nacken fiji experience

2004-08-05T23:25:00.000-07:00

We are moving to nacken.com

In celebration of our son Julius' birth, we are moving all our blog activities to one single location: nacken.com

You will find more recent Fiji information there as well as updates on our baby and our upcoming travels. THIS blog here is still a pretty neat archive, so use the little google window on the side to find what you are looking for.

Thanks for visiting us here, and we see you over there

2004-07-28T07:08:00.000-07:00

nacken.com

Hi, we are over at nacken.com and are playing around there, trying to turn that into the master blog ... so .. hop on over and help me test it out ... it is not super pretty yet .. but i am working on it ...

Big update over there on our Nausori trip .. lots of pictures ...

2004-03-26T17:16:00.000-08:00

just a quick note letting you guys know that we are off to Japan, which means our adventures continue over at the nacken travel blog.

more details later once I get my own computer connected.

2004-03-12T18:49:00.000-08:00

Heya folks ... this will now happen more and more .. instead of double or cross posting ... I will just write a little blurb here and then link to the sub-blog where the real fun is ..

Today so far was shopping and taking care of Ritsu's junk food cravings ...

for more click here

2004-02-09T02:20:00.000-08:00

Rain, Rain ... and then some more ... RAIN

2003-11-20T02:18:00.000-08:00

2 more blasts from the past today. My old NY pal Lucien keeps putting up the bazillion photos he shot at his great Mondo 107 parties back when there were those 2 towers ... well .. i found 2 more that I am on:

This one has again Bebel Gilberto in it .. and i think that girl in that blue fluffy top is also some brazilian singer .. not sure ... and the shirt I am wearing is actually orange, not pink as it looks in that picture.

and this here I do not even have any recollection of ever having posed for :) ... seeing that the lights are on, that must have been at the end of a night ... 2 AM .. so .. i was most likely danced out, tired, ready to go home ... but still posing with a group of people i have never seen before ...

Oh, and Lucien just posted another one. I am only 98% sure that I am that guy in the back, brownish sweater (still have that one) and holding a cigarette (was smoking back then) ... and yes,.. i forgot all about that sirtaki thing ... ocassionally it would make the floor vibrate .. not a good feeling when you are 1000 ft above street level ...

2003-11-19T15:12:00.000-08:00

Today we finally got our typical Suva summer weather back: it is raining, cloudy, humid but not that hot yet ... the rain probably brought the humidity back .. it was only 60% yesterday, and rose to 87% today ... great !!!

2003-11-19T02:28:00.000-08:00

For tonight's dinner I actually ventured out into the neighborhood jungle to find a banana tree and cut a nice big leaf off of it.

I got us some nice Pakapaka (some local fish) and created a paste made of coriander, lemongrass, garlic, ginger, chilli and limejuice and smeared it all over. The banana leaf needs to be cleaned, and to soften it, pour boiling water over it ... then pat dry and wrap the fish in there into a neat little bundle. This now can be baked, or slow-fried in a pan, or I just used my trusty george foreman grill ... important to remember: the banana leaf is for keeping the juices inside the fish and to add flavor, it is not meant to be eaten !!!

With that you can serve rice, stir fry veggies ... I just made a little salad with bok choy, grilled yellow peppers and zuchini, bean sprouts and a dressing including soy sauce, honey, dry sherry and some oil.

2003-11-18T14:59:00.000-08:00

Last week we went to see this japanese all-bamboo instruments group and some people were curious what they sound like ... I found this one mp3 file, the quality is not brilliant, but on the otherhand the filesize is small :) The song is "Shima Uta"which is a very popular okinawa style song.

2003-11-18T02:01:00.000-08:00

2 highlights for today .. but sadly no pictures:

First was my adventure of getting the car through inspection. Unless your car is brand new, you have to see the LTA once a year to make sure your vehicle is still street worthy. For first timers like me it is quite an undertaking. Best to start with calling LTA to make an appointment... that does not really speed up your inspection, but you can line up at the short queue at counter #7, while all the other joe schmoes line up at the long lines on counters 1-6. Inspection fee is a mere 14$ ... after you filled in your application you move your ass and your car over to the inspection garage ... there a huge, loud guy told checked out the car from beneath ... then later he hopped in (no idea how he fit his 450lbs body mass into this car) and drove it around a bit. After that I got some paperwork, returned to counter lady #7 and paid my 75.50$ wheel tax .. and got my sticker ..

there was actually way more detail to it. most of the times i had NO idea where to go or who to ask .. was all not very clear .. but in the end it all worked out and I have peace of mind for another year.

