Grasshoppers...it's what's for dinner.

One of the best things about Thailand is its food.  Everywhere you go, things are fresh, spicy, and just down right delicious.  The curries are amazing, the seafood is cooked perfectly, the veggies are fresh from the market.  For cruisers, the grocery stores carry everything anyone could ever want….fresh local food, imported meats, a variety of cheeses, seafood, you name it.  Out of all these choices, guess what Jake wanted for dinner?  Grasshoppers.  To be fair, the freezer he was making his choice from had much grosser things – water bugs anyone?  Or perhaps you would like to split a giant toad with your partner (complete with head)?  If you’ve been reading this blog for very long, you know we indulge his inner Bear Grylls and buy these nasty things from time to time.  So that’s how we found ourselves having oysters and grasshopper po-boys for dinner tonight (I’m guessing folks in Louisiana aren’t cringing as much as the rest of you guys).

The oysters here in the Makro market come in the little round plastic tubs for 30 Baht per tub (about $1 USD) and they’re extremely fresh, so we eat them quite often.  The grasshoppers on the other hand were closer to 425 baht per kilo and of course you can’t get anything less than a kilo.  Jake has been asking for them every time we go to the store (although I’m not sure why…he had them fresh in OK and thought they were disgusting).  Since we were already going to have the oil hot tonight for the oysters, we relented and spent the $15 USD or so on the frozen grasshoppers (and I balk when Andy buys a ribbye at $15/pound). 

fried grasshoppers don't make a very pretty picture, but you get
the idea.

 When Andy opened the bag, we had to open the door to the little bungalow here to keep from gagging.  But he trudged on….into the oil they went.  So there was our table set…baguette, coleslaw, fried oysters, and big plate of fried grasshoppers, eyes and all.  Guess who didn’t like the grasshoppers?  Of course he didn’t!  He never likes these things…when will we learn?  Guess who cleaned their plate?  Yep…Andy and I…crunchy with a little bit of a smoky, burnt taste.  Not bad.  I hear that we can’t sustain our eating habits at the rate this world is procreating and we’ll all be eating bugs in a few years anyway.  We thought we would just get a leg up on everyone.  Cheers!

Eat what the locals eat...or not.

When starting out cruising, one of the first things you worry about is food.  You always try to stock up on everything and there’s a  balance between wanting to try new food and not wanting to go hungry.  Everyone always tells you, “eat what the locals eat and you won’t have to worry about it.”

I’m here to dispute that thought process.  I’m going way against the cruising grain here, but in our case, I think I’m right.  “Eat what the locals eat” is easy to say and follow in Mexico.  I mean really, who doesn’t love Mexican food?  Fish tacos, enchiladas, home made pico de gallo (although that’s a lot harder to find than you would think).  But who thinks about going out to dinner and says, “Honey, lets have some Micronesian food tonight!”  No one.  Do you know why?  Because canned corn beef, potato chips and mechanically separated turkey doesn’t sound good does it?  I know, I know…”they eat fish and rice and breadfruit and taro and oh, Monica, you just haven’t gotten into the culture!”  Wrong again.  They USED to eat that stuff and on the outer islands, you MAY find a few that still do, but I assure you, canned corn beef IS local food and has been for the last 2,000 miles of our adventure.  I saw a 1 year old kid at the laundry mat and in the few hours is took me to finish my laundry, I saw this kid drink 2 full size sodas and eat a rice crispy treat, bag of chips and a lolly pop.  No joke.  This area of the world has the largest diabetic population known and I am not shocked in the least.

Why am I writing about this now?  Well, I just spent a few months in California (5 months total in the States) and I am having some serious vegetable withdrawls.  To make matters worse, my parents are vegetarians so I ate an abnormal amount of veggies for me and well, my body liked it.  Here, in Pohnpei, it’s feast or famine.  “Feast” means a ship just came in….from the US.  Meaning it stopped in HI, Majuro, Kosrae and then here.  By the time it got here, the broccoli is growing extra things and the red peppers have fur on their caps.  “What about local produce Monica?”….I can hear you asking that.  Well, yes…there are bananas and coconuts.  There are cucumbers (by the way, that’s the highlight of Pohnpei for me….cucumbers…I love them and they are always around).  You can get fish but more often than not, it’s very small reef fish that you just took pictures of on your last snorkeling trip.  I have bought local lettuce (available once), eggplant (I’m just making myself like eggplant) and tonight, I bought green beans (I happen to be the only one on board who likes these).  The fact is, they don’t eat veggies.  They just don’t.  Kosrae had local gardens.  Pohnpei has these, but they are REALLY hard to find.

OK…I got off track.  “Famine” means just that.  Today we went to a restaurant and the choice with my chicken sandwich was fries or green salad.  I ordered green salad.  “We don’t have salad.”  I asked the grocery store when they were expecting the next container of veggies.  She screwed her face up really funny and said “ooooooo….November 2!”  It’s October 16.  But even that varies.  You can ask 10 different people and get 10 different answers.  But today…the entire island is out of veggies.  We drove around the island today and I looked in every small roadside stand and all I saw was beetle nut (think ‘skoal” and cigarette butts and rotten teeth) and donuts. 

