The Mouth from 'Word of Mouth'.
If you ever enter a new country and feel like you're merely a tourist, that's because it's who you are. A byproduct of marketing. No one really travels independently anymore. Even if you're on the most exotic side streets in Budapest, you can google restaurant reviews, check local favorites, or WhatsApp your old acquaintance from EY for the ‘Top 10 instagrammable restaurants in Hungary - you won’t believe number 7’ .
Bourdain had painted a picture where you shouldn't be a tourist, but a traveler. And I ask what's the difference, apart from the clothes you wear, and the number of food poisoning?
Did you know food networks engage with ‘fixers’ - locals who tell the celebrity chefs / personas where to go, what food to shoot, when to go, and who to talk to?And then the crew goes and shoot twenty places and decides which five ‘2-minute snippets’ will be best for ratings.
I'm just saying, tour-guided tour, self-guided tour, ‘eat pray love’ tour, backpacking tour, 5-star hotel tour, caravan travel, no map travel.
No one is better than the other.
So my fixer on this trip is my brother.
Older brother.
The first time I visited New Zealand I was 10, on a packaged tour with family. Back then, it was a luxury to join a packaged tour. Someone who told us where to go, what to eat, when to go, and who to talk to. And then we took heaps of photos, developed and decided which to put into an album to show guests when they visited. (Slideshow nights, anyone?) Seriously though, to date, when I think of my family being happy, I think of that particular family portrait with Mount Cook photobombing. It's as if every family trip after that was trying to replicate the same feeling.
So much so that my dad sent both my siblings to finish their high school, then degrees in New Zealand.
I visited my brother when he graduated pre-uni, when he graduated university, when he moved from Wellington to Auckland, when he started a job, after my graduation when he switched job, when he started his own business, when my parents migrated there, when I had a girlfriend, after I was married, and now when we’re both dads.
On one Sunday, we sat on the grass next to the Parnell Farmers Market, across from the museum, which I was sure I’ve done plenty of times. He took us to a quick stop at the winter garden. Yup, been here. After that, the same seafood and dim sum place in Newmarket. The shop that says 'tofu shop' but doesn't really make tofu.
I mean, it's the first for my daughter, and sure Newmarket has an ice cream shop now, but I can't help feeling all these years I personally do not have a relationship with Auckland; but one of my brother's relationship with Auckland.
Case Study 1 - KU Coffee
There’s this Japanese girl, she’s constantly winning the barista championship in New Zealand. We used to support her, and then she started her own with her partner. I’m not sure what happened after that. I forgot her name. Maybe she’s also a Hana.
And sure enough, I had enough keywords to find that the 2022 New Zealand champion Hanna Teramoto is now working for Coffee Tech as an admin manager, with her own side hustle roasting beans. I saw a bag of Panama Geisha beans at a reasonable price and bought 200g, and received them by mail.
Hand grinder, Aeropress, beans roasted (supervised) by the NZ coffee champion, should be the best home coffee in New Zealand, yea?
To complete the circle, I made two cups for my brother and his wife.
Case Study 2 - Duck Island
Oh I’ll take you to Duck Island Ice Cream in New Market. It’s my favourite ice cream in Auckland! The kids love it.
So we took away a tub of Duck Island Ice Cream for lunch one day. Apparently, his kids never understood the concept of a ‘tub’ since they always have theirs on a cone. Even more flabbergasted when I also bought empty cones to takeaway.
I’m not sure how many of you know by now, after COVID, that everything in a store can be bought. I once bought 1 burgers bun from Grill’d because I only wanted one for Hana’s bento, not six in a pack.
Anyway, remember Hamilton, the small town we had curry on the way to Rotorua?
We also stopped by the same town on the way back.
And I found out Duck Island Ice Cream was born in Hamilton.
By now, the brand name had penetrated Hana’s brain and she knows Duck + Island = Ice Cream. So we visited the local shop, she picked her flavors, and oozed her brain out.
Two days before her birthday party, Hana requested a cake.
Ok, what sort of cake?
How about an ice cream cake, dad?
