Day/Country #5 -- Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands Flag

Fast Facts:

Land Area: 28,400km²

Population: ~523,000

Capital: Honiara

GDP (PPP) per capita: $3,191

Official Language: English (Pijin)

Known For: History of head hunting,

Gaudulcanal, ecoadventure tourism

Staying tropical but moving into the Pacific, today we had a taste of the Solomon Islands.

I've decided Mum really likes her multi-dish approach to a meal, which is great--why stop at only one dish when there's so many new dishes and flavours from each country we can try?!

This time around we had a quadruplet of: Poisson Cru (a salad consisting of raw tuna marinated in lemon, lime and coconut and served tossed with tomato, carrot, cucumber and red onion); squid stuffed with shrimp, crab meat (surimi), cilantro and chives; fried banana with seared par-boiled sweet potato/kumara; and finally winged beans, pattipan squash and costata zucchini (all home grown!) stir-fried in soy sauce, sesame oil (the recipe called for oyster sauce but we didn't have any) and garlic.

(Don't worry, if you're at a bit of a loss I'll admit that before today I had no idea what a pattipan or a costata zucchini was or looked like either; to me 'pattipan' sounds like some kind of bite-sized Christmas pancake, but I can assure you it's a delicately flavoured little round green squash with a texture similar to a firm zucchini/courgette).

The result was a plate of food that was bursting with flavour and perfect for a gorgeous warm sunny day (something we've been mostly missing out on this summer but miraculously had today...perhaps Mum's cooking inspired the weather Gods to more tropical endeavours for a day?).  The coconut in particular gave the whole thing a fundamentally tropical twist that was light and refreshing.  I found myself closing my eyes, envisioning gently breaking waves on a long and warm white sandy beach, and reaching for a nice fruity cocktail...

...while we couldn't conjure the relaxing tropical beach, Mum was suitably inspired after our summery lunch to invent a delicious original cocktail--we've dubbed it 'A Study In Pink'.

Dishes (clockwise from top right): stuffed squid, stir-fried wing beans and squash,
poisson cru and fried banana & sweet potato.

Rating (out of 5):

Poisson Cru 4.5/5

Fried banana and kumara 4/5 (went very well with poisson cru, and I'd give panfried banana a 5/5--yum!)

Stir-fried winged beans & squash 4/5 (although Mum said 2.5/5 as she didn't like the woodiness of the winged beans)

Stuffed squid 3/5 (Mum would rate it higher but we both agreed to experiment with different stuffings next time in order to increase the flavour)
A Study In Pink Cocktail 5/5