After all that ranting, though…..we were on our way back to the boat tonight and we ran into a local ex-pat who had been fishing on his kayak all day and he gave us a tiny little barracuda.  Andy cooked it up and I cut up some cold cucumbers and blanched green beans (with dip) and we feasted on a relatively healthy dinner.  It’s all in your perspective, I guess.  We have some friends here who are Seventh Day Adventists, traditionally vegetarian.  I’m dying to know what they’re eating.  Canned corn and spinach, I’m guessing.

Food is always going to be one of the ways we rate our adventures.  For those of you that share our love for cuisine (and cruising), just think about that, while you prepare for your next major crossing or adventure.  “Eat what the locals eat,” sounds good, but isn’t always the best plan of attack.  Unless you don’t mind carrying an extra supply of insulin and cholesterol pills on board with you…  I’m just sayin’…..

Stumped at McDonald's

One of the cool things about some of these islands is that you can always get a little taste of home...McDonald's.  Some criticize those of us who eat at the fast food joints because they don't serve the "local" fare.  But we contend that when the lines are full of locals, it's local food.  But I do have one beef with the place since we left the states...

It seems that outside of the United States, it's very uncommon to order a hamburger at McDonald's.  Cheeseburger, yes.  Hamburger, no.  It started in Mexico when I had to actually point to the item three times on the menu.  Then they would ask around and finally someone would say "Ahhh, Hamburgesa con queso, sin queso!,"  As in Cheeseburger without the cheese.  Whatever.

Once in Tahiti, it was even more difficult because we were ordering in French.  But they seemed to get Big Mac fine, just not Hamburger.

I had almost forgotten these troubles until today.  We went to McDonald's for lunch and since they speak English and we're dealing in dollars, I didn't anticipate any problems.  But when I ordered my hamburger, I was met with a blank stare.

"You want a cheeseburger?"
"No, I would like a hamburger"
"Ummmm..." followed by a long pause.
"Just a plain hamburger?"
"Yes"
"on the side?"  On the side of what, I have no idea.
"Just a hamburger"
"Plain?"
"I would like mustard and ketchup and everything else....just no cheese"
"No cheese?  Just the meat?"
"Yes"
A smile crosses her face as she gives me one of those 'you crazy white people' looks and she continues to take our order.

When we get our order, guess what I got?  A bun with a plain piece of meat in between.  No ketchup, no mustard, nothing.  In any other restaurant, I would let it go.  But the only reason I go to McDonald's is for their hamburger and french fries.  It's what I've been eating since I was a little kid.  The right amount of ketchup with mustard and that pickle....small onions....it's perfect.  So, I went back up to the counter and asked for mustard and ketchup.  They looked at me once again like I had horns growing out of my head.  After talking to three different people, the final one being a manager, I got my hamburger just the way I like it.  Evidently, here in American Samoa, it's called a Junior Burger.  Now I know.

Andy asked me what I was going to do when I took my trip home.  I'm going to go to McDonald's and order a hamburger and hear them say "Would you like fries with that?"

Is that what I think it is?

Tuna boats rafted up three boats deep here in Pago, Pago

I think we ate our first pig knuckle today.  I was on my way back from the laundry mat carrying my very heavy bag of laundry when I was bombarded with requests to buy bar-b-que.  It sounded like a good idea to me, so I called Andy on the radio and told him to meet me with some money.

"This is real Samoan food,"  the man told me.  "Next week, we'll have rice too."

We bought two plates and took them back to the boat.  On the way to the dinghy, we noticed everyone had a plate so we decided it must be good.

Well, I can say we tried it (and incidentally, Andy loved it), but it probably won't be a Saturday ritual.  There was a chicken leg and another random piece of meat covered in Ketchup.  Then there was some grilled breadfruit.  Had this been warm, it probably would've been pretty tasty.  There was some chinese noodle thing with carrots and cabbage, and then there was a loaf like thing.  After tasting everything, we determined the random piece of meat was a pig knuckle and the loaf like thing was "mechanically separated turkey," just like it says on the can at the store (Andy did point out that it looked a lot - and tasted a lot - like the vegetarian turkey loaf my parents eat).  Now, I'm waiting and hoping there are no side effects, if you know what I mean.

I'm hoping to get my homebodies off the boat today and go to the museum or the library.  After spending all morning at the laundry mat (I think Andy was afraid I was going to leave it for him to do while I'm gone), I'm ready to do something fun.  Tomorrow is Sunday and the place shuts down so we need to get out today.

I haven't had the opportunity to take too many pictures so hopefully while I'm gone, Andy will be clicking away.  I would love to say that he will keep the blog up while I'm gone, but I'm afraid that probably isn't the case.  So the next few posts will be a little more generic than usual as I'm writing them now and scheduling them out, but hopefully interesting all the same.

Potlucks, Potlucks, and more Potlucks

At the risk of alienating all of my fellow cruisers and never being invited to another potluck again, I’m going to write an opinion piece here…on potlucks. 

