I remember hearing as a child / youth that American coffee and American beer were both terrible. If you wanted good coffee you went to France or Italy, and for good beer you went to Belgium or Germany. And, to a large extent I think those stereotypes were right… we mostly had watery boring beverages at that time. It’s all different now, of course… good – great – coffee and beer have become American obsessions and are widely available. 

Here in NZ, it seems like people are of two minds about both drinks. You can’t find drip style coffee anywhere, and people recoil in horror at the idea of “a pot of coffee.” You can buy a perfectly good espresso drink at Subway. However, for people at home who don’t have an espresso machine or the patience to use one, it’s quite normal to use instant coffee, which has all but disappeared from US stores. And of course, the British heritage here means tea drinking is still more prevalent than in the US. 

And so to this picture of the vast array of electric kettles on sale… suitable for tea, instant coffee, and even to fill the hot water bottles that seem to be common here. Who knew that simply boiling water would require so many options??

In the world I grew up in, for the most part anyway, meat comes from the grocery store in styrofoam and plastic wrap packages. And that’s true in NZ as well. 

However,  there’s a big Chinese market nearby, and they like to see their meat in a less processed state. So there’s a truck like this and a big guy who hoists pigs off the hook and over his shoulder and marches down the street to the front door of the store. These carcasses hang in plain view for however long until they are butchered and sold. 

Tofu, anyone?

We officially moved into the new house yesterday, only bringing the few groceries we’d accumulated at the hotel to fill up our new larder. Popcorn, raisins, Tim-Tams, crackers. 

We won’t be quite as free to fill it up without a car, but still, let’s see how this looks in a couple of weeks…