing to import this.

Venison and other game is more often seen on the menu here in New Zealand as well. While in Iowa you might have a hunter in the family to provide you with some deer meat, it is easily available at butchers and in restaurants here.

But while game might be common, turkey is not. Cory will be making turkey sandwiches for weeks on end upon our return. He has longed for a good sub. We’ll no doubt be visiting Big Mikes (I know, it’s Milio’s now) soon after we get back.

Another place we’ll be visiting in Iowa City will be Wig ‘n Pen. Pizza, and especially pepperoni, is a little different here. A good slice (or three) will be gleefully devoured once we get back.

We’ve missed sushi this past year, too. I read somewhere that, initially, to get Kiwis to accept the concept of sushi they used many familiar ingredients in the maki rolls – things like chicken and canned tuna. The result was that while sushi caught on, they never really branched out beyond chicken and canned tuna. This is pretty disappointing considering the availability of fish here. So, a trip to Oyama back in Iowa City will be required.

Similarly disappointing is the lack of crab rangoons here. I just really love crab rangoons and haven’t found a Chinese restaurant that offers them. Cory has made some, and they are good, but you can’t beat a true deep-fried, cream-cheese filled, crab rangoon from Aoeshe or Yen Ching.

Having re-read all of this, I now have to go eat one of the feijoas that we brought home form the Farmer’s Market today! Have a piece of pizza for me, okay?