The Marquesas: simple life au poisson cru

The Marquesas is one of those places where things have to be maximun simplified.  The locals know it well, and after a week here we know it too. Lately, like my recipes witness, simplicity has not been my religion; but the new latitude had hit me and suddenly what was essential, today feels exaggerate and almost ridiculous; everything.

Walking by the beach we see a group of people hanging out over the reef, the tide is very low, they barely wet their feet. Our first impression is that they are working. Fisherwoman? Shellfish diggers? Overcoming shyness and the linguistic barrier we get closer to find out what they are doing. They have place a kind of a production station, there is a table with two containers with water, lime halves and some cloths. The catch: dark spider crabs. The first person in the chain break them in halves; the second one dives it inwater; the third -and there is where we lined up- squeezes them, put some lime drops on it and suck them out. Their teeth are already black, they must have been there for quite a while; I don't blame them it's delicious. Each bite feels like a plunge in the sea, in this brownish and sharky sea where it is wise to lean for imaginary plunges. Nor shellfish diggers or fisherwoman, it was just a family picnic in the purest Marquesan style. When we left they gave us a ziplog bag with a few critters for the road.

We have been anchored in Nuku Hiva for a week, trying to fix the sailboat power generator. It is important because in our next destination, the Tuamotus archipelago, rain is scarce and without generator we cannot use the reverse osmosis system to obtain fresh water. We have been in the bay for a week and we already know everybody in town, everybody in town knows us; and know that our generator is broken and that first we thought it was the capacitor, that then we discarded that and now suspect that is the diot.

Curious fact: we tried the spider crabs back in Kaimana, a few hours after our encounter with the Picnic and their magic was gone. Seems like this delicacy is only such when eaten in situ.

Poisson cru au lait de coco

Poisson cru au lait de coco, is one of the French Polynesian delicious food. With Marquesan stamp: simple. 

Cut pieces of white fish in strips or small squares, salt them, pour over some coconut milk; add cucumber or cabbage, carrot diced the way you like, finally a lime slice. Nothing else is needed. Very, very important: fresh fish, green lime and fresh coconut milk.

So much talking about the latitude, simplicity and the ten monks, but the truth is that I can't help myself: I changed the recipe a bit. I seasoned the greens with a little bit of chives, a few drops of lime and a small splash of coconut oil. Add to the fish lime zest and some togarashi. I have to say that the original recipe is simple as it ought to be. The other ingredients are just my craving, or yours or the market's salesmen.

400 gr white fish

1/2 cup of fresh coconut milk  

1 lime

Cabbage or cucumber

Carrot

Leaves of lettuce

Macho men style, without hair conditioner or water maker we decided to leave to the Tuamotu atolls. If locals over there can live without a water maker we can too, The swell conditions are perfect in the atoll we are going so Mauruuru! We are getting closer to the paradisiacal waves in this transoceanic trip.

This journey will be shorter than the previous; we calculate five days sailing with favorable wind. I'd love to stay some more days, to learn how to make those breadfruit chips my friends talked me about and go to the waterfalls. I am starting to feel the melancholy of leaving which is now so familiar. Mixed emotions dance over the sea as we weigh the anchor, but non stand out, all diced to take a dive. Curiosity about the next destination, feeling like surfing but the certitude of leaving an amazing place without exploring it, know it enough. Nothing to do, where the captain rules the sailor has no sway, less do the cook. It will be another time. 

Thank you Melissa Mahoney, who take all this nice pictures.