Special food from New Zealand

重慶 郭治瓊

A cheese roll may seem simple: it's basically a slice of bread with cheese-based filling,rolled up and toasted until slightly crispy (松脆的).Yet these humble snacks hold a special place in the hearts of many people at the bottom of the South Island,the more southern of New Zealand's two main islands.

Margaret Peck remembers her first cheese roll.She was a teenager at the beach near Invercargill,almost at the end of the South Island and New Zealand's southernmost city.Her husband Mark Peck remembers his first,too.It came after his arriving as a kid from Kentucky.“I'd never had them before.And they were good! I got hooked,well and truly!”

Decades later,there's a reason why their memories are so clear.“Cheese rolls mean celebrations,events,gatherings,homecomings,fundraisers and so on,”explains Donna Hamilton,who makes cheese rolls at The Batch in Invercargill,which she co-owns with her husband Gareth.“They mean people,family and laughter.They're the ultimate comfort food.”

According to professor Helen Leach,a specialist in food anthropology (人類學)at the University of Otago in Dunedin,the first recipes for a version of cheese rolls appeared in South Island cookbooks in the 1930s.They gained popularity in the 1950s and 1960s.

Cheese rolls continue to play an important part in the Deep South.“As long as there are people in the South Island,the cheese roll will live on forever,” says Mark Heffer,who makes cheese rolls at his cafe in Invercargill.Hamilton adds,“I would say the world needs more cheese rolls.”

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Why do cheese rolls hold a special place in the hearts of many people in the South Island?