today we're in Invercargill, New Zealand
we're so excited to show you a bunch of
Southland's local specialties
we're hunting down the best New Zealand food
food that celebrates our country's prime produce seafood and meat this is our
third video from New Zealand and we're at the bottom of the South Island watch
out for one of New Zealand's most prized delicacies and a whole lot of Kiwi
classics
in this four-part series we're traveling all over New Zealand to show
you the best food from our homeland from food gathered right from the source to
dishes that represent New Zealand's diverse ethnic communities plus a ton of
Aotearoa's awe inspiring landscapes you don't want to miss this series get ready
for some mouth-watering food
I'm Thomas and I'm Sheena and we're Chasing a Plate
we hope you're hungry, let's eat
we are super excited about this Southland video
we are going to be showing you all of the local delicacies and favourites
and things that you should be eating when you're in this region now we're
starting this food tour in the small town of Bluff and Bluff is 20 minutes
outside of Invercargill and it is famous for its oysters now Bluff oysters grow
in the Foveaux Strait and the cool and deep waters make them taste
absolutely phenomenal and they're really slow growing and there is a really
strict quota system per season which makes them really really prized we can't
wait to get into these let's go and grab some
holy moly check them out two dozen Bluffies I
am beyond excited let's go and get into them
I have never had two dozen Bluff oysters sitting in front of me the reason for
that is because they truly are a delicacy so they are only in season from
March to August and as I was saying they're really slow growing so these
guys are about nine years old when they're caught and there is a really
strict quota system so this year they're allowed 14.95 million
oysters across the season but the industry have decided that they're going
to limit that to 7.5 million so there's always a huge demand
that totally outweighs the supply which means that they're also super expensive
so two dozen of these Bluff oysters was $64 New Zealand dollars which is a
lot of money so this is a real treat I'm gonna go in and just eat one and I think
I'm gonna go for this really juicy fellow right here so they've run out of
lemon but that's okay I'm happy to have it just natural nothing on it
so all right oh god this is gonna be so good all right
hmm oh man
oh it is so good they're very briny, very creamy and
they have a really strong mineral flavour that mineral flavour coats your mouth
and it really lingers and it really doesn't need anything else it doesn't need lemon
it doesn't need pepper, it doesn't need vinegar it's just the most stunning
intense beautiful flavour on its own
look at these oysters it's unbelievable
like Sheena said to have this many in front of us so these are a dredged
oyster not a rock oyster so they sit on the seabed and the boats go out and they
dredge them up off the seafloor, fresh as and the smell is unbelievable
just a really salty smell they smell like if you're on a very wide open windblown
beach and you've got the the kelp sort of drying in the sun and that sea air
coming in that's the smell you get from these let's just grab one
Oh my god
these are unreal
Ohhhh
something I love about Bluff oysters is the
texture they've got a lot of bite so you can really bite into them they're almost
like probably the best thing I can think to describe the texture is like a piece
of stewed apple so it's got real bite on the teeth it's not crunchy it's soft so
it's really well stewed apples so soft but often oysters just sort of dissolve
in your mouth and slip down your throat these don't you can really eat them can
chew them oh and the flavour just keeps on giving it's still going so that that
mineral-ly flavour that Sheena talked about and the that saltiness that sea
flavour but it's not overpowering it just keeps going and going you could easily eat one
of these and just sit on it for 10-15 minutes because you're still going to be
getting the flavour that is unbelievably good
all right so Fowler's Oysters also do deep fried oysters and we thought while
we're here we may as well get into those as well so we ordered some battered
oysters and chips and it almost seems sacrilegious
to me to deep fry a Bluff oyster but the gang at Fowler's Oysters say
that it's the best way to eat em so let's see
let's try one of these
deep-fried ones this one's got a little handle so we'll go with that
hmm, hmm
ooo that is good the batter's very thin and super super crispy but the
oyster tastes umm it tastes like a normal oyster to me not like a Bluff oyster
so that really unique beautiful flavour you get from the Bluff oysters I feel has
been taken away a bit so it just it's really good like really tasty but give me
the fresh ones any day so you get that full punch of Bluff oyster flavour
those oysters are so good we've grabbed some some takeaways
so we can have these later on tonight there's another two dozen in here
whoop whoop incredible
we've left Bluff it's now the next day and we're in Invercargill which is really close to
Bluff this is the southern most city in New Zealand meant to have some really
good food and it's a relatively big city it's got 55,000 people so there's quite a bit
here to check out so we're gonna go sample some food for breakfast
we've come to an Invercargill institution the Zookeepers cafe and we are here to eat
one of Southland's most famous foods and that is the Southland cheese roll
I'm so ready to get into this breakfast let me show you what we've ordered so this is
the famous Southland cheese roll look at all of that gooey cheese oozing out of
that bread and there was one other thing on the menu that we absolutely had to
order when we saw it and that was muttonbird or titi so that's the muttonbird
there and it's served on bubble and squeak and we've got some poached
eggs and hollandaise on the top
let's start with this cheese roll now you can
really only find cheese rolls in this part of the world you can't get them in
the North Island of New Zealand so when you're down in these parts this is the
thing to eat now what it is, is a gooey cheese mixture that's wrapped up in a
