Fiji-Qamea: Lovo-Dinner

The culinary highlight was the 'Lovo Night'. In a Lovo, the food is buried in the ground with hot stones and cooked that way. There was a big fish that was caught on a boat tour with guests, chicken, sweet potatoes, and banana leaves cooked in coconut milk. The fish and chicken were intricately woven in palm leaves, while the rest was simply wrapped in aluminum foil.

For the earth oven, a not very deep hole of about 1 meter in diameter was first dug, in which stones were heated through a proper fire with firewood. After the stones were hot, the glowing firewood was removed and the food was placed on the hot stones in the hole. Covered with palm fronds, banana leaves, foil (a bit tacky, but it works better) and soil, the food cooked for about an hour. It looked quite funny as the steam came up from the ground.