2025 Auckland Iconic Eats list<\/a>, and I didn\u2019t need to eat again until Sunday, I wish I could see the look on the South Island\u2019s face as it reads that I spent almost $27 on a brunch-adjacent scone.)<\/p>\nWhere is the best scone in the country, and why is it at a public library in Christchurch?<\/p>\n
In August, in \u014ctautahi for its excellent WORD festival, I indulged a whim that became an obsession.<\/p>\n
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The Christchurch library scone came with a 17g side of butter – the equivalent of more than three teaspoons. <\/p>\n
For four days straight, at the Foundation Cafe on the ground floor of T\u016branga (central Christchurch\u2019s new library complex), I breakfasted on a cheesy behemoth.<\/p>\n
Eleven centimetres across and served with a 17g side of butter that made me wonder if I\u2019d just imagined the cost-of-living crisis, it was the platonic ideal of a scone. Canterbury may have been compromised by dairy cows, but the fruits (milk?) of their labour have not hurt its baking.<\/p>\n
In news that did not surprise me, Foundation owner Sarah Niu said these wondrous scones, baked fresh daily from a mix prepared by the cafe\u2019s pastry chef, contained \u201ca lot more butter and cheese compared to the normal scone\u201d. And, while a recent price increase (from $6.50 to $8) had upset some regulars, the cafe was still selling between 80 and 150 daily.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe it\u2019s a traditional thing to sit down with a cup of tea or coffee and a scone and relax with a book,\u201d said Niu.<\/p>\n
At the time of writing, I am reading the new Thursday Murder Club novel. It\u2019s more lemon and raspberry sponge than cheese scone, but I think Niu has a point. Baking does have an affinity with books. If a night in front of Netflix is a block of store-bought Whittaker\u2019s, then the printed word demands a more analogue approach. It takes more than a minute to write a book, and the least I can do is curate my snacks accordingly.<\/p>\n
(Side note: Not all library scones are created equal. Auckland Central City\u2019s $5 offering was cheaper, but it came with just 9g of butter, and its crumb lacked both the cheesy cohesion and tender spring of its southern counterpart. It was the film version of a book that deserved better.)<\/p>\n
New Zealand\u2019s love of the scone is not unique, but apparently our predilection for cheese is. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe do them differently here,\u201d note Te Radar and Ruth Spencer in their gorgeously readable new book Kiwi Country: Rural New Zealand in 100 objects.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the UK, they\u2019re slightly sweetened and often contain lurking sultanas. In the US, the most similar thing is called a biscuit, which is just annoying. Overseas, you\u2019ll struggle to find such a delicacy as a cheese scone at all, and it\u2019s one of the things most regretted by New Zealanders living abroad …\u201d<\/p>\n
The scone\u2019s popularity, the authors moot, might lie in the ease of its production: \u201cIt actually rewards less work. The overly handled scone is a tough bird.\u201d<\/p>\n
I turned the page, emboldened and enlightened. The trick to a great scone? Less kneading, more reading.<\/p>\n
Kim Knight is a senior journalist on the New Zealand Herald\u2019s lifestyle desk. She has a master\u2019s in gastronomy, but this has not helped her make a decent scone. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"My ability to transmute pantry staples into edible goods has not improved in the decades since. Any scone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[26504,42581,138,86414,48706,33055,4487,690,86417,86416,78,670,424,111,139,69,1118,35115,86415,223],"class_list":["post-123748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-ability","tag-bake","tag-business","tag-buttery","tag-cafes","tag-cheese","tag-christchurch","tag-dead","tag-decent","tag-depended","tag-in","tag-library","tag-life","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-praise","tag-scone","tag-the"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}