roast pork belly slices
Food

Roast Pork Belly Slices

We got some pre-sliced pork belly recently, and they roasted up beautifully. The prep is simple: score the skin, rub in a bit of salt and brown sugar, and place fat side up on top of a slick of olive oil. I recommend using a Dutch oven, if you have one. Preheat the oven at… Continue reading Roast Pork Belly Slices

oven roasted pork shoulder
Food

Oven-Roasted Pork Shoulder

I got the idea for a pork roast from Better Homes and Gardens. They recommend cooking pork shoulder in the oven for a few hours until tender, then shredding the meat and using it in various dishes. I enjoyed cooking this roast on Sunday. We made carnitas with it for dinner, and there was plenty… Continue reading Oven-Roasted Pork Shoulder

fermenting cocoa beans
Food

How to Make Chocolate Powder from Cocoa Fruit

We visited Cacao Fiji's cocoa farm in Dreketi on the island of Vanua Levu in October 2019. I learned a lot, and our guide generously gave us a few cocoa pods to take home. This was the start of a fun experiment: making raw cocoa powder. It's a time-intensive process: It takes about two weeks.… Continue reading How to Make Chocolate Powder from Cocoa Fruit

Fresh coconut milk and rourou for palusami.
Food, photography, Video

Video: Fijian Lovo

  Giving you a remix, folks. We celebrated American Thanksgiving in Fiji in November 2019. I did a previous post about it, but I wasn't satisfied with the look of the gallery, so I made a video slideshow to better illustrate the lovo. For a higher resolution version, go to my YouTube page.