The women here appear to be preparing pihlohlo, a dessert of bananas simmered in coconut milk.* I have no doubt both the women on the right have regular western-style kitchens where they prepare meals for their nuclear families, but when a menu of traditional foods is needed -- for large family gatherings such as funerals -- small modern kitchens won’t do. The raw ingredients for a traditional island menu require a lot of space for prep and for constructing an uhmw -- an oven of heated stones placed around the food.

This particular photo caught my attention in a facebook posting as it reminded me of a scene described, but not shown, in one of my stories. My expat narrator in the course of one particular day has an errand to deliver some paperwork to her boss who is out sick. His home is in a family compound composed of a number of small residences and outbuildings. It’s not the narrator’s first visit. She recalls a previous occasion when she witnessed the women of the household at their daily tasks: “the husking, peeling, chopping, grating, grinding, beating, soaking and squeezing required to convince coconuts, breadfruit, taro, tapioca and yams that they are indeed edible. All done with simple tools and lots of muscle.”

Looking at pre-1980s photos of Pacific island people one is struck by how slim and healthy everyone looks. Yet, nowadays obesity is endemic in the islands. There was once a study done on the Pima Indians of southern Arizona where the U.S. border divides their tribal land. The members south of the border who ate a traditional diet were healthy, the ones north of the border struggled with the problems caused by obesity, the fallout of easy access to modern processed foods.

Recently a few Pacific Island nations have been discussing implementing a ban on Western products such as sodas and sweets. Since nutritional education has so far been fairly ineffectual, maybe this is a solution. We all know that such bans do not work well where consumers can travel and shop where the bans are not in place, but on an island it isn’t possible to go “elsewhere” to shop.

A land without sodas! Yes, a land offering coconut water and lime water as substitutes. There are island people who are trying to promote the use of low-tech mills for turning tapioca or breadfruit into flour. I applaud all those who are committed to finding ways to make traditional food accessible for family cooks who don’t have a lot of time, especially foods which can be adapted to modern diets and modern kitchens where there is no one home during the day to advance the worthy movement of “slow food.”

*The recipe varies according to the home village, sometimes sugar is added and a thickener such as tapioca, some nowadays brighten the dish with food color to a pinkish red. And the type of banana varies -- utin ruk is shown here, but utin Fiji is sweeter.