Snacking in Auckland
There is a raft of eating places in Auckland: eateries of all kinds use the freshest ingredients and simple preparation. Although you won’t always get high-end cuisine most good places use unprocessed, pure, often locally sourced foods to turn out good honest fare that can surprise and delight.
Many of Auckland's best dining options are in its residential neighborhoods that you can get to by bus or taxi. Break away from the tourist-filled cafés on Viaduct Harbour and pull up a chair in a hidden Parnell garden, or a bustling Ponsonby sidewalk café, catch the ferry to Devonport or cab it to Takapuna for an alfresco meal enjoyed the way Kiwis do it, with good wine and friends.
English influences are everywhere but with a modern sensibility. Your afternoon tea just might be a slice of passion fruit cake and a flat white. Nearly every street with shops has a few eateries, a fish-and-chips shop, and several places for a great coffee.
Perfect Picnics
Auckland's many parks, with impressive native and introduced trees, beckon the outdoor diner. Supermarkets, gourmet shops, and most small cafés will make you a picnic. You can get a luxury hamper at one of many delicatessens, or select fresh fruit from numerous vendors.
Faster food is already wrapped and waiting at Wishbone, a unique elegant take-out chain found around the city. On tap are creative daily soups and special salads, and light sandwiches, like chicken, Brie, and cranberries.
Snacking the Kiwi Way
Hokey-Pokey Ice Cream. Chances are you've never had dairy as fresh as New Zealand butter or cream. Go for the full-fat version of this vanilla ice cream dotted with toffee bits.
Kūmara Fries. Packed with potassium and fiber, kūmara fries are guilt-free delicious snacks. The kūmara, or sweet potato, has a rich heritage as a Māori food staple. Red, gold, and orange varieties are plentiful in New Zealand today. Orange is the sweetest, especially fried and served with sweet chili sauce and sour cream. These fries are soft rather than crunchy.
Pavlova. Like the ballerina for whom it was named, this national dessert is feather light—a meringue topped with fruit, sauce, and fresh cream. The confection is essentially hollow, but it forms the tough core of one of the many Kiwi and Aussie rivalries: who invented it first and named it after Anna Pavlova? So far, Kiwis have the edge: a recipe predating the Australian one by six years. Look for the treat on the menu around Christmastime.
Whitebait Fritters. The Kiwi passion for this seafood, a smeltlike fish caught as juveniles as they head upriver to spawn, is so intense that the media reports the start of whitebait season. Find the pancake-size fritters at markets or as a daily special in cafés. Strict controls and popularity make it a delicious and pricey delicacy.
The Cafferatti
Auckland is home to the self-described cafferatti—those who live for coffee. Aucklanders happily tick off lists of go-to coffee shops and joints to avoid. A top-notch barista is key. In fact, some follow baristas from café to café. Locals prefer small independent shops that often operate in tiny spots with room for little more than a coffee machine, a small food cabinet, and a few stools. Aucklanders drink on the run, so you may see people present their own cups (some use brightly colored “keepcups”) to be filled. To blend in with the cafferatti, order a double shot flat white—thicker and less milky than a latte, with a smoother, richer flavor than cappuccino—or a short black (espresso). And true members of the cafferatti never order flavoring, so save your caramel craving for when you return home.
