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RNZ News
a day ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Prominent Auckland businessman pleads not guilty to fraud charges
Photo: Supplied / Ruth Kuo A prominent Auckland businessman has appeared in court on fraud charges. The man appeared in the Auckland District Court on Wednesday morning. He was given interim name suppression after pleading not guilty to deceptively obtaining more than $350,000 The maximum penalty for the charge was seven years in prison. The man was remanded on bail until his next appearance in October. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
29-07-2025
- General
- RNZ News
Chinese cuisine to warm the soul this winter
A bowl of steamed dumplings is served during Chinese New Year. Photo: 123rf The cold winter months are an ideal time to prepare warm, restorative dishes that can fortify the soul. A range of ingredients are believed to rejuvenate the body, according to Chinese culinary tradition. Meat features prominently in such dishes, but there are usually plenty of delectable vegetarian options available as well as majestic hot pots. "No banquet is complete without chicken," according to an age-old Cantonese proverb, and so it's perhaps not surprising that poultry features prominently in many Chinese winter dishes. Hakka pepper chicken in pig's stomach can almost be described as a soulful pot of intensity. In this dish, a whole chicken is carefully wrapped inside a cleaned pig's stomach and slowly simmered with white peppercorns, ginger, goji berries and other herbs. The result is a creamy, milky broth bursting with aroma, with tender strips of chicken and chewy tripe that warms from within. Turning to a mainstay of Macanese cuisine, Portuguese chicken isn't what it sounds like. It's a dish that is born of Portuguese colonial influence but is distinctly local, blending coconut milk, curry, turmeric and baked potatoes in a sauce that turns pan-fried chicken golden with red hues. Aromatic and subtly spicy, the dish can be described as a showstopper. From the Tibetan Plateau comes stone pot chicken , a specialty from the Lulang grasslands in China's Tibet Autonomous Region. In this dish, highland chicken is simmered with matsutake mushrooms, ginseng root and goji berries in a hand-carved stone pot filled with alpine spring water. The stone pot's heat retention properties give the ingredients an earthy, herbal taste. A fusion of cultures: New Zealand lamb turned into classic Chinese-style BBQ skewers. Photo: Ruth Kuo According to latest Stats NZ data, an estimated 23.6 million sheep are registered on farms nationwide - roughly 4.5 animals per person. In short, one could say there's plenty of lamb to go around. In traditional Chinese medicine, lamb is classified as a "yang" ingredient - ideal for expelling cold and replenishing energy. Taiwanese mutton hotpot is a dish that uses mountain goat simmered with medicinal herbs such as angelica root and red dates. Tofu skin, daikon, napa cabbage and enoki mushrooms are then added to create a bubbling cauldron that fills the body with warmth. Meanwhile, lamb offal soup can typically be found in Chinese provinces such Shaanxi, Ningxia and Henan. The dish is renowned for its depth of flavour, with various lamb offal cooked in a peppery broth, completed with handfuls of coriander and liberal dashes of white pepper and served with flat noodles or vermicelli. A more delicate expression comes from Ningxia province in the form of steamed lamb with rice powder . Finely sliced young lamb is marinated, coated in seasoned ground rice and steamed until meltingly soft. With its rich flavor and nourishing qualities, beef takes center stage in many Chinese winter dishes. Sichuan boiled beef is not for the faint of heart and yet is perfect fare for winter warriors. Thin slices of beef are flash-boiled in a bubbling broth of chili oil, Sichuan peppercorns, garlic and bean paste - a fiery, numbing experience that sends blood rushing to one's extremities. Meanwhile, a simpler potato-and-beef stew from northeastern China echoes Hungarian goulash. This dish is chunky, wholesome and perfect for sharing on a cold winter night. Black pepper beef, seared and clay-baked to sizzling perfection, is served at a Hong Kong cafe in Auckland. Photo: Ruth Kuo Few things say "winter" like gathering around a bubbling hot pot. A Chongqing/Sichuan-style beef tallow hot pot is a red