country Essentials · 11 foods
New Zealand Essentials
A considered first route through New Zealand: the foods that carry its everyday habits, celebrations, ingredients, and memory.
Explore all New Zealand foods →THE
ESSENTIALS
The complete shortlist
11 foods to know.
Each selection includes the reason it belongs here—so this is a guide, not just a pile of names.
New Zealand
Hāngī
Meat and kūmara steam for hours on fire-heated stones, absorbing a faint earthy aroma.
Australia
Pavlova
Pav
Crisp meringue, marshmallow centre, cream, and kiwifruit make this contested Tasman sweet.
New Zealand
Mince and Cheese Pie
Peppery beef mince under melted cheese in a pastry case, eaten one-handed at a service station.
New Zealand
Hokey Pokey Ice Cream
Hokey pokey
Vanilla ice cream shot through with lumps of honeycomb toffee that stay crunchy frozen.
New Zealand
Whitebait Fritter
Translucent juvenile fish barely bound with egg, fried thin and folded into white bread.
Southland, New Zealand
Bluff Oysters
Wild Foveaux Strait dredge oysters, bigger and stronger than anything farmed, and in season only briefly.
New Zealand
Kūmara
Sweet potato carried south by Polynesian voyagers and now grown in three varieties around Dargaville.
New Zealand
Rēwena Bread
Rēwena parāoa
Potato-starter sourdough kept alive as a bug and passed between families for generations.
New Zealand
Mānuka Honey
Thick dark honey graded by methylglyoxal and firm enough to hold its shape in the jar.
Southland, New Zealand
Cheese Roll
White bread rolled round cheese and onion soup mix and grilled; Southland calls it southern sushi.
New Zealand
Lemon & Paeroa
L&P
Lemon soda from Paeroa's mineral water, world famous in New Zealand and nowhere else.