The Lovo - Fijian Traditional Food

Lovo is a Fijian recipe that involves cooking meat, vegetables etc in cocnut milk and just salt to your taste and bake it on hot stones/ woodfire. At Pacific Harbour Village, they give a demonstration of Lovo preparation. I absolutely love 'lovo', it is one of my favourite foods along with palusami (a leafy vegetable cooked in coconut milk).
Some photos of lovo prepartion will demonstrate the procedure involved. Check bottom to top to get the order of cooking. Step 1 is preparing the pit while food in parcels on the table is ready to be cooked is at the bottom of this entry going to top it the last step 15 with empty pit.

My first bowl of Kava

Pacific Harbour is about 60 kms away from Suva, it has beautiful beaches and a commercial centre that preserves 'art and culture'. I had my first bowl of kava when we visited the 'Pacific Harbour Village' with Catherine in Nov 2008 at Pacific Harbour. The botanical name of kava is Piper methysticum, it is considered a social drink in the some of the Pacific Island nations, its given huge importance in Fiji. It gives you a feeling of numbness and you feel sleepy after drinking it. Traditionally, the roots of kava are mixed with water and the resulting solution is then drunk as kava. I had witnessed the ceremony before during my charity projects functions, however, did not get a chance to drink. Although this was a commercial scene. What the demonstrator mixed with water is the kava powder which is sold in market. Nevertheless, eperience of the drink would be nearly the same. So here I was, got a chance and grabbed it. I would like to have it again to understand and relish the drink properly.