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 – 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?

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.