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Pavlova
This desert was named after the great Russian ballerina Anna
Pavlova. Anna Pavlova
(1881 - 1931) was the most famous classical ballerina of her
era. She toured the world until 1925, including a visit to
New Zealand where it is thought that a chef first prepared
the dessert for her to honour her with a food as light and
airy as her movements. Australians also claim to have crated
the pav through a chef from Adelaide. Here are some quotes
from Anna:
"To follow without halt, one aim; there is the secret
of success. And success? What is it? I do not find it in the
applause of the theatre. It lies rather in the satisfaction
of accomplishment."
"Master technique and then forget about it and be natural."
"What exactly is success? For me it is to be found not
in applause,
but in the satisfaction of feeling that one is realising one's
ideal."
"As is the case in all branches of art, success depends
in a very large measure upon individual initiative and exertion,
and cannot be achieved except by dint of hard work. "
The ingredients of the pavlova are basically egg whites and
sugar topped with whipped cream and kiwifruit (or strawberries).
It can be a real challenge to make one with a crisp outside,
chewy centre and that hasn't fallen in the middle!
Hokey Pokey
Hokey pokey got to Kiwiana status more than fifty years ago.
New Zealanders pack away about two million litres of hokey
pokey a year. 
New Zealanders started munching this flavour back in the 1940s
when the range of ice creams was more limited than what we
have today.
Hokey-pokey is made by adding toffee to vanilla ice cream.
It used to have larger chunks when the hokey was smashed by
machines but now it is regular, smooth "pebbles"
of candy. The problems for the makers is to not make it too
crunchy or too chewy as different people like the different
textures in their mouths!
The top three ice cream flavours in the world are vanilla,
chocolate and strawberry. In New Zealand it's vanilla, hokey-pokey,
chocolate and strawberry.
"Ecce pocce", is Italian for "Get it here,
it's cold", and it is thought that it became the name
given to ice cream vendors as they called out to passerbys.
Hokey-pokey actually referred to cheap ice cream or ice milk.
Kiwifruit
It is all in how you market. New Zealand is well known for
its agricultural exports and expertise. New Zealand adopted
this fruit from its home country in China where it was called
the, "Chinese Gooseberry" and wasn't that popular.
The Kiwifruit farmers started growing in earnest in the 1960's
and then developed its size and taste. The fruit is now exported
in its millions around the world. Checkout: http://www.night.net/tucker/st-kiwi.html-ss
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