It's official: Surfboards, bottled water and parsnips are Hot. Sherry, takeaway soup and hairspray are officially Not. That's right - official. Statistics New Zealand official.
This is all in StatsNZ's new "basket of representative goods and services", which is used to calculate the consumer price index, i.e. inflation. Think of it as the shopping basket for Joe Blogg, his de facto partner and 2.4 multiethnic children living mostly in Auckland.
Gone are the inferior fish fingers, coal, and laundry taps; in are the fish fillets, gas bottles and mixer taps (woooo... hot *and* cold). VCRs have been replaced with VCR/DVDs, DVD players have been replaced with DVD player/recorders, and TVs have been replaced with LCD TVs.
Now that's progress.
Hat tip to Molesworth and Featherston, who also point out that the venerable worcestershire sauce, brewed in the mother-country since the 1830s, has been displaced by the symbol of the Asian invasion, the soy sauce. Just a heads up to you lot: If there are not three separate soy sauces next time (cooking, seasoning, sashimi), there will be trouble. Big trouble.
Not sure how parsnips got in there, but I would like to suggest (as my one and only original contribution to the recipe world) a leek and parsnip fish curry. The subtle flavours of the parsnip actually goes really well in a fish curry. Just make sure you cook the parsnips well before you chuck them in.
Um, okay, I don't have an actual recipe, so much as a general idea. Try one leek, four parsnips and two large pieces of fish. And, um, two cans of coconut cream, half a bottle of green curry, some lemongrass and fresh coriander. Oh, and a tablespoon of brown sugar.
Instructions: Put together as you see fit.
For extra seafoody goodness, put the curry together first, then cook some (meticulously cleaned) mussels in them. That way, you get green curry mussels and an extra-yummy fish curry. Score!
Will serve sixish. Or more, I guess, cos I was really hungry yesterday and ate heaps.
Right. That brings my career as a recipe-writer to a timely, yet long-overdue close.
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