I hate them.  I always have and I hate them more now that we’re cruising.  I’ll start off by saying that I love the company, it’s the food I hate. I’ll add a tidbit about Andy and myself you may or may not know…we’re food snobs.

Believe it or not, I don't have any pictures of a potluck.
Here's the marina we're staying in.

First off, there’s never a theme.  You could have sushi sitting next to hot dogs and deviled eggs next to an enchilada casserole.  There is no rhyme or reason to it.  If you’re planning a potluck, pick a theme… Italian, Mexican, Bar-b-que, whatever.  Give people a direction.   No one likes to walk in the dark.

Inevitably, you will have more pasta salads and potato salads than you can count.  Now, I’m not criticizing those who bring these things…I too have brought pasta salad to more than one get together, I’m just pointing out that there are only so many dishes appropriate for a potluck.  Which leads me to my second issue…not many good dishes still taste good after they’ve been sitting around (which is why I hate buffets too, but that’s a totally different subject).  Take for instance the taquitos I made for one of our more recent potlucks.  I rolled up chilorio (a spicy easy to prepare meat here in Mexico) and cheese in some small tortillas and then fried them.  Add some salsa and they were very tasty.  But by the time I put those in a Tupperware container, got in the dinghy, went to the potluck (in our case we stopped by the showers first) and then set them on the table, they’re already cold and if they’re not cold, they’re soggy.  In our case, they were cold and soggy.  People still ate them but I’m not sure if it’s because they tasted good or because there wasn’t enough food and people were starving.

Number three reason I hate potlucks… some people can’t cook.  There, I said it.  They suck and they don’t know it.  I’m not talking about the people that know it and bring chips and dip.  To those folks, I salute you.  I’m talking about the people who really and truly think they can cook and sometimes it even looks like they can cook so you pile your plate with whatever it is only to find out that there’s no where you can spit it out without making a scene.  This has happened to me more than once on deserts.  Have you ever eaten one of those brownies that tastes like it has been in the oven since Easter?  You know what I mean.

Reason number four… some people have no scruples.  I think they hate potlucks as much as I do and are trying to poison us all to keep us from throwing another one.  I remember one potluck in San Diego at the dock where someone was bragging about bringing their leftovers from their dinner earlier in the week.  They just put it on a plate and heated it up.  I’m not talking about the dish that you made ahead of time (and maybe even threw in your freezer) because you’re busy.  I’m talking about the one someone has already stuck his/her fork in and decided they would eat the rest later (along with 20 other people).  It’s just gross.

I’m not sure if this is reason number five or just an extension of the other reasons but I always run out of ideas for potlucks.  Recently I even resorted to soliciting ideas on Facebook.  Some were helpful…  The last potluck I went to I just took watermelon.  Had more than 4 people shown up, it would have been very appropriate, but as it turned out we only had salad and watermelon.  Everyone had to run up to the store and buy some meat.

It wouldn’t be a fair post if I didn’t point out the good things about potlucks.  They are an inexpensive way of getting together with friends and not burdening one person with all of the work.  I appreciate that.  Occasionally, you will run across someone who has a really good recipe and you want to eat it again (that’s the way I found out about chilorio).  That’s the luck in the “potluck.”

Potlucks won’t go away and I won’t quit attending them.  I do enjoy the company and occasionally the food.  But the next time you attend a potluck (particularly if I'm invited), put a little thought into it and leave your leftovers in the fridge.

12/11/2010 - Continuing South

That's a Limonada in Jake's hand that is NOT his beer :)

After leaving the estuary at San Blas, we only went around the corner to Ensenada de Matanchen, a little bay right outside San Blas.  There, we had the best fish either of us has ever eaten.  It was smoked with salt, pepper, lime, hot sauce and worcestershire sauce and of course, butter.  We ate so much we made ourselves sick.

From there we went about 8 miles south to a place called Chacala.  This was a very pretty cove with palapas up and down the beach and lots of restaurants.  As we were pulling up the anchor to leave, we saw a whale right by our boat.  Incredible.  Little did we know, we would spend the next few days watching whales!

The Beach at Chacala

Downtown Chacala

Whale right by the boat!

Another close encounter with a Shrimp boat.  This was underway.

We found this little guy attached to our anchor.

Bahia de Jaltemba

Our next stop was Bahia de Jaltemba.  Here we started to get the feeling we were getting close to Puerto Vallarta.  More hotels, more restaurants and more vendors.  We anchored one night off of a little island in the bay.  The next day we moved closer to the beach so we could explore there a little.  While eating dinner we met a very nice couple from Arizona, Earl and Marge, and enjoyed their conversation very much.  It’s people like this that make cruising fun.  They were down here on vacation for four months, just relaxing and having fun.

Today we dropped our anchor at Punta Mita, the first stop in Banderas Bay.  On our way here we saw many whales and even saw a few breech!  We tried to go ashore for dinner but the swell was too much and Jake had forgotten his life jacket so we didn’t want to chance it.  So tonight we’ll eat a few steaks (our last in the freezer) and shrimp while watching the sun set over a very large golf course belonging to a very expensive Four Seasons hotel.  It looks like we have arrived in the Mexican Rivera for sure.

Jake playing more Star Wars on the front of the boat.