Do you lose your shit when you can’t get cherries in July? No. So why is everyone grumbling about the so-called avocado shortage? “AVOCADO CRISIS”, the headlines scream. “Soaring prices force cafes to stop selling avocado dishes”. Yes, apparently New Zealand has been brought to its very knees by an unprecedented shortage of the fleshy … Read more
Hard to break, cheap as chips, filled with instant coffee or weak tea – it’s the mug of the marae, the staffroom, the factory canteen, the church hall. It’s our mug, says John Summers. Our son was born almost three months ago. He’s close by, fighting sleep in his bassinet as I write this. He … Read more
Sam Flynn-Scott gets down with the funk of the fresh hop season. To truly understand beer you have to think of it as a fresh product. Unless you are getting into very specific variants, it is not usually meant to be aged. It’s a weird funky stew that at its peak, when made by the … Read more
Wellington-based startup Again Again has big plans for the way you do takeaways. Have you got a keep cup? Oh you do? Neat. Where is it? Oh you don’t know? Probably at home? Maybe at work? Maybe in the car? So not with you when you went to get your takeaway flat white this morning, … Read more
Still got a ton of feijoas to work through? Blend ’em up for a killer smoothie. I love how cooking changes to suit the seasons. Making the most of what little left you might have in your garden of one thing, and embracing the abundance you might have of another. This recipe celebrates the thousands … Read more
Reducing food waste is a win-win solution for everyone as less food goes to landfill and more food goes to those who need it. So what’s being done to make this a reality? And what can you do to help? In 2020, New Zealand will vote in a general election with poverty and climate change … Read more
Curd nerd Calum Hodgson wants you to come to a small North Island town to stand in defence of the small-scale farmhouse cheese tradition. The Great Eketahuna Cheese Festival is a cheese community keen to connect with others in an act of #CheeseSolidarity. This is a small cheese fest in a small part of provincial New … Read more
Don’t let those brazen feijoas steal the limelight – guavas are also ubiquitous at this time of year, and their flavour is just as curiously delicious. Yes, I know, the feijoas are haemorrhaging again. I like feijoas but they have a habit of throwing themselves at you. One of my neighbours said ‘If you are … Read more
Ah, the slushy – it’s the semi-frozen sugary beverage that has the nation talking. But what even is a slushy, and is Simon Bridges’ beef with them warranted? Alice Neville investigates. Despite the rapidly plummeting temperatures that autumn has brought with it (Auckland this morning was reminiscent of the Battle of Winterfell, minus all the deaths … Read more
Dietary Requirements is The Spinoff’s monthly podcast in which we eat, drink and talk about it too, with special thanks to Freedom Farms. Deeply hungover, we delve into the politics of restaurant awards this month with Metro editor Henry Oliver. This month, old mate Henry Oliver – former Spinoffer and current editor of Metro magazine – joins … Read more
Bacon is on a winning streak, but it’s not all about the streaky. Sophie Gilmour gets to know some of the less popular cuts and explains why you should buy them. Bacon is delicious. This is not just my opinion; it’s not just a fact either, it’s science. Bacon holds a very special place in … Read more
Biochemist Stuart Thompson tracks the banana from its origins on the island of Mauritius to its current endangered status. Panama disease, an infection that ravages banana plants, has been sweeping across Asia, Australia, the Middle East and Africa. The impact has been devastating. In the Philippines alone, losses have totalled US$400m. And the disease threatens … Read more
Drowning in feijoas, or can’t get enough of them? Either way, this is a delicious way to deal with a glut. We have 30 feijoa trees. Nine fewer than we had this time last year, and yet still far more than we know what to do with! At the peak of the season we collect … Read more
An increasing range of vino is now available in cans, so The Spinoff team took it upon themselves to review and rank each one. Have you ever tried to carry a bottle of wine in your handbag? It’s niggly as. Once, while living in London, I was heading to a party with a bottle of … Read more
The long, restorative process of baking fruitcake – and eating the results – has helped Amanda Thompson through the worst of times. A long time ago, so long it feels like this story belongs to a different person, I lost my first and cherished child. On a cold, blustery night around about this time of … Read more
