The Fiji Diaries – #3

10 July 2023

Fiji is full of oddities. Take, for instance, a flat white from Mana Coffee (reported to be the place for a good coffee in Suva from Australian embassy staff) will set you back FJD$6.60, whilst a long black is FJD$7. Granted, these work out to be about ~$4.50-5 in Australian dollars, but it’s weird. Oh and I’m actually going to try and hunt out fresh milk today – everything so far has been UHT or powdered. Makes sense, but I’m curious. Will this curiosity kill me? Probably not, not even in the Pacific. But one never knows.  

I’ve made the decision that this missive will be about food, drink and probably kava, so strap in. Beef is harder to find than you’d think, and almost always comes from NZ. Same goes for lamb. Chicken takes place of beef in most situations e.g. in lasagne (which I’ve tried, and it wasn’t bad) and meat pies (that’s what I’m going to be trying today, so wish me luck). Fish is, as expected, amazing, everywhere and relatively cheap. One of the things the up-market eating establishments sell are fish fingers – which is usually fresh mahi mahi. Things are hard, I know. I also tried a dish the other day called Oka vaka lolo, which was wahu (Spanish Mackerel) in a coconut sauce with cassava and sauteed greens. It’s going to be hard to go back to Australian seafood from supermarkets! And cassava! Oh, starchy root vegetables are a thing here, and cassava is held in high regard, and rightfully so. Gamey potato is the best potato, if you ask me.

As far as eating establishments, we’ve been haunting the more respectable good’uns as a rule, and managing to tick off most of the best places to eat in Suva – Maya Dhaba Indian, Kanu Gastropub, Paradiso and the Grand Pacific Hotel. The Grand Pacific makes a mai tai which tastes (and feels) like it has half a bottle of dark rum in it, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it did. Sensational. One food choice of note is Fierce Chicken (near the Extra Mart in Flagstaff as an FYI the next time you’re here) which had a good selection of food, but things just seemed a little off – you know, too shiny, too nice. Gets the spidey-senses tingling. Turns out that it’s one of many restaurants owned by the Grace Road group, a Bible-bashing cult with origins in South Korea. Good chicken though. 

Breakfast each morning at the Peninsula (which as an aside the lift has broken down as of yesterday – poor thing, it has obviously had a hard life, but at least we no longer fear being trapped in it) is a continental affair – bitter coffee (add UHT milk to cover that), single serve muesli, toast (both white and brown bread that you toast yourself – I recommend popping it through the toast machine twice), single serve butter, and jam. What more could an intrepid traveller want?! The jam is something I look forward to every morning – single serve tubes of normally only one flavour (it was apricot, then citrus marmalade for a while) today has been great as we had both citrus marmalade and strawberry on offer! One can’t complain, it’s simple and good, and I think I’m going to miss Fiji wholemeal bread when we head home. Speaking of toast, the dining room is currently filled with the aroma of burning bread – someone tried to toast their toast one too many times. Ah not to worry old sport – we’ve all been there. Time to head off from the restaurant and grab some groceries (read: pie time, it’s the time for pie). 

If I were a more adventurous person, I might be inclined to try one of the many roadside food shops. Alas, I am not quite that adventurous and quite like my intestines to stay internal rather than external. The shops stick out like sore red thumbs as they’ve all got Coca-Cola sponsored signs – some don’t look like anything more than a garden shed (Suva style, of course) and I wouldn’t normally think them a food vendor at all. I do wonder what they sell, and how likely it is to give me food poisoning.

Update – I’ve gone forth and foraged, and can now report that I’ve had a spicy chicken pie. It wasn’t bad, but I feel that the paneer and pea pie might be a better option. There’s always tomorrow! Something to consider on the next water run. Which brings me to the last item for today – water. The general consensus is not to drink the tap water, and not to eat salad. I must confess I’ve had a slice of lettuce on a burger with no ill effects, but it’s better to be a little cautious with these things, I reckon. I’m not going to be as fastidious as one tourist the other day who was being especially vigilant. Sigh. Tourists do give me the shits.

That’ll do for now, I reckon. I can write all day, but that isn’t especially travel-minded of me, is it? I think it’s time to head back down into the city (with camera, but leaving my backpack at home – nothing quite makes people take notice of you than a backpack) and see what can be found. 

Carpe diem