Warm sunny days with no particular schedule are often an invitation to sit down with a lovely beverage and something light to nibble on. Add to that being on a vacation and you have the perfect recipe for finding a little café from which to not only enjoy some good food but to watch the world go by from the idyllic setting. These invitations were hard for us to resist on our recent holiday in New Zealand so our stops became a regular occurrence in various towns and cities as we drove through both the North and South Islands of this beautiful country.
Stopping to enjoy the sunshine and a good cup of tea is a multi-dimensional stop. It brings one of my most sacred ingredients around food and community together - stopping to linger and be present for little precious space of time. By intentionally sitting down I find my senses gathering together so that where I am in that moment becomes the only thing I need to be present to. As one whose brain is always pondering, wondering, working overtime, even this part of me just needs to stop working so I can be present and my sub conscious can let go of all that energy that is often needlessly spent on anxiety. Watching the world go by is also a creative time and so ones’ journal needs to be ready to put impressions or thoughts on paper.
Every culture has their own special sweet dishes and Lamingtons are something I remember from my first visit to New Zealand almost 30 years ago! I had forgotten what the flavours and textures were so my taste buds and memory wanted to be reminded of just exactly what they were. They look like they are a jello cube covered in coconut and in fact they are sponge cake dipped into cherry jello and then covered in coconut, with fresh cream between the two layers of cake. I can’t say I would try them again - my taste buds have become reacquainted with the flavour and texture of this New Zealand sweet dish and just this one meeting was enough! One has to try these national specialties at least once for sure.
Travelling is not just about seeing the countryside, at least if you really want to experience another place it involves much more. Some places are very exotic while others are much more like home but there are always foods, music, mannerisms, customs and ways of doing things that hold a difference from our way. Stopping for a cup or tea or coffee and enjoying a light snack is a good place to start trying the simple culinary tidbits that are unique to another place. New Zealanders love their cup of tea at any time of the day and in any season. It is a custom that quite appeals to me as I too love a good strong cup of tea. A cup of tea is never taken on its own - you simple must have a little something sweet along with it. On that day, a stop while passing through Taupo New Zealand, it was the time to have tea and a lamington and the opportunity to try something unique to this place ’Down Under’.
A little bit of time to stretch our legs and walk around Taupo on our way to Wellington, a good cup of tea and something sweet, a few thoughts in the journal and then we were on our way again. Ah, it was a lovely little moment of lingering!
In fact it was a whole month of lingering through the gorgeous days of our holiday.
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