Traditional Fijian lovo
Traditional Lovo is used on special occasions. We were lucky enough to experience this day long affair which ends in a great meal. Similar to the New Zealand hangi, food is wrapped in natural materials and buried and cooked. All foods are cooked in the lovo, pumpkin soup, taro, potatoes, fish, chicken and more.

It is a long process that starts early in the day. Step one: build a great fire and when it burns down to just coals place a grill on top and the food for your feast. These baskets were woven especially for the meat and fresh fish. You cannot see the detail but the fish ones were woven with a fish tail .
Cover the food with palms and branches, then with burlap sacks and cover the whole meal with sand. The food will then cook with the smoke/steam from the hot coals. The smell is amazing.

While watching this we were told how this is the way they used to cook bodies during the days of cannibalism...eeek! Now I always think of that when I look at these pictures.



After a few hours the meal is ready. The palms have also turned a lovely golden brown from the heat.
Dinner is served and it is splendid. Traditional lovo dinner at Otto and Fanny's is not to be missed.

Pig 'N Pancake
It is the long weekend and will try and beat the exodus of traffic to cottage country so will write a short post before I set off . No doubt, the weekend will be filled with bbqs and big breakfasts, the usual cottage fare with lots of fresh local Ontario produce too. The last time I entered the beach supermarket, local strawberries were at the entrance and I was treated to a delightful smell of fresh non-gm strawberries. The Body Shop should bottle that smell!

Big breakfasts reminded me of a lovely couple we met in Fiji. Michael and Grace from Oregon (he is originally from Vancouver) were on holiday with their two children and had owned a franchise of the Pig 'N Pancake in Oregon for the last several years (how many Grace?)

During our long food discussions at Otto and Fanny's we had great breakfasts but the pancakes were not up to scratch. M & G said that they have the best pancakes at the Pig 'N Pancake and named off the eight or 9 varieties but said the plain buttermilk ones were the best. It is making me hungry looking at the website's menu.

It would've been nice if Grace and Michael got into the kitchen to make us some of the famous pancakes like they made at the restaurant but apparently the franchise has a secret recipe that even they do not have access too.

Here is a basic pancake recipe for your breakfast this weekend. Remember to put some Canadian maple syrup and fresh fruit on top!

* 2 cups all-purpose flour, stirred or sifted before measuring
* 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 egg, slightly beaten
* 1 1/2 cups milk
* 2 tablespoons melted butter


Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, combine egg and milk; add to flour mixture, stirring only until smooth. Blend in melted butter. Cook on a hot, greased griddle, using about 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake. Cook until brown on one side and around edge; turn and brown the other side. Serves 4.

Or just buy a box of Aunt Jemima which is also a quick alternative to making your own. Aunt Jemima knows her stuff too!

To the Canadian readers - have a great long weekend.

Kava drinking
Kava is the alcoholic drink that Fijians drink at traditional ceremonies like a lovo feast. This traditional feast will be explained in further detail later with great pics from JP's great camera.
Kava looks like mud and I think it almost tastes like it too! (see the brown liquid in the large bowl, that is kava - looks yummy eh?) The ritual before downing the dentist-like numbing agent is to clap three times before you are handed a coconut shell full of this root goodness and to slurp it all down in one go and then clap once to signify that you are finished.

In the past the drinking of kava was saved for important ceremonies but today it is used more informally and quite socially with the village males who drink it while singing or swapping stories. The singing by the Fijians is something very beautiful too, they have very distinct and strong voices.

It is rude to not drink your whole coconut cup full so you have to just take a deep breath and do it even if you think it is vile tasting (this is what I did). Kava is made from a root and has a peppery taste and is known to have many benefits as a herbal remedy from curing anxiety to depression to insomnia. I found a laundry list of its benefits on a website selling it so not sure how accurate all these claims are to its healing magical powers. One thing is for sure, it will get you very drunk if you drink enough!

Kava's Latin name Piper methysticum literally translates as "intoxicating pepper" has been used for centuries, by the inhabitants of the South Pacific Islands -as a ritual drink, a social beverage, and also as a medicine. Kava (Piper Methysticum) is a lush, leafy green member of the pepper family, from the tropical islands of the South Pacific.

Kava comes in a powdery mix that is brewed in cold water for a few minutes, then it is squeezed through a cloth to filter out all the sediments (muddy looking stuff) and then voila it is a clear liquid to drink. If you get to try some Fijian kava try it - I think the Fijians laughed at all the tourists faces and reactions when they were downing these little coconut cups full of goodness.

The woman in the picture Carol Dunlop is also the only female skipper in Fiji, she skippers the yacht called Surprise which is a privately chartered boat. In a male dominated county she is quite the anomaly and I love her spunkiness. She sat and sang and drank kava with the males all night which is most likely unheard of in Fiji. Her crew and guests came to Otto and Fanny's on our last night there for a lovo feast, cava drinking and singing. It was all very festive and our hosts Fanny and her son Harry put on a great spread, as usual. Bula!

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!)

:)