Monsters vs. Aliens
Megan & I went to see Monsters vs. Aliens in 3-D last night and it was great fun. Not exactly Pixar-classic, but certainly better than most of the tween-aimed drek available at your local cineplex these days. And the 3-D technology was pretty impressive; if you’re going to spend the money to see it in the theater, I’d recommend seeing it in 3-D. That’s not something you’re going to be able to watch at home.
Which brings me to the point of this post: How is that going to work at home? The theater we went to (the only one in Wellington, I believe, showing the movie in 3-D) did not charge for the special 3-D glasses, but they did make a point of letting us know that if we didn’t return the glasses, or if we broke them, we’d be charged NZD $75. That’s probably just an annoyance charge, and not the retail price of the glasses, but let’s say USD $40 just for sake of argument. That would mean that if I wanted pairs for my whole family to watch at home in 3-D using – I suppose – our special Blu-Ray 3-D disc, we’d need to pony up a couple hundred bucks. And if we needed some extras for a sleepover?
Normally I’d just assume this is an in-theater gimmick, and that the average home viewer would simply watch it in 2-D, but there seems to be a trend developing: the next big Pixar film, Up, is also going to be in the Disney Digital 3-D format. And Disney, you can be sure, is all about selling the DVDs. Eventually, people are going to insist that the movie they’ve bought for their home is as good as the one that they saw in the theater. And if MvA is any example, that means 3-D.
ps Completely apart from the 3-D question, I have to throw in a little NZ trivia: around here, they assign you seats at the movie theater. The first theater we went to, the Empire in Island Bay, is a quaint little theater/cafe with wine, beer & comfy two-person seating, so I had assumed that the seat assignments were part of the quaintness. Not so! Last night we went to downtown Wellington’s biggest multiplex, and the same was true there. Frankly, this is so much better than the first-come-first-served way we handle movie seating in the states, that I can’t imagine going back. Give the kiwis a point on the NZ vs. US score track for this one.
pps Katie’s friend, a Kiwi but also long-time Indonesia resident, tells us that assigned movie seats are the norm over most of Oceania. So maybe it’s not just New Zealand per se. But we’ll give them the points if only because the US way of doing things is so inordinately stupid.
Labels: US vs NZ
US v NZ: Food
It would be crazy to try to compare the national cuisine of a nation of 4 million people, which I’ve only experienced for a couple months, to a country 60 times its size in just a few short paragraphs! So this post will be several paragraphs long and will include bullet points. Can’t say we don’t give everyone a fair shake around here.
=> American Fare
A coin has been flipped, and the American side wins home field advantage for the first round. So let’s start with some quintessentially American food, like pizza, burgers, hot dogs and ice cream.
G. W. Bush’s grand effort to reduce American importance and goodwill around the world notwithstanding, Kiwis are no strangers to American food. But there are a few subtle differences: For example, the standard, go-to pizza in these parts is not pepperoni, but ham and pineapple (Pacific island influence, perhaps?); in fact, the choices for take-home pizza at the grocery store do not even include pepperoni … or even plain cheese, which I find odd. Burgers are burgers, but here they like to season theirs with aioli, a sort of garlicky-mayo-like kind of condiment. (And in my book, “garlicky-mayo-like” can only be perceived as positive.) As far as the burgers themselves go, I am pretty sure that grass-fed goodness makes the meat especially yummy, even when dining at a chain. (BurgerFuel is my personal favorite here.)
On the other side of the spectrum are the New Zealand hot dogs, which are just horrible. The joy that I felt when I realized that almost all of the hot dogs here are corn dogs was matched only by the despair I felt when I first tasted one. I honestly never thought anyone could keep me from loving my corn dog, but good on ya, NZ: you pulled it off.
So how about dessert? Since we’re talking about BurgerFuel, I’ll admit that their shakes aren’t really up to snuff. Too much like a malted and not enough like drinking ice cream. Of course, there’s good ice cream to be had at specialty shops here, just as there is in the states (though it’d be hard to find a place that matches the incredible experience of a Kaffe Eis cup of almost-but-not-quite-gelato). But when it comes to your basic store-bought ice cream, the Kiwis have this one cold (heh, heh). Cadbury Creamy Vanilla is the kind of ice cream that you’d pick up if you were just grabbing a gallon (sorry, liter) for home, but even so, it tastes like Ben & Jerry themselves churned it for you. I’ve been thinking that I could lose a few pounds if I just cut out dessert, but it looks like that’ll have to wait until I return to Boulder.
=> New Zealand Fare
Okay, the US had its chance, what about standard New Zealand cuisine? Frankly, I have no idea what that is (and I don’t feel like taking the time to look it up). There are definitely some “Kiwi as” foods, and certainly some foods that we’re enjoying here which we’d have only rarely or never back in the states, though I’m not sure how many of these are really Kiwi instead of just British or Aussie imports. But hey, we’re talking four million people here. There aren’t too many Colorado-specific foods out there either.
