I first remember smoking meat and fish with my father Bruce as a child in Wanganui. Dad would build a metal box with a removable lid. Across the rim of the box there were metal rods from which he suspended the fish on hooks. Then we lit a fire and, when it was a mass of embers, we’d get it really smoky with a combination of branches and water to stop it flaring up. After a couple of hours the fish would emerge moist, smoky and delicious.