The Origins of Feijoas (+ Bonus Handmade, Machine Free Ice Cream Recipe)

Fei-a-what?

I know, I had never heard of them either until I set foot on NZ soil. The word itself is not even coming up in my spellcheck! But man, were we blessed with being here in feijoa season!

So what is a feijoa?

Also known as the pineapple guava, guavasteen, or guayabo, the little green guy has a similar origin as the pineapple: cool subtropical and tropical highlands (less than 1000 m) of southern Brazil, Uruguay, western Paraguay, and northern Argentina.Pronounced fe-JO-a, a German botanist named it after Portuguese botanist João da Silva Feijó, born in the then colony of Brazil. 

Which means everyone who knows our history of traveling and living in Latin America is shocked we're not familiar with the fruit. In all of the Latin markets Matt and I have been to, from southern Mexico all the way down to Argentina, in highlands and lowlands, we never once laid eyes on a feijoa, even though I've read they do grow commercially in Chile and Colombia. 

The feijoa needs hot, dry weather to thrive and was introduced to Europe and North America in the 19^th century. It wasn't brought to NZ until the 1920s, yet it's a crop the kiwis must have nailed pretty quickly as NZ is one of the top growers worldwide. Despite their commonality, locals still get excited when the first feijoa hits the ground, usually sometime in early autumn (feijoas aren't harvested off the tree; one must wait for it to take its pretty little time to fall to the ground. Then it's ready to eat).

So. Many. Feijoas.

So what does a feijoa taste like? Well, my first experience was in juice form when we were only days into our journey in NZ and I saw a bottle of cold pressed feijoa juice on sale at the stupidmarket (a common kiwi saying for supermarket. One I quite like, I must say). It was cloyingly sweet, with a gritty texture that reminded me of pear. I was happy I got the small bottle.

HOWEVER. When plucked right off the ground in fresh form, these little oval-shaped egg-sized nuggets of joy are a pleasure to eat. A tad sweet yet a bit sour when they're firm and first fallen, they do get sweeter with time like any fruit, but I dig them on the sour side. They do have a little of that pear-like sandy texture, which is much better when fresh than in a juice. But they also have a flavor that's all it's own that I can't describe. It would be like trying to explain what banana flavor is without saying banana. Know what I mean? (Side note: an internet source says they taste like a mix of pineapple, strawberry and guava if that helps at all… maybe make a smoothie with those three and get the gist? Hmm.)

AND they're so prolific and smallish, you can eat heaps before you get sick of them! The skin is generally not eaten, so one way to eat the delicacy is you can stick your finger in it, rip it in half and scrape your teeth off the inside of the skin while the flesh and juices ooze into your mouth. Or, you can be more dignified and cut it in half and scoop it out with a teaspoon. Can you tell which way I prefer?

Feijoa guts!

What to do when there are so many feijoas and there's no WAY a household of five will eat them before they go off? You can try giving them away, but we literally couldn't get any takers at the Weka Workshop as all of the locals were already chokkers (translation: "chock full" in Aussie- and Kiwi-speak) with them. So you get creative! We had feijoa in our morning yogurt and granola, we had a dessert with stewed feijoas and whipped cream. We heard about feijoa chutney, but we never saw it. And, of course, local breweries also make alcoholic feijoa cider. Aside from fresh, whole feijoas, the best in our opinion was the feijoa ice cream, recipe shown below.

For size comparison.

So the reason most of us non-Kiwis probably don't know of the feijoa is they are rather delicate and bruise easily, like a fig, making them hard to ship internationally. If you're curious, the season in the southern hemisphere runs from late March to June and apparently they grow in California, where the fruit is harvested October to December. If you DO find feijoas, and you don't live in Aotearoa, we would love to hear where you scored your treasure!

Our lovely host Karen shared the following recipe for feijoa ice cream:

• 200g feijoa

• 100-200g sugar (or to taste, depending on ripeness of fruit)

• 1 tsp lemon juice

• 300g whipped cream

• 1 egg white

Food process fruit, lemon juice and sugar together until pulpy. Beat fruit mixture with egg white until soft peaks form. Whip cream separately. Fold fruit mixture into whipped cream. Freeze until hard ( a few hours). Enjoy!

Source: https://feijoafeijoa.wordpress.com/facts/

Origins of some really awesome coffee

Recently Lindsey left you with a great little piece on our beer adventures through Wellington. Not long after the story was posted my Mum made the comment during a phone conversation that "after all that beer Matt, you must have had one hell of a hangover!" So in response to my mother's concern for my brain cells and in case any of you wonderful readers out there have a similar night out in 'the coolest little capital in the world,' we here at Origins of Food have a few recommendations for some great local spots you can find to cure those morning-after pains.

