Sunday, July 22, 2007

Coconuts, coconuts everywhere...

With two weeks holiday in paradise a.k.a. Fiji, getting back into blogging seems like hard work. Our days were very busy...morning swims, mid morning snorkelling (swimming with sea cucumbers, manta ray's, parrot fish and other colourful sea creatures), late morning naps in the hammock, delicious lunches freshly prepared by the friendliest Fijians at Otto and Fanny's, afternoon snorkelling, a little Scrabble, afternoon tea (3pm) followed by watching breathtaking sunsets by the beach and ending the day with a fabulous meal. This is how our days were spent.


We went to bed early due to the generator being shut down at 11pm, which gave us a long and restful sleep to recharge our batteries to do it all over again; this indeed, was tough work!


At Otto and Fanny's we stayed in authentic Fijiian bures and the property was filled with tall coconut trees which brought pleasant shade to the sunned out beach goers. One thing we noticed was that every so often (at least every hour) a coconut would plummet from the trees onto the property. (Our Norwegian friend Lars, aka Paul McCartney, while resting in the hammock almost had a coconut drop onto his noggin!) Luckily we were spared this experience although at times they fell close to us.

These were large coconuts and there was an abundance of them but oddly enough we did not have any meals with coconut?! I thought we would have fresh coconut slivers for our desert, macaroon type cookies, coconut curries and more. We were served authentic and delicious other meals but no coconuts were to be found on our menu...

One day we did spot the staff eating large bowls of boiled coconut -which didn't look too appetizing. Perhaps that was considered a staff meal and not appropriate for guests.

Anyhow the mystery of the land of coconuts continued throughout our trip. With such an abundance of the fruit I thought we would be drinking coconut water, offered coconut oil at every opportunity to purchase and have coconut in all of our meals and drinks.

We did make gorgeous bracelets on Manta Ray Island from the coconut shell and when we requested a drink of coconut, the staff at Otto and Fanny's collected two for us to drink the crisp coconut water.

According to Wikipedia, 'virtually every part of the coconut palm has some human use.' Someone in Fiji needs to get their coconut hat on and make some money from this lovely fruit! (more pics to be added to the blog as still travelling so not able to upload many pics!)

:)

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

BEAUTIFUL FIJI
Bula (hi/bye/welcome)
The internet is too slowfor pics but the update is that Fiji is paradise.
Crystal clear waters in the most vibrant green and blue hues, beautiful reefs, the most colorful fish, a plethora of coral which comes in all shapes and forms, completely isolated and idyllic beaches where you can snorkel off the shore, the loveliest Fijian hospitality, Fijian sunsets...the list goes on.

Our accomodation in the Yasawa's consists of only 7 bures (tiki style/bamboo huts) which hold 2-4 people. At breakfast, lunch and dinner we are a small but diverse mix of Norwegians, Americans, Canadians, Kiwis and people from Malyasian and Indonesian descent.

The power is turned off at 11pm, and our dinners commence at 6pm. In these few hours we chat about life, love, religion, music and of course - food. Last night we had especially lengthy talks about food. Grace and Michael owned a pancake house in Oregon and the Nordic folks are chefs in a top restaurant there. The rest of us like to eat so the conversation went on for ages...I will try and post some recipes/comments from our 'holiday family dinners.'

Fiji Bitter Beer is on tap and there are lots of coconuts everywhere. The only dangers in Fiji are sunburn, falling coconuts and getting stung by a jellyfish. Luckily we only got stung by a jellyfish but we did see many a coconut fall very close to our hammock. When the internet comes up again I will try to post more food tidbits. I even ate Kolkoda (from my last post) and it was divine!

Bula
xx

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Fijian foods
I am off to Fiji - the islands in the South Pacific Ocean for two weeks. I have been out of blog mode for a while with all these national holidays getting in the way.

Happy belated Canada Day to you all...hope you had a good one. Ours was filled with bbq and more bbq, pies, ice cream, cakes and more treats like brownies, fresh strawberries, cherries and more.

Needless to say it was a great weekend with lots of fresh Ontario produce.

This pic is of Kokoda, a Fijian food. It is made out of raw fish meat seasoned with lemon juice and coconut milk; can't wait to have some great fish meals.

While away, I am going to try and post if I can but not sure if I will be able to access the internet.

Am asking guest bloggers step forward -any takers? Or readers, I will be back in two short weeks. By then, I should have a wealth of stuff to post in regards to plane food (tip: always order a special meal as you get served first), Fijian delights and New Zealand treats - am going to Pat and Robbie's farm so will take pics of me milking the cows!! Am very excited. Maybe Pat will make her famous Pavlova....mmm!