City of Snags: NZ’s keenest barbecuers revealed
THERE’S the City of Sails, the Windy City, the Garden City, and now there’s the City of Snags.
Nelson and Marlborough have taken out the title of the nation’s barbecue capital after burning through their gas cylinders faster per capita than any other region in New Zealand, according to swapbottle retailer, OnGas.
Chefs Chelsea and Elora Chang from Nelson cooking school and catering business Madame Lu’s agreed the region was ideal for outdoor entertaining. ‘‘Our climate is perfect ... so everyone just wants to get out there on the barbecue,’’ Elora said.
The sisters had just returned from a two-week tour of the North Island, sponsored by barbecue brand Broil King.
‘‘A lot of places we went to, it was just so dreary all the time.’’
Niwa figures showed the 2018 sunshine hours for the greater Nelson region and Marlborough sitting at 2318 and 2290 respectively, outshining the rest of New Zealand. The Bay of Plenty was nextwith 2273.
Elora said the region had ‘‘the best produce’’ and ‘‘abundant’’ seafood.
The food Kiwis are cooking is evolving too – it’s no longer just about what meat can be thrown on the barbie, she said. ‘‘I think with the barbecue these days, you can cook anything on them and they’re so much fun, you can really experiment.’’
The pair’s favourite barbecue food was aMarlborough Sounds salmon cooked over green tea and jasmine rice or snapper with a tamarind sauce.
Elora also said people should forget about the tradition of the men outside tending to the barbecue, beer in hand, while the women looked after the salads in the kitchen.
‘‘A lot of the guys, you give them the meat and they really butcher it.’’
Tauranga Mayor Greg Brownless said Tauranga had ‘‘the keenest North Island barbecuers, that’s for sure’’.
He said it was traditionally the men cooking and the women doing ‘‘all the work ... all the preparation’’. ‘‘Theman comes along, does the cooking and gets all the praise.’’
His staple barbecue meat was the basic sausage with ‘‘a bit of sauce’’.