THE GREAT DEBATE
Hello everyone and welcome to 'Speaking tongues' where we will be talking on the two most contested and commonly asked questions.
New Zealand kina vs Australian kina. Fresh kina vs. Frozen kina. Lets get straight into it.
New Zealand kina vs Australian kina. Fresh kina vs. Frozen kina. Lets get straight into it.
FRESH vs. FROZEN
When buying kina here in Australia most kiwis refuse to buy frozen and will only ask for fresh kina. There are a number of reasons for this. But the truth of the matter is Kiwis just simply don't want to wait for kinas to thaw out. They want to eat them right away. That's because they are use to eating kina straight out of the shell or soon after it has been shelled.
Kina is so prized that it very rarely makes it from the ocean to the car let alone to the fridge. So it is both an uncommon and unnecessary practice for New Zealanders' to freeze kina. There is simply no need to do it. Therefore the thought of frozen kina is 'Koretake' - pointless. This thinking has become so deeply woven into our psyche that it is only natural we feel the same about eating kina here in Australia.
However there are exceptions to the rule. Well actually there is only one exception to the rule. And that is when we are visiting family and friends overseas. Frozen kina suddenly becomes a very good idea. Why? Because it is the only way to get kina into the country we're travelling to. Usually Australia. The same thing happens when your returning from holiday in New Zealand. It's almost standard procedure to bring in duty free alcohol, cigarettes and frozen punnets of NZ kina.
If your like me you will buy the kina fresh and freeze it the night before the flight over. So although we have never needed to freeze kina in New Zealand, when transporting it to places like Australia, it not only became the best way but also the ONLY way to get it through customs. This is still the case today.
The other reason kiwis don't like to buy frozen kina is because there is the belief that frozen seafood is second rate or 'sub standard''. This is only true if the seafood being frozen is already well into its use by date. (We will go into this further down.) But with today's commercial blast freezers capable of snap freezing kina to lock in it's freshness and taste ensuring a top quality product on arrival, this belief is, well, 'Incorrect' and 'Out dated'.
In fact frozen kina from New Zealand can in some cases be fresher than local fresh Australian kina.
How is that?...I hear you ask. Well lets take a hypothetical scenario.
Lets imagine my favorite aunty and uncle call me Sunday night and tell me their coming to visit the following weekend all the way from Canberra. A seven hour drive for them to Melbourne. Since I know they both love their kina I want to be sure and get them nothing but the best fresh kina for when they pull up at the front door.
Lets say on Monday morning, the very next day, both the Aussie and the Kiwi kina divers go out and collect kina. On the same day they both shell and pack them. Now the Aussie, who is lets say in Sydney, immediately ships his kina to Melbourne over night express arriving Tuesday morning ready for sale with a shelf life of 14 days.
However, I don't get paid till Thursday and want the kina for the weekend so I wait till Friday after work to go down and buy them.
The Kiwi diver on the other hand doesn't send his express like the Aussie. But instead snap freezes his kina straight after shelling and packing them. Thus suspending the 14 day shelf life. He then heads off down to the local for a cold beer. The next day, which is Tuesday, he puts the kina onto a Qantas flight and flies them to Melbourne. After customs are happy the kina are cleared and Thursday morning it arrives at the shop ready for sale.
As planned I go down to the shop after work Friday afternoon and see two different punnets of kina. One Australian and one New Zealand. One is fresh the other frozen. I decide to buy one of each. When I get home I leave the frozen New Zealand kina out overnight to thaw for the next day, which is Saturday when my guests arrive. The other fresh Aussie punnet I put in the fridge. The next day my visitors arrive and I serve up the kina.
Now which kina is fresher? The Aussie punnet or the Kiwi punnet? The 'Fresh or the Frozen'?
The answer is the New Zealand punnet because the Aussie punnet is 6 days old into its 14 day shelf life. Where as the New Zealand kina once thawed is still only 1 day old into its 14 day shelf life! That's 5 days fresher than the Aussie kina!
And if you want to put it to the test then leave both punnets in the fridge and see which one you throw out first.
What we need to remember is we are not in New Zealand. But that does not mean we cannot enjoy the true taste of New Zealand kina which has been shelled and packed fresh then put into a blast freezer sealing in all its natural juices and flavor. Nothing has changed as far as the kina goes and its taste. What has changed is the waiting time for you to be able to dig into it.
As for uncle and aunty, well if I give them one for the road, it will be thawed out by the time they get home to Canberra. Yum!