Where can we find an ice cream cake?
Duck Island has ice cream cake!
How did you know that?
I saw it in the fridge in the shop the other day!
That’s not penetration anymore, that’s the brand coming into your house, refusing to leave, and started asking for organic milk for breakfast.
Case Study 3 - Allbirds
I have to take you to Allbirds. My wife told me to buy you a pair, so I need to complete this assignment, if not I won’t hear the end of it. Her mum’s been wearing a pair for ages. It’s the best. Really, it doesn’t smell, you can wear it without socks, and I know because my feet stink. It’s super light too.
At this stage it’s no more word of mouth, it’s basically sponsored, right? He thinks it’s a small ‘New Zealand’ brand, but Allbirds is a billion-dollar company with factories in Korea.
But my brother’s been hyping this brand so much, their shiny Auckland store in Britomart, that Chika and Hana were so excited by then. The name is supposed to reflect the feeling of your feet since it’s so light. (Or the money in your wallet, gone like birds.)
Cue Hana’s disappointment when there wasn’t any size available for her, and dad. So no, the bird in this case is the one that was flicked to our faces.
I noticed it’s a thing nowadays - the shops are pretty, but nothing is available. We found this soap store - we could browse and try the product, but zero stock available. When asked about stock, warehouse, timing we generally received a ‘it’s my first day, sorry’.
Not only hospitality, all the retail store, supermarkets, all staff look like they’re under-trained, or did not care. Maybe it’s not New Zealand, COVID just made us realise the world is a paper mache of marketing glitter with hot air holding everything together.
Mum got her pair of slip-ons though, so 33% happiness isn’t bad. And that’s what happened when you’re sponsored, you also become a brand ambassador. Last I heard she’s promoting it to her family in Japan. It’s also available to purchase online in Australia. And you know what? The Japanese site actually has the most complete collection.
Case Study 4 - Jia Xiang Chinese Food
Hey, go to JiaXiang for lunch. Don’t order from the menu, all the images on the menu are fake. Order Fen1 Rou4 Da4 Bing3, 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻😋😋😋 meat and vege wrapped in pancake. Then get Suan1 Cai4 Bai2 Rou4 Tang1... 👍🏻👍🏻yum... this is clear soup with vermicelli ... with cabbage and pork
The day before we leave, he was in bed with a fever and blocked sinus, yet that did not stop him from Whatsapp-ing dining instructions. He wrote in pinyin because he couldn’t read/write Chinese. And I have to admit, that reminds me of myself. Something I would do.
So we decided to wait and have an early brunch there before our flight.
When I saw the menu board, I knew I’d enjoy the restaurant.
It's true, on paper / online, Jia Xiang is an average Chinese restaurant. But the dishes my brother ordered off the menu are all northeastern Chinese.
There’s this stir-fried pancake dish - instead of noodles, you use Chinese pancake in the dish, which was ingenious. (Imagine stir-fried pizza.)
The cumin lamb were flavourful. In fact, logically speaking, three things everyone should consume in New Zealand - lamb, dairy, and pies. Don’t bother with Asian fusion scandinavian bullshit. They should also have the best northern Chinese meal, the lamb noodles, skewers, Mongolian … it’s the best lamb you’ll ever get.
But you know what, it was our last gettother in Auckland until who knows when, and the food wasn’t really important. I say that now, but I think I took away the lamb rolls to finish on the plane.
For the last week, people ask me how was New Zealand?
I mean, we didnt’ really visit New Zealand. We lived a short dream of being a suburban family, with relatives 10 minutes away.
The key memories to me are really mundane - a two hour chat with Hana in the bathtub, mum crapping herself on a treetop walk, my feet full of bites from mysterious insects, buying a helium gas tank to make our own balloons, watching her organise her own pre-birthday birthday party, Hana throwing her first snow ball, Hana throwing up her body weight worth of vomit from cashew nut poisoning, everyone trying to ignore my burnt dumplings, a cup of long black in snow …
Maybe the trip coincided right at the the cusp of my daughter turning six, it was sentimental.
It was good.