Toastie pickle roadie tour

You’ve got just over a bit more than three weeks to hop in the car (or other means of transport) and smash out a toastie pickle roadie tour. No. I didn’t say PICKLED tour.

This is the fifth year that McClure’s Pickles and local distributors Cook & Nelson haven run the national toasted sandwich competition Great NZ Toastie Takeover. This year 185 entries have rolled in from cafés, food trucks, delis, bars, hotels and breweries around the country, and you, the public, get to vote for your favourite. Think beyond soggy tinned sweetcorn slapped between soft ‘wheat’ bread lightly browned in a sandwich maker. While all sandwich entries must contain cheese (or a vegan substitute) and pickles from the McClures range, the rest is up to the individual creator. There’s brisket, bacon hock, buttermilk chicken, beer-poached beef, lamb chops and venison mince, alongside plenty of vegetarian offerings, tarted up with salsas and sauces and chutneys, along with those famous McClure’s pickles.

A full list of the offerings is here toastietakeover.com. 

Each toastie will be scored on a set criteria, including presentation, effectiveness of preparation technique, eatability, taste, innovation, and originality. The competition’s grand toastmaster and McClure’s Pickles founder, Detroit based Joe McClure, will then visit the finalists to sample the entries and liaise with head judge Kerry Tyack to determine New Zealand’s top toastie for 2022.