Those unfamiliar with Hawke's Bay's humble meatball imagine Italian mince with red sauce. The actual description isn't that mouth-watering, but the crumbed golden sphere filled with whipped, fatty meat offers an unexpected yet comforting morning tea delight.
Unlike its celebrated sibling, the Southland cheese roll, the Hawke's Bay meatball has remained a local treat on the East Coast - a fact that irks me as a self-declared meatball enthusiast and a champion of its supernatural creaminess.
Growing up in Te Matau-a-Māui, a white bakery paper bag, translucent with oil, was a symbol of a trip to town and a meatball. Friends who now live abroad insist the moment they touch down on Napier's tarmac it's time to visit BJs bakery for a meatball.
The Hawke's Bay meatball has remained a local treat on the East Coast that hasn't travelled far Photo: Supplied
I was revelling in the news that the region would have its first festival celebrating the Hawke's Bay Meatball. However, in retracing the recipes of my favourite savoury, I've unearthed a horrifying dark truth - we didn't invent the meatball.The Dutch did, and plot twist, they serve their balls with a cold beer and a side of mustard.
My heart sank as I scoured Dutch recipes, and my suspicions were confirmed - the ingredient lists are nearly identical. Could the local delicacy I've been enjoying for decades actually be Dutch bitterballen?
In 1956, Gerard and Ina Denijs, owners of the Lilac Bakery, arrived from the Netherlands and opened a bakery in Hastings where they sold meatballs. From there, other bakers embraced the idea, each creating their own version of the snack.
More than 2000 people have registered for this weekend's FAWC! Hastings Meatball Festival, where 25 restaurants will showcase their version of the meatball.
Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst says every local has a meatball anecdote.
As a little girl, Hazlehurst's job was to drop the balls into the deep fryer after the bakers had crumbed them, which gave her a special connection to the 'Hastings Meatball,' as she calls them. Growing up in the family bakery for 20 years, she has always been part of the tradition. Her great-grandfather started the first Warrens Bakery in Havelock North, and the family later moved it to Hastings as the city developed around the railway line. Later, her cousin Malcolm and his wife Robyn Warren ran the bakery, which closed in 2011 after 120 years in the family.
Robyn and Malcolm Warren who ran Warrens Bakery in Hastings for many years Photo: Picasa
In Central Hawke's Bay, locals tell me that Waipukurau's Baker Boy makes the best meatballs.
"They're just better than BJ's meatballs," I am told.
However, Baker Boy manager Amy Logan says they actually sell BJ's meatballs at Baker Boy and people get their wires crossed all the time.
"They are exactly the same meatballs, we work with another bakery that supplies our pies and people tell us our pies are better than theirs. When they are exactly the same product."
The Baker Boy in Waipukurau a popular option for meatballs in Central Hawkes Bay Photo: Supplied
In fact, Hastings' BJs makes hundreds of meatballs each day, selling them in bulk to major distributors who then supply food vendors across the region. Dave Hewer, operations manager at BJs, has worked for the Buckrell family-run business for 27 years and says he's not sure why they're so popular, but "it's just a very Hawke's Bay thing". He has fond childhood memories of eating Peter Barnes Bakery meatballs in Mahora.
Most bakeries I spoke to were tight-lipped about their recipe but mentioned a few staple processes. They use beef mince, water, pepper, beef stock, salt, onion, a thickener, and butter to make the roux, along with a few secret herbs and spices. The filling is then refrigerated overnight, rolled into balls, dipped in breadcrumbs, and fried.
The Hawke's Bay meatball has travelled south - Bakerman's in Christchurch's Fendalton makes them too, and the lineage traces back to Hastings' Lilac Bakery.
While they're not a bestseller at Bakermans, co-owner Jordan Bakermans keeps them on the menu as an ode to the bakery's heritage. His father, Peter Bakermans, completed his baking apprenticeship under Gerard Denijs. When Denijs moved to Christchurch, the recipe followed.
"We sell about 100 meatballs if we're lucky, and around 400 croquettes on a good day. We get lots of Dutch customers who come in and have them with mustard," Bakermans' says. (When I ask him if he comes from a long line of bakers, given his surname, he doesn't laugh.)
Bakermans in Fendalton, Christchurch, sells 100 meatballs and around 400 of their famous croquettes on a busy day Photo: Supplied
Reluctant to admit the Dutch connection, I reached out to Arjan van der Boon, co-chair of the Oranjehof Dutch Connection Centre in Foxton and an expert on Aotearoa's Dutch history and the culinary delights New Zealanders have embraced.
While he wasn't familiar with the Hawke's Bay meatball, after some explanation, he concludes it sounds suspiciously like a Bitterballen - a savoury treat he enjoyed as a child on King's Day and at various celebrations in Holland.
"Whenever there are parties at the Dutch embassy, there are always trays of Bitterballen and Gouda," he explains.
He knew of two businesses selling his cherished Bitterballen: Go Snacks in Nelson, a company that has been operating for 20 years and sells traditional meat bites, as they're called on their website, and Dutch Delight in Auckland, which offers boxes of 25 online.
Whether it's from the Netherlands or Hastings, our meatball has made its mark.