inferno of beef tallow, chili, peppercorns and beef bone broth. Packed with lamb or beef, tofu, seafood and vegetables, the soup almost takes on a life of its own. Winter evenings in Hong Kong and China's Guangdong province typically feature a Cantonese hot pot , with a broth that includes adaptogenic herbs such as codonopsis root, Chinese yam and astragalus, or sweet combinations of sugar cane, water chestnuts and honey dates. The hot pot is filled with indulgent ingredients such as abalone, oysters, crab, handmade beef balls, minced shrimp, tender San Huang (Three Yellows) chicken or thinly sliced beef and lamb. The dipping sauces are just as diverse, reflecting the flavors of the southern coast - fish sauce, satay, soy sauce with sliced green chili rings all make an appearance. The traditional Beijing-style copper hot pot is believed to date back to Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan. The traditional setup of this dish calls for a charcoal fire and a copper pot, which heats quickly and evenly. Hand-cut paper-thin slices of lamb are then swished through a light broth, often flavored with ginger and scallions, allowing the meat's freshness to shine. The classic dipping sauce for this dish combines sesame paste with chive flower sauce, fermented bean curd and chili oil. Served alongside napa cabbage, tofu, glass noodles and ideally a bottle of Erguotou (a distilled northern Chinese alcoholic beverage), this age-old ritual remains a beloved way to fend off the bitterly cold northern wind. A hot pot offers diners countless options. Photo: AFP/Wang Quanchao For a softer approach to winter nourishment, Buddhist vegetarian cuisine offers comfort and balance. Luo han zhai is a classic temple dish made with 18 different plant-based ingredients. Traditionally, it features a harmonious mix of three mushroom varieties, six kinds of fungus and nine types of bamboo shoots - including shiitake, wood ear, silver ear, and winter and asparagus bamboo shoots. In home kitchens, other versions may include such ingredients as morels, lotus seeds, snow peas and cellophane noodles, delivering in a vibrant, refreshing, and well-balanced dish. Another vegetarian favourite is four happiness kao fu , a beloved Shanghainese Chinese New Year staple. The main ingredient - soft, spongy baked wheat gluten - soaks up the savoury-sweet braising liquid and is paired with ingredients such as enoki mushrooms, black fungus, winter bamboo shoots and peanuts. Meanwhile, kung pao king oyster mushrooms is a vegetarian dish that salutes the globally popular kung pao chicken. Diced king oyster mushrooms are stir-fried with dried chilies, Sichuan peppercorns and peanuts. The result? A dish that is silky, chewy, crispy, spicy, tangy and a touch sweet - proof that authentic comfort food doesn't need to rely on meat. Classic Cantonese and local New Zealand dishes are served at a seafood restaurant in Rotorua. Photo: Ruth Kuo Few dishes capture the soul of winter street food like claypot rice with cured meats - a dish that is universally adored in communities stretching from Hong Kong and Macau to Southeast Asia. Cooked to order in a clay pot, the rice soaks up the rich, savoury oils of Cantonese sausage, bacon or dried duck. The rice at the bottom of the clay pot almost caramelises in a crunchy crust that has a smoky taste. Add a few stalks of blanched greens on the side and you have a soul-warming winter treat. Yunnan guoqiao mixian ("crossing the bridge" rice noodles) is a dish that features a fragrant, steaming broth that has been simmered for hours with old chicken and pork bones until clear and rich, with a golden layer of chicken fat deliberately added to lock in the heat. Thinly sliced meat, crisp vegetables and silky rice noodles are then immersed in the broth until cooked. The broth is kept above 70 degrees Celsius, allowing the soup and ingredients to blend together gently. Rice noodles are then added to accentuate the chicken's essence. Last, but not least, there are dumplings - a quintessential winter comfort food in northern China. Whether filled with chives and pork, onion and beef, napa cabbage and shrimp, or shiitake and chicken, they are dropped into bubbling water until tender and bursting with steam. Whether handmade and enjoyed with family around a kitchen table or bought from a roadside vendor in a swirl of steam, dumplings create a special kind of togetherness on a cold winter's day.
