Middle Eastern Cooking in Pohnpei!

On Saturday afternoon we were fortunate enough to be invited up (and it certainly is up a very, very steep driveway!) to the Australian Embassy compound.  The compound is lovely.  It has three houses, a swimming pool, a tennis court and the most incredible views of the island, the harbour and the ocean. 

The Australian Ambassador has lived in the Middle East and graciously offered to demonstrate some of her favourite recipes for us.  She used mostly local ingredients and cooked up the most delicious dishes.  The dips were particularly good!  One of the secret ingredients was pomegranate molasses and we even had cocktails made with pomegranate juice.  Pomegranate tastes sort of like cranberry, but it is more tart.  It is something that I have never tried before but I loved it.

The afternoon (and evening) was so much fun.  The kids swam, played tennis and ran around the compound and the ladies cooked and chatted.  Some of the ladies bought ingredients to demonstrate other dishes too, including some fantastic desserts. 

My culinary contribution was cocktail frankfurts (smally boys) and tomato sauce (ketchup!) for the kids – not the most gourmet thing in the world by any stretch of the imagination - but they went down a treat!  Even the adults enjoyed them! They are not something you can buy here on the island – we bought a supply with us from Australia and will have to get some more when we can. 

(I did also make a fantastic Chinese special fried rice for the kids which they all loved – I can cook you know!)

By the time we sat down to dinner I was full from “testing” all of the dishes but of course I managed to squeeze a bit more of the lovely food in.  Dinner was fantastic.  It is amazing what people are able to produce with limited supplies and lots of creativity and imagination.  Food was one of our biggest concerns before moving here but we have been very well fed so far!

Kaselehlie!  

Louise