The Fresh Factor: Going Bananas

This Fresh Factor article about bananas posted last week. And now the timing of the headline couldn't be more perfect. This, friends, is why we are going bananas this week:



Only five weeks until go time...

The Fresh Factor: Thai Papaya Salad

It's hard to believe that my trip to Thailand with Jen was almost a year ago. Thailand was a special trip for me in a number of ways, but here's a biggie. The whole premise of traveling to other places to learn how other people live and work and eat and sleep... the whole premise of traveling abroad is that you might learn something new... and that learning some new thing might somehow change you. Taking a cooking class in Thailand was the catalyst that changed the way I think about food... specifically, the sourcing of food. It's something I had always been aware of before, but it was not something I made an effort to act on prior to going to Thailand.

In taking action, I was able to pair a writing opportunity with this new passion for eating local, creating an opportunity to learn and even teach more about the food and farming available locally on Guam. My aim has been to encourage others to eat fresh, local produce and seafood, not just because it costs less or tastes better (it does!), but because it makes sense... for our families, our island, and our planet.

So this Guam Guide post is no ordinary Thai Papaya Salad recipe. This was a moment in time where everything changed. Who knew a simple green papaya from a small market in Chiang Mai harnessed so much power?

The Fresh Factor: Salute to the Fish Co-Op

The Fish Co-Op is one of my all-time favorite places on Guam. I go in there at least once a week and am fairly proud of the fact that the guys behind the counter know me by name. They also know I'm going to ask, "Is it fresh?" They almost always roll their eyes and say yes... but every once in a while they don't answer and instead go look in the back to see if something else just came in :)

For any Guammies who are reading, this is a great place to be a consistent tipper, as it has paid off in a number of ways.... like the employees' willingness to check the back for me (when they don't have out what I want). Sometimes they surprise me and throw in a free tray of poki, which is absolutely to die for. Oh, I am going to miss this little market.

Here's my write-up on the Guam Guide, accompanied by a lemongrass ginger marinade recipe that turned out to be pretty fantastic. Enjoy!

The Fresh Factor: Cilantro Solution!

This is the next stop on my farm tour of Guam... Marianne's Nursery, home of culantro, the magic secret to getting fresh cilantro flavor out here. Loving this gig! Check out this most recent article at The Guam Guide!

The Fresh Factor: Hydroponic Lettuce Farm

I certainly had no idea when I landed here (almost two years ago!) that one of the highlights for me on this island would be touring farms. I went to a hydroponic lettuce farm on Monday. Here's the write-up. I am still amazed at how absolutely perfect each head of lettuce is that comes out of the hydroponic system. Perfectly sculpted and packed with nutrients. Thanks to Grow Guam Hydroponic for the tour and to The Guam Guide for the opportunity to feature some of the awesome things taking place behind the scenes. Have a great weekend everyone!

The Fresh Factor: Watermelon!

Latest Fresh Factor post, including a recipe for watermelon salad... yum!

The Fresh Factor: Island Fruitfulness

Lots to love about summer produce around here. Enjoy the ginger mango salsa recipe. Pair it with fish or plantain chips (new at the Commissary!) and it's perfectly paleo :)

The Fresh Factor: No-Brainer Avocados

I am in that writer bind where I have more stories and pictures to share than I have capacity to organize them. So instead of China, here's a Fresh Factor filler. On Avocados :) China coming soon... I hope!

The Fresh Factor: Unlocking Boonie Bee Honey

Guam Lock & Key - Your one-stop shop for lock fixes, used books, and boonie bee honey! OOG!

Thanks to Abby at Seaweed and Sassafras for the awesome recipe idea and tips! 

The Fresh Factor: Farmer's Market Dinner Party

Farmer's Market Dinner Party

Featuring grilled yellowfin tuna, roasted veggies, and mango garden salad with calamansi poppyseed vinaigrette.

The Fresh Factor: Farmer's Market Q&A

The Fresh Factor: Farmer's Market Q & A

Pictures and stories from Manila coming soon!

Fresh Factor: Calamansi Paradise

The freshness continues...

