speaking Kiwi

I believe I've already blogged on the Australian tendancy to shorten words and give everything nicknames, usually ending in "ie" - like sunnies for sunglasses, mossies for mosquitoes (although how you can call a big, tattooed, leather-wearing guy on a Harley a bikie, I'll never understand). The New Zealanders also have different words for certain things too. I've particularly noticed this in terms of vegetables. Sweet peppers (green and red peppers etc) are capsicums, zucchini are courgettes and sweet potatoes are kumara (pronounced by New Zealanders as kum-rah). I was looking through a New Zealand cookbook the other day and saw a recipe that called for "one small diced swede".