It is a lovely day here in Auckland – pretty much like an English summer’s day – so I managed to get out to the little shopping area close to the hotel. There is a small convenience store there and I went looking for strange New Zealand food. I’m afraid there wasn’t much, especially not that was easily to sample when living in a hotel. I did find a flavor of TimTams that I had not seen before (the “sweet surrender” chocolate hazelnut version), but they are, of course Australian.
The one success I had was to find the necessary supplies for an experiment. You can buy Mars bars in New Zealand (that’s Milky Way bars for Americans), but in addition Cadbury’s markets a very similar chocolate bar called a Moro. My local food expert, Peter Hamilton, assures me that the Moro is far superior. I shall do a comparative tasting and report back.
Are Moro’s not sold in the UK? Bizarre, we have them over here, been very popular for years. Ireland and NZ, intriguing.
Argh, and I deeply apologise for the errant apostrophe!
and here I always thought an English summer day was light rain, with heavy clouds. 🙂
Hmm… we have both Mars bars and Milky Way bars here, and they are definitely not the same. So which one are we getting a different version of? Ah, the big and important questions in life…
Do they have Vegamite sandwiches in New Zealand or am I confusing Men at Work’s song again? Milky Way bars are nice, but I rarely eat chocolate due to making lifestyle change.
Aha, you can likely help me in a minor quest: Does anyone other than Americans eat breakfast pancakes?
I’ve figured out that continental Europeans don’t eat pancakes, and British not so much (though apparently there’s some tradition of having them on Shrove Tuesday or something?). Asia is right out (though Japan does have a nice French pastry tradition). I’d think Australia and New Zealand were prime candidates – any sightings?
Blintzes or crepes don’t count. I’m only talking about hot fluffy round things served for breakfast with sweet toppings like maple syrup or fruit (and lots of butter – yum).
Thanks!
P.S. In case it helps disambiguate: I think the US Mars Bar, which appeared some time in the 1980’s, is mainly nougat and nuts and no caramel – more like a Snickers bar but maybe almonds instead of peanuts? Milky Way has caramel and nougat and no nuts, as I recall. And they all have chocolate on the outside, of course. I’m a Twix fan myself, but I did take to Lion bars when I visited Europe in high school.
Tero:
I suspect that Finland has the same chocolate bars as the UK. They also have both Mars and Milky Way. The US only has Milky Way, but as Erin notes it has caramel in it like a UK Mars.
Erin:
The little cafe around the corner from here listed “pancake breakfast” on the menu. This was a cause of some excitement amongst the Kiwis for whom this appeared to be a rare but welcome treat.
Tom:
I try not to think about Vegemite. If enough people do so, perhaps it will cease to exist.