In Which I Ate Tongan Chicken…and Possibly Enjoyed It!

Greetings All! Well, it took some detective work and many persistent phone calls, but we finally figured out why out internet has been off for the past two weeks. Apparently, PC has neglected to pay the internet bill since last August, yes, August 2007, and so the Tongan owned TCC company finally got around to shutting off the connection. Now, while I do blame PC for failing to pay and failing to recognize they were not paying (for, you know, a year and a half), to be fair, the bills have been being sent to…well, we’re not actually sure where. Anyways, the debt has been paid, and once again, we have access to the wonderful world wide web.

After a morning of rain and hand-washing laundry, I headed into town last Saturday to pick up some supplies for myself and my neighbors and to stop by and visit with Kate and Bret. They had, through some miracle of fate, secured an avocado (holy crap- an item of produce that’s not a banana!) and we formed grand plans to eat said avocado together later that evening. As I had a few kilos of rapidly dethawing chicken in my backpack for my neighbors, I decided to bike home, drop off my purchases, and return to Pangai. However, when I arrived home, I astutely noticed that there were feather scattered all over my yard. Upon closer inspection, I deduced them to be chicken feathers and, walking around to the backyard, I saw a very dead, very naked chicken in a pot of boiling water over a coconut fire. My neighbor, Le’o, came over to me with a huge grin on his face.

A few weeks prior I had been talking to Le’o and Lupe and they asked me why I don’t eat meat- a very fair questions, especially in Tonga. I did my best to explain the environmental concerns I have with eating meat and the volume that is consumed, but really tried to focus in on my complaints with the meat industry in most first world countries. I told them how, most of the time, animals are kept in cages and squalid living conditions, and, to prevent illness, are given lots of chemicals, and how the food they are given is often full of chemicals as well. For these reasons, I explained, I stopped eating meat.

As Le’o came up to me, smiling, he started to tell me about how he’s been thinking a lot about our conversation about why I don’t eat meat, and how he agrees and thinks that my reasons are good ones. But, again stressing how much he’d been thinking about it, he’d found a solution: I could eat moa fakaTonga! Tongan chicken, namely the chickens that run around everywhere, is distinctly different from the chicken that is bought frozen at the Chinese shops, which is imported from NZ, and usually only eaten on special occasions or in times when there are no other options, though usually after all the neighborhood dogs have been finished up. Tongan chicken, he said, is not kept in cages- indeed they roam about where ever they please, even in my house- and aren’t given any chemicals, they are organic chickens (his phrase). They only eat coconut and grass, and none of this has any chemicals either. Therefore, I could happily eat meat again in Tonga!

I was so touched by how amazingly thoughtful and kind this gesture was: not only had he seriously listened to what I was saying before, but he thought about it and analyzed it, quite literally, and found a solution. The thought that maybe I wouldn’t want to eat meat never factored into this- after all, who wouldn’t want to eat meat!?- and it wasn’t anything I even mentioned. So, I sat down to a meal of Tongan chicken with my neighbors, and was pleasantly surprised. Once I got over the whole “crap I’m eating meat” thing, I realized it may have been the best chicken I’ve ever had. They are pretty active birds, but they eat a lot of coconut, high in saturated fat, and as a result the meat was incredibly moist and tender. And Le’o and Lupe were so happy that I enjoyed it, they want to kill a chicken every month or two to share with me. I just feel so lucky to have such kind neighbors, so willing to feed me and make me happy here.

In fact, just this week, my village has brought me the following foods to make sure I’m staying well fed and getting “sino lelei” (sino means both “body” and “fat”…obvi): octopus boiled in coconut milk, raw sea urchin, a fish head, and, my favorite, ota ika- raw fish “cooked” with lime juice in coconut milk. So, in conclusion, as added incentive for all of you to trek on out to the South Pacific, I can safely promise you many culinary experiences, including the best “free-range” chicken you’ve probably ever tasted!