Kelp, kale and kombucha are forced down our throats every day on social media.

Because there's more to life than matcha, we've decided to celebrate the best Kiwi junk foods of all time.



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LAMINGTONS

Like all good things Kiwi, Australians tried to claim lamingtons, but a University of Auckland study found they were ours all along, except they were called 'Wellingtons'. Appearing on a 1888 painting by JR Smythe, all hopes for the Australians claiming our spongy treats were squashed. They might not seem like anything special, but throw a good dollop of cream and jam in between two slices of cake and you've got a sinfully good treat. The cakes induce about as much nostalgia as fairy bread, and they're just as easy to make.



PIE AND SAUCE

ROB KITCHIN/ STUFF Tomato sauce is crucial for a many a pie-lovers' tastes.

Whether you're a steak or a mince fan, a meat pie slathered in tomato sauce is a Kiwi treat that fits the hole in your stomach perfectly. Steak and cheese takes the gong as the country's most popular pie, but that doesn't end the debate. Seventy million pies are eaten every year in New Zealand, so it's big business and it's extremely competitive. New Zealand's best pie maker is Patrick Lam, five time winner of Bakels Pie of the Year competition. Lam says it's all about the pastry, because without a good foundation you're not going to have a great pie.

CHEESE ROLL

Dunedin claims cheese rolls, Southland is not happy, Timaru does the same and Southland is incensed. That's because the cheese roll first appeared in Southland cookbooks in the mid 1950s, and they don't want anyone claiming their invention. Now, they're rolling onto plates as far north as Auckland, hitting hipster cafes city-wide. Even widely-loved Nadia Lim's recipe for the southern delicacy makes Southlanders see red. There's nothing stronger than a Southlander's pride, so it's fair to say the rolls are theirs.

JOHN BISSET/ STUFF Timaru mayor Damon Odey claims Timaru makes the best cheese rolls.

FISH AND CHIPS

Tearing at newspaper like it's Christmas, no matter what time of year, fish and chips are a cheap Friday night treat. They have been around for a long time too according to Te Ara, where food historian Tony Simpson says the history is about as clear as frier oil. He says the first shop opened in New Zealand before the beginning of WWI. Fish and chips are from Britain, but we make it our own by skipping salt, vinegar and mushy peas for something better: tomato and tartare​sauces plus great, local fish. In the north you have gurnard or snapper and in the south you'd be foolish to skip blue cod. There's nothing more unifying than a big piece of battered fish and chips.

JELLY TIP



They Jelly Tip has been in New Zealand freezers for over 50 years, and the Tip-Top creation has had many iterations since then. While it's no longer available for sixpence, when it comes to summer time slurping, it's perfect. That's because the jelly is the appetiser ahead of the bottom ice cream layer, it's the best of both worlds.

LAILANI HATCH/STUFF Jelly Tips are well-loved, so much so that they are in chocolate and biscuits.

HOKEY POKEY ICE CREAM

The crunch of the golden honeycomb lumps is as familiar to New Zealanders as the feeling of ice cream melting down your hands. With plenty of competition over ice cream in the early 20th century, the inventor is hard to pin. That's because former Papatoetoe and Waipukurau ice-creameries lay claim to the flavour, and so does Tip-Top, but no matter the inventor it's a Kiwi institution. Hokey pokey has always been a New Zealand favourite, second only to vanilla in sales country-wide. We eat a lot of ice cream too, 23 litres per capita each year, according to the NZ Ice Cream Manufacturers' Association. It is part of Kiwiana, having appeared on postage stamps and shipped across the world.



LEMON AND PAEROA

Mineral water spurting from a deep water spring? Just needs a squeeze of lemon and you've got L&P. Paeroa and District Museum curator and historian Graham Watton tells the history for Positive Paeroa, and it's long, but it starts with a couple of lovebirds who "struck upon the happy idea of taking a lemon or two in their pockets and adding lemon juice to the mineral water". Marketed since the 40s as Lemon & Paeroa, the effervescent water is high in minerals and helped cure headaches, so the story goes, but no longer used because production is exclusively in Auckland. New Zealand's love of the elixir is strong and the drink is arguably more famous than its home town where two giant statues of bottles stand tall. Appearing in ice cream, chocolate and biscuits, we can't get enough of the stuff, even 100 years later.

PETER MEECHAM/ STUFF Lemon and Paeroa is a Kiwi institution, and the town Paeroa is full of memorabilia.

LOUISE CAKE

Cake by name, slice in execution, Louise cake is said to have been named after Queen Victoria's daughter Princess Louise for her wedding but the facts are contested. The slice is most likely courtesy of early English settlers, and it continues to be an old favourite among bakers and enthusiasts. Food writer and enthusiastic baker Sarah Tuck has sweet memories of the slice for its cakey base, sweet jammy middle and coconut-meringue crown. Like many families, her recipe was passed down from her mother and grandmother, which she's now evolved in to Louise cake-cake, perfect with tea or coffee in the afternoon.

A post shared by Pappas Nuthouse Cafe (@pappasnuthouse) on Nov 10, 2016 at 11:27pm PST

MOCK CREAM DONUT

There's an obvious trend with New Zealand food, given Tip-Top came out with a cream donut flavour - we love to mix our favourites together. In a bun or donut, the snow-white mock cream and blobs of radioactive jam are what makes them great. You might have had it on a Friday, after your fish and chips, or maybe in a special lunch order at school as a child. They have long been lining bakery shelves, alongside Sally Luns (or Boston buns) and other baked goodies, and have dusted many a school uniform with residual icing sugar. Fried and coated with icing sugar, they are a doughnut like no other: slightly crispy and sweet, doughy and chewy.

Hope everyone enjoyed their Waitangi Day 🇳🇿🇳🇿 - the perfect size for kiwi onion dip 👌 #sandersonpottery #waitangiday A post shared by ▪️ Sanderson Pottery ▪️ (@sandersonpottery) on Feb 6, 2017 at 9:25pm PST

CHIPS AND KIWI ONION DIP

A glorious glob of reduced cream mixed with onion soup powder and a bit of lemon juice or vinegar is all you need to accompany your chip. We love this onion dip so much, we gave it a name. The Spinoff investigated the beautiful person to invent such a Kiwi cult food. Her name is Rosemary Dempsey and she came up with the combo in the 1950s. While she doesn't particularly like either reduced cream or onion soup mix, she's proud of the dip. "I'm delighted I think it's wonderful and I'm so thrilled for my grandchildren because they can say hey! My grandmother did that," she says. The oddly satisfying and rich dip is still the perfect accompaniment for chips or carrot sticks, and perfect for summer grazing before a barbecue.

What have we missed? Share your favourite New Zealand junk food in the comment section below.