Book Excerpt
Coconut Bliss
By Lance Seeto
Cooking With The Cannibals
B
eing disconnected from your world is one of the scariest
things to contemplate when taking a vacation. We all
expect to find a Wi-Fi hotspot in a hotel room, walking down
the street or all around us. We’re uncomfortable when the
white noise of television, radio and our phones isn’t constantly
clogging our brains with useless information.
about the fresh wild seafood, coconuts and sweet tropical
fruits, so I was excited to get stuck into my first Fijian meal.
With such an abundance of locally grown, exotic tropical
fruits, organic vegetables and the most pristine wild seafood
of anywhere in the world, traditional Fijian food was sure to
be amazing.
Castaway Island, Fiji is not where the Tom Hanks’ movie, Cast
Away, was filmed but it’s literally across the road on nearby
Modriki Island. The local people who have seen the film joke
that Hanks’ character stupidly paddled in the wrong direction
because the resorts were just around the corner! He could
have been sipping cocktails on the beach had he looked over
the right horizon.
My first dining experience was the Fijian lovo, a traditional
feast of roasted meats, fish and root vegetables slow-cooked
in an earth oven. Similar to the Hawaiian luau or Maori hangi,
uncooked food is wrapped in native leaves and then buried
in the ground for at least three hours. The result is a smoky,
wood-flavor that permeates the food.
As much I as wanted to enjoy my first Fijian meal, I found it
bland with no depth of flavor, no complexity and no hint
of native creativity—there definitely wasn’t any seasoning!
Everything taste like it was thrown into the pit without thought
to flavors and timing.
With no television, radio or telephones in the bures, or huts,
the international tourist is able to relive the Cast Away lifestyle
of unplugging and disconnecting from the world. Nested
below a lush rainforest mountain and surrounded by an aqua
blue sea, Castaway Island’s resort is one of the oldest and most
famous holiday destinations in the region. It has had nearly
fifty years to perfect an experience of serenity, contentment
and tropical lifestyle that is distinctly Fijian in culture.
The island’s staff have also seen many generations of families
regularly return to this paradise to not only enjoy the tropical
climate, but to recharge and get some perspective on their
own life. Castaway is one of those places that is spiritually
lifting and soul warming. There is a sense of calm, family and
happiness that helped turn this culinary assignment into one
of the most pleasurable and personally rewarding experiences
of my life. When you step foot on the white sandy beach you
are by a flank of staff with huge grins, laughing and shouting,
“Bula—welcome home, welcome to Castaway Island!”
I was keen to get started and wanted to do as much research
as possible on the local produce and cuisine. I had read a lot
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With plenty of room for desserts, I wanted to try all the
different coconut-based delights the Fijian chefs told me were
traditional recipes. To my pleasant surprise I loved most of
these! Cassava (tapioca root) and plantai