piece of bread, grilled and then topped with a pat of butter and then there's a little bit
of parsley on the top as well so let's just give this a taste
that is so so good
the cheese mixture is often a little bit of a secret it
usually has evaporated milk, a packet of onion soup mix, grated cheese and then
sometimes people add dijon mustard sometimes a little bit of grated
onion, the overwhelming flavour is that
onion soup mixture beautiful onion flavour it's really gooey, cheesy creamy and
then that bread is really crunchy and just it's just a really really good
snack
the guys at Zookeeper's Cafe said
that their cheese rolls are also really good dunked into sweet chilli sauce so let's give it a go
super tasty, the sweet chilli is nice but I feel like it overwhelms the cheese roll
flavour a little bit it's just such a classic Kiwi snack that I don't think
it needs anything else to go with it this one's really good because it's got
little chunks of sweet onion in there as well oh this is a winner
this Eggs Shadbolt is such an interesting dish to me and I've always wanted to try
this muttonbird so you can see, see the bird there and it's called muttonbird
because the early settlers the early European settlers to Norfolk Island
thought this tasted like mutton and the look of it is I mean that looks like
lamb that's amazing the way it pulls apart like that let's rip in I'll tell you all
about what's in here but I'm just gonna get into this bubble and squeak
underneath and a big stack of muttonbird first
oh my god
the muttonbird's incredible I can see why they called
it muttonbird it's got a fattiness like lamb but muttonbird is a
sea bird it eats a ton of fish I mean that's all it eats and that tastes like
fish it tastes like um small oily fish so it tastes like sardines, anchovies
that sort of thing it's got a saltiness it's got a real oiliness let's just have
some by itself
the flavour's amazing it's really sweet but then that that
fish, fish flavour the salt and the sea it's incredible so there's some
pretty interesting things about this dish one it's called Eggs Shadbolt so
that's a take on Eggs Benedict Shadbolt is a person Tim Shadbolt he's
the mayor down here in Invercargill and has been for as long as I can remember he's
well loved so this dish is obviously named after him
Gidday everyone, I'm Tim Shadbolt, the mayor of Invercargill
and you're watching Chasing a Plate
so it's got hollandaise
poached eggs the muttonbird and the muttonbird is sitting on bubble and squeak
and bubble and squeak is basically all the leftovers from a roast
so this one looks like it's got I see some peas, some beans, some corn, some
onions, some kumara or sweet potato potato and it's all just fried together
in fact this one looks like it's been deep-fried so it's just all your
leftovers put together to make a little base ingredient and it works
really well with this and the muttonbird is a super interesting bird as well
in the way it's harvested so it's actually harvested from its burrow so it
all the islands south of here so down the very bottom of New Zealand there's an
island called Stewart Island which has a number of islands all around it and
the Maori the indigenous people of New Zealand they harvest the muttonbird
so every year they harvest about a quarter of a million so 250,000 of these birds and
they grab them from the burrow when they're young so before they they leave
the burrow after they're born they, they grab them from there and so they're
quite a small bird but they're a sea bird so they and they actually migrate all
the way you know all around the world they go to America but they where they
breed and their home base is right here at the very bottom of New Zealand it's a
super unique thing to be eating because I mean coming from Auckland which is at
the top of New Zealand I've never ever seen muttonbird for sale in a shop, in
a restaurant anywhere, it's really beautiful the creaminess of the egg the
bubble and squeak's a little bit crunchy and creamy but it's all about the muttonbird
I'd happily just pretty much have a pile of muttonbird here because the
flavour is super super intense it's really good
what an awesome way to start the day super unique food at a super unique
restaurant so the titi or the muttonbird we loved it, phenomenal, absolutely loved it's so good
to try and that cheese roll otherwise known as southern sushi that's what they
call it here as well done south, that's a great name oh man it was so good I almost
want to take like a huge pack of them takeaway and take them back up north
so cheesy so so good, but there's more food just up the road so let's go get
the next thing
next up we're hunting down what locals say is a really good pie now when
we talk about pies in New Zealand we mean savoury pies never sweet pies and
judging by the line that's out the door of Fat Bastard pies I think we're in for a
bit of a treat
there were some really good-looking pies in that cabinet but we went for a lamb,
mint and kumara pie and this thing is really hefty it weighs quite a bit and
it's a really good-looking pie so you've got this flaky buttery pastry on
the top and then inside I think it's gonna be packed with filling so let's
just give this thing a taste, alright
Ohhh, ooo, it's hot
whoa
look at that dark filling so that mouthful was
mainly pastry which was really light and buttery and I just got a tiny bit of
that filling but already it's got a really beautiful savoury flavour and that
mint and that lamb, the lamb is so tender the mint is quite subtle but
works really well, I've bitten into the pie to show you just how packed with
filling it is so you've got these tender tender chunks of braised lamb that
orange thing there is the kumara so that's sweet potato and then it's bound in
this beautiful thick dark gravy all right let's go again
Man! That lamb is melt-in-your-mouth it is so tender it just falls apart it's
got a beautiful flavour the mint is stronger sort of deeper within the
pie
that is just he perfect partner to that lamb
and then the kumara is really earthy and sweet whoa this is a good pie
I'm wolfing into
this pie now I've already had some it is truly incredible that dark gravy unreal
I reckon we need to go back and buy some more, try their mince and cheese