With a shift in focus to the New Zealand Food Tour market the challenge was to stay true to our brand and what it was we are trying to provide our guests. 

Foodies has always been more than just a food tour agency, we don’t just provide eating tours. It’s about the culture and the people in the places we go and how the food influences those things and vice versa, and of course it’s about the street food.

But what is NZ street food? Do we even have street food or traditional food? We have Maori food, Hungi, but most of the things we eat were brought here by the early immigrants and sure we have put our own spin on it and adapted it to our tastes and what is available to be grown here but it is still not ours. The only thing we could come up with was maybe a Pie, and if I’m honest it is one of my favourite go to snacks but we could hardly make a whole tour around it, (or could we? A thought for later maybe).

Some time ago I was invited along to a cooking demonstration and tasting evening. It was called Vego Club and it was set up to introduce people to a Plant Based way of living and to help people learn about how to cook this way and the benefits of such a diet. Being a “foodie” I was intrigued and impressed with what can be done on a “plant based” diet and have been going regularly ever since.

This was the inspiration for our first Christchurch food tour.

When street food becomes market research

I started by looking at a cool little website called Neat Places and then went visiting the places I found and asked for recommendations at each stop along the way.

What I found was a vibrant and healthy (excuse the pun) community of very talented and passionate people, producing not only amazing food but more variety than I would have thought possible and some great stories to go with it all.

One of those stories is told by Emma from Portershed.

She lovingly restored the old shop herself, right down to sanding the floorboards and says it has a Kiwiana feel. The mismatched tables and vintage style crockery give it the feeling of being in your grandmother's house she says, to me it had the feeling of a much loved and well used Kiwi batch. The time, care and love she put into the restoration is also evident in the food that her team provides.