not one bit!
Trying new foods from different cultures is always an amazing experience. Food is one of the best ways to share a culture, and every time I sat down for a meal in Fiji I was sure to thank the cooks and help out when I could. Some of the foods that I tried I really liked and still cook to this day to bring some Fijian-style cooking back to America.
In Fiji, there are a few traditional ways to cook, but my favorite was in a lovo. A lovo is a traditional style of cooking where the village makes an underground oven to cook the meal. First you dig a shallow hole, then the hole is covered with stones and the villagers build a fire above that. Once you have the stones heated, you wrap the meat and vegetables in banana leaves to retain the moisture. Once food is in the lovo you bury everything and let the food cook low and slow until it is time to dig up the food and start the feast!
Food is not just connected to the local environment: it is the local environment! During a typical meal in Fiji, almost everything you eat will either be grown or raised locally, so it is really the full farm-to-table experience. Surrounding every village are the farms where the residents grow vegetables and fruits, just as their ancestors did. The warm year-round weather makes it possible to farm year-round. Livestock is not far away, either. chickens roam the village, and pig pens are plentiful. In Fiji, you take care of the environment so that in return the environment will take care of you.
