But the Dunedin District Court heard last week it was a thinly culinary veiled code the 55-year-old Haast man used for his drug-dealing activities.
"Fish and chips" was methamphetamine and "salad", "cabbage" or "greenery" referred to cannabis.
Macdonald was arrested in April 2023 after being scrutinised by police over the previous five months in what was dubbed "Operation Vintage".
Investigations led officers to properties in Cromwell, Tarras and Haast as well as remote areas of Crown Lease and Department of Conservation land in South Westland where they found large cannabis plots.
After executing search warrants, police seized a "significant amount" of cannabis, 21 firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, arresting several men in the process.
One of the simultaneous 2024 raids was on a Haast property inhabited by Macdonald, where harvested cannabis was taken to be packaged for sale.
In the garage, officers found over $27,000 of the class-C drug.
There were 10 plants growing under lights and four more outside in the garden.
Police had earlier obtained a warrant to intercept Macdonald’s phone calls which clarified his role in the illicit enterprise.
According to court documents, the defendant would sell small amounts of meth to buyers around the region.
To one client he described the methamphetamine as "rocks of Gibraltar, big, big icebergs".
His main business, however, was in selling cannabis.
As well as the drugs, police found nearly 900 rounds of ammunition of various calibre at Macdonald’s house.
And when they found him in Cromwell, there was a loaded .223 rifle in the passenger footwell of his ute, along with a .17 rifle in the back.
The defendant’s firearms licence had been revoked the previous year, a court summary said.
Crown prosecutor Zoe Kellan accepted Macdonald had made no significant commercial gain from the enterprise and appeared to be motivated by his addiction.
Counsel John Westgate also underscored those aspects and the fact his client had been on bail for a significant period.
Judge Hermann Retzlaff sentenced Macdonald to 11 months’ home detention and ordered all weapons, ammunition and drug-related items be destroyed.
"Small communities aren’t exempt from organised crime, and this shows the lengths we are willing to go to disrupt that. This commercial operation was designed to make money for those running it, with no regard for the harm it caused to people at the other end," Detective Inspector Shona Low said at the time arrests were made.
Another man implicated in the sting will be sentenced next month.
