Day 181 Provisioning

If you have been reading the blog you know the drill of leaving any port - get the laundry done, go to Customs and fill out the same forms again in triplicate, hit the Internet for an hour, go to the bank, fill up the fuel tanks and shop at the vegetable market, the bakery and the meat market. The meat market was fascinating. We had stopped at Wahley's two days before to buy the meat for the curry and were impressed by the cleanliness and the selection and quality of the meats. We had been waited on personally by the owner Gary Wahley a fifth generation butcher whose family had come to Fiji in 1852 from China (originally the name was Wah Li). When we wanted curry meat, Gary had gotten some London Broil out of the back, trimmed off the fat and even cubed it for us so it would be ready for the curry. This time we told Gary that we wanted some steaks for the barbecue so he brought a full boneless sirloin rib cut from the back and cut up two sets of fillet mignon steaks that were the leanest I have ever seen. There were two small steak sized pieces left over so after he weighed and priced the amount we wanted he added the extra steaks to the package. Eight generous sized fillets cost us $F40 ($US 24). Gary also said all the meat he sells is organic and since the beef was local we could imagine we had seen our steaks grazing the day before when we were on our drive. Gary Wahley's tiny meat market in Suva, Fiji could go toe to toe with any top of the line butcher shop in any big city in America. We wondered how that could be possible and then Jim noticed that next to the cash register was a file that contained the running tab for many hotels and restaurants. His little retail shop is apparently just the tip of the iceberg. Another treat we discovered at the farmer’s market was pinapple. They grow a smaller variety here than the Hawiian variety we are used to in the U.S. In the market they sell a half pinapple that has had the skin peeled off. The stem acts as the handle and eating it is somewhat like eating an ear of sweet corn. The meat is soft and sweet and when you are done you throw away the core (like the corn cob). Delicious.
After a stop at the Yacht club, we returned to the boat for dinner and a movie. We invited Rob and Ben from Salicorn over to watch the Perfect Storm - an appropriate movie for those at sea. We had met the "Salicorn boys" in Tahiti and seen them at several of the surf spots along the way. They are off to the same area we are going to tomorrow so we expect to see them on their boards.