March at Home

I don't know about you, but for me March is one of those months that tends to drag on a bit. Maybe it's because February always flies by, extra short, sprinkled with holidays, and jam packed with birthday fun and 3-day weekend trips. Or maybe I still associate March with being the last month of deployment to trudge through, which is never fast enough. Well, obviously time is going way too quickly out here because I seriously cannot believe it's April already. In addition to painting a mural with my sister, watching Nick crush the XTERRA, and starting a new foodie column, we did a bunch of other stuff this month that I haven't even mentioned. So here, for you, a photo dump of the random things we did here on Guam, home together for an entire month... something I don't think has happened since we moved here!

 The first weekend of March was 30-Hour Famine with some other youth groups from around the island. Here are me and some of my flock at a beach clean-up at Tarague Beach. At this point we hadn't eaten for almost 24 hours. And we slept on the floor. I am wondering at what age you are officially too old to be a youth director, because I am seriously starting to think it's 29.

 

 Nick and some of his coworkers put a team together for the golf scramble tournament (best ball) against the other commands from around base... and they won! Together they shot an impressive 63! I was so shocked when Nick showed up at home with a trophy. They even used some of his shots, including some clutch putts. They also did a nice job of coordinating their outfits...

I have been cooking like crazy. Other than Court being here, I can count on two fingers the number of times Nick and I have eaten at a restaurant this month. We hosted our dinner club one night and did a farmer's market theme, using as many locally grown or acquired foods as possible, like this yellowfin tuna from the co-op prepared Mediterranean style with herbs from our garden... yum! We are still eating paleo after 6 months. I will have to post some of my favorite recipes soon. They are delicious and easy whether you care to be paleo or not.

 

At said dinner party, Nick decided to get in a bonus workout with our friend's son Noah. 

 We hosted our rummage sale at church to raise money for our Manila trip. The sale was extremely successful again this year thanks to a big furniture donation by one of our many awesome families.

I competed in a QUAD. What's that, you ask? A QUAD is a triathalon with a fourth competition... Swimming, biking, running, and kayaking! It was a lot of fun and a fantastic workout.

Last week Nick took me to play at a new golf course I have never been to, Onward Talofofo Country Club on the east side of the island. There really is no comparison between this and the other rinky dink courses we usually play here. The fairways and greens were impressively manicured, and the cliffside views of the surrounding jungles were stunning. I could have spent all afternoon here just riding around in the cart staring at nature. The golf was pretty fun too, and unlike the other courses that have chickens, this course had some very friendly ducks.

 I've also been doing a lot of singing! Our music director Kevin and I have worked together to put together a number of really inspiring arrangements for Lent, adapted from the album by New York Hymns (free download!).

And as for things I don't have pictures of, this month some friends and I started a workout group on the playground in our neighborhood. Crossfit Lockwood meets Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. We use the swing set, monkey bars, yoga mats, and steps to put various workouts together. Despite being really hard, the workouts are actually a lot of fun in a small group like this. There's great accountability, built-in cheerleaders, tons of workout variety, plus the bonus of getting stronger and faster along the way.

It's so strange how this island warps and transforms itself every so often. I am loving my weekly routine here and only wish it weren't making the weeks fly by so quickly. Won't be long (only a few days actually!) until this season at home comes to an end and another season of travel begins!

The Fresh Factor: How To Start an Herb Jungle

Check out my latest Fresh Factor post on The Guam Guide

The Fresh Factor

A few months ago I was contacted by the owner of the Guam Guide. She had been following Peyt's Island and wondered if I would be interested in writing for them. Well, that was back in December when I was off island for several weeks. Once back on island, I hit the ground running with one thing after the next to get our Manila and Saipan trips going. Then we went to Palau. I also had two rounds of visitors and some major fundraisers at church. Given my desire to simplify this year, I couldn't justify adding a new commitment to my plate, even if sharing my zeal for exploring Guam did sound like fun.