David Chang's Lucky Peach quarterly, found all across Wellington.

Before we landed in Wellington on a more than brisk evening, Lindsey and I had spent the previous 10 days at Awhi Farm, which aside from being an incredible place to learn and discover, hadn't really done much to tantalize our strong addiction to coffee. Now I can drink bad or instant coffee just as much as the next guy, but after spending four years on and off as a barista and having just finished a stint working with one of Sydney's up and coming top local roasters, by the end of our 10 days we had a strong craving for a coffee that could be prepared by more sophisticated techniques then the stirring of a spoon. Luckily for us, Wellington was the right place to land with such a craving!

Following the trends of other coffee hot spots around the world, Wellington has a similar city vibe to other 'cup of Joe' meccas with political graffiti on the walls, buskers hanging out on the street corners, more local breweries than you can poke a stick at and a young and financially able generation of food and beverage lovers who through their dedication have created a city ripe for creative and enthusiastic cafe owners and baristas who wish to push the limits of coffee with their brews.


There was no way that we could possibly visit all the cafes that had made our shortlist while still staying mentally sane, so we decided to keep it simple, local and concentrated on those that fell into a three or four block radius of our hostel. (This really didn't limit our options what so ever.)

Single origin beans on offer at Lamason

First stop took a little wandering to find, but we eventually stumbled out of the rain and into Lamason Brew Bar, which really is the answer to every coffee-hungry, head-heavy traveler. With 5 single origin coffees on offer we were spoilt for choice, however, the real choice came with method. We had heard of Lamason's fame for making an amazing siphon coffee, so a little hesitantly we let go our craving for a big dark espresso and hoped that their Siphon would deliver the caffeinated goods just as well. After choosing two different Ethiopian beans for trial, the preparation of the coffee was enough to wake us up and the coffee itself didn't disappoint.

For those unsure of what exactly siphon coffee entails:
It is a simple brewing method by which water is heated in a bottom chamber with the top half sitting ajar. Once the water is boiling the top cylinder is placed on top thus creating a seal which causes the water to travel up a tube and into the top cylinder where the ground coffee has been placed. Once the coffee has been stored and brewed for a designated period of time the seal is broken and the coffee plunges again to the bottom chamber where it is ready to be served. This technique allows baristas to extract more nuanced and individual flavors from the coffee compared to the big bold flavors associated with espresso.

Step one: water is boiled by a bunsen burner like flame in the 

bottom chamber

Step two: Ground coffee is added, a seal is created and water travels up the device into the top cylinder to brew

Step three: seal is broken and coffee travels back down to the bottom chamber,
ready to be served

Our selected coffees.
The Harar was bold and acidic, nice and earthy while the Yirgacheffe was delicate and fruity.
EVERYTHING WAS AWESOME.

With some coffee in our bellies and our eyes opened to the world of siphons, our next stop on the coffee train was around the corner at Flight Coffee's Hangar cafe. With a big space that has been retrofitted with all of coffee's latest gadgets and trends, it was here that we had heard great things and where we were keen to continue soothing our deprivation of good coffee. Lindsey was eager to get a stronger burst and ordered a Guatemalan espresso while I found comfort in the idea of another brewed coffee hoping that the larger quantity of the pour over coffee compared to the espresso would help warm me from the cold and wet New Zealand day outside.  Again, we were happily pleased with two outstanding coffees. We were also impressed by Hangar's 'post cards' that came with our coffee. These were little cards that gave a brief description of region, variety, the producer and altitude of our coffee while also giving a chart that explained some of the flavor characteristics of each cup.

Caffeine inducing and informational. Bonus!

We were already feeling pretty awake and bordering on shaking at this point but we couldn't stop now that we were on a roll, so we bounced ourselves over to the next recommended cafe in the neighborhood, the showroom cafe for Supreme Coffee Roasters, Customs Brew Bar. Supreme Coffee started as a small coffee roaster from Wellington but as all good things do, they have grown and now have expanded their service throughout their home country and into Australia. Lindsey and I were more than happy to make one last stop and enjoy some tasty espressos in this beautiful, modern and sleek cafe that makes you feel both at home and indulged. The perfect way to finish our Wellington coffee crawl. 

Customs Brew Bar

So if you're ever seeking some delicious and interesting cups of coffee in the Wellington downtown area, give these locations a try and leave sat-is-fied. 

We most definitely did.

…and don't forget to drink plenty of H2o

The Origins of So Many Delicious Beverages: Wellington

Wellington: "The coolest little capital in the world." Known as the political and cultural capital of New Zealand, also known in the food world as the beer and cafe capital of this tiny but trend-setting country.

