ranbysue

I can't believe that conveniece ready meals ar not widely availbale in every shop in every supermarket in NZ as they are here in the UK and indeed, USA, Canada and many more countries.

Do NZers just like to cook from scratch (which I know is the best way) or are the shops way behind time on this one? :scared:

Gill and Rob

Don't worry, they are certainly available in Countdown, Woolworths, Pak n save and New World. Just this week I had 2 of the Patak frozen indian meals {took them to work for my lunch $4 each}, although they are not something I would ever usually buy, just there is a catchy advert on TV for them and they looked lovely.

One thing you will find is......there is almost a "Stepford wife" approach to producing home made cakes, buns and muffins !! In NZ you will frequently be asked to "bring a plate", literally a plate of food for a shared lunch. At one shared lunch I commented on just how good one of the cakes were ..... and the next thing the woman reached into her bag and gave me a photocopy of the recipe from the Austrailian Womans weekly 1998 !!!! She said someone always commented on it, so she carries spare copies.

I have learned to perfect profiteroles and meringues {made in the microwave BUT look impressive} as my bring a plate effort. From someone who in her "PAST LIFE" in the UK would sprinkle icing sugar on bought cakes to make them look home made, this is a huge step.

Cheers
Gill

K9s

Suze

Have you made up your mind yet are you going to take the corrections job

It seems to me you are very undecided looking at this post and your last one

K9s

extrameant

Kiwi's always say they cook from scratch, just like they say they never watch telly (So how come when I go out a walk at night, EVERY house has a telly flickering away, not just one or two!) Kiwis love to keep up an image of themselves and they usually laugh when I say everyone watches loads of telly, and then they agree (but only everyone else, not them!).

Must admit, the lack of good quality prepared food is a big disadvantage to us. We both work and used to live out of delicatessens and M&S etc back home as we both worked long hours there too. Down here it is hard, and we often eat crap despite our best efforts to find something to eat fast (even prepared to pay for it).

I find it is possible to go into a supermarket on the way home feeling like you are too tired to make anything and to try to buy something there and then to treat yourself. Many's the time we have wondered round the supermarket and come out empty handed, there's just nothing we fancy. Must admit the frozen meals we have tried have been terrible. The Indian frozen meals round our way are about $12~$15 each, way too expensive as they are pretty small. About 5 years ago they started doing cooked chicken in supermarkets which helped a bit. Supermarket Pizza's look like those bread things with red die on top that you used to get back in the 70's.
Maybe if you live near a nice delicatessen things could be better, but the only ones I know are in town. Posh people in remuera would be OK I am sure, I've been to a nice delicatessen there.

The comment I often read about the quality of food in NZ is so good, well thats true, but only if you have time to make it from scratch, or you like eating a lot of raw vegetables and fruit.

You will see huge amounts of cheap ice cream in the supermarkets here. (Never seen hagen daz unfortunately) My kiwi friend who can tell me almost anything about kiwi culture (or he is fast at making up stories) tells me that a lot of low income families live off the stuff. it is the cheapest high calorie food you can get here. Have a look in people's trolleys next time, I think there could be some truth in it, and I imagine its loads worse in places like otara. I don't think most kiwis have a very good diet, although I am sure the well off ones will soon speak up.

Regarding getting carry out food, the Asian food is OK but it is always full of broccoli carrots and cauliflower (and MSG) and pretty bland to my taste. Indian food is of course a real let down comapred to a UK curry. I can't tell you how many times we have gone for miles and miles to try a new one that someone said 'Oh but you should try this one, it really is good' only to find yet another terrible curry. I have only ever found one that is halfways decent and even it is very variable from day to day.

It is relatively common (compared to Glasgow) to get campelobactor (or some other form of food poisoning) which I have had from eating out here. This is a notifiable disease but nothing seems to happen to the places you notify them about! At work, several people have had this in the last few years. It is not nice, let me tell you! Much worse than just a bad stomach and takes you off work for a week +.

I should say that if you are going out for a proper meal, there are loads of good quality restraunts (not indian though) Maybe what I have described only applies to us personally, because we ate so much good quality convienence food back home. If you don't, then maybe there's no problem.

You might think you are going to eat lots of nice fresh produce when you get here, but long hours and reality may make things a bit different, for us anyway. If M&S opened here I think we, alone, would have kept it going .

shepslady

Lazy prepared meals are available but always taste like cardboard anyhow so most people tend to shy away from them. Yes kiwis do like to cook from scratch & many like me learnt to plan ahead & prepare a weekly menu etc. I raised 3 sons in NZ, worked full time & still managed to cook a decent meal at least 5 or 6 nights a week. Yes I allowed take aways of sort to be eaten at least once a week & on occassions we simply ate out. No matter how long or hard one works planning good meals is a priority if one wants to eat right. Nothing better than sitting down as a family after a hard days work & sharing a home cooked meal together while disgussing everyones day.
Never heard the ice cream story before but not saying its not true because it could be, I just dont know anyone who was that bad off.
As for the tv well if kiwis say they dont watch tv they definately are a rarity because in my 40 odd years living there I only ever met two families who didnt have a tv & both of these families didnt have one for religious reasons. More interesting thought would be to see how many tv's each NZ household actually has. I know when I left there we had 4 in our house & know of families who had them in most rooms except laundry & bathrooms etc!!

Watt Dabney

After watching Jamies School Dinners I can't beleive that people think this is a bad thing.

Mercedes

Its funny I never had eaten a ready made meal until I went back to the UK, although I used to eat out mostly, getting salads etc, so didn't cook at home. But seeing shopping trolleys full of ready made and packet food, was really odd to me, and still is. My partner often when he comes to my house buys tinned food, and I never use it, mainly because I don't like the taste. I guess its what you get used to. But there should be a few healthy options to eat out. I can't remember but are there Sizzlers in NZ, as I used to live in them, when I could in Oz.

extrameant

You are comparing M&S food to school dinners? Boy, we had heard M&S had gone downhill but never knew the half of it.



Convenience food doesn’t have to mean Heinz or watties (except in NZ of course) I used to love the tuna and lime steaks they sold in M&S. They were sold raw but prepared (marinated in lime juice and herbs), you just cooked it, saved loads of time. If you think that’s bad, well you must eat pretty well. You don’t get that quality of prepared food here.


I knew a lot of professional couples that lived as we did, buying good prepared food to save time. I am sure all you lovely stepford wives wouldn’t have a bar of it, but it was common place back home to work long hours and become pretty mercenary as to what your time was worth and decide if its worth spending and hour to do something you hate, or maybe trade some of the money you earn in an hour instead. Modern life is all about making time to do what you want to, as far as I am concerned. It was an expensive way to live, but like I said commonplace for professional couples who often have more money than time.



As shepslady said, you need to make a big effort to make things work for you, or you will have a miserable life. To me, preparing and cooking at weekend for the coming week (which we have to do now) is not my idea of improving lifestyle, outdoors life etc. Go on, tell me how quickly a stepford wife can do it all..... I’ll tell you how quickly I can earn $100. Its all horses for courses, and our lifestyle wouldn't suit most people anyway..



In MY 40 odd years, I have seen quality of life drop away as employers expect more and more. Kiwis get their money’s worth out of you, for sure. I stand by my observation, we can’t eat nearly as well as we did back home unless we cook from scratch, which eats into our chosen lifestyle.



No real point to my comments, just some info that you folks back home may find useful, or maybe not.

Watt Dabney

Not a stepford wife, sorry, just the wife of someone with a severe food intolerance to hydrogenated fats and an array of preservatives. Which is contained in pretty much all pre prepared food wether from M & S or kwik save.
I am sure you did great things with the... oooh all of 3 minutes you saved yourself not marinading your tuna in fresh lime and herbs before you went to work.

extrameant

Oooo, bitchy, I am so hurt.

Watt Dabney

And you weren't being bitchy of course with comments like "all of you stepford wives".
Some of us some of us have realised the benifits of non additive laden foods through the neccesity of keeping loved ones healthy and out of hospital, and not because we see ourselves as occuping some moral high ground.

extrameant

Nah, you're right, sorry. Actually I have had to adapt and there is no doubt fresh food is by far the best thing and I just can't eat fast food now. Part of my answer is to put the barbeque in a covered area so it can be used a lot more. There's no getting the homer out of me, sossiges..mmmmmm
Now you know I'm joking about the sausages? We don't need to argue about how good they are for you do we?

Watt Dabney

No! I love sausages! Just don't get to eat em very often find it best to avoid food I'm not 100% sure exactly whats in them so as not to risk a reaction

susannah

I don't actually live in NZ yet, i live in France which I am sure has the lack of ready made meals here as well (the ones that are here, god only knows what they are supposed to be let alone taste like )

WHat about making ready meals yourselves? Thats what I do nowa days. I spend 1 day a month cooking loads and freezing it. We have additive free (my son gets hyper on the rubbish they put into ready made meals). Majority of things freeze. Just a thought

Susi

Biddy

I'm glad there is a lack of ready meals in NZ - love cooking from scratch!

Our move to NZ is about a change in lifestyle - I'm hoping that'll involve more time for domestic stuff with the kids etc rather than a rushed lifestyle that includes ready meals.