How To Eat Local on Guam

Every once in a while you find yourself in a new place experiencing new things and it changes your life. Sounds dramatic, but I can honestly say that happened the day I took a Thai cooking lesson in Chiang Mai. As I looked out over the sea of familiar and unfamiliar looking produce, I realized how many of the unfamiliar things I have seen at the local produce stands on Guam. Especially here where produce is shipped in from 9,000 miles away (sometimes farther - scary!) I like the idea, in theory, of eating produce that was grown on island (why on earth does the commissary sell mangos from Mexico?!). But I've always brushed the idea aside since the kind of stuff grown here is so foreign (round green eggplant?) or unappealing (bitter melon?). If I bought the stuff, I would have no idea how to even begin preparing it let alone know how to make a fabulous meal out of it.

Enter Thai cooking class. Apparently all it takes is a little demo, a little Q&A, and magically some of this tropical island produce moves from the "unknown" column to the "I can rock that" column. In a bold step after coming back to Guam, I found myself at the local produce stand in one of the major off-base grocery stores. I bought a bag of long beans (above), a papaya (massive), and a bag of boonie peppers. I also picked up a strange brown bud the produce dept. guy told me was a banana heart (I have to give this Chamorro man props for not responding, "It's a banana heart, duh."). I followed up my question with "What do you do with it?" and he told me, "You cook it with beef strips and coconut cream. It is delicious. Ask your local friends and they can give you a recipe." I bit my tongue as I actively refrained blurting out "Or Google?" So yes, I googled. And I got this absolutely incredible blogpost for a recipe for banana hearts in coconut cream. I will refrain from reposting the recipe (which we substituted beef tenderloin instead of pork, as the grocer recommended), but here are some pictures of this unexpected little treat:

Peel off the bud leaves... reminds me of a magnolia bud

Once the bud leaves are peeled away, slice down the length of the heart, 

then turn long strips sideways and chop into chunks (which fall apart easily)

Disproportionately terrible picture of an incredible entree

Toss into a wok with ginger, garlic, tenderloin strips, chilis, vinegar, and coconut cream. What results is an incredible melting of flavors, new and old, into something so unique I can't quite describe it. The banana heart adds a nuttiness to bring down the supersweetness of the coconut cream. It is reminiscent of the heavenly combination of bananas and walnuts in banana nut bread, except with with beef and ginger, and a fiery background of chilis, all sopping into sticky calrose rice. In a word, it is heaven. And it's just a shame they haven't figured out a way to do scratch n sniff blog pictures, because this picture doesn't even come CLOSE to depicting the decadence. Banana hearts = total win.

Next up was the papaya. I needed a papaya to make green papaya salad. Problem was the first papaya I picked was a ripe one. I googled to find out how to pick out a green one (rule of thumb: the harder the better) and headed back out to the commissary, where I found another table of local produce.

Ripe papaya... which I tried to still use (since it cost $9)

by making it into a fruit juice... and failed miserably (too gritty... ick)

My second papaya was perfect! FYI - friends make cooking local a lot more fun. 

This is Ashley hacking away at the green papaya, making the base for the salad.

And this is Jen about to attack the long beans (they are 2-3 ft. long each!),

also for the papaya salad.

When we were done, our papaya salad looked like this... and tasted just like Thailand! Papaya salad is bitter and sweet and limey and crunchy and peanutty and spicy and overall so refreshing and delicious. Again, I can't think of anything else from my palate that I could compare this one to. Recipe for those who do not have access to my Thailand cookbook: Here

Round off the beef & banana hearts and papaya salad with fresh lumpia

and peanut sauce. Recipes are from the Thai class I took on Guam last month

Quite the feast! Everything was sooo delish. 

I was so happy we had leftovers so I could enjoy more of it the next day too... yum!

Someone please invent scratch n sniff internet

One last adventure in cooking local came on Thursday. I picked up all the items to make my favorite penang curry at my (other) friend Ashley's house. One of the key ingredients I remembered from my class was kaffir lime, which is a tricky one because it's actually not a lime at all, or at least that's not the part you use. You use the leaves, which if you ever tear one off and smell it, you will realize what makes restaurant quality Thai curries so insatiable... fresh kaffir lime. It's a limier, mintier version of basil, but again, that doesn't do it justice. I knew I hadn't seen kaffir lime in the produce section. Or at the local market right off base (Agat Kimchee Market - where I got palm sugar, red curry paste, rice paper, and some other fun essentials for our meal). So I took a guess, and on a whim I stopped by the home center. Just. My. Luck. There was a kaffir lime plant in the nursery just waiting to become my secret ingredient to perfect Thai curries. (Okay, not so secret, huh?).

As we ate the savory curry mixed with chicken and *local* eggplant over rice, I couldn't help but marvel at how amazing it was that little old me had created such an incredible mix of flavors. It really tasted like the signature dish I get at my favorite Thai restaurant. Unbelievable! Thank you Mr. Kaffir Lime, our newest edition to the Herb Jungle.

So what have I learned about how to cook local on Guam? This is my advice:
1) Try local produce. DO IT!! No, really.
2) If you don't know what you are looking at, ask someone. If they can't tell you a recipe, google can (duh).
3) Try a new grocery store if you can't find what you are looking for. And what you can't find in the produce section you may find in the garden center... even better!
4) Cook the way the locals do... together with other people. It makes the process a lot more fun, especially when you are experimenting with new flavors. Plus you can celebrate your victories together, over a fabulous meal of course.
5) Don't be afraid to fail. We had NO idea what the beef/banana hearts dish was going to taste like, but we went full speed ahead and were handsomely rewarded for taking the risk. (Not gonna lie, we also had a backup pizza in the freezer... just in case!).

Tips for Guammies: pick up local produce at the commissary, Payless (it's NOT a shoe store here), Agat Kimchee Market, Tuesday night Agat market, roadside stands (this is getting technical). How great that it will have traveled 20 miles (at most) from garden to fridge, instead of 9,000! Well worth paying more for (explain that one) for the amount of good being done for both the planet and your taste buds.

Tips for USA friends: Come visit! (duh)