Zespri Kiwifruit: The 14 Days of Zespri Kick-Off Dinner

Last Thursday I went to The Living Cafe at 779 Bukit Timah Road for the Zespri 14-Day Daily Scoop of Amazing kick-off dinner.

Btw, I just did the dumbest thing on Saturday - I accidentally deleted the entire week's worth of photos off my new Panasonic camera because I thought I had transferred them from the card to the com so I deleted what I thought was the card's pics on my com. Then I inserted the card into my camera and found oh the pics were not deleted so I deleted it again. That's how you accidentally delete photos. Thus all I have left was my iPhone photos! Pardon them!

So just a little bit about the Zespri 14-Day Daily Scoop of Amazing Challenge. I received an invite for this about 2 weeks back. The challenge - try the Zespri kiwifruit in all sorts of form and format, and share about what you did on social media. Two weeks' worth of kiwis and some recipes will be provided and the limit is only your imagination. Well.. challenge.. accepted!

Except the recipes part which I doubt I can really cook up a storm so my angle is gonna be kiwis done in the most easiest and yummiest way by alexis.

There were about 10+ bloggers attending the dinner, as well as the folks from Zespri, the PR team and a nutritionist.

Living Cafe is a raw food fusion restaurant and they actually specially concocted a Kiwi Menu for us!


This is the kiwi bruschetta. The base is actually dehydrated nuts, instead of bread. Very interesting sourish taste. The soup came next, didn't have a picture but it was cold soup made with kiwi and apple. It was really odd. And very healthy.


Then came the main dish - and my favorite. It's salmon wrapped around a block of chopped cauliflower on top of a bed of kiwis, and topped with rocket leaves with Japanese sesame dressing. It was absolutely delicious yet very healthy!


We then topped off the meal with a kiwi pie. The first bite was super sour - everyone's faces could attest to that. But after it was really good and I never imagined kiwi to be done this way. The coconut cream balanced well with the tartness of the kiwis.


Well that's all the photos I had for the night on my phone, unfortunately. After dinner we joked about a few recipes and I thought of kiwi pasta - which in fact was included in the recipe pack already. Wow. What else?!

There was a presentation from Zespri  during dinner where we found out that all kiwi farmers in New Zealand are under Zespri. That means all the kiwis are standardized in terms of quality and even price because they are all working happily together. I thought that was quite cool.

Also did you know that Kiwis did not originate from New Zealand but from China? It was brought over to NZ only in the 1904. It then flourished, but kiwis are grown all over the world too.

The golden kiwi was only commercial in 2000 however due to the difficulties in growing that strain. It is therefore more rare than the green variety. It is NOT a genetically modified food, just a different variety much like yellow watermelons.

Of course, the health benefits of kiwis are unparalleled. One of the highest source of vitamin C among the fruits (even more than oranges!), it also helps to prevent flu. The green kiwis also contain an enzyme called actinidin, which helps digestion by breaking down proteins (great as meat tenderizer too!).

Well, follow me as I embark on the journey of #14daysofzespri when I blog, facebook, tweet, instagram (@alexischeong) about it!


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