For the meats, you can either have chicken, fish or lamb that is seasoned and wrapped in foil. Then to make the rourou, you have to crack open many coconuts and scrap the meat out to make fresh coconut milk. You use the empty coconut shells to steam taro leaves with coconut milk.
Once the rocks are red hot, we put pieces of a banana tree on top to stop the food from burning on the rocks. Now we add all the prepared food and maybe some more taro root. Then you cover everything up with banana leaves and wet blankets to keep the food in the steam. Your last step is to use mud to wrap around the blanket to stop the heat from leaving the lovo (earth oven). After a couple of hours, all of your food will be ready to dig up and eat!!
I think lovo feels very connected to the environment. It feels like the earth is alive as we put our food underground and cover it up to create a feast for ourselves. I also felt that lovo is very special to Fijians. Lovo is made when everyone is together, and it takes many people to help make sure there is enough food to feed everyone.
