tinned corned beef and taro

Food in Tonga is meant to be very poor, in variety and quality, and very expensive, in price. Or so I had read before arriving. The title of this post is what I was threatened to expect. The reality is much better, at least where I live. It can be a challenge to prepare good food, but not from a lack of variety. This week my post should assure all of you that you won’t go hungry or have to do without if you visit Tonga. Also, people should feel reassured that I am neither wasting away (getting fitter, yes) nor suffering any loss in my culinary abilities by being reduced to cooking two-minute noodles each night. Hopefully, I also convey some of the fun of shopping and cooking in Tonga.

I should say to start that I am quite lucky. My work is located next door to the Talamahu Maketi (Market), which is the main market in Nuku’alofa. Monday to Friday I can slip next door at lunch time to pick up fresh fruit and vegetables.
Locally grown bananas, pineapple, lime and watermelon are the most plentiful fruits available, though I have also found it easy enough to buy apeli (apples) and oranges imported from New Zealand when the urge takes me or, with oranges, when I have been run down.

The stalls inside the market also sell beans, carrots, eggplant, okra, garlic and ginger on a regular basis. One day they are there, the next you may not be so lucky. I have also bought pumpkin (once), coriander (twice), bok choy and a few other herbs on the rare occasions they have been available to keep the variety up.

The vegetables and fruit are arranged in small piles or bunchs. Each pile usually costs 2 pa’anga. So rather than choosing how much you want, you choose the pile that looks freshest and hand over your 2 pa’anga. A very simple system, that avoids the need for scales or more than a rudimentary knowledge of Tongan/English for the buyer/seller when a palangi is involved.

The outside of the market is fringed with stalls selling taro, kumala (sweet potato), ufi (yam) by the basket load. The logisitics of carrying a basket of taro whilst riding home have prevented me purchasing any of these, though our neighbour has kindly given us some ufi and we have bought kumala elsewhere in more manageable quantities.

Throughout the week the range at the maketi improves, with Saturday being the most plentiful. On Sunday, as with everything else, the market is closed. Which necessitates a bit of planning, to make sure we don’t go hungry especially as Monday’s pickings can be a little slim sometimes.

The vegetable part of shopping and cooking is fairly easy then. Meet, spices, sauces and other supermarket items are another matter as most of these, apart from fish, are imported from overseas.

Across the road from the maketi, and on the same road as I live, is the most westernised supermarket – Molisi’s. It is generally well stocked, but can be a little pricey so Tongans and more experienced palangis always question why I shop there. Convenience is enough reason for me on most days, but I still find myself doing a tour of several supermarkets at least one lunch-time a week and on Saturday mornings.

Apart from a desire to explore, the tour is necessary as no two supermarkets stock the same products and each is sure to run low between shipments. Hunting out ingredients can be great fun and as long as I am sure to check the use-by dates, the finds can dramatically change the menu for the following week. Each trip brings new surprises as the stock is always changing or replenishing with each ships arrival. The effort makes you appreciate how convenient life is in Australia when you can shop when you want and know that you are fairly likely to find what you want.

Supermarket items can be pricey. Dairy especially. As is cereal. Though the latest shipment did bring some cheaper muesli which I have been treating myself to on weekends with locally made yoghurt and fruit.

Meat and fish is a fun all of its own. I have mainly been cooking with chicken and fish. Red meat is hard to find, apart from lamb flaps and beef mince which are both very fatty. Depsite almost every Tongan seeming to own a puaka (pig), these are reserved for ceremonial feasts so there is no pork and bacon is imported from New Zealand frozen and expensive.

Chicken is only available frozen, either whole or as drumsticks. I have adapted to cooking curries and such using whole drumsticks, but am becoming quite adept at de-boning frozen or partially thawed drumsticks for stir-fries et cetera. Packing my good knife has also proved hand for quartering whole frozen chickens when I feel like something different or more elaborate.

