Local Produce

Shopping at the market here is change of pace from home. Anything that's not grown on the island needs to come here via a shipping container, which is a long slow process. In the market, heads of lettuce are usually wilted and tired. Tomatoes and peppers need to be inspected for mold and rot. Broccoli tends to be yellow and sad. All are expensive and of questionable quality, if you can even find them at one of the larger stores.

Thus, since arriving on island, Sara and I have been doing our best to eat and cook the local items. The local produce lining the shelves is decidedly different in the tropics than it is back on the mainland. 2 pound bags of japanese eggplant, chinese long beans, taro and yams can be had for a dollar from roadside stands. If you want the convenience of a store, you'll pay $1.50. Pineapples are $3-5 each, 10 pounds of husked coconuts are $5 and 5 pounds of green bananas go for $1. And that's if you're too lazy to find a tree to pick them off yourself.

From this abundance of island-grown food, Sara and I have been experimenting with new items and trying to figure out how to cook with them. Our first attempts have centered around a bunch of green bananas we picked up at the outdoor market. The locals use them much the way potatoes are used on the mainland. They're boiled for approximately 10 minutes to start the cooking process.

After that the peel gets pulled off and then the inside is prepared in a variety of ways. Thus far we've seen them sliced thin and deep fried, like a potato chip; julienned and fried, like french fries; and stewed in coconut milk.

We boiled them and made home fries with them. They are surprisingly good with just salt and pepper. They made some excellent filling for breakfast burritos or as sides for dinner.

The bananas are very starchy and lacking the sweetness found in bananas back on the mainland. We are going to try several more variations on this going forward. They're good right off the stove and the leftovers also make good lunches to take into the office.

After finishing off the bananas, we went for a basket of taro root, mostly since we wanted the basket they were displayed in at the market. Once we got home, the taro was safely transferred into an old Vailima box and the basket made of palm fronds is holding magazines on our coffee table.

Our first go round with taro was a little trying. We scrubbed as much of

the dirt and roots as we could off of the outside of the taro root. Next step was to boil the root until a fork would easily slide into the body of the root. Once cooked we cooled the roots in the fridge. Our next task was to skin the taro root. It didn't want to take the easy way out and use a vegetable peeler, like a sane person would. I thought this would remove too much of the purple outside part, which in my mind has more of the flavor. After two hours of peeling the slimy, mostly cooked taro root, I managed to get several pounds of taro prepped. Next time it's going to be with a knife or a peeler. - There's a reason our ancestors invented tools.

After all that peeling I wanted nothing to do with the slimy texture of the taro. I opted slice the taro into rounds, season them with some olive oil and curry powder and bake them. This crisped away the slimy exterior and gave a nice caramelized finish to the outside of the taro. Once baked, they make excellent snacks and go great with ketchup.

We're going try a similar batch this weekend with Cajun seasoning. Should be some good eating.