Paua, Crayfish, and Corn Fritters

Tonight one of my Kiwi hosts, Ella, used her fresh caught Crayfish and Paua to make a delicious flat meal for us. I'm writing about it because those of you that know me know that I am a very picky eater and would not normally eat any of this. So here are descriptions of those foods.

"Paua" is the Maori name for 3 large sea snail species endemic to the waters around New Zealand. The American name is abalone. Anyway, Ella sliced them up into thin little bits and cooked them in butter and garlic. very tasty.

Here's what they look like before they're cooked

This is a polished Paua shell, they sell them to tourists all over the place here

Crayfish in New Zealand is more akin to lobster in the U.S. except a little bit smaller. I was really surprised when Ella said "oh yeah I have 3 crayfish for us to eat tonight" and I looked around and was like "all six of us?". Anyway, really good tender meat.

Like I said, really big.

We also had corn fritters which are like corn bread pancakes with peppers and stuff in them. We put sweet thai chili sauce on them which apparently is a thing here and it turned out pretty well. So yeah, that was my gourmet meal for this evening!

Little bit fancier, but you get the idea.

I also had my first history lecture yesterday and I think that class is going to be really informative. It not only goes over the historical events of NZ but also the social issues and global impacts of those events and how that effected the development of this country. I'm pretty pumped. I am already about 1/3 done with one of the recommended readings for the class because I can't put it down. The history nerd is coming out.

I've also been discussing spring break plans with some of my complex mates and I think we are going to do the Milford sound tramp which goes out to the Tasman Sea, one of the most isolated and wild places in NZ and also the world. More information to come on that, it's just a hope right now.