At this time of year, an abundance of this old-fashioned fruit is not a bad problem to have – especially if you’ve got the help of Aunt Daisy. All through my childhood, there was a sad quince tree in the orchard. It was old and crooked, its trunk growing up a couple of metres before … Read more
A lesson on why you shouldn’t always believe what you read on the internet A few years back, there was a meme (if you can call it that) telling us that everything we knew about toasters was wrong. It said that the numbers on our toasters – usually on a dial ranging from one to … Read more
A treat for a chilly autumn evening. Lusciously smooth and velvety, bittersweet and spiked with orange, this is the perfect drink to sip while curled in your favourite chair by the fire. I’m a fan of dark chocolate so I haven’t added any sugar to this recipe. If you have a sweeter tooth then add … Read more
Eater of chocolate and master budgeter Madeleine Chapman lays out the recipe for a killer Easter egg hunt. Put on your Donnie Darko suit this weekend, sneak around in your own garden, then inevitably step on a marshmallow egg in August. It’s Easter, and it’s time to plan your Easter egg hunt. Build the base … Read more
Around this time every year, the howls of agony echo around the country – from south to north, people who enjoy a drink in moderation have just realised that religious traditions have impinged on their freedoms. But forewarned is forearmed. We present an updated guide to getting shitfaced on public holidays. Bars, supermarkets and bottle shops … Read more
The Spinoff has scoured the length and breadth of this great nation of ours (OK, we delved into the font of knowledge that is the friends of The Spinoff, plus the good people of Kai Corner) to bring you the very best hot cross buns of Aotearoa. No doubt we missed a bunch – please … Read more
Fermentation is having a moment, and it’s not all scobys and sauerkraut. Claire Adamson on the joys of embarking on a journey of discovery with her microbial mates. Connal Finlay is not content with waiting until the weekend to share his enthusiasm with me. Excitedly, he tells me about how cheese, pizza and coffee are … Read more
The first fisherman shows Simon Day how to fillet a fish using the famous Gisborne method. On a dull January afternoon, Clarke Gayford took two of The Spinoff staff into the Hauraki Gulf on a fishing expedition. I was there to take photos, while Spinoff editor Toby Manhire interviewed Gayford about his famous partner’s first … Read more
Thanks to a rapidly increasing population and some savvy young returnees, these days the Tron oozes quiet self-confidence. Follow the motorway south from New Zealand’s biggest city, past the fertile vegetable-growing soils of Pukekohe, the Hampton Downs race track and the historic battle site at Rangiriri, along the mighty Waikato River (where at every bend … Read more
An autumnal tipple to warm the cockles. Right on cue, the weather gets cooler, the clocks go back and autumn is well and truly here. Should you still be clutching onto summer and tall glasses of crisp apple cider, then let this be your panacea. Full of warming spices and zesty orange, it warms the … Read more
Dietary Requirements is The Spinoff’s monthly podcast in which we eat, drink and talk about it too, with special thanks to Freedom Farms. The Dietary Requirements crew had been anticipating the arrival of Duck Island’s first non-Hamilton shop for months, so when the dreamy ice cream parlour finally opened its doors in Ponsonby, we thought what … Read more
Yael Shochat, chef-owner of Auckland restaurant Ima Cuisine, shares the recipe for her hot cross buns – regularly voted among the best in the city. HOT CROSS BUNS Makes 12 You may use equal weights of pre-ground spices, but you’ll get a much better flavour if you can grind the whole spices yourself. You can … Read more
In the third part of a series in which The Spinoff gets to know who, what, where and how our food gets to our plate, Alice Neville learns about what goes into making mozzarella, ricotta, gorgonzola and more. The bright lights and smooth floors of the supermarket are a world away from the soil and sun, … Read more
Fresh from the tap, sealed and delivered to your door – and you can drink some, reseal it and finish later. Welcome to the latest innovation in craft beer consumption. In 2006, the New Zealand Herald confidently predicted the demise of the flagon. Once a staple of the Kiwi beer drinker, the fill-your-own vessels were going … Read more