[Photograph: Robyn Lee] Most deep-fried fish sandwiches from chain restaurants—including Denny's, Long John Silver's, and most certainly McDonald's—use hoki, a pretty ugly, bug-eyed fish found deep in the waters around New Zealand. But that may change, according to this New York Times piece. Drops in hoki spawn and damaged ecosystems have inspired the World Wildlife Fund to fight for reduced hoki fishing. In response, the New Zealand ministry has cut the allowable commercial catch quota from roughly 275,000 tons to 100,000 tons, which means McDonald's had to shrink its usual consumption of about 15 million pounds of hoki to 11 million pounds per year. "It could go up if the quota goes up," said McDonald's senior director of global...
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Two adventurous gingerbread men emulate Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's historical first climb up Mount Everest in this animation promoting New Zealand's Bakery of the Year competition. Alas, it was all a dream...sort of. Watch the video after the jump....
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Stuff.co.nz Oh, the crazy, tasty things kids do these days. Albany, New Zealand-based gelato maker James Oliver of Zest Gelato is only 22 years old, but his unconventional flavors are already making a mark. His bacon-and-egg-flavored ice cream won a silver medal at this year's New Zealand Ice Cream Awards, while his manuka honey gelato and his toasted coconut, lime, and mascarpone ice cream both grabbed golds. He also won a silver medal for his poached pear and blue cheese ice cream, which contains pears Oliver poaches himself and chunks of blue cheese. This is not your father's French vanilla. [via Coldmud]...
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Exciting news: "New Zealand fishermen have caught what is expected to be a world-record-breaking colossal squid. Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton said the squid, weighing an estimated 450kg (990lb),took two hours to land in Antarctic waters. Local news said the Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni was about 10m (33ft) long, and was the first adult colossal squid landed intact. One expert said calamari rings made from it would be like tractor tyres." Wikipedia's Colossal Squid is fantastic, if you'd like to read more about the species. If you'd like to make dinner in honor of New Zealand's catch, Leite's Culinaria has Mario Batali's recipe for Stuffed Calamari on the Grill from his book Simple Italian Food: Recipes from My Two Villages....
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