Aioli
Rec Room #11 – What we’re enjoying this week
Kia ora, welcome to this week’s newsletter.
When was the first time you tried aioli? I have a working theory that for most New Zealanders, the answer to this question will overlap with the story of the first time they went to Burger Fuel.
I’m not saying Burger Fuel “invented” aioli or even introduced it to Aotearoa – all I know is you used to only get tomato sauce with your chips and that was fine, but now if you don’t get a little thing of aioli too you’re a bit gutted. “Excuse me,” you might even ask the waiter, “can we please get some aioli for the fries?”
How and when did this national love affair with aioli begin? I guess that’s really what I want to know. If you have any aioli memories you’d like to share, please get in touch.
–Cal
As suspected, we are by no means exclusive. Here are some of the newsletters readers recommended, in no particular order other than the number of recs they got: David Farrier’s Webworm, Emily Writes Weekly, Nick Cave’s The Red Hand Files, The Ann Friedman Weekly, Uther Dean's The Dean's List, Tim Batt’s Battstack, Flicks’ Film / Screen Informant, Anne Helen Petersen’s Culture Study, Ryan Broderick’s Garbage Day, Lyz Lenz's Men Yell at Me, The New York Times’ Watching List, Chris Plante's Postgame… and of course The Bulletin and all The Spinoff’s other lovely newsletters.
Jane recommends Educators on TVNZ On Demand. “Season two is in full swing at the moment, but if you’re new to the show, do yourself a favour and watch season one first. It’s a lovely treat of awkward New Zealand comedy centred around the incompetent staff at a suburban high school. It stars a lot of my favourite funny people including Jackie van Beek, Tom Sainsbury, Josh Thomson and Kura Forrester, and Australian actor Rick Donald is quite frankly amazing/terrifying as the PE teacher Vinnie. Each episode is around 15 minutes, which is a delightfully consumable and undemanding length.”
Sam recommends The Spinoff’s 2014-era video series Real Talk, in which David Farrier interviews Ben Mitchell (TK) and Cameron Jones (Dallas) from Shortland Street. “It’s the kind of interview that would never happen now; Mitchell rambles about his views on women and the origins of life while Jones watches on, bewildered. A true PR nightmare, unhinged like Russell Crowe circa 2020, and I love it.”
Leonie recommends the Talking Politics podcast spinoff The History of Ideas. “I listened to them in the first lockdown and relistened to some over the weekend. Each episode the host David Runciman talks about a different person in history that influenced modern politics – and it’s not just old white dudes! It’s like a POLS101 lecture series from a beloved lecturer (he is a professor of politics at Cambridge) and it makes quite complex history and theory very accessible. My highlights were Hannah Arendt, Catherine MacKinnon and Frantz Fanon.
Matt recommends @catatonicyouths on Instagram. “It's just this one guy scraping YouTube for the worst (read: best) live performances, music videos and pieces of loose musical ephemera, then editing them into nightmarish 60-second loops. I've spent actual hours binge-watching the feed, but if you're short on time and in need of a primer, I'd recommend Graffiti Saved My Life, the Boss VE-20 Vocal Performer, and Sting Hates José Feliciano.
Alice recommends crossword puzzles. “The New York Times crossword app has a free 7-day trial and I did all the “easy” level ones over the weekend, which made me feel smart despite the clues being stuff like “sound of a candy wrapper”. Also one time the clue was “Alice spinoff” which had nothing to do with me or Alice Neville but for a split second I thought maybe I was famous enough to be a crossword clue. Maybe one day I will be.”
Stewart recommends Northland. “I spent the long weekend with whānau in Kerikeri and have returned to Auckland feeling revitalised and a lot less like a shell of a human. It’s also a region that, after Covid, really appreciates the support of people just doing stuff – eating, drinking, exploring.”
Sherry, meanwhile, recommends Shakespear Regional Park. “Only like an hour north of Auckland, it’s good for sun, walkies and sheep! It’s even got a designated cycle path! Then afterwards you can go swimming in Te Haruhi Bay – it’ll chill ya to your bones but in the best way!”
If you have a regional travel rec you’d like to share, please get in touch.
On the Rag found the cure for imposter syndrome
After hearing from five very successful New Zealand women who all experience imposter syndrome, the On the Rag team stumbled upon what may well be the cure – or at least a fun (drinking) game to play with your friends. Follow the instructions in the video above and you too could find yourself crying while holding a pineapple.
The Fold caught up with Melodie Robinson
Melodie Robinson has seen some stuff, faced some hurdles and broken some barriers in a media career spanning the press gallery to the Sky Sports rugby commentary box and now TVNZ. She also has some of the best stories in the business, which is why she’s been a dream guest for The Fold since the podcast began. Mel joined Duncan in the studio last week to make that dream a reality, and the episode doesn’t disappoint!
José made one last election vid
Definitely thought he was going to sleep uninterrupted for a full week after election weekend, but like Richie McCaw playing the final of the 2011 World Cup with a broken foot, José hauled his tired bones through one more funny election video last week. This one wraps up the post-election coverage, and how quickly TV just kind of went back to normal.
Business is Boring met the founders of Kami
An education app launched by three final year students at the University of Auckland, Kami is now used in one in three US schools. That’s wild, right? Simon Pound caught up with two of those co-founders, Hengjie Wang and Alliv Samson, to hear how they did it on last week’s Business is Boring.
That’s all for this week! As always please share, and reply to get in touch with recs / aioli memories. See you next Wednesday 👋
