On Food in Wellington

(this post comes to because my lovely/beautiful/smart friend Kelsey was nice and suggested it. I'm kind of sort of in a writing rut and needed some blerg post ideas)

For a lot of my time in Wellington, I've been on the mostly not fun side of poor, and haven't been able to really go out and eat in Wellington. The food here is great and varied and ...also kind of expensive. Don't get me wrong, if you look hard enough you can find cheap places, but the food is never as good. But now that I have a worthy of a capitol J Job, I can actually afford to go out and try that one place that I've walked by every day for the last 6 months but have been too low on money to comfortably swing paying 15$ for lunch. Man, is it great. I can treat myself without looking back in regret at those 15$ I no longer have. Why is this post all about money? Stop it, Kate. Talk about food.

Food culture in New Zealand took a bit to get used to. Because 80% of what we eat is imported (be it culturally or actually imported) a lot of it is expensive. I think that's sort of what drives the importance of food in New Zealand.
IT TOOK A LOT TO GET THIS FOOD TO THESE TINY ISLANDS SO YOU WILL CHERISH IT AND APPRECIATE IT AND THAT WILL BE 8$ FOR THAT AVOCADO, PLEASE. (I'm not joking, buying fruit and veg at supermarkets is just STUPID in this country. Luckily there are farmers' markets on the weekends so you just have to stock up then)

Here are some of my favorite foods from the last few months:

Steak and Chips at The Fisherman's Table

 Ham, Avocado and Brie sandwich and a lemon bitters cake from Arobake

 Butter Chicken and Naan from Mughlai Indian Takeaways

 Mini-Carrot Cake and Mini-Red Velvet Cake from Arobake

Palmiers and Brioche from Le Moulin Bakery

 Peanut Piston Burger and Kumara (sweet potato) Chips from Burger Fuel

Scorch-O-Rama-Lama-Ding-Dong at Scorch-O-Rama

Man, am I gonna miss New Zealand food. 

On Being Raised With Musicals

I like to think that, amongst a few other things like love and understanding, I was brought up on Ego Waffles and Musicals. And incredibly lucky to have done so. Few people get to grow up with an awesome family like mine. And I'm not just saying that because I know my parents read my blog (hi guys), but the more I see of how my friends grew up the more I know how great I had it. Few people get to grow up in the States and with 2 parents who both had jobs and were open minded and encouraging and big into Family and the arts. Seriously, who could ask for more?

Growing up surrounded my musicals has shaped a lot of my adult life. I've learnt so many life lessons from musicals.

•  Anything can be turned into a song. (all musicals)
• Kissing strangers in the wood is a bad idea. (Into the Woods)
• Any time anyone accidentally says a line from a musical I start singing (much to Kaitlyn's frustration).
• it's better to be loved by a few than liked by many ([Title of Show])
• Just because people sing along with you at meetings doesn't mean they'll be there for you when shit is going down (Les Mis)
• If I can accept that some people are green and some people are little puppets, I can accept any other idiosyncrazies you throw at me. (Wicked and Avenue Q)
• Don't only be friends with couples because life isn't company. (Company)
• Don't let the haters get bring you down (Wicked and [Title of Show])
• Even thought it's easy to get caught up in the act, you don't have to share in everyone else's delusions (A Chorus Line)
• Understanding how important the arts are and accepting that everyone's a little bit different. (again, all musicals)

In college, I got very confused when hardly anyone understood the Musical Theater jokes I was making or why I was constantly breaking into song. Didn't everyone else grow up knowing all the words to songs written by men in the 70s and 80s? No? Cool.  The relationship I have with my family is not a typical one - not only do I love my family, I like them. They're pretty groovy people, and I'm lucky enough to have realized that and try to appreciate them as much as I can.

SAP WARNING AHEAD: A big part of my Growing Up has been the realization that not everyone's parents taught their kids acceptance like mine did. It might've been going to college in Oklahoma, but I was incredibly surprised by the amount of casual racism that seemed to be engrained into the kids in my classes. I grew up knowing that no matter what I did, I would always have 3 people that would love me and care about me. And that it was ok to be different and not to judge anyone else because they were. No amount of poor decision making or weird neurosis would change that. A lot of people I know don't have that and it makes me so incredibly sad that there aren't more parents out there like mine. That's not to say my parents are perfect: my dad makes some terrrrrrrible dad jokes and my mom really likes Lyle Lovett's music. Gross.
I know a lot of people that are afaid to turn into their parents, but I'm really glad that I'm so much like mine.

On Reading (#3)

Round 3 of book reviews:

The Truth by Terry Pratchett
Would Recommend If: you like books, stories about the news, or Terry Pratchett.
I'll admit it: I am addicted to reading discworld books. They're clever and hilarious and I love how the world has developed over the series and ... GAH IT'S JUST SO GREAT. The Truth is no exception - you get a glimpse of a side of Ankh-Morpork that we don't often see (pre-industrial revolution, at least), and a glimpse into what the rest of the city is like outside the University and the City Watch (which will always and forever be my favorite books, with Tiffany Aching and the Moist Von Lipwig coming in distant 2nd and 3rd). Realizing now that this won't make much sense if you haven't read any discworld books. You should read some.

Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett
Would Recommend If: same as above, except replace news with witches and theater.
I really wasn't kidding, I'm trying to read all of the discworld books. After completely skipping the Witches books first time around, I'm diving in with Wyrd Sisters. Which is basically any Shakespeare play told from the perspective of the witches. Loved this, and loved learning more about Lancre.

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu
Would Recommend If: you like time travel but don't like science fiction.
To be completely honest, I was disappointed by this book. It had so much promise - but did not deliver. I wish there had been much more time travel things and much less existential crisis things. The main character is a Time Travel Technician. HOW COOL IS THAT? But we barely see him do his job before he loses his mind and we're forced to go with him. I barely made it all the way though this book.

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia
Would Recommend If: you liked the Mortal Instruments series? I don't know. Maybe if you kinda liked Twilight but didn't really?
I don't know why I keep on subjecting myself to poorly executed YA paranormal romance series, but I do. The idea for this book was AWESOME: magic that turns you good or evil on your 16th birthday and all of it set in the deep south. And this book stays nicely away from a lot of YA romance tropes: has a male narrator, no love triangle, everything isn't magically 100% OK at the end of the book. But ... I don't know what it was that made me so frustrated with this book. It might've been the pacing or the fact that it is verrrry obvious that whoever wrote the book has never lived in the south and doesn't know a whole lot about how people talk/act. I bought the 2nd in the series, so I'll probably try reading it, but I really don't have much hope for it.

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
Would Recommend If: I have no idea, really. This book is not something I'd normally read, so I don't have a whole lot to compare it with.
This book was really interesting and a bit out of my comfort zone. I don't normally read World War II mysteries, but my mom enjoyed it and suggested I read it, so I did. I liked the structure of the book and I liked where she took it - not where I thought it was going to go, but a more realistic idea of what happened to people who lived in London during the Blitz. War torn London has always been fascinating to me and this book has re-piqued my interest. I'll definitely be reading more of this sort of book, and I'd probably pick up another book by Morton.