'Boring' food fuels hunger for home

John Chaokasam and Junkyu Suh eat a more traditional dinner at the Albert Street Asian Food court. Photo / Greg Bowker

"Bland" and "boring" Kiwi meals are driving Asian international students to the food halls.

Eating out at food courts and restaurants is found to be the most popular activity for international students in a Southern Cross University study, and students told the Herald it's because of the type of meals they are getting in their homestays and lunch boxes.

In a study of international students' travel patterns, behaviours, motivations and expenditure, 60.6 per cent listed eating out as their most frequent activity while in New Zealand.

The online survey of 221 international students also found other frequent activities included visiting beaches (57.5 per cent) and shopping (40.9 per cent).

"I used to get vegemite sandwiches every day from my Kiwi homestay family," said South Korean student Jun Kyu Suh, who attends Takapuna Grammar School.

He said Kiwi food at home was no better, because his host family had roast chicken with potatoes every day.

"It's crazy, how can people survive eating sliced bread and potatoes every day?"

Jun says he finds eating out in New Zealand expensive, but he had to tuck into his kimchi and rice every weekend for the sake of sanity.

He is now living with an Asian homestay family after raising the food issue with the school's homestay co-ordinator.

Schoolmate John Chaokasam, a 15-year-old Thai-American, says he also spends most of his $200 weekly allowances on eating out, which he does at least three times a week.

"I guess Asian students eating out is like felang (European) teenagers going out to drink," he says. "Westerners bond over drinks, but we like to have a chat and bond over food. Eating food from our homeland also helps us overcome homesickness."

Another 16-year-old Chinese Rangitoto High School student says all she gets every day in her lunchbox are jam sandwiches: "It is a culture shock for me because in China, we just bring our lunch money and we can buy whatever food we want from the school canteen. "Here, I only look forward to weekends so I can eat Asian food with my friends."

She does not want to be identified because she did not want to offend her host family.

Host parent Lorna King, of Bayswater, says she finds it a challenge to cook meals the way the students are used to having at home, and faces a problem mainly with the younger Asian students.

"I'm no expert at Asian food, so I end up just cooking more pasta and noodle meals, which I know they like," she said.

However, Rita Jones, who had hosted international students from South America, didn't think it would be right for Kiwi host families to change their style of cooking just to accommodate tastes of foreign students.

"I don't change my cooking style just because the students don't like it," Mrs Jones said.

"They came here for a Kiwi experience, and I think part of the deal is about living the way we lived and eating the way we ate."