Tastes Like...

Tastes Like Wahoo (Tuna with Chili in Oil)

One of the interesting things about living here is seeing products on the shelves you don't see on the mainland. Canned wahoo is one of those products. Wahoo are normally a sport fish, not frequently commerically caught as they don't school frequently like yellow fin tuna due. They're usually solitary hunters that occasionally end up as by-catch in purse seine nets or on long lines. Thus American Samoa is one of the few places in the world where you can get canned wahoo which they use the by-catch to produce when there's enough around. Canned wahoo is very popular, more popular than demand so that's what causes things like can pictured above.

One of my observant friends picked up a can of this. It has the same color and layout of normal canned wahoo, only with the words "tastes like" sneaked in above "wahoo." There's also the yellow star that says "TUNA with Chili in oil." Very stealthy, Talofa, but we're on to you and your seasoned tuna impersonating wahoo.

RIP Luigi's Pizza Pub

When Sara and I arrived in American Samoa, there were limited lunch options around our office. The Executive Office Building, not so fondly called the "EOB," is near the center of the island on the south edge of Pago Harbor. However, there's limited food options around here. There are a few sit down restaurants of varying levels of OK, but pricey. There's always McDonalds. A few food trucks are scattered around, but they severely lack vegetarian options. The various "Fast Food" places offer hotel pans of cold stir fry or fried food that had been sitting around for hours have never been an option that I considered. So Sara and I have been bringing left overs and eating lunch in our office or at the fales located on the beach in front of the office.

In August, Luigi's Pizza Pub opened behind the office opened. We'd been taunted with the "Pizza and Sports Pub" sign out front that offered the delightful combo of beer, pizza and TV for months as the business slowly crept towards opening up. Us eager contract workers were waiting for a place that combined all these factors here on island. When Luigi's finally opened, we were ready to embrace all that the sign offered. The pizza was good, New York-style thin crust, however the TV and beer were missing out of the gate. We kept returning for months hoping the minor issues would be resolved once the business could afford the TV and get licensed for beer. Those issues never resolved and the owner soon was complaining about the need for more business to offset his huge energy overhead costs (the electric pizza ovens are expensive to run on an island that gets all its power from generators that run on diesel fuel that is shipped in from thousands of miles away). Without money for advertising, the general public beyond those employed at the EOB, never really found the pizza place.

The place wasn't able to keep up with its bills and yesterday when I made plans to meet one of friends from the US Department of Agriculture there for lunch we learned the bad news: Luigi's had gone under. We had to scramble for lunch and go to one of the sit down places, not ideal, but we're back to the status quo for lunches here at the EOB. Luigi's We'll miss you.

Luigi's Pizza and Sports Pub, August 2011-January 2012. Rest in Peace.

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.

Dinner Party and Hike

Had a coworker, her spouse (the Kiwi), a former coworker (the risk taker), his spouse and his son over for dinner last night. We had some eggplant parmesan, caprese salad, long bean saute and bread pudding. It was a pleasant evening, but the major thing to come from it (aside from a local plaintiff's attorney trying to execute a writ of possession earlier that evening for the governor's car, with my coworker and the AG stepping to put a hold on it) was the suggestion of a hike out at the National Park of American Samoa the next day.

After a morning of errands with Sara, she packed me off with the boys in the back of a spray-painted and glitter dusted pickup truck with the Kiwi and the risk-taker. We were off to try a hike/run in the National Park on the north shore of the island. I'm glad to have take the journey over the saddle between Rainmaker Mountain and Mount 'Alava in the back of a pickup. Too often my trips around Tutuila have been from inside an SUV. Riding around in the back of a pickup opens up whole new vistas that I never noticed. The volcanic peaks soar around you and the coastal road snakes underneath cliffs and between some stunning verdant slopes when there's no longer a roof to constrain your view. I need to keep this in mind when exploring transportation options here on the the island.

The road up to the ridge was steep. The risk taker was the driver, but being new to driving manual he ran into trouble when he came to a stop after trying to push third-gear too far up the hill. With some gentle ribbing from the more experienced stick-drivers in the truck bed told him how to get going again on a slope. The driver then proceeded to roll several truck lengths back down the steep slope and across the other lane. The Kiwi, took it upon himself to get the car headed uphill again and we managed to reach the ridge of the mountain,where driving responsibilities were turned over to the risk-taker again.

