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Food connects cultures
Author Tamsin Vuetilovoni
- Museum visitors were welcome to sample Fahima's mantu and kabili.
An Afghani Housing New Zealand tenant recently had the opportunity to share her culture through food.
Fahima Haidari was taking part in a cooking exhibition where refugees shared recipes and their cultures with the people of Wellington.
She was happy to demonstrate how to cook a traditional Afghan meal during the Migrating Kitchen exhibition at Pataka Museum last month.
"Thank you for accepting us," she said as she started to make dumplings.
"This is called mantu, and Afghan people love it because it has meat. My mother cooked it once a week, and this is her recipe."
As Fahima quickly wrapped the meat mixture into a wonton wrapper, she shared her story with us.
"My husband and my five children arrived in New Zealand four years ago as refugees. It was hard. The winter was very cold, and there were only two other Afghan families in Wellington. Now we are very happy. All my children are at school, my husband and I are studying IT and we dream about owning our own home."
Fahima put the dumplings into a steamer and took out the ones that had already been cooked. She served them up with a rice dish called kabili. As everyone started to eat, she apologised for the taste.
"I am not sure if there is enough salt, I could not taste it."
She explained that today was the first day of Ramadan, which means she wouldn't be able to eat or drink until after dark.
Fahima did not need to apologise - it was beautiful.
Recipe for mantu
If you'd like us to send you Fahima's recipe for mantu, email us at closetohome@hnzc.co.nz or send a note to "Close to Home Recipe", Housing New Zealand Corporation, PO Box 2628, Wellington 6140.
A united front
Author Jo Wilkinson
- Some of the multicultural filming crew for the Housing New Zealand DVD for new immigrants.
A recent Housing New Zealand video shoot for new immigrants had a multicultural focus in front of and behind the camera, with an ethnically diverse cast and crew.
There were people from nine different countries helping with the filming. Tenants appearing in the video were from India, the Pacific Islands and Zambia, while the crew included those of Korean, Iranian, Japanese, English and Fijian-Indian descent.
National Refugee Coordinator Phyllis Nichol, says the 'United Nations' approach to filming was perfect for the DVD. "It was consistent with the many different nationalities in New Zealand," she says.
The video will be used in the Neighbourhood Units and is for people from other countries who come to us for housing solutions. It talks about Housing New Zealand's role, the tenancy agreement, and also provides information about maintaining homes, gardens and neighbourhoods.
