Left: Poots Kani, one of the Mongrel Mob members behind the page. (Image supplied) Right: One of the meals posted to the page. (Photo by Chantel Gray)
Is your New Year's resolution to eat healthy already slipping? What if the Mongrel Mob told you to cut out greasy food, then would it stick? One of New Zealand's most notorious gangs has set up a Facebook group to encourage Kiwis to ditch fatty takeaways for fresh smoothies.Titled ‘Heils Kitchen’, the page's patched creators claim it is the “mightiest cooking show in the nation” and it has so far attracted more than 33,000 members. The mission is simple: they want people to “stay away from the takeaways and cook fresh at home” so that they can “help keep our whānau away from diabetes and obesity.” The group also wants to discourage their followers from using methamphetamine; their motto reads #fryyourfoodnotyourself.Every day members post pictures of their “healthy kai”, some of which are more experimental than others. Crowd favourites are fresh seafood, steak with a side of vegetables, homemade pizza, pasta with salad, and a whole lot of corn.Others have taken a more adventurous approach – the interesting combination of kiwifruit and cheese on toast received a very mixed reaction.Leaders of the group have also come up with the ‘$26 challenge’, whereby members have to cook a healthy meal within the budget and people vote for their favourite. Leaders of the group say it is “just a bit of fun” and “to see who can cook the best lol.”Many have commented on the relatively large budget, but one member joked about how hard it could be doing the challenge in Auckland: “I might do one when we're allowed to do it..$26 in Auckland I'll be able to get a bread a milk some butter some teabags and make up a mean tea and bread lol.” Admins have also said that there is “no google, cook with your own skills.”