Page 68 - Exploring Taste Magazine N.2

EXPLORING TASTE—SANTA MARGHERITA GRUPPO VINICOLO

Photo russellstreet

dish here. However, it is increasingly rediscovering its Maori origins, which are cen- name of the Minister of the Economy, Roger Douglas – that signif cantly broad-
turies old. As a matter of fact, this indigenous population, with its typical tattoos and ened the spectrum of foreign products. The capital has been changing ever since,
its famous iconography that has spread all over the world, has left a long tradition of providing a positive and multifaceted example of multiculturalism. Not only did the
recipes that are mostly unknown in old Europe. The ingredients come directly from Maori and the British inf uence Auckland, but so did Europe, Asia and the Americas.
Polynesia, to the point that even the most traditional dishes are characterized by From Spain to China, from Brazil to Japan, the city proudly represents every single
tropical scents and aromas. According to Maori rules, hāngi is the most traditional culinary tradition. And it does so by of ering a wide range of solutions, from big
cooking system – small natural ovens dug in the ground like craters. This is where restaurants to small bistros, from old-style English pubs to clubs for the young and
meat, f sh and vegetable dishes of the national menu selections are still prepared and cool. Nature provides the f nal touch, from locally sourced cheeses (just look at the
roasted. The special merit of this country’s soil lies in its geothermal properties, and number of sheep and cows along the roads) to great wines that can only be sipped
this true magnetic pole has been exploited at gastronomic level as well. The hāngi here. Enjoy your meal with an excellent glass of Sauvignon or Chardonnay obtained
look like small altars carved into Nature at its deepest, a food religion interrupted – from 100% local vines. You may have never thought it, but “Made in New Zealand”
but later enriched – by the arrival of European colonists. Three centuries ago, they cuisine can be a true discovery.
brought here new ingredients and a new way of cooking and looking at conviviality.
However, compared to other places in the world, the dialog between past and new
customs, deriving from the contamination of dif erent f avors, appears to have been
more respectful of the past here, so it survived over the centuries. Today Auckland
is the result of this long history. As a matter of fact, after the encounter with the
Maori culture, it saw the arrival of the British and was enriched by the constant dia-
log with the surrounding peoples across the Pacif c Ocean. In a sequence of dishes
and f avors that extends all the way to Asia, New Zealand cuisine is the result of the
policy of openness introduced in the 1980s – the so-called Rogernomics from the

One of the traditional cooking methods of the Maori culture
is hangi. It consists in digging an "oven” in the ground, warming it
with hot stones, arranging the food and covering it with soil, leaving
it there for a few hours.

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