Jess Read recently moved to New Zealand from Bedfordshire county in east England. She lives in a flat in the Auckland suburb of Remuera – with a friend she met while travelling – and is currently exploring Aotearoa while working at a plant nursery.
Recent arrival from the UK gives her thoughts on NZ food - watch on TVNZ+
1News reporter Polly Wenlock spoke to the 23-year-old about the differences between grocery shopping in her home country an
d New Zealand.
What did you spend on your last shop?
Jess: On my last grocery shop I spent $53 at Woolworths, but that was quite good for me, usually I am between $80 and $90.
How do prices compare to England?
Jess: Food prices here are much more seasonably variable, probably because of the cost of importing out-of-season food all the way here. I’ve seen cucumbers jump from $2 to $7 and then back to $2 with changing seasons. In Europe food prices are more stable year round.
I also noticed a lot of candies and things tend to be more expensive, which is probably a good thing!
What do you miss most from England that you can't buy here?
I miss UK cheese the most. It tastes to me like all cheese here is made with the same process and just aged at different lengths of time. That isn’t the case for cheese in the UK, they have more cheeses with unique processes which I enjoy.
A proper cheddar and red Leicester, gouda and edam are all very different whereas here tasty, colby and edam taste the same unless you’re buying expensive.
In the same way that in New Zealand there's a lot of supermarket sushi around, in UK Tesco's "the meal deal" is a special which allows you to buy a sandwich, snack and drink for about £3 to £3.50 (NZ$6.90 to $7.50). My favourite one is the chicken and lettuce sandwich with salted crisps and a green smoothie... Seeing sushi here for $10 is kind of hard, but I also think sushi is a better option than a sandwich and a packet of crisps.
What is your favourite Kiwi food you've discovered?
Hands down the Whittaker's chocolate coconut block. I used to think that Cadbury was the best chocolate brand out there… but I have to say, Whittaker's has turned me around!
Do you notice any differences between NZ and UK supermarkets?
The layout of supermarkets. Why is milk so far from everything else?
Things seem really separated out by category clearly in the UK, here I have to bring my glasses to read all the aisle signs to differentiate, it’s just not intuitive to me.
I do like that NZ supermarkets have a paper or reusable bags rule, we don’t have that in the UK.
Any comments on NZ food culture in general?
I was surprised by the duality of NZ food culture: On one-hand there seems to be low-calorie, caffeinated or diet versions of things absolutely everywhere. On the other hand pies seem to be really significant to the NZ identity!
Also the number and variety of energy drinks here surpasses anything I’ve ever seen. My favourite energy drink has to be a zero-sugar mango Monster.
I’ve struggled to find cafes open after 3pm here and only seen a couple open past 5pm, whereas in the UK I’m able to find coffee shops open to much later hours.
Maybe that’s why energy drinks are so popular? I do think the actual coffee quality is better here.
Jess's total grocery spend for the week: $70.82
If you would like to partake in our Receipt Reveal series, please email receiptreveal@tvnz.co.nz and tell us where in New Zealand you live and how many live in your household.
'Sushi for $10 is kind of hard' – Watch this story on TVNZ+
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