But when I look back at our time here, I’ll definitely remember the meat pies. Generally any corner dairy (that’s Kiwi for “convenience store”) will have a variety of frozen meat pies available, much like the same kind of stores in the states would have hot dogs (oh, hot dogs, I miss you). And they’re just as yummy as they are incredibly bad for you. Which really makes me wonder why they’ve not caught on in the states; we’re like the perfect target market. Another example: crumpets, which we now have regularly for breakfast, are obviously superior to toast or even English muffins. America could learn a thing or two from the buttery goodness of crumpets.
As for desserts: I probably shouldn’t have been so blasé about Kiwi cuisine before. There is at least one Kiwi-born food that I’ve tried and loved: pavlova. It’s a fluffy mixture of egg whites and sugar with whipped cream and fruit and, well, need I say more? Sara made one for Katie’s birthday (see left) and even as a family we couldn’t finish it; though we all ate as much as we possibly could. And if you’re going to pick a food to call your own, a yummy dessert sure beats “American cheese”, eh?
=> Neighboring Cuisines
One thing I sort of expected down here in the SE quadrant of the world was that our proximity to Asian countries would mean better Chinese or (woo hoo!) Indian food. Maybe the perfect restaurant is hiding, or maybe the Asian food in the states is hard to beat, but so far I’ve not been impressed. And the lack of good Mexican items in the supermarket (something that’s plentiful in Colorado) is heart-breaking.
Final Decision
I suppose I could say that each national cuisine has its merits; or I could enjoy the new experiences here without comparing them to my home country; or I could even admit that I have neither the experience nor the expertise to make a final judgment… but where’s the fun in that? Somebody’s gotta win. And after weighing the different sides, I’m afraid I have to give this one to the Kiwis. True, they’ve not figured out pizza exactly, and I can’t for the life of me find anywhere that sells blue cheese dressing, but between the aioli and the Cadbury Creamy Vanilla, I’m afraid they’ve outdone the Yanks yet again.
Current Score: USA 0, NZ 2.
Labels: US vs NZ
US v NZ: Outlets
Ah, travel. A special time when you can meet new people, sample their food, see how they live, learn about their culture, and look for those special little rarely noticed customs that let you think to yourself, "Well, that's a stupid way of doing things."
We're going to be in New Zealand for about six months, and during that time I've decided it would be a service to you, dear reader, and the international community at large, if we were to compare and contrast various aspects of the Kiwi life with those of the good ole US of A in our newest blog feature:
US vs. NZ: the Good, the Bad, and the Sweet As
In each of our featured posts, we'll cover a specific aspect of Kiwi culture or life and compare it with the same aspect back in the states. Then we'll decide whose is better. Because if someone doesn't win, what's the point?
For our first
US vs NZ post, let's talk electrical outlets. (I can already
feel your excitement.) Seeing as how I spent a good part of our first days here trying to figure out how to get our various computers, iPods and whatnot plugged in, it was one of the first things I noticed. The shot I took this morning is of a standard outlet in our house; and as far as I can tell, it's the norm. Single outlets are all like this; double outlets are the same, but with two sets of switches/holes stacked atop each other.
As you can see, the top two holes slant together, meaning that you can't turn an ungrounded plug upside down, as you can in the states. This could be annoying, but it's
far superior to those US plugs with one side bigger than the other.
The real difference, of course, is the switch. As far as I've seen,
every outlet has its own switch. When the switch is on (as shown), the outlet is hot; when it's off, the outlet is dead. Pretty straightforward. As you can imagine, this generally means that people leave the switch on all the time, and there certainly have been times when we've been worried that the appliance is dead, only to discover that the outlet was off. So there are probably those kiwis who just think it's an inconvenience. But I can't imagine that this doesn't in some small way both reduce electrical accidents and save energy. It may seem silly, but pressing that switch is a lot easer than unplugging your laptop or figuring out how to turn the TV OFF instead of going into STANDBY mode. Converter bricks and standby modes consume a lot of wasted energy, and a concerted effort to switch off the outlet would likely mean a big step towards a greener America... if we had a switch in every outlet like the Kiwis do, which we don't and never will... so never mind.
WINNER: Score one for the Kiwis and their energy-saving outlets, whether or not they're actually used as they should be.
Labels: US vs NZ
Megan & I went to see Monsters vs. Aliens in 3-D last night and it was great fun. Not exactly Pixar-classic, but certainly better than most of the tween-aimed drek available at your local cineplex these days. And the 3-D technology was pretty impressive; if you’re going to spend the money to see it in the theater, I’d recommend seeing it in 3-D. That’s not something you’re going to be able to watch at home.