RNZ News
30-05-2025
- General
- RNZ News
How to play traditional games for the Dragon Boat Festival
Photo: RNZ / Ruth Kuo The Dragon Boat Festival is typically a time of nostalgia as Chinese households think back with fondness of their time as children in summer in East Asia. With the weather now warm enough to enjoy time outside in the Northern Hemisphere, children spend hours upon hours playing traditional games that have ties to the season. Eventually growing up to become adults, many struggle to leave these games behind. Here's a handful of traditional Chinese games for children that stand out for their uniqueness as much as their longevity over time. Grass duels are as simple as they are ingenious. With pastures thickening in the warmer temperatures, two children select what they think look like strong grass stems and engage in a delicate tug of war. The children interlock two blades of stems holding the ends in each hand. At the signal, they pull both ends towards them until one snaps, sending the loser tumbling. The victor then waits for another challenger to confront them, silently praying they don't come armed with a thicker stem. Deceptively simple and endlessly uncertain, the game tests one's grip and reflexes - no one knows who'll be the last one standing. Photo: RNZ / Ruth Kuo Eggs are ubiquitous during the Dragon Boat Festival as various poultry seemingly lay them by the dozen at this time of year. It's not surprising, then, that children use them in duels to determine which cracks first. The rules are as simple as the game above: Two children press hard-boiled eggs against each other. The egg that cracks is deemed the loser and its owner devours the contents. The winner moves on to the next challenger. It's common to find children in parts of China that carry eggs of their choice in colourful pouches hanging around their necks. In some regions, the eggs are dyed bright red to bring good luck. The games are decided by those who master grip and angle, with some forming a crook with their thumb and forefinger to support the tip as the shells press against each other. Photo: RNZ / Ruth Kuo Some parts of China have a tradition of standing eggs on their ends for the Dragon Boat Festival. Folklore has it that eggs can be balanced in this way at specific times of the year. Those who believe in the complementary, contradictory principles of yin and yang say the active, expansive energies of yang usually peak for the Dragon Boat Festival, creating perfect conditions for an egg to stand. Contemporary theory has it that the sun's position over the Northern Hemisphere during the spring equinox or Dragon Boat Festival slightly offsets gravity, making it easier to balance eggs - or even coins. There is no scientific proof for either theory, but it doesn't stop children from trying to succeed in completing the challenge. Photo: RNZ / Ruth Kuo Children in China typically wear brightly coloured ornaments that have been made from five vibrantly coloured threads during the Dragon Boat Festival. The five colours - red, green, yellow, white and black - represent fire, wood, earth, metal and water under the "five elements theory", countering the "five pests" that exist in the universe - centipedes, snakes, scorpions, geckos and toads - and offering good health and protection. Following a custom that dates to the Han Dynasty, adults tie the ornaments around children's wrists, ankles or necks on the morning of the festival. Tradition demands the children to remain silent while this is being done, and so parents typically complete the task while they are asleep. In some regions, the threads are removed when during the first rainfall following the Dragon Boat Festival and cast into a river, which symbolises the washing away of illness and leaving behind well-being. Photo: RNZ / Ruth Kuo Families in southern China typically take advantage of the strong winds that to fly kites. Traditional kites are made with bamboo frames, with auspicious symbols or blessings painted on paper or silk sails. In some parts of China, kites are flown in an attempt to "release misfortune", sending illness and bad luck that are believed to come with the rain as the seasons change away with the wind. In ancient times, people held archery competitions during the Dragon Boat Festival, aiming at centipedes, snakes, scorpions, geckos and toads that were painted on targets. Children typically joined in the fun by throwing stones at the targets. Members of the aristocracy refined the game over time, tossing arrows from a distance into a pitch-pot that was placed on the ground. The pitch-pot game is believed to have played by aristocrats and officials in China's Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. In contemporary times, participants use chopsticks instead of arrows as they seek to land the elongated pieces of wood in the tall cannisters. Photo: RNZ / Ruth Kuo Zongzi are sticky rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves and tied together with cotton string, hemp string or traditional grass rope, making ideal targets to hook on a fishing line. Participants use fishing lines or improvised hooks to try to snare as many as possible within a set time. The person who lands the largest number of dumplings in that time is declared the winner. Families who don't have any dumplings can use toys or small gifts wrapped with a ribbon as an alternative. Photo: RNZ / Ruth Kuo Although it's not a game per se, another tradition typically observed by Chinese families during the Dragon Boat Festival is the regular appearance of tigers. The tiger is the king of beasts in Chinese culture - a fierce guardian that is rooted in folk belief and Taoist tradition. Households traditionally hung tigers made from mugwort from doors during the festival to ward off pests and misfortune. Over time, cloth and brocade have been increasingly used to craft the talisman. In some parts of China, children wear hats and shoes with the image of a tiger. In another custom, parents use realgar wine to draw the Chinese character for "king" - 王 - on a child's forehead, symbolising their transformation into a little tiger. The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated on Saturday, 31 May, this year. Some members of New Zealand's Chinese community are bound to observe a few of these traditions over the coming weekend, so don't hesitate to join them in on the fun if you happen to stumble across them.
