{"id":275,"date":"2009-01-02T14:42:41","date_gmt":"2009-01-02T19:42:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/craig.dubculture.co.nz\/blog\/?p=275"},"modified":"2009-01-02T23:51:08","modified_gmt":"2009-01-03T04:51:08","slug":"cant-eat-chups-bro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/craig.dubculture.co.nz\/blog\/2009\/01\/02\/cant-eat-chups-bro\/","title":{"rendered":"Can't eat chups, bro!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The recipe for the perfect dip is not so much handed down between Kiwis, it's a genetic memory - you're born with it.\u00a0 And why not, it's so easy to remember.\u00a0 One tin of reduced cream, one packet of dried onion soup mix, a squirt of lemon juice (or white vinegar).\u00a0 And in case you can't remember it, you can buy a bowl with it on<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reduced cream is so much associated with the \"original Kiwi dip\" that the dip designation is plastered all over Nestl\u00e9's cans<\/a> and their product web site<\/a> (incidentally, first hit for the term on The Google<\/a>,\u00a0 unless you're in Canada, in which case the first hit is Homesick Kiwi<\/a>, who are willing to gouge you on the price of some).\u00a0 It doesn't even have to be Nestl\u00e9 - I used to buy Pam's reduced cream from the Pak<\/a>, and mix it with bacon and onion soup.<\/p>\n

We were in the supermarket<\/a> the other day and Fern picked up some chips.\u00a0 The subject of dip came up, and even though I'd not seen it before, a package of dried onion soup mix was easily found.\u00a0 \"Perfect for dips!\", it claimed.\u00a0 \"Just add sour cream\".<\/p>\n

Now, I don't know about you, but avoiding pre-made sour cream dips is the general reason for making the reduced cream dip in the first place.\u00a0 And I was born a guardian of The Recipe. So off to reduced-cream-ville it was.\u00a0 I knew where I'd find the stuff, and wandered down the aisle.\u00a0 Where do they keep the reduced cream?\u00a0 Right by the condensed milk, of course.\u00a0 I knew where to find that.\u00a0 And sure enough, right next to it, a half dozen varieties of evaporated milk<\/a>, but no reduced cream.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dilemma.\u00a0 Whipping out my iPhone<\/span> G1<\/span> lame piece of corporate RIM<\/abbr> crap, I soon found out that the only mentions of reduced cream on the Internet were from NZ.\u00a0 I'd never thought about it that way, but it's kiwiana.\u00a0 I am forced to believe it only exists in order to one day become dip.\u00a0 It therefore goes in the pile of Things I Can't Have, right next to correct-recipe Creme Eggs and Twisties. Seems that reduced cream was in vogue for making white sauces \"in the era of nouvelle cuisine\"<\/a>, but\u00a0now only really used in Nouvelle-Z\u00e9lande.<\/p>\n

Never one to shy away from improvising though!\u00a0 I grabbed a can of evaporated milk - how different could it be? - and headed home.<\/p>\n

Well, it wasn't thick and creamy, for starters.\u00a0 It had about the consistency of regular milk. And it didn't look like dip when mixed with the soup packet. So I did what any good cook would do - I reduced <\/strong>it, in a pot on the stove, and I added cream<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I don't think it's actually the milk's fault.\u00a0 I think the milk was OK.\u00a0 I suspect it was the soup mix that really needs to evaluate its place on the shelf.\u00a0 Eventually, I got something which tastes quite edible<\/a>, but Fern wouldn't touch. See if you can figure out why.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"Canadian<\/a><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The recipe for the perfect dip is not so much handed down between Kiwis, it's a genetic memory - you're born with it.\u00a0 And why not, it's so easy to remember.\u00a0 One tin of reduced cream, one packet of dried onion soup mix, a squirt of lemon juice (or white vinegar).\u00a0 And in case you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[67],"tags":[62,64],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/craig.dubculture.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/craig.dubculture.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/craig.dubculture.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/craig.dubculture.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/craig.dubculture.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/craig.dubculture.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":284,"href":"http:\/\/craig.dubculture.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275\/revisions\/284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/craig.dubculture.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/craig.dubculture.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/craig.dubculture.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}