Food Food Food

melanesian feast - Vanuatu local food tour

Having local cuisine is my most favourite part when I travel.

As newly vegetarian, it has a lots of conflict during travel. I quite often jump to non vegetarian food when I travel…

Anyway, I didn’t when I joined the Melanesian feast tour

Start from national drink Kava- the mad like horrible taste but make you ” happy “

kava drinking ceremony

Dinner time

Many kinds of food!

sweet potato, taro, corn, potato are wrapped and cooked underground

When we had dinner at Iririki island, we happened to see the ” underground” cooking .

The man is horn to tell us it is ready

Take out the leaf and getting rid of hot stone

Now time to open the leaf !

Natural steaming technique!

Shinboro ( I am not sure about the spelling ) is my most favourite vanutatu food

grated manioc wrapped with local cabbage and cook with coconut

Grated manioc is taste like mochi- the Japanese rice cake

Lap lap

cabbage salad

Local people use lots of cabbage!

potato salad

There were seafood, meat and chicken but I behaved :)

After eating, lots of live music

It was true that local dish use very small salt and very heavy on potato but it was great to enjoy traditional Vanuatu food :)

healthy snack at the market

It is very important to have ” healthy snack” when travel, especially as vegetarian.

Since it was very hard to be healthy vegetarian in Vanuatu, I have to be careful not to be starved and go crazy with junk food or non vegetarian food.

Wherever I go overseas, I love checking supermarket! It is my hobby. So I found a supermarket on day 1

Bon Marche, yep, Vanuatu used to be a colony of France

I was exited to see lots of French products there but…

This supermarket is filled with Australian products! Rice, pasta, sauces are all very familiar…

Soy milk from Sanitarium

Baking sheet with a picture of Australia’s master chef Julie Coodwin

Price?

more expensive than Australia, of course, they are all imported. People in Vanuatu get paid much less than Australian…. doesn’t make sense! Later I found out lots of Australian and New zealander come to vanuatu to do business, so I guess this supermarket is for foreigners…

Shocking price of veggies and fruits…

Look at veggies price! I was expected to see cheap veggies and fruits here but no!

I even thought different currency rate but no! ( I did check ) These lemon and tomatoes come from Australia! very expensive

lemon $45 /kg

tomato $12 / kg

Well, we bought water, nuts …500g for like $12 and more but not so exited.

Then luckily we discovered the market where actual local go, oh dear, I can’t believe that organic tomatoes are available in the market but still import ” good looking ” tomatoes from Australia…

Anyway….

Almost no protein rich food like beans or tofu are available in restaurants in Vanuatu, we really must eat lots of nuts so we bought a raw peanuts or roasted peanuts that are so fresh for $1 in the market

Also found interesting nuts

$1 for 1 skewer

Brown one is like young almonds. can’t eat skin but inside is very soft but still nutty flavour. I quite like them so bought many times.

but white one….nnnnn…not so tasty…

I like the way they wrap the food with banana leaf :) no plastic bags!

This is an example of snack we brought to little excursion

Banana chips, taro chips, raw peanuts, unknown nuts and apple mango.

Apple mango? Yes, this is apple mango,

taste like apple and mango! I had them for the first time in my life :) quite tasty!

This is banana chips, well actually plantain, the cooking banana, so it was more like potato chips.

Taro ships. Taro is staple food in Vanuatu

Well, chips are deep fried but hey, still fresh and no preservative or chemical at least…

Snacks in the market is much cheaper and healthier!

Vegetables that I had for the first time

I had a few vegetable I have never seen or eaten in Vanuatu.

This is called “ local cabbage” in Vanuatu

It doesn’t look cabbage, does it? Well, it is dark leafy green veggie, must be really nutritious!

A lady making a bunch of local cabbage at the market

It is huge but only A$1 to 2 ( 100 to 150 Vatu )

* Me and local cabbage in front of our room. get idea how huge it is?

When I cut the leaf or stalk, slimy juice comes out. Well, luckily we have similar slimy veggie in Japan so I get exited not scared.

Why? Moroheiya, the Japanese slimy vegetable is my favourite veggie so I am hoping that this local cabbage tastes similar.

By the way, slimy veggie is normally very nutritious!!

In Japan, we simply boil it and eat with soy sauce.

So I did it the same. Taste? It is quite similar! Yay!

Also put in miso soup

I was told eat only leaves. I was eating stalk as well…..

Another my new found veggie is ” snake bean”

not this snake beans, guys

This one! Huge, again. I can use only half for one big dish.

When you cut..

then peel

* I had the worst peeler in the kitchen so I couldn’t peel properly

cut in half

get rid of seeds

and cut into small pieces

* I am using blunt and very small knife and glass chopping board ( why do they exist? )

Local people stir fry them.

I put in miso soup or congee.

Taste? nnnnn, hard to describe. I’ve had nothing like this before. Not strong taste, maybe similar to zucchini? not taste like snake beans that I know for sure or beans. but texture is totally different. bit like …..nothing!

Do I like it? Yes, if I can buy them in Sydney, I will buy them.

I love travelling to discover new food xxxxx

Market in Vanuatu

There is a big fruits and veggie market in the town in Portvila.

All fruits and veggies here are organic, well I mean everything in Vanuatu is organic anyway.

selling various veggies and fruits

It is definitely much cheaper than supermarket. The cheapest is on the road, sometime not even people are not around but market is open 7am to 11pm and in the middle of town so we went to this market to shop or eat many times.

carrots 50 vatu ( A$ 1 = 107 vatu )

washing carrots next to the shop

skewered lettuce ! isn’t it funny way to sell?

By the way, lettuce here is so soft….

watermelon on the floor

Taro, one of the staple food here are on the ground out side. Interesting way to display the food…

I couldn’t find cucumber in the market and wondering if no cucumber in Vanuatu then I ate cucumber in the market dining area.

that is right, below is the one. They are yellow and thick not like thin, long and green cucumber I know.

Cucumber from 20 vatu to 200 vatu! all depends on size

I had boiled peanuts in Hawaii but these are all raw. Taste? quite similar to boiled peanuts. I must say roasted peanuts tastes much better…I couldn’t finish boiled peanuts in Hawaii, again, I couldn’t finish raw peanuts… :( I also bought roasted peanuts here, it was sooo fresh and nice. Yes, I finished roasted one.

raw peanuts

veggie called ” Suzut” that I have never seen or eaten.

I asked how to clean and cook at the market.

First, boil with small amount of water then add coconuts milk. it is quite often served as a side dish of chicken. Quite simple way of cooking cut cleaning is bit hard.

You need to get rid of thick bottom part of stalk and also curly part. Young thin curly parts are ok to eat but thick curly part, you have to remove. As you can see, lots of curly parts…. Even though they said, it is easy to clean but I can tell, it will take long time…. so I didn’t buy.

I had so much fun in the market and went back many times. Well I must say, I had to go there by myself sometimes because my boyfriend got really sick of going there that often.

I will write about more about market again !