LOCAL FLAVOURS

Boil-up

This thin but hearty one-pot bone stew is typically served up on lazy Sundays and made using leftovers. Ingredients vary, but pork bones are essential, as are watercress

(or pūha, also known as sow thistle), potato, sweet potato and carrot. Doughboys (small flour dumplings) can be added towards the end of cooking.

Kawakawa

A Māori healing plant, kawakawa is identifiable by its pointy, heart-shaped leaves. These can be chewed (great for toothaches, apparently) or infused to make topical tonics, but their main use is for kawakawa tea, which aids digestion. “Look for the leaves with holes in,” Himi advises — the insects have made a meal of those that are ready. The female variant of the plant yields peppery berries that can be made into chutney.

Hāngi

A method of cooking involving hot rocks, which are heated in an underground pit. The hāngi (loose translation: ‘earth oven’) can be used for slow-cooking meat, fish and vegetables over several hours to yield tender, smoky results. The ingredients would traditionally have been wrapped in leaves, but they’re now more commonly encased in tin foil and wire baskets instead. In Rotorua, some iwi use the steam from geothermal vents instead of heated stones.

Tawa berries

Found in the Whirinaki Forest, dark plum-coloured tawa berries are large and edible, but are particularly renowned for their kernels. These are boiled, steamed or roasted, and over fire they pop like popcorn. The kernels can also be dried and stored during the winter — although there’s some competition in gathering them, as they’re a favourite of kēreru birds and wild pigs.