# Left my home town of Huntly, # headin' out in the cold. From the sunny north to the wild south, NZ is overflowing with breathtaking backdrops, heavenly harvests and a whole lot of fabulous foodies. So jump on board with us as we hang out with the locals, wrangle some wildlife and feast our way around this magnificent country. Come on, Toppy. We got people to meet and food to eat. Yee-hah! # Nga iwi e. # I'm just a local farmhand... # This week I get rhythmic with writer and comedian Deb Filler and her dad's sweet and delicious challah bread. Then we hit the beach in the Far North with the 'fried bread' queen of Kaitaia, Tash Kopae. Her and her gorgeous whanau are living the dream. But first up, we're at Ringawera on Waiheke Island, where Paddy Griffiths and Hinemoa Elder have become famous for their delicious range of Ringawera bread. These two never get to lie down and smell the pohutukawa blossoms. Ya see, Paddy's up at 2am every morning, baking. Today he's making lavash ` a crunchy unleavened bread that originated in Armenia, a tiny country in the Baltic Sea. Hinemoa loves bread, and she loves Paddy even more. But she's real passionate about te reo and has helped create our very first bilingual cafe. Kia ora! Kia ora. Yeah, what a beautiful place to make bread. Yeah. What's the name mean? Ringawera, what does that mean? Ringawera, well, two parts to the word ` ringa, your hand; Hand. > wera, hot. So it's the term that refers to the people ` the kaimahi ` people who worked in the kitchens on the marae, ordinarily, but we are kaimahi in the kitchen Ringawera. It's just that your marae's just a little smaller, innit? Yeah, that's right. (CHUCKLES) And it's called a cafe. ALL LAUGH We want people to have a bit of fun with te reo. You know, we're not` Yeah. This is not a school, but it's a chance for people to come and be welcomed and practise a little bit of te reo. Yeah, just have a bit of` That's a cool idea, isn't it? Yeah. Changing the world by` BOTH: ...one word at a time. Well, that's pretty much it. Nau mai, haere mai. (CHUCKLES) We can break bread and have wine. (CHUCKLES) Oh yeah. (LAUGHS) We can see about that. Well, how about` How about coffee? So, let's learn, uh, some` some kupu around types of bread in te reo Maori. So, the word for bread, right? Paraoa. Paraoa. Paraoa no Takei. Paraoa no Takei. Ae. That means 'bread from Turkey'. Oh yeah. Pretty simple. (CHUCKLES) (READS SIGN ALOUD) Is that Italian? Ka pai. And... (READS SIGN) Ah! Ataahua to reo Maori, e hoa. LINDA AND JOOLS CHUCKLE Beautiful pronunciation. That's our sourdough, eh, buddy? That's our sourdough, yeah. And rohi iti? Little` Little rolls. Little pieces of bread. It's a nice, easy way to remember the Maori word for small. Iti. Iti. Iti. Iti noa iho. Tino iti. And I don't know if you're getting hungry yet, but I thought you might wanna try the` Whoo-hoo! ...the bronut. (CHUCKLES) Whoa! Homai te pakipaki! ALL LAUGH Get the big bit` Oh look, it's dripping. You saw it first here. ALL LAUGH We go backwards and forwards through this machine. Yeah. I'm gonna move it very very quickly. And your job's gonna be to stop the dough with a little flick at the end and then a little flick on this end. No pressure (!) No pressure here (!) Here we go. (WHISTLES) My first roll. Here it comes. Here it comes. I'm gonna flick that bottom bit up. Oh, I missed it. Oh OK. (GIGGLES) It's not so critical on the first one. We're just gonna go quickly to the other end. OK, right. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. OK. This is quite stressful. I'm waiting for it to come down. Here it comes. Here it comes. And flick it up. Is that all right? Yep. You ready for the other one? I could get exhausted doing this. (CHUCKLES) Whoo-hoo! Great, and one more at the other end. (CHUCKLES) Ooh, just about missed it. Ooh, nearly, nearly. All right, this is the last one, so get ready with the stick. I'm ready with the stick. OK, here we go. Here we go. That's good. I'm rolling it. Here we go. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh! Whoo! (LAUGHS) There's my lavash! Perfect, all right. Yeah, I caught the whole bloody lot. Looking good. That's perfect. Looking perfect. Oh my goodness. I'm making lavash. (CHUCKLES) Whoo-hoo! I've done a bit of painting in my time. Yeah, you` I can see you've got the action going there nicely. Yep. Even sprinkling of sea salt along it. Yep. Steady hand. Going off on a little bit of a detour, there. There ya go. That's my first crack at lavash. Oh OK. We might be able to have a cup of tea. I think we could. Did you grow up speaking Maori? No, I didn't. No. My` My mother was of that generation where the old people thought it was better for, you know, their children, their grandchildren to speak English,... Yeah. ...so she` she didn't have the reo. But she was` She was tino Maori. Yeah. She was very much about manaaki. She was a wahine marae. She was all about looking after people, so she passed on those values to me, and I hope I can pass those same values on to my kids. Wow, that is one beautiful tree. It's a guardian, eh? Kaitiaki. How old do you think she is? Maybe 800 years? 800 years. OK. About. So you didn't plant it? No. (LAUGHS) Maybe some old kuia did plant that. Maybe they did. Yeah. Come on in. Nau mai, haere mai. They are looking pretty good actually. Yeah, they look amazing. That was my best tray, coming out there. This is a good tray, this one. Look at that. I love the way you just dump 'em. (CHUCKLES) Just slide 'em off. > This is when they taste their best. Hot out of the oven. You might want to let it cool a little bit so you don't burn your lips, but... > Mmm. Go for it. > I'm eating one now, buddy. Could you do this job without Hinemoa? No. Nope. Not a chance. She is a very inspiring person, a very driven person, and very sensible. Yeah. (LAUGHS) She makes the sensible decisions. OK. You know, I make the crazy ones. (CHUCKLES) So, are you a full-time baker? No, I'm not a full-time baker. I'm a full-time psychiatrist. (CHUCKLES) Tell me about being a twin. (LAUGHS) Hmm. Well, maybe you could tell me a bit more about your experience being a twin. (LAUGHS) It's such a beautiful thing. I've been a twin all my life, actually. Oh really (?) Yeah. What's the great thing about bring a psychiatrist? It's a privilege to work with people at a time when they're feeling so vulnerable and desperate. It's fair to say it's a hard job, and I like that about it. Um, I'm the kind of person where I like to get my teeth into something demanding and exacting and difficult. So it suits me. It's a different kind of pressure in the bakery. Who's the head baker? Oh well, that's a rather special man. (CHUCKLES) (LAUGHS) Yeah, he's got the feel. (LAUGHS) He's got the ringawera. So, what's your favourite thing to have with bread? Actually I love to have hot-smoked salmon. Paddy has a great recipe for that with herb lavash and aioli. Sounds like the perfect combination. Yeah. Like you and Paddy, eh? Aw. Oh beautiful. Mmm. Dig in. No expense spared here. No holding back. Creamy, a little bite of smoked salmon and that crunchy bread... That is a fabulous dish. What's even more amazing is what you can do with a little bit of water and a bit of flour and a big fat fish. ALL LAUGH Cheers. Cheers. Cheers to bread! Paraoa! GLASSES CLINK Mauri ora! Mauri ora! 1 Welcome back to Topp Country with Lorna and Mavis in the kitchen. Have we got a tasty treat for you today. Yes. We're doing spreads on breads. That's right. There they are ` gherkin spread, beetroot spread, salami spread, salmon spread, pink onion spread, and NZ's favourite spread,... ...Vegemite ` on toast with juicy green grapes. My favourite. Mine too! ROMANY FOLK MUSIC The story of bread runs deep in the Filler family. From Poland and Germany to Mt Roskill, the family history is one of adversity, survival and achieving great success. Today comedian Deb Filler and her mum, Ruth, celebrate Sol Filler ` father, husband and famous baker. The man who survived the concentration camps of Germany to bring challah bread to 1950s NZ. Just looking at photos of Dad. 60th birthday. We managed to surprise him. Everybody thought we couldn't pull it off, but we did. ALL LAUGH And he walked in, and he was gobsmacked. When did he make his` his first loaf? Oh, back in Poland. Back in Poland? His parents were bakers. Dad made the best challah bread you've ever tasted in your life. Can I make it? You'd better have a crack at it, Toppy. I'll` I'll give it a bash. All right, Toppy. Come to my house. Lovely. (SMOOCHES) Bye, darling. See ya later. That's good. We just get to hang out and have cups of tea and they do all the work. (LAUGHS) Finally he gave it to me on his deathbed, and