Cooking Class

We’d booked a Polynesian cookery class for Tuesday morning, so we were up with the lark(-ish) to get breakfast (This proved to be a mistake) before heading into town and finding the location on Rue de Paul Gauguin. He's kind of a big deal in these parts. 

We located the place easily in daylight, and were greeted by cheffe Albane and her assistant Marine. We met two women from the USA who were also taking the tour. She explained what we were going to do, then took us back downstairs into the market, where she chatted to, and shopped at, various stalls in the marché, all the while explaining the products we were selecting, and in some cases (e.g. the rambutan) trying before buying. She explained about the non-food parts of the marché, and we noted some places to visit again this afternoon. Then we headed back to her kitchen, and donned black aprons. “This isn’t Masterchef, is it?” I enquired. “Is one of us going to be sent home?”    

Albane explained about the uses of coconut and its importance to the economy of Polynesia. We kinda knew all this already, having been subjected to the same lecture in both Tonga and Rarotonga. We were preparing two sweet baked dishes, a cake and a macaroon, under Albane’s direction. Once these were in the oven, we moved on to fruits and savouries. I was in charge of cutting the thon (tuna) that we’d bought in the market to make the i’a ota, the local version of the dish known as ota ika or ceviche around the world – basically, raw fish marinaded in lime juice and coconut milk. Once that was prepared, we were ready to sit down and eat. It was still only 11:30 and I was not very hungry having had an omelette for breakfast, but we tried everything, including green mango with Chinese spices, the cake and macaroons we’d made earlier, and the i’a ota; also the local fruits, a type of pasty made with pâté, breadfruit, cooked banana and taro dipped in a marinade sauce of coconut and garlic. By far the hit of our efforts was the i’a ota, but the rest was good, too. We sat around, chatting and eating – Polynesians have no set courses, and don’t distinguish between sweet and savoury, so everything is served at once, and you can eat meat followed by sweet followed by savoury again. 

By about midday we were sated, so we took the cakes we’d made, boxed up by Albane, back to the hotel.

After a bit of a rest, we decided to head back to the market, and investigated shops selling t-shirts, wraps, and pearls (Tahiti is famous for its cultured pearls). We also visited the pearl museum and learnt about the history of pearls and  the cultured pearl-making process. As we made our way back to the hotel, the air felt distinctly muggy and hot, so we may be in for some thunderstorm activity…hopefully overnight so it will clear the air a bit.

At a little after five, we headed upstairs to the rooftop bar, called Reeftop (I see what they did there), to drink cocktails and watch the sunset.