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Lovo or Hungi Cooking
Lovo is a Fijian word which means underground Oven
My
lord, it can be mighty fine. Seafood is naturally on offer everywhere
in Fiji, and indeed the fishing can be awesome. Fresh fruit is also
cheap and plentiful, and should be a staple part of your daily scoff.
The
“lovo”, though, is what the real Fijian feasting is all about. Similar
to the Maori “hungi”, the lovo is basically an underground slow oven. A
large hole is dug, and a raging fire established at the bottom.
Football-sized stones are placed on the fire and allowed to heat up to
quite high temperatures. When the fire subsides a bit, beef, pork and
fish are wrapped in banana, and coconut leaves are use to plat around
the meat and carefully arranged around the stones. Next come various
tuberous veggies like taro, Cassava or Tapioca, potato and sweet
potato.What I really love and its one of my favorites is, a large pumpkin with all the seeds taken out and refilled with chilli concaine
its a must for your lovo. A final covering of banana leaves &
coconut leaves so that the Dirt that is used do not touch the food and
also the heat is retained in the oven is applied, after which the hole
is covered with soil.
After several hours of sitting and being
entertain by folks with their guitars,lali,ukulele and their beautiful voices of songs and laughter, the lovo is dug up to reveal a
feast of epic proportions, seriously you will eat like you’ve never
eaten before.
To finish of the meal with one of my favorite desert call "vakasoso" it is ripe big banana "vudi" cooked in coconut, it is just divine
YAQONA or KAVA
If
you’ve never heard of this mysterious member of the pepper family (the
roots of which contain a mild drug) you’ll certainly hear about it in
Fiji. The kava ceremony itself however, is more of a social ritual than
anything else, and good mates love to get together for a bowl.
It’s
use is widespread in the South Pacific in general, and is in no way
confined to Fiji. The Fijians though have made kava famous, and a
Fijian loves his kava even more than an Aussie loves his beer.
Interestingly, Fijian slang for kava is “grog”!
This is not to
say that the kava ceremony is an irreverent piss-up, far from it. The
entire experience is sacred, from the kava bowl (tanoa) to the hand
clapping procedure (one clap before, three after drinking one’s round).
Tourists
are welcome to participate in the ceremonies, and watch with great
anticipation as the kava root is ground up, soaked through a fine
masilin cloth in water, and finally served in coconut cups as a grayish
brown liquid. The strange murky look puts a few people off, but if it’s
good quality, fresh stuff you can get quite a buzz. The taste has to be
acquired, naturally.
In any case it’s a fascinating experience both
socially and anthropologically, and will bond you permanently with your
new Fijian friends. Charge it!
If you intend to visit a village or any home of a Fijian take along a bundle of kava to present to the host and that is a custom, it is a way of creating a bonding with your host.
Bilo levu Or big bowl- if you would like a high tide or low tide. Yaqona drinking can be used as a social drink meditional drink or for a ceremony.
it is customary for a visitor to a village or to another settlement to take some kava and offer it as "sevusevu" it is a sign that you have come in peace, and doing the sevusevu , the village that you are visiting will now know where you come from and the tribe and clan that you belong to.
Yaqona plays a vital role in this ceremonies.
What is Coconut Husking?
Throughout the Islands of the south pacific coconut husking plays a vital role in peoples lives as a lot of their diet depends on meals which is used with coconut. Especially with the sea food and a lot of the produce they gather from the land. There is a skill involve in husking a coconut. first of all let us look at the coconut itself- It is a palm and there are all types of variety. The green one or the young fruit stays on the tree and folks usually have these ones on a hot day for drinks and it is quite refreshing, and what we are looking at is when these fruits get brown on the outside of the husk.
There
are many uses of the husk of the coconut- We can produce ropes by
beating the husk on the rocks and washing it down and the fiber that is
left are platted and are used for tying thatched roofs, produced,
bamboo rafts and other things that is needed to be tied down or
transported.This is called MAGIMAGI
To husk a coconut we will need a "ai sua" or sharp stick. Different islands call it differently but it means the same thing. the sharp stick is pushed into the ground at an angle of 45 degree with the sharp end facing up. The "ai sua" is in the ground about 15cm above your knees, if you are right handed place your left foot about 30cm on the left of your stick and your right foot directly in front of the stick about a meter away with your toes facing right and your knee slightly bend we will begin our coconut husking.
Bare in mind we are husking the coconut assuming we are right handed, hold the coconut with the sharp v- end on your left hand and the rounded end with your right hand, slam the coconut on to the sharp stick closer to the right end of the coconut, once it is poked in the coconut put pressure with your right hand, not with your body weight as the risk of falling over to your sharp stick can occur. Repeat the action until the husks of the coconut is completely removed and you are left with your coconut in a cell.
Over the years husking a coconut have been a very competitive sports for our young men and women, women's record 2 days , men 30seconds, this is why if it have to be cooked in coconut its the men doing the cooking otherwise we will starve (ha ha)
Now we are left with the coconut in a cell. there is a trick in breaking the cell. A young man in Sydney drove his steam roller over it in the attempt to crack the cell, A man in Canada pointed his rifle on to the eye of the coconut as his mother-in-law holding on to the coconut,(ha ha ha)Take a look at the cell you will notice that there is a line that runs right around the coconut and there is one that runs above directly on the centre of the round lines. Hit that single line with an object and your coconut will break in one hit, rather then the coconut scattering every where.
Just a word of advice if you are going to try husking a coconut please seek the advice of an islander who have the experience to supervise you.