he said,... (IMITATES FATHER) 'Take a sack of flour,... (CHUCKLES) '...10 dozen eggs, 'bout this much yeast.' He gave me the recipe for 100 dozen loaves. (LAUGHS) EMPHATICALLY: Ch...allah bread. Ch...allah. It's like you've got a respiratory problem. (HACKS) Like you've got a furball. Yeah, exactly. (CHUCKLES) Now, challah bread is very significant because it's the Sabbath bread. So Friday night for Jewish people is the day of rest ` that's when sunset comes in, and it goes all the way through to sunset the next day. You're supposed to put everything down, and` Just a special Friday night. Like our fish and chips. Yeah, sort of. (GUFFAWS) So for a double loaf, you want 2� cups of warm water, a teaspoon of sugar, 2 teaspoons of yeast. It will ferment, and you just let that rest for 10 minutes. The next thing you wanna do is put in 4 tablespoons of oil. Crack those two eggs and put them in. There we go. And then just stir that with a fork. A cup of sugar. Now we're gonna add the flour. Wow, look at that. Yeah, I think it's a feel thing. You see that's starting to come together really nicely. I think Camp Mother would be thrilled with that. (CHUCKLES) Have a go at that. Oh. Just use the heel. Just like that? Yeah. It's like Play-Doh. I know. It's` It's a very basic and wonderful experience. It's quite a beautiful feel, isn't it? It's quite sort of velvety or something. You know what my dad used to do? He used to turn it round like that. So use the base of it, and then he'd just go` go for it like that, you know? He was the first baker that made challah in NZ, and people used to come from miles around to buy it. They really did. His challah was famous. Ask anybody. If they're still alive. (LAUGHS) # We're gonna eat some challah soon. # Oy, oy, oy, oy, oy. # Oy, oy, oy, oy, oy. # I would got to school and have these bread sandwiches laden with chicken and lettuce and tomato and mayonnaise and onions, and all my friends would be sitting there with Marmite and potato chip sandwiches on white bread. Cut it into three, OK? And then just roll it out with the heels of your hands again. Even stretch it out like that. Mm-hm. Yeah, there you g` (CHUCKLES) Oh! (CHUCKLES) See what happens when you show off? (LAUGHS) There we go. BOTH: One, two, three... I'm braiding. Whoo-hoo! That's it. You're doing it. (GIGGLES) Beautiful, beautiful. I've just made my first challah. Clearly a dairy farmer's daughter and not a baker's daughter. Nice try, Linda. In your shows, your theatre shows, you've incorporated all your family in there. You portray a lot of your family members. Yeah, I play my dad. IMITATES FATHER: 'Come on, Linda. What are you standing there talking for? Put some more poppyseeds on. 'You paid for it, you may as well use it.' It's not just bread, and it's not just comedy. It's life and it's death and it's soul and it's humour and it's... everything. That's what's braided together here. It's a metaphor. And how did you meet Sol? Uh, I met Sol when I went to Australia in 1951. I came in January, we met in March, and we were engaged three weeks later. Wow. Uh, it was one of those` Was it love at first sight? It really was. Well, like all marriages with ups and downs, but we had a good marriage. He was a good man. I'd never met a survivor before, but of course I knew all about the Holocaust, but had never met anyone actually who'd been in a camp. Tried very hard to replace it ` big, big family that he had lost. He lost his parents and more than 75-80 members of his close family. He was a very very brave man,... Yeah. ...very positive, and for what he had been through, very normal. Often be somebody who would say, 'Sol, why do you think`? What made you survive?' And he would say, 'I was young 'and I was fit 'and I was lucky, and I had a sense of humour.' And I'd say to Sol, 'What made you laugh? What`? What could you possibly find`?' He'd say bizarre things like somebody'd come back from a terrible beating and had stripes all down their back, and they'd say, 'Ha ha ha, look at you with your stripes down your back,' and this is the kind of thing that is a survival mechanism, apparently. Yeah. It's called gallows humour. Gallows humour. Mm. It's a really big story of survival. It is. It is. That's the Jewish story, unfortunately. It has been persecution and survival, persecution and survival. Well, I hope one