Kina is so prized that it very rarely makes it from the ocean to the car let alone to the fridge. So it is both an uncommon and unnecessary practice for New Zealanders' to freeze kina. There is simply no need to do it. Therefore the thought of frozen kina is 'Koretake' - pointless. This thinking has become so deeply woven into our psyche that it is only natural we feel the same about eating kina here in Australia.
However there are exceptions to the rule. Well actually there is only one exception to the rule. And that is when we are visiting family and friends overseas. Frozen kina suddenly becomes a very good idea. Why? Because it is the only way to get kina into the country we're travelling to. Usually Australia. The same thing happens when your returning from holiday in New Zealand. It's almost standard procedure to bring in duty free alcohol, cigarettes and frozen punnets of NZ kina.
If your like me you will buy the kina fresh and freeze it the night before the flight over. So although we have never needed to freeze kina in New Zealand, when transporting it to places like Australia, it not only became the best way but also the ONLY way to get it through customs. This is still the case today.
The other reason kiwis don't like to buy frozen kina is because there is the belief that frozen seafood is second rate or 'sub standard''. This is only true if the seafood being frozen is already well into its use by date. (We will go into this further down.) But with today's commercial blast freezers capable of snap freezing kina to lock in it's freshness and taste ensuring a top quality product on arrival, this belief is, well, 'Incorrect' and 'Out dated'.
In fact frozen kina from New Zealand can in some cases be fresher than local fresh Australian kina.
How is that?...I hear you ask. Well lets take a hypothetical scenario.
Lets imagine my favorite aunty and uncle call me Sunday night and tell me their coming to visit the following weekend all the way from Canberra. A seven hour drive for them to Melbourne. Since I know they both love their kina I want to be sure and get them nothing but the best fresh kina for when they pull up at the front door.
Lets say on Monday morning, the very next day, both the Aussie and the Kiwi kina divers go out and collect kina. On the same day they both shell and pack them. Now the Aussie, who is lets say in Sydney, immediately ships his kina to Melbourne over night express arriving Tuesday morning ready for sale with a shelf life of 14 days.
However, I don't get paid till Thursday and want the kina for the weekend so I wait till Friday after work to go down and buy them.
The Kiwi diver on the other hand doesn't send his express like the Aussie. But instead snap freezes his kina straight after shelling and packing them. Thus suspending the 14 day shelf life. He then heads off down to the local for a cold beer. The next day, which is Tuesday, he puts the kina onto a Qantas flight and flies them to Melbourne. After customs are happy the kina are cleared and Thursday morning it arrives at the shop ready for sale.
As planned I go down to the shop after work Friday afternoon and see two different punnets of kina. One Australian and one New Zealand. One is fresh the other frozen. I decide to buy one of each. When I get home I leave the frozen New Zealand kina out overnight to thaw for the next day, which is Saturday when my guests arrive. The other fresh Aussie punnet I put in the fridge. The next day my visitors arrive and I serve up the kina.
Now which kina is fresher? The Aussie punnet or the Kiwi punnet? The 'Fresh or the Frozen'?
The answer is the New Zealand punnet because the Aussie punnet is 6 days old into its 14 day shelf life. Where as the New Zealand kina once thawed is still only 1 day old into its 14 day shelf life! That's 5 days fresher than the Aussie kina!
And if you want to put it to the test then leave both punnets in the fridge and see which one you throw out first.
What we need to remember is we are not in New Zealand. But that does not mean we cannot enjoy the true taste of New Zealand kina which has been shelled and packed fresh then put into a blast freezer sealing in all its natural juices and flavor. Nothing has changed as far as the kina goes and its taste. What has changed is the waiting time for you to be able to dig into it.
As for uncle and aunty, well if I give them one for the road, it will be thawed out by the time they get home to Canberra. Yum!
AUSSIE vs. KIWI
We were quite surprised to find how many of you were actually confused about the difference between New Zealand and Australian kina. So we wanted to make it as easy as possible for you to identify which is which.
The Australian punnet.
*100g punnet
*Sold Fresh
*Cost - $14.
Label Displays -
"Product Of Australia"
'Use by date'
'Net weight'
Firstly I will start by saying that the product was high quality. It is harvested and packed right here in Australia and is a good product.
When buying kina I always look to see the 'Weight' of the product NOT the size of the punnet. For instance this punnet contained 100 grams of actual kina. Also I check the 'Use By' date because although this was sold as fresh it was already 11 days into its use by date when I brought it. That meant it only had 3 days of shelf life left before it went bad.