From the saddle between the two volcanic peaks, there is an amazing view down on the harbor and the Tafuna plains. I'm definitely coming back here for a sunset and a beer. If only I'd brought my camera on this trip...

Over on the north side of the island, it's almost all National Park that is accessible from the road to Afono and Vatia. We parked at one of the National Park turn offs and started hiking up from the coastal road. It wasn't until I was on the trail that I realized that both my hiking partners were wearing cleats. I was piddling away in my "barefoot" running shoes. This was OK for the uphill, but there was enough mud underneath the rain-forest canopy to make me leery of the descent. I couldn't think about that too much as we continued our ascent up to the ridge between Rainmaker and 'Alava.

The top of the ridge afforded a new sensation for me in American Samoa. It was slightly cold up there. I may have actually gotten goosebumps. After sweating my way through the last four weeks, it was a welcome sensation.

The foliage would occasionally open up to afford some tremendous views from the ridge. Overlooking the village of Vatia and the Cock's Comb to the north and Pago harbor to the south. Next time I take this route, I'm not making the same mistake I did this time and am going to bring my camera. The best spot had two benches that had an amazing overlook of both the bay and the village of Vatia.

The hike along the ridge was steep and muddy. The Park Service had placed several ladders with rope to make the trail passable. The ups and downs of the ridge were steep and narrow. Without these aids, descending would be a dangerous challenge, especially with steep drops on both sides of the ridge.

The hike down off the ridge cut off right before the steep slope of Mount 'Alava started to climb. The descent was steep and muddy. This is where the cleats my fellow hikers were wearing paid off. I had to pick and choose my steps, where they could crash right on through. I'm going to need to ship an old pair of my rugby or soccer cleats out before the rains make these trail impassable to any other type of shoe.

When Sara's leg gets strong enough, I'm dragging her on this hike. Once we reached the bottom of the trail we were in the village of Vatia. It's one of the more remote and poorer villages on the island. The local school kids used to have to hike over the ridge twice a day to attend school in Pago Harbor along the same trail we just down-climbed. Now that the road's gone in, their access to education slightly easier.

We had to fend off a few local dogs on our walk back along the road to the car. The routine for this is grab some fist sized rocks from the side of the road and if the dogs get too close, throw the rocks at the dogs. It becomes second nature after awhile.

We also had some local kids yelling "Hey Palangi" at us. They loved our casual greeting in Samoan of "Malo" in response. The hike back to the truck was less exciting, we walked along the road to the turnoff where we started. We made it back to the glitter truck with enough sunlight to justify a hike down to the tide pools below where we parked.

There were some cool archaeological sites on the hike down. A star mound, a rock used to sharpen axes and some terraces had NPS signs and descriptions on the hike down. At the bottom of the hike, we got to some deep and narrow tide pools. We jumped from the rocks surrounding the pools on both side and were even able to dive in the deeper spots. It was a great way to cool off and relax after our 5-mile hike.

We eventually made it back to the car after watching the sun set behind the Cock's Comb. The ride back over the ridge was a little chilly in the back of the pickup, especially since we were still wet from the tide pools. Once we made it back to the risk-taker's temporary housing at the hospital the Kiwi and I called our wives and begged forgiveness for hiking the day away and each got ourselves a ride home. Overall an amazing hike, now I just have to deal with my sore legs and blisters. I'll do it again soon, once I have cleats and a camera to do it justice.

Staples

Sometimes it's the little creature comforts that get you through. It's the hot cocoa on a snowy day or lemonade during summer. For me it's Mexican food and a few other vegetarian staples for dinner. These are the ingredients that can make a dinner that will make me forget even the most rotten of days.

Living in American Samoa, I assumed I was going to be doing without these basics while I was here. I may be able to grab a mission burrito on every street corner in San Francisco, but here on island the only option was the Green Burrito housed inside the Carl's Jr. No ideal for a picky (read snobby) vegetarian.

Last's night's shopping trip may have made my two year stint here survivable. The container ship came in on Friday and this was my first trip to the market since the island was resupplied. I wasn't expecting to strike gold quite like I did. I was able to get flour and corn tortillas, Morning Star soy sausage patties and Boca burgers. With a few basics in my freezer I may be able to feed myself well and that's enough to keep his picky vegetarian pretty happy. Now if only I could find some firm tofu and tempeh, I'd have my Chinese stir frys covered too.