Portal:New Zealand/Selected article/Week 9, 2006
New Zealand cuisine is characterised by its freshness and diversity. Diversity is owed to its relative youth, in world terms, which brings a willingness to experiment with food. Freshness is owed to its surrounding ocean and fertile lands. Its distinctiveness is more in the way New Zealanders eat - generally preferring to be as relaxed and unaffected as possible.
New Zealand’s cuisine has been described as Pacific Rim, drawing inspiration from Europe, Asia, Polynesia and its indigenous people, the Maori. For dishes that have a distinctly New Zealand style, there’s lamb, pork and cervena (venison), salmon, crayfish (lobster), Bluff oysters, paua (abalone), mussels, scallops, pipis and tuatua (both are types of New Zealand shellfish); kumara (sweet potato), kiwifruit, tamarillo, feijoa, Hokey Pokey Ice Cream and pavlova, the national dessert.