This past week, with my major church commitments behind me, no visitors lined up to come, and no Facebook to distract me, I pitched an idea to the Guam Guide. I proposed doing a series of columns focusing on the fresh foods that are available here on island. This is something I have been passionate about ever since returning from Thailand, but I didn't know where to take it. Peyt's Island isn't really the right place, since my audience here is mostly Stateside, where it won't do you a bit of good to know what the Agat market has to offer. I didn't want to start a whole new blog and take the focus away from my original purpose of keeping in touch. So it dawned on me that the Guam Guide would be a perfect forum for exploring this new interest in my remaining months here. The right topic for the right audience... and finally, the right timing.

So, I'd like to introduce my new column, the Fresh Factor. My first post is boldly titled "How to Cook Local on Guam." I say boldly because this headline makes me sound like some sort of an expert, when I myself am still very much learning the "how" part of that statement. But I am really interested in this and have picked up some great information and ideas that could at least help other people get started. I will be linking the articles here as they appear, so feel free to take a look. But Peyt's Island will stay the same, sporadically recounting our adventures here. That, is, until September when it all comes to an end. That's right, we've got orders (yes, actual paper orders... crazy). But for now, I am excited about this new venture that will have me continuing to make the most of my time here by branching out into new local flavors. Let the deliciousness begin!

Back to Earth

So I've been home from Korea for two weeks now and all I've talked about is the one hour of my life that involved jumping out of a plane. It was a memorable hour, no question, but I'm sure you are all dying to know how I've been spending the rest of my time...

...

Okay so maybe not, which is good because I don't have a lot to show for myself these past two weeks, at least nothing blogtastic. Nick has been home, which has been awesome. In fact, he beat me home. He arrived back on Guam from his trip before I got back from Korea. Which was of questionable judgement since I had already planned a high school girls slumberparty at our house (thinking he'd be gone) for that Saturday night back, then a going away party on Sunday night. He managed to fit right in to all of it. He even let us paint his nails and do his makeup (just kidding...).

I've talked before about the revolving door of friends on Guam... since people here are always in transition, you are constantly meeting new people while saying goodbye to others you just got close to. Jen is one of those people I just clicked with. We both had the time and interest in traveling, and turns out she made a fantastic travel buddy. But her time on Guam was limited, as her fiance-to-be had already moved back to the States, her job teaching English for a local college had ended, and she was just biding her time before heading back to start her new life. I was so happy to be the one to host her going away party at our pastor's house above the church.

We did an Asian-themed potluck so Jen could have a couple of her favorites before leaving town (I made two dishes from our Thai cooking class!). The spread was delish and the entertainment was fantastic. As Jen is a fellow poetry lover and tea drinker, we did open mic night, coffee shop style. Her friends even brought a mic and sound system. The rest of the night was filled with insightful poetry readings, spontaneous song dedications, and even a drum circle. Nick even wrote and performed an original poem! You had to be there, but let's just say, he got the most laughs hands down! Jen flew to LA and within a day or two, we got the happy news that she is now engaged. And so I've lost my travel buddy... for now :) We are already talking about planning a girls weekend once I move back stateside! All in all, it was a fantastic going away party, and I have to say, one of my all-time favorite nights on Guam to date.

Drum circle 

Nick's amazing poem

We spent last weekend at a retreat put on by Nick's command, which essentially amounted to a weekend at the Hyatt in the touristy part of town and three days where I didn't have to cook a meal (score!). It was also a weekend with many of our friends here all together, and I must say they brought in some pretty great speakers. One was a sleep doctor and former team guy who confirmed our suspicions that our guys get terrible sleep. He even had a solution for us, which we've been trying out all week. One of them was to completely darken your room. Nick came home and immediately duct taped a thick sheet over the windows and we now refer to our room as the bear cave. It is dark! So dark I did not wake up until close to 9 one morning this past week... whoops :)

People kept telling Nick he looks like Ben Stiller... weird!

Another speaker was Sarah Frogoso, the author of Everyday Paleo, the blog and cookbook by the same name. While we weren't too impressed with her presentation (because what she chose to talk about was completely irrelevant to our lives), I did find some of her nutrition ideas interesting... interesting enough to try it out for a few days. For those not familiar with this trendy "new" way of eating, the idea behind Paleo is to eat the way cavemen did tens of thousands of years ago in the paleolithic era before we had things like partially hydrogenated soybean oil and high fructose corn syrup. In other words, eat real foods in their most basic form, mostly meats (organic if possible, though it's really not here), lots of veggies and some fruit. For those of you wondering what's missing, that leaves out grains, dairy and everything that resembles dessert (aaaahh!!). Basically all the good stuff. Who can imagine a world without cheese!?!

