During our recent trip to our hometown Wellington I woke up to hear someone playing music nearby. I looked out of the hotel window and discovered that while we were sleeping, the city’s Sunday Harbourside Market had been set up in the carpark adjacent to Te Papa museum. They must have accomplished that very quietly because I didn’t hear a thing.
This was our third calm, sunny day in a city better known for its wind so we thought we’d better get out and enjoy it and pick up some breakfast while we were about it.
There were plenty of choices with market stallholders selling a range of hot offerings. It’s a while since I’ve enjoyed New Zealand venison and one stall was selling Bambi sammies. We bought a couple of substantial $5 venison sausage sandwiches topped with onions and chunks of barbecued venison and they were terrific.
The sunshine had lured plenty of customers to the market which is open every Sunday from 7.30am to 2pm. There were tourists and local, Mums and Dads, kids on foot and in buggies, apartment dwellers from the neighbourhood, the weary, the bleary and last night’s life-of-the-party in search of a hangover antidote.
In addition to hot food, there was plenty of fresh produce and I was tempted by the locally grown tamarillos, one of my favorite fruit. While I can buy them in Melbourne, they’re not exactly cheap.
The Spouse’s eyes glazed over when he saw the beautiful pink New Zealand yams. These are quite different from the vegetables sold as yams or sweet potatoes in Australia (and which we Kiwis call kumara).
These pink yams belong to the oxalis family. They appear in yellow, orange, and a couple of shades of pink and are popular for roasting. They need a chilly, frosty climate to grow well. Unfortunately we weren’t cooking on this trip so had to pass them by.
We were about to visit relatives in the Wairarapa in the afternoon so picked up some flowers for my Aunt and a delicious cake from one of the stall holders. She had a table groaning with preserves, cakes, fruit loaves, biscuits and other baked goods and told me she’d made them all. I wondered aloud if she managed to find time for anything else and she assured me she did.
