John at his mother's fish and chip shop in Christchurch. Photo / Supplied
Joanna Mathers talks with the four stars of a new documentary on the kids in the nation's takeout kitchens about their early food loves, their lives in hospitality and their future hopes
For takeout kids, food is life. For takeout kids, food is family. The comfort of a soft, sweet sponge drop, the hearty joy of garlic-sauce-dripping shawarma.
Takeout kids have parents who rise before the sun. Their playgrounds are concrete pavements and public sculptures; they game on iPads in backrooms and kitchen corners, while their whānau nourish communities.
Documentary film-maker Julie Zhu has captured the lives of four of these kids. In four short snapshots, Takeout Kids is a sweet, quietly melancholy, fly-on-the-wall view of life behind the counter, from a young person's perspective. It's an exposition of flavour and culture, a travelogue of hidden worlds that exist, quietly, within Aotearoa.
Rama, 12, Petra Shawarma, Kingsland, Auckland
My best food memory - and probably still my favourite food - is maqluba. It's made from rice, carrots, potatoes, cauliflower, and eggplant, which are layered and cooked for a long time in a pot. When it's ready, it's tipped upside down on to a flat plate. We don't serve it at the restaurant because it takes a long time to prepare and cook, but people sometimes order it as a special meal.
My family have owned the restaurant for 12 years, which is my whole life. I have pictures of me, age 4, doing cartwheels in the restaurant. Often when people came in with their own kids, I would play with them. There was usually someone to play with.
When I was 10, I started working in the restaurant. When I'm in the right mood it's good and I like it. I'm the only kid at school who works in a restaurant, and I think it's good for me. It's given me confidence.
I go to Balmoral School, and I am now in the second year. My favourite subjects are maths and I love creative writing. We had to write a story about being in an apartment and hearing gunshots outside; like, what happens next? I really enjoyed that.
After school, I go to Arabic School from 5 till 7, every day. It's pretty fun. I am learning to read the Koran. There are about 40 kids there and it's held in our mosque in Mt Roskill.
On the day that the film crew came to film me, everyone wanted to hang out with me and be my friend. But the next day, no one wanted to hang out with me. I guess life is like that. But I am enjoying being famous – my dream is to become a singer. I don't have lessons, but I sing at home and my favourite artists are XXXTentacion and Billie Eilish.
Brooklyn, 12, Sunburst Coffee Lounge, Thames
My parents bought this business when I was 10 months old. A lot of people think that we live upstairs, but we actually live in a house in a different part of Thames. We do play upstairs a lot though.
The problem choosing my favourite food is that I love all my parents' cooking … a bit too much. The pies, the sausage rolls, hot chocolate. I guess my favourite cake is probably the sponge drops. They are made from sponge and filled with jam and cream.
I live with my mum and dad, and my two younger sisters, who are 9 and 10. One of them is an angel and one of them is the devil. Kaycee, who is 9, keeps hitting me and telling me she hates me, but she is nice to everyone else. I tease her to get back at her, but my dad always says: "Why would you do that to your little sister!" But she is the one who is being mean to me! It's not fair.
Kaitlyn, who is 10, is quieter, and nice to me.
I think of myself as an employee who doesn't get paid. Because I am really clumsy (I can't pick up plates without dropping them) I do jobs like checking vaccine passports and I put out the knives and forks.
The helicopter that you see in the documentary broke when I was flying it out the back in a parking lot behind the shop. It went around 100m into the air, then fell to the ground. I had to get another helicopter and transplant the propellers. I have made a rocket from the broken helicopter but it doesn't work, so it is a work of art in my bedroom.
I love technology and I am a computer nerd. I love playing Minecraft and I have a giant statue of me as the centrepiece of one of my worlds.
Martynique, 15, Samoa's Finest, Porirua
My parents have owned this place for about five years now. When I think of the food I had growing up, I think of taro. We peel it, wrap it in baking paper and cook it in the oven – it's really popular here. But the most popular dish would be our pineapple pancakes.
We have a lot of regulars at the restaurant, and lots of people are still coming in, even in the "Red" setting. I do a lot of food preparation, like peeling taro, and I also serve out the front, and do a lot of cleaning. Mum, Dad and I work in the shop but I also have a brother, who is 20. He doesn't work here.
I really love shopping for vintage clothes. My favourite shop is a place called Thrift on Cuba St in Wellington. I know what I like – I always look for baggy clothes and T-shirts with my favourite artists on. I found a T-shirt with Tupac on it there. I really like 80s and 90s music, like Biggie Smalls and J. Cole.
In the documentary, I am patting one of our cats. His name was Mars, but he's died recently, which is sad, but he was really old – 15. We have three other cats, Blacky, Sooky and Mischief. Sooky is my favourite because he trusts me and lets me pat him. But Blacky is quite funny and he likes to take things off washing lines and put them on the ground. He does this with our clothes and with the neighbours' clothes, but they don't mind.
I will wonder where my socks are and we will find that he's taking them off the line and hidden them somewhere in the garden.
I'd like to work somewhere else, just to get a new experience. I don't know what I want to do when I leave school, but I've got two more years to go, so I have time to work it out.
John, 16, Westminster Takeaways, Ōtautahi
My mum and her friend decided to buy the takeaway three years ago. My dad was overseas at the time and my mum had been working at a restaurant. It's a fish and chip shop, so it doesn't sell the food that I grew up with.
My favourite food when I was little was probably mapo tofu, a Chinese dish made with tofu and meat, and served with rice. I do eat food from the takeaways sometimes, and I like chips, but it's not something I would eat every day.
I work on Fridays and Saturdays, and at first I really hated it. But now, it's just work. I wouldn't want to take over the family business though; it's not my thing. I'm not a fan of manual labour.
I go to Riccarton High School, and I am now in year 13. I enjoy English and reading; I read anything that I can find! I also like gaming. I play League of Legends and have been in local school competitions.
I use a computer that I made myself. It's not that hard to make a computer, it's a bit like Lego, and you can easily find the parts at different shops. I watched a lot of YouTube videos, which helped me.
When I leave school I would like to go university and study business. And I really want to travel – I have family in China, but I really just want to travel anywhere. I would come back to New Zealand though, because I really think it's the best place in the world.
In the future I would like to compete in bodybuilding, so I spend a lot of time at the gym doing weights. Fitness is important to me.
Takeout Kids is produced by Uhz & Hex Work Productions for The Spinoff
Made with the support of NZ On Air. All episodes available to watch from February 15.
thespinoff.co.nz/videos/takeout-kids
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