Special food from New Zealand来自新西兰的特色美食

郭治琼

在新西蘭的南岛，看起来平平无奇的奶酪面包卷却很受欢迎，它是一款当地人非常喜爱的特色美食。

A cheese roll may seem simple： itsbasically a slice of bread with cheese?basedfilling， rolled up and toasted until slightlycrispy （松脆的）. Yet these humble snackshold a special place in the hearts of manypeople at the bottom of the South Island，the more southern of New Zealand's twomain islands.

Margaret Peck remembers her firstcheese roll. She was a teenager at thebeach near Invercargill， almost at the endof the South Island and New Zealand'ssouthernmost city. Her husband Mark Peckremembers his first， too. It came after hisarriving as a kid from Kentucky.“ I'd neverhad them before. And they were good！ I gothooked， well and truly！”

Decades later， theres a reason whytheir memories are so clear.“ Cheese rollsmean celebrations， events， gatherings，homecomings， fundraisers and so on，”explains Donna Hamilton， who makescheese rolls at The Batch in Invercargill，which she co?owns with her husband Gareth. “They mean people， family andlaughter. They're the ultimate comfortfood.”

According to professor Helen Leach，a specialist in food anthropology （人类学）at the University of Otago in Dunedin， thefirst recipes for a version of cheese rollsappeared in South Island cookbooks in the1930s. They gained popularity in the1950s and 1960s.

Cheese rolls continue to play an im?portant part in the Deep South.“ As longas there are people in the South Island， thecheese roll will live on forever，” says MarkHeffer， who makes cheese rolls at his cafein Invercargill. Hamilton adds， “I wouldsay the world needs more cheese rolls.”

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Why do cheese rolls hold a specialplace in the hearts of many people in theSouth Island？

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