The second highlight was dinner: I had planned to try a certain thai recipe .. and it turned out quite nicely .. pork slices with koriander (Dhania, cillantro, whatever you call it), fresh pinapple ... served with a thai ginger / lemongrass rice (I actually found fresh lemongrass here) .. And here is a scan of that recipe (for you Berna):

This is from one of the nice cookbooks (well, they are actually rather magazine size) I bought in Brisbane: Thai Cooking from the Family Circle cook book collection.

2003-11-16T06:49:00.000-08:00

I made some more panoramic quicktime VR files of Toberua, so you can get an good look around. Click on the picture to get the QT VR file.

First was made standing between the office, bar, restaurant/kitchen and utility bures. This is also the spot to play Petanque and you can see the volley ball court between kitchen and utility.

This one I took in front of 'our' bure #9, "Wakaia", you can see the neighbor bure and the jungle around us.

And here is my first try at a 360 degree picture, so you can keep spinning around if you like. Taken from the deck in front of the bar bure at sunset.

2003-11-16T02:07:00.000-08:00

We just got back from Toberua Island, and instead of repeating all the stuff from our previous 6 visits, I'd like to point out what was new this time: One nice new thing was that Saturday night was not BBQ (which has always been great by the way, but from what I heard, BBQ is now wednesdays) but a Lovo feast. Lovo is the Fjian way of using hot rocks to keep an earth oven running. Basically you make a fire in a sandpit, put rocks in there, once the rocks are all heated through, you start loading your food on top (chicken, pork, lamb, beef, all kinds of potatoes), cover it with banana and coconut leaves (their smoke adds nice flavor), cover it with earth and sand and let sit for an hour ...

Though, that huge Trevaly (Fish) in the above picture was actually NOT in that oven, but it was on the menu from then on every day for every meal (yes, even breakfast).

I also finally found a way to take a good picture of the inside of 'our' bure (we managed to get #9, again), this is stitched together from 8 seperate pics, but i think it gives you a pretty good idea.

Some more write up and panoramic pics are coming up soon.

2003-11-15T00:34:00.000-08:00

We travelled once again to Toberua Island ... and someone put one of those nice chairs out on one of the jetties.

We arrived in time for lunch, which was some pan fried snapper for Ritsu and I had the thai beef salad, both very good. The crab meat / fish leftover with pumpkin croquette which was the appetizer was ok .. but insiders just could make out the recycle-character too easily.

2003-11-13T02:38:00.000-08:00

Long time no cute cat picture :)

Amazing to see how well the two get along now .. most of the nights they both sleep in our bedroom, but Misha is getting antsy around 2 AM and wakes us up by digging her claws or teeth into our feet ... so I either wake up by pain or by Ritsu's screams ... So, the other night I just threw her (Misha, not Ritsu) out of the bedroom. Not that she gets the idea that feet-biting results in getting food or having the door opened. Nietzsche behaves very well and sleeps a lot. He also likes watching movies with me. That they sit on that orange couch is rather rare, but they held that position so I could take pictures ...

For dinner we met with Robert, Hillary, Edo and Marly at Fiji Malthouse and we all had a fun time.

2003-11-12T02:12:00.000-08:00

Today a panoramic picture you would hardly find on a postcard or in a travel guide, but this is the day-b-day Fiji: So, here we have the MH Superfresh Supermarket up in Tamavua. (click for bigger version)

As reported before, MH (Morris Hedstrom) has a bunch of supermarkets and other stores around the islands, probably the biggest store chain in Fiji. Others would be R.B. Patel and NewWorld.

Superfresh is very nice, fairly big and seems to have the best selection of fruit and veggies of all the MHs. On the downside, it has no AC, so you find the chocolate in its own fridge. On the picture, the yellow thing is the actual supermarket, while the mall like structure next to it houses a bakery, an ATM, a liquor store, a video place and some chinese take out place.

As you can see, we do not always have blue skies :)

2003-11-11T02:08:00.000-08:00

I discovered something new to cook with: Oysters. In search for seafood I found that Cost U Less actually has frozen oysters (something that I find a bit weird somehow) ... but having read some interesting recipes, I was intrigued. I love raw oysters and had them in New York, and recently in Australia ... but actually cooking with them??? very new concept. Too bad that Ritsu is allergic to them, so I can only cook them for myself. So today I took 8 of those guys, wrapped them in bacon, stuck them on a scewer, drizzled some tabasco and pepper over them, and baked them till the bacon was crisp. Very tasty indeed. Only that I kept the oyster aftertaste for hours was a bit funny.

So, next I will try deep-fried or an oyster burger :)

2003-11-10T02:04:00.000-08:00

Tonights cultural entertainment was presented by the japanese embassy. A musical group called "Bamboo Symphonia", playing Okinawa style music on all bamboo instruments. It was very beautiful, actually pretty packed, first half was okinawa classics, second half original songs of the group. Very entertaining.