day it will stop, and that we will make plaited bread forever. BOTH CHUCKLE Are you listening? SOMBRE VIOLIN MUSIC And here he is. Here's my dad. All the way from Brzozow, Poland, to the Holocaust room in the Auckland Museum, here in Aotearoa. Well, the day of liberation ` May 8th 1945. He'd been on the death march. They were starving. They'd marched for three months with no food. They ate grass, snow. When the Russians rolled in a couple of days later, you know, crazy with hunger, he ran out into the streets, and, um` and he stopped the Russian tank, and he said to the guy, 'Please. We're starving. Give us bread.' And the Russian major said, 'We don't have any bread,' and Dad said, 'Well, have your men bake bread. Look, there's flour. We can have bread.' And the guy said, 'I can't spare the men to bake bread. We're liberating this country. 'We don't have time to stop and do anything.' And Dad said, 'Well, there's German POWs marching in columns behind you. 'Give me two, and we'll bake bread for everybody.' And the Russian major said, 'You would bake bread with the guards who did this to you?' And Dad said, 'Listen. I'm hungry. You're hungry. They're hungry.' And so Dad baked bread with the Germans on the day of liberation. Incredible that those survivors forgave. Yes. It's an incredibly generous thing to do, isn't it? Yeah. It shows a lack of hatred... Yeah. ...and a willingness to move on. And not only did he have a sense of humour, but believe it or not, he wasn't bitter. And that's my legacy ` not to be bitter. Mm. It's a pretty good legacy. Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech haolam, hamotzi lechem min haaretz. Amein! Whoo-hoo! (CHUCKLES) How beautiful! That is my bread right there, Jools. Here's to Dad ` the man who brought challah bread to NZ. Here's to that. L'chaim! To life. To family. Here's to my dad. # We gathered and we heard... # We heard, we heard, we heard... # ...Father chant the Kiddush,... # ...the Kiddush, Kiddush, Kiddush. # ...his heart in every word. # Oy, oy, oy, oy, oy, oy. # My mother's Sabbath candles,... # My mother's Sabbath candles,... #...which made our home so bright... # So bright. # ...which faithfully she lighted, # with a prayer on Friday night. # 1 Once they started having kids, Tash and Hemi Kopae made their awesome decision to say, 'See ya later, Auckland, and kia ora, Ahipara.' These two grew up in the Far North and returned to give their children the freedom of a life that revolves around the ocean and their marae. This is home, eh? Yup, this is home. Yeah, when I was a teenager, I was like, 'I'm never going back.' Yeah. Could live off the sea. Yeah, could live off the land. Yeah. Yeah, the kids love it here ` beaches, family, unlimited babysitters. Nah. (CHUCKLES) (CHUCKLES) What do you want us to do to help today with anything? Yeah, so we're gonna go up to the marae and pack some hangis. Me and you are gonna make some fried bread on the beach. Yeah. Howdy-doody? This is Jools. This is my mum and dad. Kia ora. What's my job? Kumaras. I can do that. ALL CHUCKLE You call yourself a chef? Nah, more a cook. Cook? Yup, a cook. And where'd you learn to cook? My mum taught me how to cook. And who taught you to cook? My mum. And were you hanging around the marae when you were just a little baby? I was helping. I was always in the kitchen helping all my aunties. That's where you learn, eh? What's that behind me, there? (CHUCKLES) That's Dad's hangi cooker. We used to dig a hole. You don't dig a hole any more, eh? (CHUCKLES) What's that made out of? You know how much time you save? Out of a keg. Out of a keg. Empty it out, cut 'em in half and then put the food in it. And it's like an instant hangi, is it? Yep. ALL LAUGH I'm travelling up Ninety Mile Beach now, cos Hemi's taking me up to his secret paua-hunting spot. It's even got its own speed limit. But you wanna take your time up here. Absolutely gorgeous. You don't wanna miss a thing. I reckon we got the best country in the world. You have to head out all the way to those breakers? Um, yep. More or less, yep. I'll wait for you here, OK? Always nice to have a handsome, big man get your kaimoana. (CHUCKLES) LAID-BACK FOLK MUSIC We're at your home today. It's quite a beautiful home. It's open plan. Yeah. (CHUCKLES) Most people think making bread's pretty simple, but how simple is it? So it's just