"Some Tropical South Island Foods" Murai, Pen, Miller (1958)

[elainegrey]

Let me say, i am so thankful to live in a time of refrigeration. The South Pacific Islanders and the Scandinavians both resorted to digging a pit, putting food in it, and coming back a few months later. Traditional gravlax, salmon salted and buried on the beach above the high tide line, sounds just as appealing as apot (Caroline Islands) where peeled and cored breadfruits in the hundreds are put in banana leaf lined and covered pits and left for several months. Now, i *like* contemporary gravlax, so i wonder what a fermented breadfruit cake would taste like -- but not enough to track it down. It seems a clever Hawaiian chef should experiment and bring the food back to trendy restaurants.

That is not me.

Anyhow, this book is interesting for how it captures the traditional food preparations of the South Pacific Islands fifty years ago. Interestingly, pineapples are not covered. "Coconut embryos," basically nearly sprouted coconuts, were considered more tasty than the ripe coconut. I think i might grab a breadfruit the next time i see one, but otherwise the book isn't much use for a contemporary consumer.