Pirates of South Pacific

Sunday brunch, Tahitian style

Every Sunday in Tahiti (not so much on other islands), streets line up with people grilling meat and selling the local firi firi donuts. In the photo, we added some island-grown papaya, and mango juice produced in Moorea, an island we see from our window.

We developed a habit of buying our Sunday barbecue from a nice soft-spoken man with amazing chicken (about 5 dollars for a portion that can feed us both) - every time he'd ask very quietly: Un petit peu de sauce? - and pour the most incredible, sweet, thick barbecue sauce. And throw in some baguette pieces to eat it all with. Man I miss that guy.

The firi firi donuts would typically run an equivalent of 2 dollars per bag. Here is a recipe. I suppose every culture in the western hemisphere has its incarnation of sweet fry bread, but this one is unforgettable, and pairing it with some Sunday barbeque meat is just perfection.

Poisson Cru, the royal gem of Polynesian cuisine

Take a fresh red tuna steak, cut up into bite sized pieces and marinate it in lime juice for a bit. Add diced tomato and onion (and cucumber if, unlike me, you don't hate it). Let sit for a moment, then pour over coconut milk and eat. It really is that simple.

Hinano

A staple everywhere you go is Hinano beer- produced on Tahiti. Hinano is hands down the most important Polynesian brand.

Grilled fish with vanilla sauce

Another one that will make you close your eyes in delight. The islands have plenty of vanilla farms. And they put it to incredible use. This one dish is un-real.

From what it looks like the best recipe online is this one by Jessica Gavin. Here is how she makes the unbelievable vanilla sauce, to pour on a seared fish fillet:

Ingredients:
▢ ½ cup dark rum
▢ 1 vanilla bean, sliced open lengthwise
▢ ¼ cup unsalted chicken stock
▢ 1 cup heavy cream
▢ 1 cup coconut milk
▢ kosher salt, as needed

In a medium saucepan, add rum and vanilla bean. Heat over medium-high heat until reduced to about 2 tablespoons, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the chicken stock, cream, and coconut milk and gently whisk to combine. Heat over medium-high heat and allow the mixture to reduce to about 1 cup, whisking continuously, about 15 minutes. The sauce should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon and not too runny. Turn off heat and carefully remove the vanilla bean from the sauce. Scrape seeds out of the vanilla pod and whisk into the sauce. Season with salt to taste. Rewarm the sauce before serving with the fish.

Coconut everything

The most abundant food on the islands (they will quite literally drop on you from the sky if you're not careful) is the coconut. And it goes in everything - ice cream, drinks, sauces - you name it. Those who have experience handling it can open them with three well placed blows of a stick. For me, getting inside one was quite the battle.

Marquesan food

Historically the most significant food in the Marquesas is breadfruit. Tribes would live and die by it, and store it in the ground for the harder years. One of those stores, possibly from hundreds of years ago, was recently found intact. Allegedly, the pressed breadfruit was still good and got eaten during a festival.

It's no easy to find breadfruit in most western countries. Try a Jamaican market. The easiest way to cook it is to fry up some breadfruit fries. They're amazing. For a Marquesan meal, serve them with Mutton stew and some rice.