Yesterday I joined my fellow CSPers and also my host dad for
the annual PAN workshop, mostly on Marine Protected Areas, but also Mangrove
Sanctuaries and the like. Lots of interesting people, lots of food, especially
the second batch of local-ish food that came in these beautiful coconut leaf
woven baskets. Why do people even use styrofoam here?
On a side note, I did not think ahead and ate food in the
afternoon, which meant I was not very hungry when I came home and my Nohno was
like “mongo!” (food). However, this ended up being a true success story,
because for the first time since I came here, I managed to politely decline
food and drink 2 coconuts instead. Of course, Nohno took her revenge this
morning when she called me back after breakfast (she had been busy washing
dishes while I ate), declaring that she thought I didn’t eat enough of my
breakfast. Telling her that I was full didn’t convince her (I was! She didn’t
see how much I eat), but we worked it out.
Ok, so I’m going to take this as an opportunity to tell a
little bit about meal culture here (I’ve already talked plenty about the actual
food, but not the meals):
1) it is generally impolite to refuse food. At least have a
little.
2) As I later found out, I unknowingly scored points the
first couple of weeks by trying all the different food my family prepared.
Apparently that’s unusual for foreigners.
3) Meals are quick. You eat, and when you’re done, it’s
over. Socializing doesn’t happen during meal times, but in between and of
course during sakau drinking. Best example are the co-worker meals at CSP. They
make rice and fish sometimes, everyone stands around one table, digs in, and
within 3-4min it’s over.
4) At my host family, I usually eat first, sometimes with
Pahpa or Jayheart, but mostly on my own. And Nohno is there to keep me company
and watch every bite I take. She takes note of how much I eat of what. “have
some more X” or “you didn’t try Y” or “don’t you like Z?” and of course the
classic “eat some more!”
5) “eat some more” deserves a separate point. When I’m full,
I have to assure my host family (that goes for Pahpa and Nohno, but also the
extended family who cooked while we went to Pakin) multiple times that I’m
really full and can’t eat any more. Usually at least 2 times, the record so far
was me telling my Pahpa 6 times that I’m really full (I counted). We had
breakfast at home and then on our way to work we stopped by the sakau bar where
they had another breakfast. I did eat some, but was just full, and eventually walked
some distance away from the food to avoid the “eat some more!” Another time,
Maneth made me breakfast on Pakin. When I declined that she make another bowl
of ramen for me because I was full, she looked at me kind of angrily. 10min
later while lying in the hammock, the bowl of ramen was served to me
wordlessly.
6) meat is important. Fish, chicken, pig, crab, and turkey
tail (it’s a thing here) count as meat. Canned meat and canned tuna don’t
really count as meat – when we have only that, apologies are often made for not
having actual meat.
7) Staple starch is mostly cooking banana, breadfruit, and
rice (taro and yams not as much as I expected, but it’s not quite the season).
Selino says he doesn’t feel full with just rice or bread, he needs breadfruit or
banana. Reminds me of my grandparents being like “rice/pasta doesn’t count,
where are the potatoes?” – on that note, bread (like also in Japan) is the
fluffy toast bread kind. Selino says (yes, “Selino says” has become a thing on
this blog) French bread (baguette) is weirdly hard and doesn’t understand how
people can like it. They would probably use German bread to build houses.
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