I planted a zucchini seed from the packet on the right before we left New Zealand and our friend Lum had been tending to it while we were away. The tiny seedling I left two months ago is now a huge beast that takes up most of the planter.

Turns out it wasn’t the sausage shaped zucchini I thought it would be.

These flower petal shaped things baffled me. The frog and buddha didn’t know either so I had to ask The Googe what they might be. The Googe said they were Scallopini Squash.

What do you cook when you haven’t really cooked in 2 months?

We never ate salmon while traveling. Something about eating NZ salmon in a foreign country just doesn’t sit right with me. So salmon was definitely on the cards.

I roasted the larger of the scallopini squash in a bit of oil, garlic and fresh rosemary.

Paired with some potato mash and the salmon that I’d been missing, made for a simple but slightly fancy first dinner for some jetlagged people.

The scallopini squash didn’t have a strong flavour. Kind of a cross between pumpkin and parsnip but with a much milder flavour. The leftovers eaten cold the next day, were pretty good too.

p.s. I finally bought a mortar and pestle. This one lugged all the way from Bangkok…Not a light thing to add to your luggage.