The Taste of Home
Illustrated by Kimi Moana Whiting
Growing up, food tends to just be food. We have a palate of flavours we’re raised on until one day we move away from home. From here, the doors open to the wonderful world of food and we meet flavours we never knew existed. Immigrants can teach us a lot about the world we live in, particularly in a country spoiled for riches, and with a turntable of nationalities. Something about living within different cultures opens your eyes to what’s out there in the world.
Gordana, born and raised in former Yugoslavia, Serbia, came to New Zealand in the 90s. She left behind everything she knew to bring her family away from war and push her future generations to live a life of peace. From cooking as a wife and mother, to working in kitchens here in Aotearoa, to staying connected to her home country, food has always been the common denominator, and close to Gordana’s heart. “I found as an immigrant coming to New Zealand, I was feeling all the time, something is missing, something missing,” she explains.
“I tried to make our meals, but many things weren’t available, like yeast. In 1995 you couldn’t find yeast in a shop very easily, or you couldn’t find a good coffee. This is Karori we’re talking about.”
Like in any country, food here in New Zealand has its own distinct culture. When (or if) we leave New Zealand, we’re reminded of this. Culture shock is a bit of an attack on the senses, everything looks different, feels different, sounds different, even tastes different. “We found in Moore Wilson’s we could buy our coffee, yeast, and sausages, no poor offcuts of meat; instead, pork, lamb and beef all combined. That is where we were finding the taste of home, but only a little.”
“One year it was some celebration, I think 40 years of the Serbian Church in Island Bay. I called the woman who was organising it, and I asked whether it’s all right if I take a meal, podvarak, to church. Podvarak is diced sauerkraut with a lot of various meat, slow-cooked, and after that a little bit roasted in the oven to have a kind of skin on top. I thought that would be humble, in Serbia it’s very humble. She said ‘Bring as much as you can! There will not be one little dot left, that many people will like podvarak’.”
“And I did that, I had two slow cookers at the time, two big pots slow cooking, and after that roasted a little bit. Because that meal can last one week. A few days after is better than the first day. First day I was making one pot, next day making another pot, third day taken to the church.” She explains sarma is better a couple days after it’s prepared. “Many of our meals are eaten the next day, which is very different than here, where you want to do everything kind of instant[ly].” Her partner and a British immigrant, Brian, who’s been in New Zealand for several decades now, notes that “there was something funny about the New Zealand attitude to freshness we noticed. There was an emphasis on meat being fresh, whereas at home we would hang a chicken for a couple days, we wanted the meat to be not fresh, it would have more taste to it and be more digestible.” He thinks it’s crazy. “You don’t get the probiotics that way.”
This perspective reminds us how linked culture and food is. Even when New Zealand food has a lot of influence from the British, British immigrants can note such differences – there’s no doubt that we prioritise freshness, but other cultures don’t? Gordana explains, “We have two components in an older meal, we have probiotics which is the work of beneficial bacterial which is preparing itself to multiply, but not letting food poisoning bacteria develop, another one on meat is enzymes. They’re in our body to digest our food. Meat is not very easy to digest, we have meat in our stomachs too.” Brian continues, “If you have hanged meat for a few days, in Britian it’s practice, that meat is becoming tender and tastes more like that animal because the enzymes are starting to break up the tissue. That meat is tastier and easier to digest.”
“Science is more financing war effort than food or biology,” Gordana scoffs. “We have food science but it’s about how to make food more attractive and saleable and more addictive,” adds Brian. “And lasting longer,” says Gordana,
“which isn’t good for us, all preservatives are stopping enzymes. But with these meals you don’t know whether it’s going to be sold that day, or the next, or the next.”
“Older is better than the due date, not best before. Cheese can’t go off,” Gordana laughs. “That’s why we have aged cheese, it can only be spoiled by cross-contamination. Cheese can harden if it loses water from the surface, but it’s not bad. I’m buying cottage cheese, leaving it in the fridge for [two or three] weeks before using it, because it tastes more like the food I’m used to.”Gordana explains growing up, pickling was generally used to preserve food above refrigeration. The way that food finds its way on the plate is completely dependent on where you are and the background of those preparing what you eat. Gordana explains how emphasized a slow cooking process was back home, “Nothing is fast there except fried eggs, everything else is slow. Like sourdough, few days made in advanced with a starter, with instant yeast its faster but it doesn’t have the same taste.”
Brian who’s spent years eating Serbian food while living with Gordana explains that “a lot of difference between Serbian food and typical western foods is Serbian food takes a lot of effort in cooking and time preparing it. Whereas typical western food is much more efficient but much simpler and much less good for you.” “Meals from home are more complex and again, slow cooking, but they’re recognisable from one house to another,” says Gordana. There’s no doubt that here in New Zealand, we all have varying but generally simpler recipes. “When I came here, I found diversification, because of various nationalities. Unbelievably exciting. Like curry. I like curry, a lot.”
“That’s recent though, we didn’t have that 40 years ago,” Brian adds, reflecting once more how much immigration has impacted Aotearoa’s food scene. Covid-19, not only threatening any human with the loss of taste, separates any immigrant from their home countries.“The biggest problem for me, with Covid-19, is not being able to go back to my own country.” The war in Ukraine has added a whole other gross layer of separation anxiety from Gordana’s home. “When I go there, I feel a little bit pampered, if not very pampered, by my brother and sister. They will do everything they know. My sister-in-law is always very good. She’ll prepare the largest pot of sarma and say it’s for me. Or they will order a whole roast piglet on a stick. Imagine that!” Gordana’s entire face lit up as she recounts her visits home. “And after that, a whole selection of drinks. That’s what I’m missing, drinks, and then food, and then drinks again. Oh, and dancing, I miss the dancing.” But Covid-19 hasn’t entirely stopped connections to home and other cultures, food and meal sharing has helped keep these connections strong. “Connections really started when I began retirement; when I was working, I had no time. Compatriots would come on my day off, but I wouldn’t be able to prepare everything I wanted.” Typical capitalism getting in the way of the important stuff. “Once I stopped working, I was able to go down the road of more traditional meals. And the connection is unbelievable. They will like some of the meals, but all of them will open their hearts and talk about their experiences, from childhood to their grandmother’s favourite food, or from old country if they’re immigrants.” What is significant here is how food can not only help keep connections to home or other immigrants strong but can also bring New Zealanders together with immigrants to try something new. “One couple who are both born New Zealanders, I invited them for a Serbian Christmas. They were really very happy to see a Serbian Christmas. They were very happy and from that time on we kind of cemented our friendship, and from that time on we’ve been exchanging recipes.”
“Another very positive experience I have is with a Filipino couple. I invited them over to show off that I can make Filipino food. Now they’re trying Serbian meals and I’m trying Filipino meals. And with another lady who is Vietnamese, I have a lot of Vietnamese food - with an American guy as well.”
“People are really happy to have national meals, even if they’re on a diet, they’ll go off the diet for a day when they’re visiting.”
Some of us are lucky enough to enjoy the flavours of home as mum’s cooking welcomes us home between semesters. But for some of us, home is oceans away. One thing every human needs is food and a sense of home. Some of us are lucky enough to give neither home nor food much thought, while for others: it is everything. We are lucky to have all of these experiences contribute to our food scene in Aotearoa, as many keep that connection between an old and new home.
