Kristen and Kaitlin performed with Shasten in the Redlands YMCA circus for many years. Shasten’s mom Andrea was one of my favorite people to chat with during practices. She organized the cooking show that the girls put on together. She made the dragon cake for Kristen’s eighteenth birthday. And just last month, she, Mike, Shasten, and their friend Perry went with me to the Samoan market in Riverside. Being from Australia, Andrea is familiar with several Pacific islands. She pointed out the chickens in the yards, giving island ambiance to the neighborhood around the Park Avenue Polynesian Store. Andrea’s family is vegetarian, so we didn’t eat the various meats on the steam table, but we bought coconut rolls, coconut bread, Koko Samoa (cocoa), and cartons of coconut cream. That coconut cream is so much better than what comes in a can! I’ve used the cocoa to make hot chocolate, and I still plan to use it for the Samoan cocoa rice that the store owner described to me: https://www.heartfoundation.org.nz/wellbeing/healthy-recipes/cocoa-rice
This wasn’t my first experience with Samoan food. The chef at Saint Bernardine Medical Center made pani popo to represent Samoa when I had an island themed process improvement event several years ago: https://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/pani-popo/
I have also enjoyed the blended coconut mango drink and the dark chocolate TimTam biscuits that my sister Suzy and I picked up at Juanita's Polynesian Delights in Newark. The people waiting for their food told me that eating here is just like being in the islands. It was mid-afternoon and I had just eaten lunch, so I need to go back to try the lamb, turkey, and taro from the steam table. Here are a few more recipes to travel to Samoa while staying at home: https://insanelygoodrecipes.com/samoan-recipes/
While we are still on food, Samoan chef Monica Galetti shows two recipes in this video. The second one is specific to Samoa and she tells a little about her childhood: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WJp2-oBwDc
Moving from food to literature, if you are looking for familiar authors, avoid the Jack London book (it’s truly awful) and go instead to Robert Louis Stevenson, who spent his last years in Samoa as chronicled in Vailima Letters: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/387
But honestly, I would go straight to Pouliuli by Albert Wendt. I was drawn in by the funny beginning and continued to be engaged when it turned serious. I also enjoyed this documentary about Wendt, one of the most influential writers from the Pacific:
The sense of humor and fun continues in these videos:
· A siva (the women’s dance): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrHtTOLRm1c
· A fa'ataupati (the men’s dance): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYbORa1T5X0
· The Circus of Samoa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9z96r0sypg
· A Samoan comedian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8xwqchICS4
If I were actually going, I would want to do these things https://maketimetoseetheworld.com/things-to-do-in-samoa/ but even more, the people attract me for their engaging stories and sense of humor. I look forward to that time when we can travel broadly again. In the meantime, I’m hoping we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace, health, and safety to flourish in Samoa and throughout the world.
Photo credit: mikigroup https://www.flickr.com/photos/89281933@N03/12393470635/
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