Friday, December 02, 2005

Nature's Communal Oven

Welcome to the First Fiji Friday

photograph picture of the Fiji Friday Title When we returned from our fabulous Fiji vacation, back in September, I had quite a few posts about the food there I wanted to share. With the creation of Fiji Friday, a new weekly feature on aspects of the way both Fijians and visiting tourists eat, I plan to share a little look at this beautiful island way of life.



photograph picture of the hot springs in Savusavu, Fiji, where the locals cook their food

Savusavu is a busy but tiny little town on Fiji's second largest island, Vanua Levu. Geothermal hot springs a few minutes walk from the main hub, provide the opportunity for villagers to steam and cook their food using the constant supply of free, natural, boiling hot water. When we visited, we were lucky enough to meet a local lady who had just arrived to retrieve her cakes from the bubbling spring. The cooking pots are tightly wrapped in plastic bags and cloths to stop the stinky, sulpherous water seeping in. The pictured cake, a sponge flavoured with coconut, had taken 2 and a half hours to steam-bake. Then villagers cook a lot of their cassava root and rice at this location too.



PS. Happy Birthday, today to our lovely friend Katja: She who actually reads my blog, loves Hollywood chewing gum, is always a warm hostess, and who just has to eat fresh crab and drink champagne every December the 2nd. We'll be joining her later. Please save some crab for me!


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Nature's Communal Oven

10 Comments:

  • At 2/12/05 10:35, Blogger cookiecrumb said…

    TGI FIJI Friday!
    I love the idea of cooking over nature's own heat!

     
  • At 2/12/05 10:36, Blogger Farmgirl Susan said…

    Fascinating. Love the Fiji Friday idea.

     
  • At 2/12/05 12:59, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    thanks for this virtual cultural journey...TGIF! I've often wondered if a hot spring could cook something and voila!

     
  • At 2/12/05 14:37, Blogger Monkey Gland said…

    That reminds me, I still have to do fish in a dishwasher...

     
  • At 2/12/05 16:49, Blogger Kalyn Denny said…

    This does sound like a fun weekly feature. I have a friend who went to Fiji in the peace corps so I am interested in learning more about it.

     
  • At 2/12/05 20:03, Blogger cookiecrumb said…

    Monkey gland: No Soap!!

     
  • At 2/12/05 23:27, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I have been waiting and looking very regularly for you to post your Fij photos on your other site. So I guess this wil have to do.

     
  • At 3/12/05 10:47, Blogger Sam said…

    CC - I bet it saves them on their electricity bills, huh?

    FG - I hope I can keep the idea going a few weeks.

    Jeanne - I wish I could have actually tried the cake or cooked something there myself, but I forgot to pack my kitchen equipment.

    MG - yes - of course! You must. Such a good idea. CC says no soap, but maybe lavender would work?

    Kalyn - we met a guy from the peace corps when we were there - he is producing a fiji tourist website. I forget his name right now but I have a photo of him.

    Mum - it didn't help we lost our internet access for about 2 months after returning from Fiji which dampened the endeavour and now it seems so long ago. I will try and post one a day from now on. *try*, maybe I wont quite succeed. I tried to get fred to help and he did start loading the pics, but all out of order which didn't much help because I work differently. I have to be organised when I blog and having the pictures loaded in a muddle confuses me. I will see what I can do and now I am going to call you.

     
  • At 4/12/05 04:10, Blogger eat stuff said…

    That looks great!
    We had a similar experience in N.Z. but it was at the hot pools in Rotorua, and it was a Maori in a Suit with 36 eggs! Quite a juxtapostion.

     
  • At 4/12/05 07:55, Blogger Sam said…

    clare - did you post about it? If so i missed it. Going to check your site then.

     

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