2003-11-09T02:38:00.000-08:00

And how was your weekend? I know that William was taking some trip (i guess to celebrate his birthday), the rest, just like us, seem to have had a nice, quite, lazy weekend ...

For sunday brunch I had prepared 5 days ago an egg recipe which i think is usually an easter or passover dish usually, i know it as "Sol Ei" .. where Sol means a salt water marinade and Ei is egg ... i was trying to find recipes, but the closest I found was "pickled eggs" .. and they all use vinegar ... it is my understanding that vinegar dissolves the eggshell ..

So, how does it work? Well, fairly simple ... hardboil as many eggs as you have space for in some tightly sealing glass jar. Try to move the eggs around while boiling to ensure that the yolk will end up in the middle. after 15 minutes cool down. Then boil water (about 1.5 litres for 10 eggs) adding salt.(and here is where my mom's recipe stops) ... other recipes suggest adding bay leaves, peppercorns, mustard seed, chili slices .. i guess it is up to taste ..

After boiling that and letting it cool down, put the eggs in a glass jar (plastic ok, metal no) and pour the liquid over the eggs until they are all covered ... Now the hard part: store for at least 5 days in a cold, dark place (fridge?) ... It does look pretty pretty ... could be a nice party gift .. :)

Now .. how do we eat those suckers? Cut in half, carefully remove the yolk and pour into the muld any of the following condiments (depending on taste): salt, pepper, oil, vinegar, mustard (these are the basics), advanced: olive oil, balsamic vingar, wostershire sauce, tabasco .. basically whatever you like. Put the egg yolk back on and shove the whole thing into your mouth ... :)

Later we went to cost-u-less for some shopping ... and then to the movie theater to watch "Intolerable Cruelty" .. and it was quite entertaining, and there is a great slapstick moment at the end that had me laugh very hard. I have never been too enticed by films of the Coen brothers .. and the words "romantic comedy" usually specify the worst genre possible (for me) .. but the was actually a non-Coen dark comedy ... it was not a typical 2/14 dating movie .. it had some really mean/funny things in it .. i liked it ... now i need to watch the DVD to understand what Billy Nob Thornton said in his thick texan accent.

Dinner was chinese leftovers, weather was fine again, no rain, cats are ok, sleeping more every day and night, now actually sharing Ritsu's yoga mat under the bed ... as we say in Fiji, "Life Sucks" :)

2003-11-07T02:16:00.000-08:00

Sometimes you don't miss something until you come across it again. Malthouse had live jazz tonight, and it was pretty nice. While it is not really a smokey basement club in New York's Village, it was a pleasant evening and the "Kind of Blue" jazz ensamble played some nice music. Food was our usual Pacific pizza and we tried for the first time a chicken bacon salad which was nice too.

2003-11-06T02:30:00.000-08:00

Today's weather was a bit cooler which was nice. I went to see the first showing of Matrix Revolutions, which I found a bit dissapointing, while offering some nice eye candy ... and I felt it could have been so much better. Ah well.

I then had lunch at Fong Lee with Ritsu and the I ran some errands.

For dinner I tried to recreate one of my favourite McDonalds burgers, the McRib. Its basically a pork burger with BBQ sauce, which I made from scratch ... turned out ok .. some junkfood you just can't copy. The baked potato I had to go with it was also not that great .. baked them for an hour, and they still were hard.

2003-11-05T00:50:00.000-08:00

Today started with rain, and then I let Ritsu's french toast burn ... not the best start ...

Our cleaning lady came on time this time, at 11 some craftsmen came to install our new gate, which took them all day, interestingly enough one of their first things to do was preparing some kava for them to drink while work. Which reminded me how it was very normal in Germany when I was a kid, that people in physical jobs, like construction workers, would very naturally drink beer during work, I even recall my mom telling me "bring these nice men some beer" ... then again, that was 30 years ago ...

Next adventure was bringing our cat Nietzsche to the vet. Both cats hate the trip, but he was so scared this time that he made a mess .. great ... but the vet-lady was very cool about it ("happens all the time") and he got some more shots and he seems to be ok ... he now likes to sleep in my office when I am in here.

I am about to do dinner and I will also try to make homemade ketchup (which then again later i need to make homemade BBQ sauce) .. Kitchen, here I come !!!

several hours later

well .. scratch that ketchup idea ... after using a kilo of tomatoes and 2 hours time, all i got was a small glass of not very flavorful tomatojuice ... now I know why the stuff is so readily available canned.

