First New Zealand Meal

You begin with freshly caught crayfish from the island. As soon as the seafood melts in your mouth you immediately notice the delicateness and flakiness of the shellfish. It has a nice light mayonnaise-like sauce covering it, and an apple and celeriac slaw. Freshly picked dill and a nasturtium leaf from the garden rest atop the crayfish. Around this, you notice a sprinkling of salmon roe. You begin counting them and then get lost and start enjoying your first canapé. The fish eggs start off salty and briny and then suddenly get fishy. Your mom especially likes the small explosion in her mouth after biting into each egg.

The next canapé arrives — a hot cream-based mushroom and onion soup topped with a piece of crispy parma ham and micro greens from the garden. As the soup touches your tongue, you feel the warmth circulate through your whole body. As you take another sip, you decide the mushrooms were sauteed to perfection.

The mushrooms foreshadow the best bruschetta you can remember: a perfectly toasted piece of freshly baked baguette bread with a light coating of olive oil, a little bit of garlic, and a bunch of mushrooms with onions. On top, you find fresh chives picked from the backyard garden.

After this decadent dish, piping hot bread and newly churned butter greet you. You tear open the crispy exterior, and the hot bun in the middle softens the still cold butter. You top your hot bread with a sprinkle of Fleur De Sel and garden thyme.

You receive a small dish of rice risotto with a fishy tomato sauce — not your favorite, but your parents like it. As the dish touches your tongue, a warm tomatoey taste appears, and then as you are about to take another bite, a fishy feeling creeps onto your tongue. You find this feeling quite unpleasant, but your parents are both sitting there with their eyes closed and chewing like sleeping lambs. Your mom later tells you that that was her favorite dish of the whole meal. In contrast, your sister sticks out her tongue and pulls her spoon away from her mouth as soon as she smells it. Your parents glare and she takes a bite — a small bite, even for an ant. Your parents are somewhat satisfied so your sister goes back to her bread and butter with a sigh of relief.

Now, the entree. A delicate, medium rare, and tender sea bass topped with crispy, scaly skin. A salad composed of fresh and sweet pomegranate seeds, mint, and farro. Fresh micro greens and carrots on top of a butternut squash puree, balanced by some freshly squeezed orange juice. The dish is one of the fanciest ones so far, but you cannot enjoy it to its full potential because you are getting so full.

Finally, dessert. You get to choose between dairy free raspberry and coconut based ice cream or a thick and custardy panna cotta. You choose both. They arrive served in a nice ceramic dish painted the color of a dark ripe apple. On top of both, you spot freeze-dried fruit and crunchy sweet and salty freshly baked biscotti. You only end up having one bite of each because you are so full from the other six courses. It is a great way to end the meal, but you feel sad that you can’t enjoy it more.

After dinner, you venture to the garden and look at all of the freshly grown plants. There are so many! Kale to fava beans, herbs to rhubarb. Almost all of the ingredients in this meal’s every course were freshly picked from the garden today. You pick one more fava bean pod and quickly scurry across the garden to meet up with your family.