Where to find the best vegetarian pies in New Zealand

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Despite New Zealanders’ fondness for meat pies, bakers are coming up with tasty pastry-filled pies for vegetarians.

The annual Bakels Supreme Pie Awards include a keenly-contested section for vegetarian pies and winning a Gold Medal is one of the best ways to let vegetarians know where to find a top pie.

Here are the best vegetarian pies in New Zealand for 2016 and recent award-winners.

Best vegetarian pie in New Zealand

Gold (broccoli, pumpkin and carrot)

The Bakery

17 Frederick St, Wanaka, Otago

Silver (potato, pumpkin and kumara)

Better Quality Pies Ltd

2 Tawera Rd, Rotorua

Bronze (spinach, pumpkin and kumara)

Baker Bob’s Bakery & Cafe

135 Chadwick Rd, Greerton, Tauranga

Highly commended (carrot, peas and corn)

Rushgreen Bakery and Cafe

2/10 Rushgreen Ave, Papakura, Auckland

Other finalists

Target Bakehouse & Cafe
2/241 Manukau Rd, Pukekohe

My Bakery Kelston
4055 Great North Rd, Kelston, Auckland

One Tree Bakery
204 Maunganui Rd, Mt Maunganui

The Clareville Bakery
3340 SH2, Clareville, Carterton

Viands Bakery
80 Lyon Street, Kihikihi, near Te Awamutu

Patrick’s Pie Group
19 Bethlehem Town Centre, Tauranga

Past winners

2015

Gold (bok choy, carrot, parsnip and kumara)

Angkor Wat Bakery and Café

16 Main Road, Katikati, Bay of Plenty

2014

Gold (broccoli, carrot, peppers and white sauce)

Angkor Wat Bakery & Coffee Shop

65 Ruataniwha Street, Waipukurau

2013

Gold (stir fry vegetables, roast pumpkin, potato, kumara in spinach cream sauce)

Patrick’s Pie Group Gold Star Bakery

19 Bethlehem Town Centre. Tauranga, Bay of Plenty

2012

Gold (broccoli, pumpkin, carrot, spinach and mushroom)

Greenland Bakery and Cafe

3 Market Square, Botany Town Centre, Botany, Auckland

2011

Gold (pumpkin, carrot, broccoli, silver beet and cauliflower)

Dairy Flat Bakery

1443 Dairy Flat Highway, RD4, Auckland

2010

Gold (potato, carrots, onions, red and green peppers, spinach, mushroom, broccoli, courgette)

Greenland Café

Suite 5 28 Subway Road, Pukekohe 

Source: Bakels Pie Awards

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7 best places to buy black pudding

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Black pudding is an acquired taste for some but for many, it’s become a regular feature of breakfasts and even salads.

Fidel’s Cafe in Cuba St, Wellington, for instance, offers black pudding as the central feature in one of its menu dishes and it’s become a nice sideline for many gourmet butchers who make speciality products.

We’ve sorted out 5 top places to buy black pudding.

7 places to buy top choice black pudding

Auckland

Ellerslie Meats

128D Main Highway, Ellerslie, Auckland

This butcher is game to do things differently – specialising in organic beef and gluten-free products such as their award-winning organic sausages. They collected a prized Silver Medal for their black puddings at the 2016 Devro Best Sausage Competition.

Auckland

Westmere Butchery

131 Westend Rd, Westmere, Auckland

This award-winning butchery makes excellent black puddings and caters for the ex-pat Brits market with weekly batches of pork pies, haggis, Cornish pasties and Scotch pies.

Tauranga

Doug Jarvis English Butchery

Papamoa Plaza, Papamoa, Tauranga, Bay of Plenty

The award-winning butcher includes black pudding on his list of niche products aimed at the British market. He also makes Cornish pasties, faggots and Scotch eggs.

Wairarapa

Greytown Butchery

67 Main St, Greytown

Took a prized Gold Medal at the 2015 Devro Best Sausage competition for their black pudding. A European-style gourmet butcher, they also specialise in game meat and organic products.

Wellington

Eastbourne Village Meats

7 Rimu St, Eastbourne

Eastbourne’s Barry Spooner has been entering annual sausage competitions since 2014, and he’s taken Bronze and Silver Medals for his black pudding, as well as Gold for his beef snarlers. The butchery’s smallgoods are also in demand with Wellington cafes to whom they provide a wholesale service.

Timaru

Fraser Park Butchery / Burger’s Butchery

305 Church Street, Timaru

Butcher Mark McDonald has been carving since the early 1980s and is a stickler for using the best ingredients and says his hand-made small goods are better than other processed meats because he won’t use emulsifiers. The Timaru butchery was awarded a Bronze Medal for their black pudding at the 2015 national best sausage awards.

Christchurch

Peter Timbs Meats

70 Edgeware Rd, St Albans, Christchurch

A multiple award-winner at annual sausage and bacon awards, this butchery has a shop at Edgware and sells online. Their black puddings landed a Silver Medal at the 2015 Devro Best Sausage awards, and they have a large range of deli goods too.

White pudding

For those with a taste for black pudding’s gourmet cousin, you can buy award-winning white puddings at Peter Timbs Meats, Christchurch, or at the Waikanae Butchery on Wellington’s Kapiti Coast (they received a Gold Medal for it in 2016).

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Best cafes in Wellington

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With thousands of excellent cafes in New Zealand, it’s always difficult to work out which are the best to try, especially if you are new to a place.

Thankfully, the annual New Zealand Cafe of the Year awards help sort out the best through objective judging and public feedback.

The best cafes in Wellington

National – Best Rural (joint winner)

The Clareville Bakery Café 

3340 SH2, Carterton

National – Classic Kiwi

Sweet Vanilla Kitchen 

49 Pretoria Street, Lower Hutt, Wellington

Wellington regional cafes shortlisted by judges for the national awards:

Best Metro/CBD

Prefab

14 Jessie Street, Te Aro, Wellington

The Flight Coffee Hangar 

119 Dixon Street, Te Aro, Wellington

Victoria St Café 

98 Victoria Street, Te Aro, Wellington

Best Suburban

Benedicts Café 

141 Dowse Drive, Maungaraki, Lower Hutt

Café Polo 

82-84 Rotherham Terrace, Miramar, Wellington

Franco’s Trattoria

27 Dundas Street, Seatoun, Wellington

Best Rural

Saddleback Café

517 Ohariu Valley Road, Ohariu Valley, Johnsonville, Wellington

The Clareville Bakery Café 

3340 SH2, Carterton

The Village Grinder 

432 Queen Street, Masterton

Classic Kiwi

HOME Café 

70 Molesworth Street, Thorndon, Wellington

 Mount Cook Café 

75 Wallace Street, Mount Cook, Wellington

Tiki Lounge Café

112 High Street, Alicetown, Lower Hutt

People’s Choice

Sweet Vanilla Kitchen

49 Pretoria St, Lower Hutt

Source: New Zealand Cafe of the Year Awards 2016, run by the Restaurant Association of New Zealand.  Factors considered by the judges including atmosphere and appearance, menu and coffee, service, staff interaction and overall impression.

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5 best places to buy English-style pork pies in New Zealand

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Ex-pat Brits and visitors from the United Kingdom often pine for homely treats such as the Melton Mowbray-style pork pie.

To much delight, and often after much searching, they can find expertly-made pork pies throughout the country, often made by butcheries that specialise in products aimed at the ex-pat market.

Here are five of the best.

5 best places to buy pork pies in New Zealand

Auckland

Westmere Butchery

131 Westend Rd, Westmere, Auckland

This award-winning butchery makes weekly batches of pork pies in large and small sizes and understands the need to keep them nicely chilled. They also provide other ex-pat treats such as white and black pudding, haggis, Cornish pasties and Scotch pies.

Tauranga

Doug Jarvis English Butchery

Papamoa Plaza, Papamoa, Tauranga, Bay of Plenty

Makes pork pies with pure pork and no preservatives or additives. These come in small, large and family (made on request) sizes. The butchery also makes a range of other products of interest to Brits including black pudding, Cornish pasties, faggots and Scotch eggs.

Hastings

Holly Bacon

Corner of Warren St N & St Aubyn St, Hastings, Hawkes Bay

This family business began in 1914 and has been passed through the generations from founder Carl Vogtherr to his great-granddaughter Claire.

They provide online sales, run courses for those who want to learn the fine art of making sausages or salami, and their store sells a range of speciality meats, and, of course, English-style pork pies.

Christchurch

Lucy’s Growers Market

10 Rossini Way, Rolleston, Christchurch, Canterbury

Makes English-style pork pies in large (440gm) and small (220gm) sizes, as well as a large range of other artisan products. This online business delivers weekly to the wider Christchurch area and can deliver outside the area too (subject to food safety).

Dunedin

Who Ate All The Pies

46 Glasgow St, South Dunedin, Dunedin, Otago

This business was launched by Lancastrian Steven Turner in 2008 and he’s been selling hand made pies at the Otago Farmers Market and through his online store. He only bakes every 21 days to ensure his customers get quality (and freshly made pies), and his range includes wild hare, steak and Bluff oyster, Cornish pasties as well as his sought-after pork pies.

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