2003-11-04T02:30:00.000-08:00

And here we have Tuesday night's sunset:

Ritsu took me out to the Holiday Inn hotel bar, which is very nicely located at the waterfront, so we could sip a beer, enjoy the sunset and Ritsu told me all about her day at work. After that we went to Daikoku, where we asked to move tables, as we were initially too close to a big table full of loud and happy Fijians. Glad they were so happy, but way too loud. We had wasabi steak and ginger pork and it was tasty as usual.

2003-11-02T14:13:00.000-08:00

I put up a movieclip from the weekend trip on the movie blog, enjoy, I promise naked pigs!!!

2003-11-01T22:26:00.000-08:00

After we left the resort below, we headed a bit further west to Sigatoka, where Pacific Green had one of their infamous sales .. they call them "annual" but it seems they had one just 6 months ago. Anyways, they make great looking furniture out of palmwood (which is great after Fiji had that sad history of being exploited for her beautiful tropical hardwoods) ... the material is great and the design very nice.

We were immediately trailed by our salesman 'Luke', which at first I found a bit disturbing, but he was not pushy at all, had some nice advice (or just read the numbers on the price tags for us) and supplied us with fresh coconut juice.

We felt safe since we were not really looking for anything in particular .. maybe some small book cases, or taking an informative look at some dining sets for maybe a purchase in a year or so .. but then we saw this bed:

Now, a bed is something that we actually should get new .. the one I brought to Fiji is quite old and has always been cheap (but comfy) .. the price on the price tag was also very fair ... but it was a whole set with stuff we were not interested in ... and so, just for fun, we asked how much it would be without these items, just the bed and 2 nightstands ... we did not even ask for any further discount .. and i also mentioned that we are not really in the market for a bed ... then our sales guy left ... and I thought he may have had lost interest in us ... but then he found us again .. and surprised us with a new price tag which was too good to be true .. after reconfirming .. and some decision making over free hot dogs (i bet they would sell even more if they'd offered free beer) we did the paperwork, and now we are awaiting a great new funky stylish designer bed :)

Kachatta !!!

2003-11-01T02:14:00.000-08:00

We just returned from a 1-night-trip to Crusoe's Retreat, a very nice, small and hidden resort only 70 km/ 45miles from Suva.

We took off around 11 AM and headed towards the coral coast area. After 1 hour we reached a sign pointing to a 4km dirt road, leading us to the resort. This part of the trip is quite exciting as it goes up and down quite steep, and in many cases I had to shift down all the way into 1st gear, but we made it .. and just before you reach the resort, you are rewarded with a fantastic view from the hill over the shoreline.

We were checked in by a pretty bitchy receptionist lady, but then our bure was very nice, we had booked 'seaside' which is very close to the beach and the pool, the 'seaview' bures seem nice too, but involve a lot of staircase walking.

We settled in, the bures are nice and fairly modern, very clean, not very fancy, but nothing to complain. Big fridge, someone should have told me! After that we were hungry and checked out lunch. The lunch menu is very non-thrilling, basics like fish-n-chips, grilled cheese sandwich, tuna or feta salad, burgers (fish or chicken or beef), daily curry, beef stew. We both had the burger .. and this and its fries were very greasy.

Then some walking around, very nice property, garden well kept (as I found later, some little pigs were running around freely) beach is ok, they offer lots of free water based activities. I enjoyed the foot-shaped pool a lot, nice temperature.

Later we got ready for happy hour (Drinks 7.50 F$, which is ok, especially after I told the bar man that I watch them carefully, and in response he put double shots of gin and tequila in my "Red Sea" cocktail .. whoa!) and then dinner ... Ritsu had some chicken paste while I had the 'fillet mignon' ... and it was ok ... nothing to write home about, not bad either ... what worried us a bit was that the menu saying 'saturday' was laminated, which means this is what they have every saturday, and selection was not super big, prices were ok . the lunch burgers were 12F$ each, dinner was 49F$ for the 2 of us excluding drinks.

Entertainment after dinner was a polynesian dance show, 4 girls shaking their hips, very nice, much nicer than traditional fijian meke (song and dance) .. and then some guy played with some fire sticks .. :) We enjoyed it a lot, but were nicely tired, so we retired.

Next morning's breakfast was ok too, eggs made to order, fruit and all kinds of stuff ... We packed up and checked out ...

We liked the location and the place, but we were not very excited about the food and pretty disappointed by the staff. Most of the ladies had a strong attitude problem, worst of all the girl at the reception. Most of them were trotting along in snail's speed, my request of having mustard for my burger took way too long. There were 2 ladies though who were very nice, Ana, who even introduced herself to us with a broad smile, and another one, whose name I forgot.

We plan on coming back, but we will bring lots of food and drink ourself, and just enjoy the lush garden setting and the pool.