Food: Wellington vs Auckland?

coastcat · Posted: Mon May 17, 2004 7:46 pm Post subject: Food: Wellington vs Auckland?

Okay, this may be a silly way of determining a future residence, but hey...

My husband and I are considering emigrating to NZ (from the US) in 4-5 years. His background is in computer support, and he's moving into network administration. However, by the time we're ready to try emigrating he probably still won't have his BS completed, thus we can't try for POL/OSL. Sigh. I'm changing careers, and plan to enter grad school next year to get my Masters in Library Science with a specialization in corporate librarianship (the fancy term is "knowledge management"). We're not starting the emigration process until I've graduated and have a couple years of experience (so I can be the primary applicant).

I'll probably stand the best chance of finding work where major corporations congregate. Auckland and Wellington are the obvious choices. We live in a very cosmopolitan city (a suburb of Washington), and I'm accustomed to having a huge variety of international markets and restaurants available.

My husband is not much of a foodie, and only asks that there be a decent Thai restaurant and plenty of junk food available. (unfortunately three of his favorite treats - Goldfish crackers, Triscuit crackers, and Cherry Coke - do not appear to be sold in NZ) I'm half-Japanese, addicted to a lot of Asian cuisines, and regularly cook Korean and Szechuan dishes. My necessities are markets well-stocked with Chinese/Japanese/Korean produce & dry goods and at least one excellent dim sum (yum cha) restaurant. Oh, and maybe a good Italian deli that makes fresh mozzarella and imports good proscuitto and sopressata.

So... Auckland or Wellington?

I've also got an unusual food question: what varieties of crabs are generally found in NZ markets? It's the beginning of blue crab season here in Maryland, and a perfect summer day includes a tableful of blue crabs steamed with a peppery spice mixture. Can I find a substitute in NZ, or will I have to rack up the frequent flyer miles every June?

TreborS · Testing The Water Joined: 18 May 2004 Posts: 2

HI

We lived in AKL for 10 years prior to coming to the UK (where we still are) for a stint. We'll be returning to NZ next year and one of the things we are really looking forward to is the Asian food. My wife is a Malaysian/NZer and is a bit of a foodie.

Due to its very large Asian population Auckland has literally dozens and dozens of Chinese, Korean, Thai, Japanese etc supermarkets so sourcing produce for your home cooking will not be a problem. Likewise it is very well served in terms of Asian restaurants. So much so in fact that my parents in law reckoned during our recent holiday in NZ that plenty of the Chinese and Malaysian places in Auckland are better than what they are used to in their hometown of Ipoh, Malaysia! (known as the food capital of Malaysia).

One thing I really miss from Auckland is the range and quality of 'cheap n cheerful' noodle house type places. London just doesn't compare in this regard I'm afraid. There are hundreds of places that do excellent Korean, Chinese or Vietnamese for around the NZ$8 mark. As a rule avoid the takeaway joints that advertise themselves as selling "Chinese and European" food.

Some Thai places go for about $8 as well but generally they are a little more upmarket. Just did a quick search on the internet phone book for Auckland and came up with more than 100 Thai restaurants in the region. So plenty to choose from there.

Auckland also has quite a number of superb upmarket Japanese places where the freshness of the seafood really comes into its own (try the 2 Rikka places in Vic Park and Newmarket) but ,as you would expect, these are much more expensive than the noddle houses. Sushi takeaway shops abound throughout Auckland, especially in the central city area (most, but not all, of the ones I've tried were very good). There are also quite a few yakitori and sake bars. The best Sushi I've ever eaten outside of Japan was brought from a tiny, rundown looking place owned by a Korean lady in Dominion Rd.

Crabs - well I know my wife loves them and occasionally cooked them at home. So they are obviously readily available but couldn't tell you what type. There are several Italian delis around as well but didn't use them much so can't answer your specific questions.

Wellingtonians are proud of the food scene in their city as well but I'm not really qualified to tell you too much about it. I know on the times I've been down there I noticed that the place seemed to be absolutely packed with fairly classy looking joints. Wellington does have its fair share of Asian supermarkets and restaurants but I doubt it would have the sheer number that Auckland has simply because of the population difference and the fact that it doesn't have hoardes of foreign students to feed like Auckland does.

Hope this helps.

veronica · Posted: Thu May 20, 2004 10:39 am Post subject:

from what I've seen so far there is a choice of asian foods in all parts of NZ.

Moorf · Posted: Fri May 21, 2004 8:31 am Post subject: