Micronesian Round-Up

When we first looked at coming here, to Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia, I googled. Naturally. What I found was pretty disheartening. I found tales of woe from vegans, stories of vegetarians who ate fish, or gave up and left the veg-life for good. I admit, I was worried.

Three months later and we’re leaving tomorrow. It has been a perfectly acceptable place to be happy vegans. Sure, we’ve missed mock-meat and some other vegan things, but it was hardly the torturous experience that some would have you believe.

Here’s my vegan Micronesian round-up, which I’ll cross post over at Thorntree and anywhere my lovely readers suggest, so future vegan-travelers don’t avoid the place.

Eating out

There are a number of choices for vegans who want to eat out in Kolonia, Pohnpei.

Nantuelek, PCR (Pohnpei Surf Club)

This restaurant is open for lunch and dinner Sunday through Monday (closed Saturdays). The menu may not look very veg friendly, but you can ask for fried rice or noodles without meat, vegetarian spring rolls (lunch only), fried vegetables, and tofu (which comes with ginger and spring onion). It makes for a pretty good meal, and though the staff may laugh at you a little, we have gotten reliable vegan food here.

Rusty Anchor

The bar has vegan pizza!! Just ask Wayne, or if he isn’t there, ask for a pizza with no meat or cheese. Easy.

The Village

The Village has some of the best western food on the island. We have had quite good breakfast here – tropical fruit, english muffins with jam, and oats (the porridge is made with water here as a matter of course). We bring our own soy milk if we want coffee. They also have fantastic vegan sorbet (called sherbert, not noted as veg on the menu).

The menu has falafel in pita pockets, french fries, a vegie burger, and a vegetarian plate. Unfortunately only the french fries are vegan. The falafel could be vegan, however we didn’t find communication easy and it came out with ranch dressing. It is very important to specify no dressing. Also, specify no butter on toast or muffins. Vegetarians should find it very easy to get food here.

China Star

I liked the place, which serves many vegetable and tofu dishes, however Mr got spooked by what he felt was chicken flavouring, so we only went the once. Try for yourself and decide.

Ocean View

Beautiful view! We had fried noodles (claimed to be vegan, but may have had non-veg seasonings) and pizza here. The pizza was ok, but not amazing. Worth it for the amazing view though.

 

Eating In

There are many vegan foods you just can’t get here on Pohnpei; nooch, agar agar, mock meat, tempeh, hard tofu, spices for Indian food, bread, chocolate, most vegetables and fruits.However there is so much you can find in stores.

Things you can buy include:

• silken tofu (box kind)
• soy milk
• flavoured soy milk (chocolate, coffee, vanilla and green tea flavoured, sometimes available from Palm Terrace)
• coconut – meat, oil, milk, cream
• beans and pulses (lentils, chickpeas, black beans, split peas etc) – tinned, dried
• vegetarian re-fried beans and baked beans
• tinned vegetables
• frozen vegetables
• vegan apple pie (frozen)
• tropical fruit (beware, the mango is ultra stringy)
• pumpkin, potato, cucumber, eggplant, taro, yam, breadfruit, oyster mushroom, kangkong (like spinach)
• nuts and nut butters
• olive oil
• tea
• dried fruits
• cereal and oats
• brown rice, white rice, pasta and sometimes wholemeal pasta
• flours, sugar (make sure its CSR or it isn’t vegan), shortening, yeast, cornflour etc to bake
• biscuits

The stores to find these products in are:

Ellen’s Market

No sign, ask where it is. This is the only place that has oyster mushrooms, thought not every day- monday is your best bet. The place next door sometimes has local tomatoes (which are fab).

Palm Terrace

The only place with soy milk – buy in bulk. Also has veg (sometimes, when a ship has come in) and other groceries. The only place with natural peanut butter.

Yoshie

Best place for tofu and Japanese and Korean grocery – pickled ginger, spices, nori, wakame, miso, soba, rice flour, mochi,
kimchi and the like. Check labels for vegan credentials.

ACE Commercial

Ace has the best freezer section by far, including vegan apple pie, frozen spinach, english muffins and the like. Ace also does the best job at keeping their vegetables fresh when they come in. Other places don’t seem to refrigerate them well enough, and they begin to rot within a few days, which is awful if you didn’t hear they were in until a little later on (a new boat arrival is pretty exciting given the lack of veg otherwise).

Wall Mart

No, I didn’t spell that wrong, it is in fact the Mart of Walls. Wall Mart has a lot of USian junk food, which means it isn’t my favourite supermarket. However it has been trying hard lately to order in veg and keep it fresh, and they are becoming one of the best kept secrets for fresh vegetables on the island.

 

Random advice for vegos in Micronesia

• Peanut butter helps fill the protein gap if you’re not cooking for yourself
• Start using beans where you would normally use tofu/tempeh, as you’ll most likely get sick of baked beans and chilli beans pretty quickly.
• Bring or order some nutritional yeast
• Orange bananas for B vitamins (but don’t eat them at night, they keep you awake)
• Get on a text message tree about the arrival of fresh veg – make friends with expat women to find out when the ships are in
• Check the local markets most days, as tomatoes, spring onions, kangkong and mushrooms are snapped up quick.
• If you see something you love, buy in bulk. There are no garuantees it will be there tomorrow, or ever again.

Ho has been helpful.

And now, its on to Hawaii!

 

 

 

Pizza on Pohnpei!

Its official. Well, even more official-er than before: You can too be vegan in Micronesia.

The Rusty Anchor, a bar with pool tables and one of the best views on the island, has started making wood fired pizzas, and get this, the owner has learned to make them vegan.

As we leave Pohnpei for the US in a few days. Tonight we went tonight to say goodbye to the owner, who is also a work-friend of Mr’s, and he made us spectacular, thin-crust, vegan pizza with eggplant, mushrooms, capsicum, tomato, onion and his special recipe tomato and chili sauce.

Stuffing my face with vegan pizza in Pohnpei

It was so good. Paired with the gorgeous view, some purrs from the friendliest cat on the island and some lemon, lime and bitters (the only bitters in the country) it made for a fabulous send-off.

Bundy the cat

More Bundy

Good view (just ignore the earth works)

If you are heading to Pohnpei and fancy yourself some vegan pizza, head over to the Rusty Anchor (in a safe but derelict hotel building, also called Rusty’s, or Wayne’s bar) and tell Wayne that Keira sent you for vegan pizza. Make sure to tell him how spicy you want it.

Go local – Kalamansi

Remember back in Malaysia Week I posted a recipe for Ais Limau (Lime Cordial), saying I had to use the wrong limes?

(sorry wordpress isn’t letting me link at the moment, must be something buggy. It’s here http://roundtheworldvegan.wordpress.com/2010/10/03/devil-curry-and-ais-limau/)

Not anymore! Now we have an abundance of kalamansi lime at our disposal. Awesome.

Kalamansi limes are tiny, green or orange skinned fruit with a light orange centre, that taste limey, but not as tart as the ones we’re used to at home.

They look like this:

Green (and one orange) kalamansi and a small lemon to show size

What can you make with them? Everything!

I have been making Ais Limau, using them to flavour spicy soup (such as assam laksa) squeezing them into sambals and over stir fries, and generally enjoying them in every way I can before we go home and never see one again.

A jug of brown sugar Ais Limau

The best use of kalamansi so far though, would have to be my recent Kalamansi Pie attempt. However, as the pie took several false starts, I don’t have a recipe so much as a story of how not to make pie.

The Making of Pie

I started with the idea that I would make pie exactly as I have many times before: Soak agar in water/juice/sugar, then cook, then set in pie base, then eat.

I set about squeezing all the tiny kalamansi at about 2pm. They are very seedy on the inside, so I squeezed them through our very crap collander.

Dead limes in our crap collander (don't let the photo fool you, its very crap)

Then I added water and sugar, and sprinkled in some agar agar to soak. I left it alone for a good 15 minutes before bringing it to the boil, and cooking for another 10 minutes, allowed it to cool just a little, and poured some of it into the pie shell.

It smelled good, it looked good, but in the words of Miss Clavell, something was not right.

It wouldn’t set. Not in the freezer, not on the bench, not in the fridge. And my pouring seemed to have melted quite a lot of the shortcrust pie shell. Oh no!

So, I poured it back out (shortcrust crumbs included) added more agar, and set about soaking and boiling again.

While this was going on, i notice my pie shell was looking very much worse for wear, so I popped it into the oven to dry off.

I went back to the lime mixture, which still wasn’t thickening, and decided to add more sugar and just keep boiling. In my frustration I forgot about the pie base until I noticed I could smell something caramellish- when I pulled it out the edges were dark brown and the base (where it got wet) was beige. Damn.

Back to the lime mixture, after soaking and boiling for a third, unsuccessful time I had decided to give up and ask the internet – surely soeone would know what I had done wrong?

As usual, the internet knows all. It is thought you need to use more agar when working with citrus – that could be the problem, but as I had already used enough agar flakes to set a small rhino (no, it doesn’t make sense as an analogy, just go with it), that probably wasn’t the problem.

Then I spotted it: apparently some fruits, such as pineapple, mango, kiwifruit and papaya, have an enzyme that breaks the bonds of agar, so no matter how much you put it, it just wont set. Kalamansi weren’t mentioned, but I made the mental leap that it was from the same part of the world as papaya, mango, pineapple, and, well, fuck it, my agar wasn’t setting, and I had to blame it on something.

So, now what? Would I ever save my pie? I turned again to google, and found this recipe at the Gluttonous Vegan (http://www.thegluttonousvegan.com/2009/09/killer-key-lime-pie.html), which uses a corn flour slurry. Of course! I had forgotten about corn flour in my rush to use my special imported agar flakes.

So I slurried the lime, and it thickened nicely, and I poured into my slightly burnt pie case and stuck it in the fridge at around 5pm. That’s right, three hours of pie making later. There was now much too much lime mixture (with the added slurry-bulk) for me to cover it in a layer of coconut cream pudding as I had planned, so I left it to have on the side (as with the rest of the dish, it hadn’t really worked and was lumpy, anyway).

After dinner I pulled it out, wondering if it would be at all edible. To my great surprise it was much better than I could have imagined! The texture was perfect, the extra bulk had quietened down the sour lime so that it was tangy but not over-powering, the crust tasted like heaven with its chewy, caramelised bits, and the coconut lumps weren’t noticeable at all.

Pie!

*sigh of relief* I will be making this again, but next time I’m going straight to the power of corn flour.

Soursop Sorbet

I had never even heard of soursop before coming here. Or, I had, but I thought it was some sort of British slang for a craky old man or similar, like “Mr Crankpanterson is an old soursop”.

Turns out, soursop is a fruit. A tasty, sour, creamy fruit, that looks like this:

Soursop, image borrowed from http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/221/

I first encountered it on a very hot afternoon at a restaurant here called the Tattooed Irishman, but more commonly referred to as “The Village” after the hotel it is attached to.

It was in the form of sorbet, and it was one of the strangest things I have ever tasted; very sour, sweet, and with an odd after taste that reminded me of handcream. Mr doesn’t taste the handcream, and a friend here didn’t think  it had an odd taste until after I suggested it.I’ve even read conjecture that it tastes like onions, but I didn’t get that. So, if you’ve ever tried soursop, please leave a comment on what you think it tastes like.

(Oh, by the way, yes I did just say there was vegan sorbet available in Pohnpei, FSM. Hell yeah!).

I have since been eyeing the big, spiky, green fruit off at the markets, and bought one with the help of a very friendly staff member, who picked a good one for me. Unfortunately I opened it too soon and it was hard as rock, and then I left it for a little while and it went off while I was trying to figure out if it was ripe yet (things ripen so quickly here, that you never buy anything already ripe).

So, a few weeks later, I tried again, this time with more success. When I cut into it it was the right consistency, but it was very, very sour.

So, I added some sugar, mashed, stuck it in the freezer and voila! we have been enjoying soursop sorbet ever since. It is very easy, but I’ll put the recipe in anyway.

Soursop Sorbet

Vegan Soursop Sorbet

• 1 ripe soursop
• 1/2 cup white sugar (or more/less depending on sweetness of fruit)
• 1/2 cup water

1. Chop the soursop, and remove peel and all seeds. Be alert, as it is a sneaky fruit with hidden seeds as well as the obvious ones. I suggest squishing pieces in your fingers, as this make the seeds pop out. Set aside.
2. In a small saucepan add water and sugar and stir over medium heat until dissolved. (it doesn’t need to boil). Set aside to cool.
3. Add soursop and sugar water to a blender (or mixing bowl with stick-blender) and blend until well combined.
4. Freeze in whatever container is handy. Mush with a fork every 2 hours or so.
5. When ready to eat, set the sorbet on the bench for about 5 minutes to soften, then serve. (it may take longer in melbourne and other cold climates).