flour, some yeast, a little bit of sugar, bit of salt, and warm water. Yup, pretty easy. What did Maori used to have before there was flour? I don't know. They just would have had potato fritters. Potato fritters, yes. (CHUCKLES) (CHUCKLES) What's in that mixture? Fried onions and butter with chopped pauas, bit of cream and a bit of thickening. Oh OK. So, just put a little bit of paua in there. Whoo-hoo. I'm really excited, but I can't eat it. You know, I can't have shellfish. I don't make enough hydrochloric acid in my stomach. I'd die if I couldn't eat pauas or any sort of seafood. Good thing I wasn't born a Maori ` I'd be really unhappy. Yeah. (LAUGHS) You would be. You would be. Then just place it in there. Ooh! Looking good. Fried bread. GENTLE GUITAR MUSIC SPLASH! Hemi was saying that there's lots of locals here every day, getting their fresh paua and kina and crayfish. Hemi's in. GUITAR MUSIC CONTINUES (CHUCKLES) Hey! A baby shark just came in. (LAUGHS) What's the best thing about living in the Far North? It's beautiful. Pretty gorgeous out here. Yeah, it's really beautiful. Water` Water's really beautiful. Look how clear that water is. Have you got any aspirations for your` for your little fellas, your little kids ` what you want 'em to do or...? Well, hopefully they do well at school, and they can be whatever they wanna be, really. How old is the little girl? She's 3. She likes cooking, eh? Yup, she's awesome, because when we took her to the marae, she was in there setting the tables, and the big kids were all outside playing. Yeah? (CHUCKLES) They were like, 'Who does this girl belong to?' And I was like, 'Me!' Yeah, so you were really proud of her, were ya? Yup. When you go looking for paua, what are you doing? You` You put your hand under the water and you feel for it. You feel for them? You've gotta get 'em off with a knife, have you? Yeah. Hey, buddy! (EXHALES) Oh, I got a feed. (CHUCKLES) BOY SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY Look at that. That's our paua. And the kinas. Your favourite, eh? Wow! Hedgehog of the sea. You can probably pull that one out. Pull that one out? That looks good, eh? Yup, that looks really good. Whoo, look at that golden brown. Beautiful. You know we got a lot of oil in this pan here, but we don't really wanna see any oil come out of that sea, do we? They say that is it was to, um, spill down the line on the West Coast, it will take out the whole of the West Coast. No drill, no spill. That's what it is. (CHUCKLES) Yeah. No drill, no spill. That's exactly it. Look at that. Beautiful Maori bread. Oh my God, Linda's gonna love that. She's gonna sink her teeth into it and never leave this town. (LAUGHS) DREAMY, LAZY MUSIC We've just been for a big drive up the coast. But, yeah, just a magic place, eh, buddy? Yeah, it's nice, eh? Beautiful. How long have your family been here? Um, my mum's been here since she was little. And her mum and dad were here. When did you meet Tash? Um, she was 16, and I was 18. We were at a party. I'd seen her there, and, oh, just made some moves, and then... (LAUGHS) (CHUCKLES) What's a Far North move? Just talk. Just have a yarn to her? Yeah. What did you do for` on your first date? Um, I think we went to McDonald's. (CHUCKLES) (LAUGHS) It's the only restaurant in town. Yeah. Just for a change, eh? Cos you were sick of raw fish... Yeah. ...all the fresh stuff out here (!) You were lucky she said yes when you popped the question. (CHUCKLES) Yup. Here we go. Here it is. Wow. Creamed paua right in the middle. Look at that. Whoa. Pauas and cream in your fry bread. (LAUGHS) Oh God, that is so... rich and creamy and beautiful. You reckon you can sing with a full mouth? I can sing with a full mouth. # Maori bread, coconut ice, # lamingtons and egg fried rice. # That's all things Kiwi. # Oh, kia kaha iwi. # OK, I've had my beautiful fried Maori bread. Now it's hangi time. # E hine, # hoki mai ra. # COMICAL FOLK MUSIC You can't beat the smell of hot baked bread ` a classic white or hearty grain, a Turkish bread, a French baguette or a bocadillo loaf from Spain. A naan bread with your curry, Ken, or a fresh bagel in New York. A tasty Irish soda bread baked down in County Cork. Or the ancient sourdough from Europe and the hot Jamaican bammy. But you can't beat the Kiwi classic ` the iconic Marmite sammie. To bread ` a toast!