People often say "Quality over quantity", however, Wellington offers both quality and quantity. Wellington has more cafes, bars, and restaurants per capita than New York City (though NY still holds the title for best slice of pizza in the world), and each one that Davis and I have visited offers a wide range of delicious food for a great price!
The most common culture of food to be found in Wellington is Southeast Asian and Indian food. You can find a kebab or Malaysian restaurant on just about every block you walk down. Thus far, we have yet to hit an Indian place, but have satiated our cravings for some quality Thai food. Davis enjoyed his steaming hot pad thai loaded with veggies and I went for the boring, but classic shrimp fried rice. We both shared so prawn spring rolls as well. This was one of first meals in the city and we were certainly impressed.
Our next notable meal was something a little more close to home: a hamburger. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much because we were from the United States, where burgers were, like, our national food or something like that. I thought, "No way you can beat an American hamburger". So, we place our order, wait for our takeaway, and carry our bag back to the house. I open the bag and reach in, and I couldn't even get a hold of the damn thing. THEY WERE HUGE! The pricing was similar to that of Shake Shack, but the burgers were absolutely immense. And it didn't stop there. They were outstanding, and full of flavor, including garlic aoili, beetroot relish, lettuce, tomato, onions, egg, and avocado. Wow, what a burger! I was wrong about New Zealand burgers. Well, partially wrong. The place was called Burger Wisconsin, so I'll give some points to the Midwest.
How can I talk about food in Wellington without mentioning some of the classic (og, if you will) New Zealand cuisines. With the British influence, you can't leave New Zealand without having some good ole' fish n' chips. What's better on a night after training than an enormous fillet of fish and heaps of chips all wrapped in a huge roll of paper? I'll answer that: actually, quite a few things are better. The fish was a little bland, even with some vinegar or tartar sauce, and the chips were, well, delicious because, c'mon, who doesn't like chips. This could be our flaw, because we didn't exactly go to the most high end fish n' chips place around, just the closest one that did takeaways. So, i'll leave fish n' chips up to further investigation, and return to it once I have tasted the dish from more appraised shops. However disappointing the fish n' chips were, New Zealand made up for that ten fold with perhaps the greatest thing that has ever graced my mouth: pies. No, no, no, no. Not sweet, creamy, fruity, sugary pies, but warm meat pies. Seriously, these things are absolutely outstanding. Picture being home, cuddled up in ten blankets with a cup of tea while its snowing outside. Even that level of coziness doesn't come close to the warmth and happiness that New Zealand pies can offer you. Its 45 F degrees, windy as ****, it's raining sideways, and you have just walked about 2 miles up hill. What can make all of this go away? Pies. Just drop into Jo's Bakery in Brooklyn (no, not that Brooklyn) and forget about all of your problems with the magical Kiwi delicacy that is the meat pie. Steak and cheese, awesome. Mince and cheese, awesome. Chicken and Mushroom, awesome. Biting into the scrumptious meaty center of a pie on a cold, windy day is a feeling like no other. Congrats New Zealand. The meat pie is surely the greatest work of art that we have consumed here so far.
Comments