Introducing Micronesia

I just realised that I never actually did this. Well, I’m doing it now… here are some facts and figures (and photos) of the country we’re in now.

Where is it?

The Federated States of Micronesia is comprised of around 607 islands, spread over 2700kms in the Pacific Ocean. My sister has been explaining it to people by saying that from East Coast Australia, you go up to Indonesia, turn right, then go up a bit more, and she’s about right.

The National Capital is Palikir, on the island of Pohnpei, in the State of Pohnpei. We are living in Kolonia, which is on the island of Pohnpei, and is the State Capital.

People, Economy and Politics

• Population: 106,836
• Languages: There are 8 major indigenous languages including  Chuukese, Kosrean, Pohnpeian, Yapese, Ulithian, Woleaian, Nukuoro, Kapingamarangi. English is the official language.
• Ethnic Groups: Chuukese 48.8%, Pohnpeian 24.2%, Kosraean 6.2%, Yapese 5.2%, Yap outer islands 4.5%, Asian 1.8%, Polynesian 1.5%, other 6.4%, unknown 1.4% (this is according to the CIA world fact book, but as I understand it there are a number of other groups, such as the Mortlockese that might be hidden here as “other” or “outer island”).
• Religion: Roman Catholic 52.7%, Congregational 40.1%, Baptist 0.9%, Seventh-Day Adventist 0.7%, other 3.8%, none or unspecified 0.8%
• Median Age: 22.7
• Life expectancy: 71 years
• Education: The CIA has no data, but I’ve seen one study that says that of people my age (26) and older, 60% of women and 40% of men did not finish Primary School. Hopefully this is changing for people of school age now, and there are primary, middle, high schools and a college on the Island.
• GDP Per capita: $2,200
• Unemployment rate: 22.7%
• Population below poverty line: 26%
• The economy here is based on subsistence farming and fishing, and money from the US Government under a Compact agreed to last until 2023.
• The governmentis a Constitutional Democracy in free association with the US. There is a national Congress, and governments at the State level. There is also a tribal-like system in Pohnpei, which runs parallel to the elected government, although I’ve been told that in the proverbial fight the elected government would win.
  

  Kasehlelie Street, Pohnpei

Stuff you didn’t know about Micronesia

• There are no bees. Apparently they never made it here (it is a bit isolated). As such some crops need to be pollinated by hand.
• All the electricity in Pohnpei is generated by burning diesel. This makes electricity three times more expensive than it is in Australia, which must impact very heavily on people considering a much lower standard of income.
• In Yap (the state closest to Indonesia, and furthest from the other states) stone money is used.
• Even though it is an island in the pacific, there is actually no real beach on Pohnpei, as it is surrounded in thick mangrove forest.. There are a few man-made ones, and a lot of pretty outer island to visit if you want a swim though.
• They drive on the right hand side of the road, but in cars with either left or right hand drive.

Go Local – Karat Banana

One of the most amazing things here is the variety in bananas. For a girl from the land of one variety- that I don’t even know the name of, because they’re just “bananas” – its a little baffling, to be honest.

I don’t know how many varieties there are, I’ve been told around 40, but the shops have 3-10 types on a normal day, and there are posters around educating people on the beta carotene levels in 15 varieties, all grown here on Pohnpei.

The king of the beta carotene bananas is the karat (Kar-arch) banana. It is fat, has red skin and is bright orange on the inside. Like this:

Karat Banana

Karat bananas have 2230 micrograms of beta carotene per 100 grams, which is around 100 times more than white flesh bananas. It has been used as infant food here for centuries, but has fallen out of fashion lately, although there is a campaign to bring it back. In a place where there are a lot of starchy foods available, and much more American imported junk food than fresh produce, vitamin-rich bananas are pretty handy. Also, they make your pee fluorescent yellow., which is almost a plus in itself.

Now, I’m not a huge fan of bananas myself. Mr eats a few every day (even at home in Oz), but I only have them when the mood really strikes me. However, as on of the only regularly available fruits on the island, I’m learning to like them a little better.

