
New Zealand Desserts

The rich dairy products of New Zealand are downright evil to those who are watching their weight. Ice cream, specifically those which are fruit flavored and loaded with real chunks of fruits, is foremost among the national dessert favorites.
Milk in all its creamy goodness are still sold in glass bottles because the majority of New Zealanders prefer them this way, but those in cartons are also available although less popular.
There is also a large variety of gourmet cheese induding feta, Camembert, Roman, Gouda, New Zealand blue vein, Gruyere, Brie, and the ever popular cheddar.
Each and every tea room in New Zealand offers a large choice of cream filled cakes, fruit filled tarts. custards. and cream buns. Pavlova, the popular traditional dessert. consists of meringue filled with fresh fruit such as kiwi fruit. strawberries, and passion fruit combined with whipped cream. Pavlova is famous for being crunchy outside yet gooey and soft inside. Both the countries of New Zealand and Australia take great pride in the creation of the Pavlova. In fact. natives of each country debate over where the sinful dessert originated. It is a well known fact tough that the dessert was invented in honor of Russian prima ballerina. Anna Pavlova, who in the 1920s visited New Zealand.
As aforementioned. the Pavlova is a dessert based on meringue and was named in honor of Anna Pavlova. the world famous ballerina. Colloquially. it is known as the “Pay” and is pronounced differently from the way the name of the actual Pavlova is pronounced. The Pavlova is a popular dessert dish and an integral part of both countries’ national cuisine. and is almost always served during holidays or celebratory meals such as dinner at Christmas. The new Prime Minister of New Zealand, John Key. is being bombarded with several challenges to diplomacy and strives to take them all on stride. But of all these challenges. the origins of a certain meringue-based dessert garnished with tropical fruit and cream is. at the moment, foremost on his mind.
Mr. Key is annoyed by the long-standing claim of Australia as the inventor of the Pavlova. which he rejected as ludicrous.
He advised his ally and neighbor to acquiesce the New Zealand’s origins of the dessert and to relinquish other New Zealand treasured exports such as the legendary race horse, Phar Lap, which is also being claimed by Australia.
Evidence newly gathered suggests that the Mr. Key is probably right in his claim as far as the Pavlova is concerned.
It has been a strong belief among Australians that the famous dessert was created in 1935 by Bert Sachse a chef of the Esplanade Hotel in Perth, in the Russian ballerinas honor. Anna Pavlova visited Australia in both 1926 and 1929.
Helen Leach, an Otago University of New Zealand academic. has discovered a recipe of the Pavlova in a 1933 cookbook of the Mother’s Union and also in a rural magazine which dates back to 1929. Both refer to the dish as Pavlova and lists all the exact ingredients employed by today s cookbooks using the same method of preparation.