Cooking fish has also required me to learn some new skills. Though I have found snapper and mahi mahi fillets, whole fish is far more plentiful. When I say whole, I mean whole. The Tongan fishmongers leave it up to the customers to clean and scale any whole fish. The other fish that is readily available is tuna which is cheap at about A$5 a kilo, but it is sold by the round. That is they take a whole tune and slice it vertically into discs about 7 centimetres thick. To obtain steaks or smaller pieces you need to remove the skin and bones. As each round weighs about 3 kilograms, this is usually done with a frozen fish after the first meal. Tuna loin (sashimi quality tuna) is also available for about A$10 a kilo, but I haven’t bought any yet.

My diet also includes a good range of bakery products. Bread for toast in the mornings as well as various cakes, donuts, slices and other treats in the afternoon and on Sundays. Bakeries, as I have mentioned, are the only places open on Sundays, so after going for a long ride, as I have most Sundays, I treat myself to something like cupcakes or donuts.

The other novelty about shopping in Tonga is the Falekaloa, which translates as house (fale) of goods (kaloa). On every second corner, it seems, there is a Falekaloa. These could be best described as downmarket 7-Elevens. They sell nearly everything you could want that has a decent shelf life or can be kept frozen in a freezer. From our nearest falekaloa, 20 metres away, we have bought toilet paper, beer, phone cards, toys, biscuits, flour and many other things. Only, most falekaloas have a counter across the front with security bars and you stand outside whilst purchasing what you want.

Making purchases has been a bit of a challenge at our local falekaloa, like many, is operated by a couple from Hong Kong that bought Tongan passports in the hope of emigrating to Australia or the US prior to the return of Hong Kong to China. As soon as it became known that Tonga was selling passports, Australia and the US ceased to recognise the purchased passports and the people from Hong Kong have been stuck in Tonga ever since. As they can't buy property, most run small retail outlets in rented properties. Their Tongan is great, but mine isn't just like their English so making purchases requires lots of miming and pointing as well as help from other customers.

The other big difference between a falekaloa and a 7-eleven is price. Through a combination of shoddy construction (most falekaloa are small shacks built on somebodies front yard), buying in bulk and self-packaging (such as with flour) the prices are kept below those of the supermarkets. All this and convenient as well.

There is one other fale that is important for food and that is the falekai, literally house of eat, or restaurant. We have sampled a few and the food is cheap and decent. They range from cafes through chinese and japanese to italian. No fine dining, but a nice change when you can't be bothered cooking.

Enough about food, if I talk about it anymore I will have to find a bakery.

Doubt as to why I am here in Tonga nearly consumed me in the last fortnight. After seven weeks, I am well aware of the attractions of the place – the people, their culture, the islands and their surrounds all have me enthralled and eager to see more. However, if I were only to come to Tonga as a tourist, then I would have been better remaining in Australia and earning enough money to enjoy the journey without seven hours a day, five days a week buried in the labyrinth that serves as my office. These thirty-five hours are ostensibly for work and it is a lack of such that I have found so troubling. I have also had trouble with other volunteers whose lack of experience will result in them making things worse through their fumbling efforts.

Things have improved this week as I have been working with two technical assistants from the UN and a Tongan to prepare a development plan for the island 'Eua I visited at Easter. This week we have met with senior people from all over government and it has been a good opportunity to learn about the Tongan public sector. Information isn't readily accessible, and you don't simply go around setting up meetings with senior people (well not unless you are the other volunteer I have a problem with). The meetings on 'Eua has allowed me to learn a lot more about the roles of the different ministries and authorities (which aren't all that self evident) and also how Tongans think about the role of government. Slowly, I am becoming able to piece together a work program for myself that will, all going to plan, result in something meaningful improvement.

I will have more time to think about this as I return to 'Eua from Friday. I will be spending a week there for work completing the consultation for the development plan and helping to conduct the final workshop where the technical assistants will attempt to write the plan. I will be without internet for the week, so there will be another long gap between posts.