We are going to write a two-part blog on the city's food production, focusing on beer (and soda as a side bonus) first, and the cafe scene second. Wellington is often compared to Melbourne and Portland, in regards to the high proportion of microbreweries per capita, and while craft beer only makes up about 2% of beer sales in New Zealand, it is the fastest growing segment of the brewing industry, increasing by about 25% per year…. something to think about. Side note: hops is also a popular crop grown in NZ, which must help incentivize local beer lovers to make their own brews.

Bringing back Lionel Richie, yeah!

While traveling on a budget, and sticking mainly to wwoofing and a little site seeing on our days off, we knew that Wellington would be our one chance to indulge in a bit of city-slickerdom, eating at hole-in-the-wall Asian noodle houses or kebab joints, hopping around beer bars and cafes. We gave ourselves less than 48 hours to tackle it all, as well as the famous Te Papa, the national museum and art gallery, with a huge collection of Maori artifacts and history (yes, Mom, we still find time for museums!).

After our ridiculously good four-hour bus ride from Taupo, (a $9 ticket got us free hot drinks, wifi, outlets, cookies and hokey pokey ice cream!) we arrived in Wellington refreshed and ready to jump right into the beer scene, no dinner needed.

Wee! In a city again!

Note on NZ hostels. They are expensive. Like, really, really expensive. Average $30 for a TEN PERSON dorm without a bath (compared to $6-$10 max we paid in Guatemala). So we sucked it up and checked into the cheapest option, the international chain Nomad's, which also happens to be the largest backpackers hostel I think I've ever stepped foot in (think hundreds of 18-35 year olds, elevators and electric key cards). We lucked into a free upgrade to a 4-person with ensuite bathroom… and it was actually pretty sweet. Clean, comfortable beds. Even a double bed on the bottom bunk! Clean bathroom with private shower and toilet. Even a free pancake breakfast from 7-9am (keeping in mind if you procrastinate until 8:30 you have to fight about 100 sleepy kids for one of 16 stove burners for what turned out to be flavorless pancake batter and imitation maple syrup, but, still free!).

Noted.

Back to the beer! We wandered around the Cuba Street area and stumbled upon Golding's Free Dive Bar almost immediately, which was also at the top of our bar list. Serendipity I say.

Advertised as an "American style" dive bar, it was much cleaner, quieter and well-mannered than what comes to mind when I think American dive bar. And no peanuts on the floor. Wha?

But it still had the most charm out of any of the other bars we ended up visiting in Wellington, so that's something. We sampled a few of the beers on tap before Matt decided on the Parrot Dog Double Stout and I on a German sour beer, the Panhead Culture Vulture Salted Gose. The double stout was so toasty it reminded me of a liquid version of my favorite Essene toast, a dark and earthy bread made from sprouted wheat. The Salted Gose was crazy special, and reminded me of the sour (almost pickly) ciders I tasted in the Basque Country. (Just did some research on Salted Gose beer- it is indeed brewed with salted water and spiced with coriander). Both proved Wellington's beer hype is well earned.

The next day found us cafe hopping (more about that later), museuming, soda sampling, and, of course, beer tasting. We had noticed the night before that right next to Golding's was Six Barrel Soda Company, a small local soda business.  Six Barrel was on the menu at every cafe we had visited in the morning and we were stoked at the community's support for other small businesses.

Not regular soda drinkers, we were nonetheless intrigued at learning how artisanal sodas are made, how creative one could get with soda flavors as well as supporting a small food producer. Up the stairs we went and into their production area/ retail cafe. Cute in a factory-come-cafe kind of way, with boxes stacked everywhere, soda syrups on display, board games at the ready, and an open view of their production area, we sat by a window and decided to kill a few hours drinking soda and playing Scrabble.

Matt thinking hard about his next Scrabble word. 

(L-R): Celery tonic, kola nut, cherry pom.

Well, we couldn't choose just one or two of their twelve flavors (!) so asked if we could have sampler glasses, which surprisingly was not something they regularly did but were happy to accommodate us. We went with the classic kola nut, fruity cherry pomegranate, spicy celery tonic and refreshing orange dandy. Six Barrel makes the syrups using fresh and dried whole ingredients, nothing artificial, and mixes them with SodaStream soda water on demand. Bottles of the syrup are also available to take home, should you want to make liters of the stuff on your own.

And Coca-Cola guards its recipe like it's the holy grail. This is all it should take,  folks.

The colors of the sodas are bright and inviting, and we could definitely see this being "a thing." Celery tonic was the leader by far (hellooo Gin and Celery Tonic cocktails!), followed by the kola nut, orange dandy and cherry pom taking last place.

Too many flavors. Can. Not. Process.