Here’s how we’ve been using our karat:

Karat Smoothy

• 1 Karat banana
• 1 scoop protein powder (we are using Sun Warrior, Vanilla flavour)
• Some soy milk

1. Blend.
2. Drink. (easy)

Karat looks like egg yolk

Finished karat smoothy

Banana, Caramel and Coconut Ice-cream Tart

• 1 pre-made pie base
• 1 karat banana
• 1 Akadahn banana
• 2 taiwang or another type of banana
• 1 jar coconut jam
• 1 cup coconut cream
• 1 tbsp cornflour

1. Slice the taiwang and akadahn bananas (or any type) and cover pie base.
2. Smoosh the karat banana and add to other bananas.
3. In a small saucepan heat the coconut jam until it becomes a little runny, then remove from heat and pour onto bananas.
4. In a small bowl, mix the cornflour into the half the coconut cream to form a slurry.
5. Clean the saucepan, then heat the other half of the coconut cream in it.
6. When the coconut cream is hot, add the slurry and it will thicken.
7. Remove from heat, pour over caramel.
8. Freeze pie, and thaw slices slightly in fridge as needed.

Karat-Caramel Tart

Karat Banana Spice Bread

• 2 karat bananas
• 2 other bananas (any variety)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp ginger powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1/2 cup wholemeal flour
• 1 1/2 cup white flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 to 1 cup milk (depending on smooshiness of your bananas).

1. Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees celsius.
2. In a large bowl, smoosh bananas and add sugar, spices and oil. Mix with a hand blender until smooth.
3. Add flours and baking powder, and combine to form a very thick dough.
4. Slowly add milk until you reach a muffin batter consistency (sorry I can’t be clearer, it really depends on how big and ripe your bananas are. Hmm, that sounded a bit off.)
5. Pour batter into a large loaf pan or normal cake pan.
6. Bake for 45-60 minutes.

Banana Spice Bread

What’s for breakfast, Micronesian vegan?

What do you for the most important meal of the day when toast is not an option (bread here is sweet and has nasty un-vegan bread improver), you don’t eat eggs or bacon, and the sweetness of the cereal has done a number on your usually-sugar-lovin self, and you just can’t take it anymore?

If, like me, you don’t have a real job (just a volunteer one) or children, you have time to make a cooked breaky.

We’ve been eating all sorts of breakfast fare of late. Observe:

Pancakes

Fried Rice

Porridge

As awesome as pancakes are, I usually can’t be bothered will all the fuss. So breaky is almost always porridge or fried rice.

For fried rice, I just make extra rice with dinner and stick it in the fridge. In the AM I fry it up with condiments and a protein source, and any vegies left over from dinner as well (although they’re scarce, so there isn’t often much left over).

When you’re having porridge or rice every day, and rice often more than once a day, you gotta get creative to avoid boredom.

These are some of my fave combinations.

Fried Rice-a-thon

Garlic Fried Rice (vegan Philipines style): white rice, garlic powder, spring onions, imitation bacon bits, salt/vegan vegie stock (brought over from Oz).

Curry Fried Rice: Brown rice, chickpeas, curry powder, onion flakes, salt, turmeric, ginger.

Satay Fried Rice (a Mr invention): Brown rice, peanuts, soy sauce, peanut butter, spring onion.

Morrocan Fried Rice: Brown rice, chickpeas, cinnamon, cumin seeds, nutmeg, sultanas, craisins, thyme, lemon juice, nooch (brought from Oz).

Cumin-y Fried rice: White rice, black beans, spring onion, garlic powder, cumin powder, paprika, lemon juice, capers.

BBQ fried rice: Either rice, tofu, soy sauce, liquid smoke (version avail here) tabasco, imitation bacon bits, veg as avail.

Tofu Fried Rice (okay all fried rice can be tofu fried rice with the addition of tofu, but ours usually has): white or brown rice, tofu, soy sauce, vinegar, spring onion, garlic powder, imitation bacon bits, carrot, peas (if any avail).

Sometimes I also use coconut oil instead of another to give it a yummy tropical kick.

Porridge-a-palooza

I make my porridge with water. Maybe its just me, but i think soy milk tastes weird after it has been boiled. I add milk once its in the bowl. We also add peanut butter or protein powder some days, for a little extra muscle-builder.

Apple Pie: Chopped apple, cinnamon, soy milk and sugar.

Vanilla and Blueberry: vanilla essence, very expensive dried blueberries (its hard to get them here and they cost a mint), soy milk.

Spicy Craisins: nutmeg, cinnamon, crainsins (they come inf lavours here, we use pomegranate).

Coconut and Banana: Cook in coconut milk/juice (a bit of each) and serve with fried local banana. I used to use brown sugar til I realised you can’t get vegan brown sugar on the island.

