Post #381744 by Tamapoutini on Wed, May 21, 2008 9:40 PM

To the Maori? Hands down - 'Kai Moana'!! Seafood!!

Paticularly koura/crayfish (lobster?), seasonally inanga/whitebait (smelt?), shellfish particularly pipi, mussel and paua, tuna/eel, kina/spiky fish-eggs and all manner of fish. Not too fond of seafood myself but adore crayfish and scallops, oh yeah.

Second runner-up for distinctive Maori flava would have to be 'Titi' or 'muttonbirds' (Sooty Shearwater - basically a small seagull..). These birds return each year to the Titi-Islands at the very extreme South of New Zealand and only the few families who are kaitiaki/guardian of the Islds are allowed to harvest* them. The most marked attribute of these birds is the SMELL(!!!) when being roasted - thats the smell of your house for the next week. Very strong distinctive smell, hard to describe other than 'bad' but you do become used to it. The meat is almost black and the taste very strong/salty/fishy/oily due to the diet of the young birds; regurgitated fish! mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

The birds are fully 'processed' on the Islands and packed into large tins (each holding 24 birds) preserved in the birds own oil. As a kid I remember our family who still lived down at the Southern end of the Mainland would send up a tin to my Grandparents house most years.

*(only the baby birds are taken, and from underground burrows) I wont go into the gory details of hunting Titi here at the dining table..

Bon appetit'

Tama :)