CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — New Zealand native Scottie Miller wants to share his love of food with P.E.I.
Miller is in the process of converting a 1973 Neonex Leisure trailer into a travelling kitchen, complete with a 1950s-style diner look to the outside.
In about two weeks, the Charlottetown resident will begin serving New Zealand pies and sausage rolls, New Zealand-style ice cream and some creative baking, such as pop-infused scones he began fashioning when he worked at Kettle Black.
“This has been a dream of mine for a long, long time,’’ Miller said. “A few weeks ago I was trying to figure out what I was doing with my life. I thought if I’m not going to do it now, I’m never going to do it. I’m staring down the barrel of 40 (years old) this year.’’
Miller said he immediately fell in love with P.E.I. when he arrived. He even ended up marrying an Islander, Natalia Goodwin. Now, he says, it’s time to give back to P.E.I.
“Food is love. I want to give back to P.E.I. because P.E.I. has given me everything, including Natalia.’’
Miller has dipped his toes in a lot of different areas. He’s worked in the funeral business, as a travel agent and, of course, as a cook.
“I’m the jack of all trades, master of none,’’ he laughs. “I always thought working in a funeral business would be interesting. You get to help people out which is what I like to do. It was great; it was awesome.’’
As for the travel agent part, he went travelling as soon as he left high school, moving across Europe. But, his love of cooking kept calling him back.
“Everytime I go in a restaurant I look in the kitchen. I’m a feeder. It’s how my family shows love. With most Kiwis (a person from New Zealand), everything revolved around a meal. We’re an eating culture.’’
With that in mind, he’s dubbed his food trailer the Kiwi Kai P.E.I. Kai is the Maori word for food in the native language of New Zealand.
“New Zealand food is essentially comfort food. Old caravans like this are everywhere in New Zealand. This isn’t uncommon. You get an old caravan, you convert it and you sell food out of it wherever you can park it.’’
He’s currently waiting for a special ice cream making machine to arrive that will produce real fruit ice cream.
“It has an auger and then a plastic cone and you put real vanilla ice cream, like ADL ice cream and Island berries in it and then this auger smashes the berries and the fruit together. It changes the colour to the most vibrant colour you’ve ever seen and it comes out like a soft serve (ice cream), but it went in like real ice cream. It has beautiful soft serve texture.
“It’s flavoured with fruit so you’re not eating a bunch of sugar. It’s absolutely delicious.’’
Because this is a food trailer, it doesn’t come with a motor like food trucks do. He’s drawing power from what he calls “a very eco-generator’’ so that he can haul the trailer into the middle of a field and cater to an event or serve at a wedding.
“I’m trying to stay nice and simple, nice and lightweight and just offer what New Zealand likes to offer, which is meat-filled pastry.’’
He plans to park the trailer at the Thursday pop-up market at the Farm Centre on University Avenue. He will also be at the Queen Street Farmers’ Market on Sundays. After that, he’ll go wherever people ask him to go, be it festivals, weddings or whatever.
Miller hopes people come by to sample a taste of New Zealand.
“It’s how my family shows love.’’
JUST THE FACTS
- For more information, go to Miller’s website at kcipei.com
- Miller can be reached at 902-218-5565
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