Five spice: use any milk, add chinese five spice, sultanas and a bit of extra nutmeg.

What’s your favourite vegan breaky?

Coconut Jam

My new official favourite food is Coconut Jam – a local caramel-like spread made from sugar, glucose and coconut (and sometimes Karat banana, something I’ll blog about later).

It can be eaten straight out of the jar, put on pancakes, scones, or made into tarts, and it is soooo good. Being partial to all things sweet I’m glad to have found it hiding out next to the peanut butter at the Blue Nile, a local supermarket, as there isn’t much here in the way of vegan sweets, especially if the vegans in question are also trying to avoid the evils of high fructose corn syrup and aspartame, which seem to be in every damned thing.

But back to the positive. I’ve made caramel out of coconut before, but its pretty exciting to have all the work done for you, and because it is made right here in Pohnpei it has the added benefit of helping the local economy and agriculture, which could use the boost. Go local!^

Here are a few photos of what we’ve done with it so far, and a recipe (if you can call it that) for banana and caramel tarts:

Coconut Jam is ready for its close up

Pancakes with Kalamansi and Coconut Jam

Scones with (coconut) jam and cream*

Making Tarts

Banana and Coconut Caramel Tarts

Makes 12

• 2 sheets of shortcrust pastry or home made equivalent (I made my own with flour, sugar, coconut oil and ice water, but didn’t measure, however there are plenty of recipe son the net if you want to make your own).
• 3 small bananas (one aussie banana is equivalent)
• 1 jar coconut jam (or home made caramel, or soymilke caramel flavour)

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Lightly oil the cups of a muffin pan, or lay out 12 patty pans/muffin liners on a tray.
2. Cut rounds from your pastry to fill 12 cups of a muffin pan/liners, and gently press to make the tart case.
3. Bake cases until just beginning to colour. (this took me 20 minutes, but as I used coconut oil a marg-based pastry may be different).
4. Turn cases out and allow to cool.
5. Chop the banana/s and place bits of banana at the base of each tart case.
6. Add a heaped teaspoon of caramel/jam to each tart, then put them back in the oven for a further 15 minutes.
7. Allow to cool and serve with vegan cream.
   

   The finished product

Vegan Cream

enough for 20 tarts

• 1 packet of silken tofu (297g, I used Mori Nu)
• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 1/3 cup icing mixture/powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 tsp lime juice

1. Add all ingredients and blend until smooth.
2. Refrigerate for one hour.

Notes

* My photos are a bit sucky and are likely to stay that way while we’re in the FSM as our kitchen/house has bad lighting, and our plates are black. The ones that don’t suck were taken in an apartment we no longer live in.

^Go Local is a campaign of the Island Food Community of Pohnpei, encouraging people to grow and eat local foods in order to benefit health, income, food security and cultural preservation. I intend to blog about the various local foods we try under the Go Local tag.

What’s for dinner Micronesian vegan?

Knock on wood, but I think we might finally have working internets that won’t wildly vary and drop out all the time. Now there’s just the near-daily power outages to get between me and some quality blog time.

So many stories of lizards, the gym in the jungle, boat trips and new jobs, but this blog is about food, so let’s get to it.

We have recently moved into a real house with actual cooking facilities, which is unbelievably great. Once you’ve spent two weeks eating curry ramen (the only vegan one on the island and full of msg) raw cabbage and trying to heat up tinned re-fried beans in a sink full of water from the kettle and then eating them with huge, dry, over-salted pretzels, you’ll find that even just looking at a stove to leads to some kitchen dancing and leaps of unqualified bliss.

I’ve paid multiple visits to every shop in Kolonia, and I am now the proud owner of a reasonably well- stocked vegan pantry.  Spices can be hard to come by, although I have gathered and now have almost everything I need (but if anyone feels like sending a care package of some special spices my way, or agar agar or massell chicken stock for that matter, go right ahead). We also found brown rice, whole wheat pasta, silken firm tofu, tinned beans, dried lentils, and frozen spinach, so I’m pretty happy.

The Pohnpei Pantry

As I’ve mentioned before, finding fresh veg is the hard part, so meals usually just have one vegetable, or two (where one of them is carrot or potato) although we’ve been lucky enough to have had two containers come in since we’ve been here.