Where the magic happens, as they say. Pretty basic!

 Energized from the sodas, we made our way to the museum for a few hours and then it was finally beer o'clock. Our first stop was the Garage Project, about a 15 minute walk from central Wellington and in a cool, bohemian part of the city.

The tasting counter and retail area to the right of the garage.

Beer tanks in the garage. Sorry for the fuzziness, I didn't want to look too eager beaver taking pictures of the cool kids' beer operation, so I snapped this photo hastily.

What's in those tanks, if you were wondering.

On tap, to sample as we pleased, or to fill up your growler/flagon on demand. Imagine the keg stand potential!

We had about 10 samples this size, gratis. See how the hop plant resembles a certain high herb?

Only a few years old, Garage Project started out like most micro breweries, by making beer at home, eventually bought the garage and, voila, a local microbrewery flourished, now exporting to Australia, Norway, Hong Kong and Singapore. They sell out of nearly everything and have orders they can't fill. After spending about an hour tasting at the counter (we were personally led through all 8 beers on tap, as well as two special brews in bottles), and after observing the constant stream of locals coming in and out with their own growlers or flagons to fill from the tap, it is obvious that this is still very much a local beer company, serving the artists, the misfits and the connoisseurs. Among things we learned: hops and cannabis look very similar, and are in fact cousins. Cannabis beer is a thing. We also learned the beauty in Keeping It Simple, Stupid. They make a very simple beer made with just 3 ingredients: Pilsner malt, Saaz hops and Czech yeast. And they call it "Beer." Matt loved it.

Cereal Milk beer! Inspired by David Chang's Milk Bar.

After  our 10 tastings, we ended up with a 2 liter bottle of the Baltic Porter, whoops!

 After that, it was beer or bust. We hit a few more beer bars from the "must visit" online lists but we were done. Garage Project won our hearts and we were happy. As seen below.

 

Yes!

Dad! Andrew! Anthony!
Look what I found! All the way from Coconut Grove.

A Week of Food Production In Photos

Bringing it back to the Origins of Food. While Matt wrote yesterday about what kept us busy this past 10 days, we also thought it might help to show some of the food growing in action. That whole picture = 1,000 words thing.

If, like me, you grew up in suburbia without a thought of what a carrot looks like before it's picked, or the dangers of harvesting blackberries, then these are for you. Or, if you are already well aware of how our beautiful fruits and veggies look in their prime, and just enjoy looking at their beauty, then these, too, are for you. 

We hope you enjoy.

Look tempting, eh?

Then you find these wicked things.

And they are layered, thickly.

They are evil. They wrap around you and don't let go.

Legs and feet covered.

Leather gloves and hedge trimmers help defeat the evil.

 

Exotic, earthy black cherry tomatoes.

Beautiful juicy heirlooms.

No CCD here at Awhi, only thick, sweet manuka-blends.

North America, we call this Swiss or Rainbow Chard.
Everyone else seems to call it Silverbeet.
Delicious whatever you call it.

Carrots poking through!

Happy carrots.

A pluot tree post-harvest (plum-apricot hybrid).

Eve would have trouble at Awhi Farm; so many ripe apples begging to be picked.

So of course we do.
Apples at every meal!

Too many varieties to name, and so photogenic.

this combination has been enjoyed stewed with oatmeal, baked in muffins, pureed for dessert and fresh off the tree.
We even made dessert pizzas when we had too much dough leftover.
Pureed, topped with fresh apples, cinnamon and honey!
Such a pleasure after spending so many years in Latin America, pining for a good apple.

Did you know you wait for the pumpkin vine to die before you can harvest them? Fact.

A patch of kamu kamu squash. A bit late in harvesting, it appears.

Not bad for a morning's harvest. Sold a few for $1/kilo at the weekly market.

The rest, thanks to our French co-wwoofers, has gone into a few pots of ratatouille.

Two of our 15 or so resident laying hens. Thanks, ladies!

A freshly laid dozen eggs collected every morning.
Can't be beat for quiches, french toast, omelets, tempura, banana bread….

Found some seeds in the cabinet...

…so we'll have sprouts in a few days.

Voila. Literally, just add water.

If we've cooked for you...

… you know this garlic hut is gold.

Awhi Farm's fresh oregano and garlic for garlic bread.

Matt made some hand pulled fettucine to go with our Frenchy's bolognese

Wood oven herbed bread for the weekly market.

Apple and blackberry muffins for the market.

In a few hours we're off to Wellington for two nights, in the south of the North Island. Famous for its microbreweries and specialty cafes, you can be sure we will continue this theme of scouting out excellent freshly made food and drink in this corner of the world.

Cheers, salud, santé!

On the Tongariro Alpine Crossing