Picture does not go with surrounding text. Just go with it

We definitely aren't interested in a diet, per se, but I did see the benefit of making an effort to eat more healthfully, especially out on Guam where, as I've mentioned, you already have to make an effort to do so. Might as well cut out the sugars and processed junk food and focus on the good stuff. So I made a few of her recipes this week, and I have to say they were overall pretty good. I was shocked at how good her slow cooked chicken (a whole chicken) turned out, as everything I've made in the crock pot to date has turned to stewy mush. Oh, but don't think we will be Paleo purists or anything. There is definitely butter melting in the pan with our sweet potatoes at the moment... I'm all for living longer and having more energy, but you still gotta live while you're here. Plus it dawned on me that the entire sacrament of communion is not Paleo, and I don't think the good Lord would have given us a reminder of Him that was something our somewhat evolved bodies aren't able to properly digest. Am I right?

"Not Paleo"

One other thing I did this week was take a cooking class... which we will call the opposite of Paleo. MWR has a monthly Culinary Bootcamp class and this month was focused on Thanksgiving. Given that my parents are coming out (!) I figured I would probably be hosting this year, so might be good to learn some tips. My friend Ashley (from Texas!) came with me. We made all the traditional Thanksgiving dishes... roasted a turkey, green bean casserole, candied yams (which vaguely resembled sweet potatoes at the end), stuffing, mashed potatoes, and gravy from the turkey drippings. The best part was watching professional chefs show you how to do things properly in the kitchen, like carve a turkey or make a roax (I didn't know what that was either... and in fact, when I first heard the word, I thought "That must be from Louisiana," and the chef was like, "This French word..." Oh yeah...). The worst part was watching mountains of butter melt into every single dish. Based on the nutritional talk and cooking demonstration over the weekend, I felt like I'd gone decades backward in nutrition information... which is ironic because technically Paleo should be multi-millenia ahead, but I'm sure you catch my drift. Don't think I'll be making any of these recipes, per se, (though the triple pumpkin layer cake is tempting), but I will have a much more efficient way of getting our turkey from the platter to the serving tray this year. Then again, I might just have my dad do it, since he will BE here! Woohoo!

Other than that, just been hanging out with friends, working out, cooking, reading... uhh, I'm trying to pad this list because I really haven't done much this week! I started a new Bible study, Becoming a Woman of Simplicity, a few weeks ago. It has me focusing on spending my time doing important things, but also making time to rest and not to get busy just for the sake of being busy. It's definitely a message these ears need to hear, and I've really enjoyed my slower paced week. Gotta rest up. After all, might not be long until I'm on the road again :)

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)

Sidebar: Fresh Garnish

 Due to the amount of detail required to document this, this portion of our cooking class gets its own feature. While we were waiting for our sticky rice to soak, Suit taught us how to make absolutely beautiful garnishes. We started by slicing tomatoes into tiny 1mm thin slices, then lining them up precisely in a line one after the next. Before we even finished step 1, Suit had to fix mine because it was "not beautiful."

Waiting to find out how ridiculous Step 2 will be

Step 2: Roll the tomato slices carefully together.

Step 3: Suit tweaks all areas that are "not beautiful" until you get this:

Wow! Why do I have a feeling I will never be able to replicate this??

Now make leaves. 

Step 1: Cut a cucumber into transparent, paper-thin, perfect slices

 

Step 2: Assemble slices perfectly curving around the plate while also maintaining 

perfect angle and distance from each neighboring slice. 

Step 3: Suit fixes any slices (which, let's be honest, is most of them) that are "not beautiful."

Step 4: Create a "skirt" for the rose out of a lettuce leaf and voila!  

Beautiful food art... that we kind of helped make...

Beautiful! 

("Not beautiful!")