So, here’s what we’ve been eating:

Miso with Tofu and Kangkong

Braised Eggplant and Buckweat Soba

Salt and Vinegar Tofu and Kangkong (with the soba and eggplant)

Spinach and Black Beans and left over baked veg

Roast Veg and Country Fried Tofu

Just a little shout out: the kangkong, or morning glory, comes from the garden of my friend Ecky. Thanks Ecky!

Coming up: A breakfast special, spotlight on a few local vegan products, and (hopefully) lots of recipes for coconut, taro, yams, breadfruit and kangkong.

Micronesia

We’re here and I’m back online (sometimes).

I think a quick vegan-travel update is required. Also, check out these pretty photos:

VGML

We flew continental, and were given a meal on each plane- pita, calzone and wrap (each on different flights), all with the same filling (which wasn’t great, but was edible) fruit, and awesome muffins. Be warned though- the muffins are fabulous, but seem to be accompanied by somewhat unfabulous gassiness, so if you’re prim, or traveling with a new or prospective love interest, choosing to abstain might be a good idea.

We arrived at the airport in Guam at around 5AM, having already been traveling without sleep for about 13 hours. After a very long time (about 2 hours in total) standing in lines (you have to go through the whole US customs and immigration rigmarole even if you’re transiting) we finally got to the food court. Pickings were slim. So slim, in fact, that we were forced to choose between having nothing or having Burger King. We caved, and two vegie burgers (vegan) and fries (also vegan) were ordered. I thought they were good, Mr thought it wasn’t even a very good approximation of food.

I also had some truly awful American Coffee from a place called Microneisan Munchies which claimed to be serving a brand called Seatlle’s Best. Really gross.

Drinks otherwise were limited to hugely chloriney tap water. A nap on the floor followed, and then we were on another plane.

Vegan things you can buy in Pohnpei

Palm Terrace is a supermarket, and has the best array of vegan food so far. They have soy milk, tofu (fresh and the UHT stuff), tinned beans of all types, vegetarian re-fried beans, rice, pasta, sugar (without bone char we think), cereal (only two or three vegan options), peanut butter, and salsa. There is also lots of junk food, like biscuits, chips, lollies, some of which are vegan. (we have eaten a lot of oreos as a stop-gap lately).

There are three main problems we’ve had eating vegan here so far:

1. There is very little in the way of fresh vegetables. The supermarket has only lemons, onions, cucumber and potatoes this fortnight, and smaller shops have nothing. The market has coconut, taro, bananas and sweet potato, but no one has greens. We don’t have a kitchen yet, but when we do, I’ll report back about the canned vegies you can get here (american things like canned sweet pumpkin, canned greens).
2. Eating out and buying island-made snacks is tricky, as not everyone either understands or wants to understand what we’re asking (does it have milk, etc). Things might be ok, but as yet we just don’t know what’s in the bread, doughnuts, rice snacks, etc.
3. We’ve been tweaking our eating related morals a little. No, we haven’t started eating fish, and really we wont need to at all, but we have found ourselves living almost exclusively off of big nasty corporations like Burger King, Nabisco, Nestle (I think that’s what the tea is) and Kraft. Ick.

Restaurant Review, PCR (restaurant below the Pohnpei Surf Club hotel)

We have eaten dinner at the restaurant attached to the hotel we’re staying in three nights in a row now.

On Monday night, weary from a very long trip and in desperate need of some protein, we took in some refried beans and they heated them up for us, and gave us rice and some drinks. We had looked at the menu, and it didn’t have a single vegetarian thing on it.

They weren’t super happy about it, but said they would do it for us, and we were very grateful. They told us, come in tomorrow, and order anything without meat, and we’ll make it.

Next night we did just that. We asked if they had tofu, but we weren’t very hopeful as it wasn’t on the menu. But, we were in luck. They did have tofu, and we got two serves of it, and two serves of vegetables, and some fried rice.

The fried rice wasn’t amazing, but it was tasty enough. The vegetables were fantastic. They were plentiful and crunchy, which we weren’t expecting as almost everything comes form a can. It was cabbage and carrots and onion, and I was pretty happy to be getting some vitamin C. Apparently a container had just com in, bearing some fresh produce, so we’ll see whether pickings get slimmer next week.

The tofu was nice too. It was served like the Autumn tofu I made in Japanese week, but it was cold, which is actually very welcome in this climate. It came plain, with some ginger and onion on top. We added a little soy sauce, and together it actually made a great meal.