Kiwi here from the lost Scottish Colony. I have been watching YouTube videos on UK food.

Out in the Colonies here and in Aussie things like fish and chips, pies and sausage rolls are still a thing. I grew up eating pikelets vs American style pancakes. Over the years however styles and ingredients have diverged. For example we cook different species of fish, sausage rolls are beef vs pork.

Foods very subjective as well. British here tend to love or hate our fish and chips depending on if they like what we fry and how it's served. Vinegar for example is rare and mushy peas and curry isn't a thing.

Prices are cheaper as well here but your portion sizes are huge. 1 piece and chips can be from 4 quid and restaurant blue cod is provably 12-15 pounds topping out around 20. Anything over that is a bit posh.

So for those of you who have traveled or are foodies who makes the best food you have tried in ex Colonies?

Common opinions I have noticed online and talking to tourists.

Coffee. Australia or NZ
Hand pies NZ savory, USA sweet
Fish and Chips Australia at the bottom, UK or NZ or very regional USA (think Maine or Alaska)
Pizza. USA to many varieties

Brit in our group said UK for Fish and Chips exception of Blue Cod (gonna miss that), pies NZ.

I have tried curry sauce on chips you guys might be on to something there. Mushy peas blame the English?

Local place here one of the better ones. Awesome Blue cod. Dunedin.

https://youtu.be/52CWiuq2zl8?si=u8JGvDdJOyJ-9LYX

Pikelet recipe (are we heretics betraying our Scottish heritage?).

https://edmondscooking.co.nz/recipes/pancakes-and-pikelets/pikelets/

by Zardnaar

9 comments

  1. Given that I’d never heard the word “pikelet” before today, I’m not sure about the heritage. It does look like what we called Scotch pancakes.

  2. This is niche af culinary wise. Also not many nationals refer to themselves as colonials. I wish you well though and eagerly await the knowledge of rich nation cooks the best fish n chips.

  3. Fish and chips within the UK is very regional too, both on opinions and on the general expected quality (hilariously bad in most of London for example xD).

    East coast more Haddock, west coast a bit more Cod. “sauce” in Edinburgh, Lothians, and south Fife. Batter Scraps in the North of England.

    I will not go into a baked goods discussion that gets too far from my local area though xD

    You’re not really betraying Scottish heritage, it’s an Italian imported idea. Your traditions might be based a bit earlier and more influenced by people with Scottish lineage infact.

    Oh something I missed: the quality of the potatoes, you’re getting the very best in the world up here and in Ireland and at reasonably affordable prices (though sometimes if they’re too expensive, my local place just doesn’t open instead of using something cheaper and worse).

  4. My main culinary memories of New Zealand are some incredible pizzas and some of the best burgers I’ve ever eaten. I’ve no idea if it’s still there but Ferg Burger in Queenstown still haunts my dreams after a decade. The venison burger may have been the single best thing I’ve ever had in my mouth. 

    Australian food was fairly decent but very much just like the UK. Some of the pies were good. 

    Fish and chips is too dependent on different factors- type of potato, species of fish, cleanliness/freshness of the oil in the fryer- to judge as a country thing imho. 

  5. There’s also a connection between ourselves and Canada.

    Up here in Scotland we have a lot more chips and gravy, but we also have chips, cheese and gravy, though rarer, which is different but similar to Canada’s poutine.

    Nah, not heretics either. You just do things your own way, like we did making tikka masala

  6. Scotland definitely knows how to ruin fish and chips.

  7. Nah, Scotland wins on pies easy. Yous haven’t even figured out how to put macaroni in yet

  8. Having lived as an expat in NZ I found the savoury pies incredible. No matter where you went you were almost guaranteed at minimum a decent pie. Eggs Benedict was fantastic I don’t eat it in the Uk, the quality just isn’t there. Also your ice cream, especially from Pokino (sorry for spelling) is phenomenal.

    However, in general NZ food is bland, expensive, your take on a full “English”, “Scottish”, “Welsh” or “Irish” was abhorrent and the quality of some of your supermarket sausages – the person responsible should be tried in The Hague

  9. >*Pikelet recipe (are we heretics betraying our Scottish heritage?)*

    That’s how my mum and my gran make pan scones

    First time I saw someone flipping and eating large, thin, floppy pancakes on telly, I thought they were stupid, because that’s not what pancakes look like

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