Now when you pick this punnet up you can see clearly the kina floating around in it. That's because the kina are in salt water/brine which is used to preserve the kina over its shelf life. Preservatives are not something I am use to when eating kina. I found the salt water overwhelmed the taste of the kina roe. Possibly because the kina had absorbed the extra salt? As a result I found it unpleasant and could only eat half of the punnet. In fact I had to give my taste buds time out. It took me two sittings to finish them off.
Finally the cost of the punnet which was $14 per 100g.
When buying kina I always look to see the 'Weight' of the product NOT the size of the punnet. For instance this punnet contained 100 grams of actual kina. Also I check the 'Use By' date because although this was sold as fresh it was already 11 days into its use by date when I brought it. That meant it only had 3 days of shelf life left before it went bad.
Now when you pick this punnet up you can see clearly the kina floating around in it. That's because the kina are in salt water/brine which is used to preserve the kina over its shelf life. Preservatives are not something I am use to when eating kina. I found the salt water overwhelmed the taste of the kina roe. Possibly because the kina had absorbed the extra salt? As a result I found it unpleasant and could only eat half of the punnet. In fact I had to give my taste buds time out. It took me two sittings to finish them off.
Finally the cost of the punnet which was $14 per 100g.
The New Zealand punnet
*200g punnet.
*Sold Frozen
*Cost - $24
Label Displays
"Product Of New Zealand"
"Use by date'
'Net weight'
STATING THE OBVIOUS.
Aussie vs. Kiwi
*100 grams vs. 200 grams
*Fresh vs. Frozen
*Salt Water vs. Natural Juice
*$14 vs $24
*100 grams vs. 200 grams
*Fresh vs. Frozen
*Salt Water vs. Natural Juice
*$14 vs $24
At the end of the day it comes down to 2 things. Taste and price.
There is no argument the Australian kina taste good...AND...it would taste even better without the salt water. For my money if your going to sell me fresh kina then give it to me straight out of the shell not a punnet full of brine. I will also be the first to say that the Aussie punnet "Looks" cleaner and fresher than the New Zealand punnet because of the clear solution they are packed in. The New Zealand punnet in comparison is "Cloudy" caused by the natural juice the New Zealand kina roe possess. More commonly known by the Maori's as the 'Milk or Cream'.
Because the New Zealand sea urchin is much larger in size than the Australian sea urchin , the Kiwi kina also have much larger tongues producing more milk or cream.
This photo was taken in Gisborne on the East Coast of New Zealand December 2011.
When it was first posted on Facebook there were many, including Maoris, who thought it was "Photo-shopped."
But I can tell you it's not. It was taken on a mobile phone.
I know this because it was my mobile phone and I am the one who took the shot. This is what we are use to pulling out of punnets back home and now we can do the same right here in Melbourne.
Hugh Tibble
Find Us in
NARRE WARREN
DANDENONG
MORNINGTON PENINSULA
HAMPTON PARK
BERWICK
When it was first posted on Facebook there were many, including Maoris, who thought it was "Photo-shopped."
But I can tell you it's not. It was taken on a mobile phone.
I know this because it was my mobile phone and I am the one who took the shot. This is what we are use to pulling out of punnets back home and now we can do the same right here in Melbourne.
Hugh Tibble
Find Us in
NARRE WARREN
DANDENONG
MORNINGTON PENINSULA
HAMPTON PARK
BERWICK
Aussie kina next to aussie 5c piece.
This photo was taken in Melbourne Australia 2013. The tongue was taken from the same 100g Aussie punnet shown below.
This photo was taken in Melbourne Australia 2013. The tongue was taken from the same 100g Aussie punnet shown below.
THE BOTTOM DOLLAR.
Because the Kiwi punnet is 200g and the Aussie 100g it becomes difficult to give a true comparison. It would be easy to say "...Well if you buy two 100g Aussie punnets it would cost $28. Thats $4 more than the Kiwi 200g at $24..."
This is true. But to be fair if Hamana Pacific were to offer a 100g punnet for sale, it would sell at $16. So we would be $2 dearer than the Aussie punnet at $14. The fact of the matter is New Zealand kina is always going to cost more than the Aussie kina. Whether it is 100g or 200g. And we make no apologies for that. Because in order for us to bring you the best, it cost more. It's really that simple.
So there remains only one question left to answer...What do you chose? Fresh Aussie kina? Or Frozen New Zealand kina?
...The following have chosen "Frozen New Zealand kina"....
Mauri Ora!!