Street food in New Zealand

Street Food New Zealand

First of all, NZ has top-quality coffee – wherever you go! Also, NZ cuisine takes the best of Asian and European cuisine and turns it into something unique. Wineries often have a cafe at the cellar door. Check out the menu and you might find something totally unexpected and delicious.

Now to the classics. The most popular takeaway food is Fish & Chips. Any Kiwi knows NZ Fish & Chips are the best in the world! If you had enough Fish & Chips – is that even possible? – there are sausage rolls, as well as a variety of savoury pies that are available at any cafe, corner store (called dairy), and petrol station. These foods are best enjoyed on a beach, of which NZ has plenty.

If you have a sweet tooth, there is a variety of flat cakes called slices available in any cafe. Carrot cake is another all-time favourite.

For a hearty meal in a pub, ask for the roast of the day. Whatever they made will be good, but lamb shanks are the best!

~Frank Mueller

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Hokey pokey ice cream: toffee mixed with vanilla. Awesome. Can be purchased at any local grocery store, best served in a cone.

Paua fritters with kumara chips. Paua is a type of shellfish, kumara is a type of potato found only in NZ. Can be purchased at most local fish and chip shops.

Hangi takeaway. Pork, beef, mutton, root potatoes and cabbage are cooked in a traditional Maori earth oven. The flavour is sublime. 

~ Ronnie Hughan, AFF Instructor and Tandem Instructor/Examiner at US Parachute Association (1996-present)

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Best New Zealand Food

Hangi and boil up! And quite easy to make yourself or with the help of friends and family for the hangi pit or some land so you can make your own hangi pit. Or you can use a steamer. Ground hangi is the best though.

Hangi is meat and vegetables wrapped in tin foil and cooked in a hole in the ground using coal etc. Or you can steam everything I said above. But it doesn’t have the same taste as a ground hangi. But it’s ka-pai in my opinion!

Boil up is also meat, preferably brisket or pork bones is a fave, and any green vegetable, whether it is watercress, puha, silverbeet, or spinach and you boil it together in the biggest pot you can find. And then you add potatoes. Add some dough bois if you know how to make them.

~ Santana Charmaine lives in New Zealand

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The Pavlova. It’s a delicious meringue-based dessert.

There is some controversy around the country of origin – the Australians also lay claim to the Pavlova as their own. However, according to Wikipedia, formal research now confirms the Pavlova as a Kiwi dish.

 ~ Abu Amin, no handlebars

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I’ve just written about this so it’s fresh in my mind and my favourites (after some very serious research) were…

1. Bluff Oysters – They’re just so good… I prefer them raw with a bit of lemon but they’re not bad battered and fried too
2. Green-lipped Mussels – I can eat these by the bucketful served. Great with a creamy sauce and lots of garlic
3. Kumara fries – Kumara (a type of sweet potato) tastes best when served as fries (like most things) with a dollop of aioli on the side.
4. Kiwi Burger – Beef, onion, cheese, lettuce, tomato, egg and beetroot… The best burger to be found… And I don’t even like beetroot!
5. Mince and Cheese Pies – Kiwi pies are different from British pies which tend to be served in pans with pastry on the top only. Ours is fully covered (like their pasties but better) and comes in a range of fillings with Mince and Cheese being the best!
6. Pavlova – Been mentioned a few times already I think with good reason. Light, sweet and beautiful. Made even better with Kiwi, passionfruit, cherry or mandarin toppings.
7. Roast Lamb – You can buy it in supermarkets around the world but it’s always best at home. Season with salt, garlic, and rosemary and you’re away!
8. Feijoa – Most people outside New Zealand haven’t even heard of feijoas before but they’re world-famous here and plentiful. Sweet and tangy, they’re quite addictive once you get started on them.
9. Paua – The steak of the sea and type of abalone – Paua is delicious when cooked as a fritter and enjoyed by the sea!
10. Whitebait Fritter – Equally good, if not better, are Whitebait Fritters. Kiwi Whitebait is again different to what you get overseas, which are bigger and more like sardines. Ours are the youthful smaller versions with a much more subtle taste of the sea. Yum!

Hungry writing about all this again so going to leave it at that but feel free to read my longer version of this with 9 additional New Zealand food delicacies.

~ Yohei Guy, SEO and Content Manager (2018-present)

So, what is your best New Zealand food?

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