For Easter, our friends, Jay and Carol, hosted an Easter dinner at their house. They decided to have a traditional Samoan feast called an umu. An umu is prepared by putting the food on the ground with hot rocks and then covering it all with banana leaves for insulation. Despite the umu preparation typically being a man's job, our friend Fua and her mother, Lei, were our umu experts for the day. Here they are stirring the hot rocks.
A very common food here is taro. It is a starchy root, like a potato. To the right is Lei, peeling the taro.
A typical Samoan dish called palasami is made with taro leaves and coconut milk. The process of making fresh coconut milk took an hour in itself. We chopped the coconuts in half and then using a nifty little bench with a sharp metal grater on the end, we grinded up the coconut meat.
After we had a big bowl full of coconut flakes, we had to squeeze the milk out. We used some dried leaves (that Fua's mom had gathered and dried herself) similar to raffia and used a bunch of them like cheesecloth. A big handful of coconut was put into the middle of the leaves and then the material was twisted and squeezed and much to my surprise, coconut milk came pouring out! Making palasami was my favorite part of the umu preparation.
Before we ate, we had some typical American Easter fun with egg dyeing and hunting. The kids had a ball.
Later in the day, the kids played in the rain and after it cleared up, they kept the wet fun going with the hose. As Emma is always begging me to let her wash our car, I suggested that they hold a little car wash. They loved it so much that they ended up washing 5 cars. Since they were having so much fun, I didn't feel too bad about the child labor.
A typical Samoan dish called palasami is made with taro leaves and coconut milk. The process of making fresh coconut milk took an hour in itself. We chopped the coconuts in half and then using a nifty little bench with a sharp metal grater on the end, we grinded up the coconut meat.After we had a big bowl full of coconut flakes, we had to squeeze the milk out. We used some dried leaves (that Fua's mom had gathered and dried herself) similar to raffia and used a bunch of them like cheesecloth. A big handful of coconut was put into the middle of the leaves and then the material was twisted and squeezed and much to my surprise, coconut milk came pouring out! Making palasami was my favorite part of the umu preparation.
Before we ate, we had some typical American Easter fun with egg dyeing and hunting. The kids had a ball.Later in the day, the kids played in the rain and after it cleared up, they kept the wet fun going with the hose. As Emma is always begging me to let her wash our car, I suggested that they hold a little car wash. They loved it so much that they ended up washing 5 cars. Since they were having so much fun, I didn't feel too bad about the child labor.
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