Vegan Vudi Vakasoso

A longer and more detailed description

This is our second time making a Pacific Island recipe, and I’ll be honest, I was a bit sceptical, not because of the recipe itself, but because I find that the Pacific Island recipes require ingredients I don’t generally have or ask questions I’m not prepared to answer. I do not happen to own a stone oven, and that you are asking me intimidates me. But! There is very little that can go wrong with just simmering some bananas in coconut milk, right?

Correct. This is very easy. We’ve got this.

Start by chopping your bananas (after peeling them, but come on now). While you chop them, you can heat up your coconut milk, if you’re feeling brave and up for multi-tasking, though be warned, mine belched coconut at me. Your mileage may vary.

Once your coconut milk is done with its merry little belch, add your sugar and spices, and give everything a nice mixy mix. Add your bananas, cover them in the belchy milk, and let them all simmer together in a happy little tropical bath. Wander off, live your life, dream of tasty desserts, and come back in ten minutes. Devour your new tasty dessert. Da kana!

Substitutions and Suggestions

For the bananas - A vudi is actually a specific type of native Fijian banana that can best be described as a cross between a banana and a plantain. You’re never going to believe this, but they are shockingly hard to find in the Netherlands, so I chose to substitute in a banana. However, you could also substitute in a plantain and cook for longer; however, I preferred the sweetness of the banana.
For the spices - I chose to add cloves, but I think there’s a lot of room here to play with spices. Nutmeg is a good addition here too, especially if you actually remember to have it in your spice cabinet.

What I changed to make it vegan

sometimes i’m lazy and that’s okay

but i’m going to be honest when i pick the banana dessert it’s one of those times

What to listen to while you make this

I bopped much too hard to the absolutely delightful sound of Rosiloa, and specifically Raude. It’s a great vibe, and I highly recommend it.

A longer and more detailed explanation

Fijian cuisine, as you might imagine by virtue of Fiji being an island nation, has a strong basis in seafood and the tubers and greens local to the island. Coconuts feature heavily, as do octopus, squid, and a wide variety of fish. However, modern Fijian cuisine is heavily informed, not only by the ingredients local to the islands, but by the long spectre of colonialism, and its impact on the demographics of the islands. In addition to the native vegetables and seafood, Fijian cuisine is also defined by rotis, curries, and masala tea. The story of why Fijian cuisine is the way it is is a fascinating one.

Fiji was likely first populated by Austronesian peoples approximately in approximately 3500 BCE. These indigenous Fijians shaped the island, filling it with banana plantations, wooden aqueducts, forts, and trade routes. Fiji became one island among the many in a Polynesian community, unique, but also part of a greater cultural whole.

Image of the first European city in Fiji, Levuka, in 1842

While the first European to contact the people of Fiji was the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in 1643, it wasn’t until the arrival of British, American, and French whalers in the early 19th century that Fiji had consistent contact with Europeans. Fijians worked with these European whalers, processing whale bodies for shipment around the world, and getting paid in firearms, which some then used to rob the European whalers. However, as the nearby islands of Tonga and Tahiti fell under French dominion, there was an increasing sense of pressure on the part of the British to ensure their Pacific ports remained under their control. This, paired with the drive to “civilise” the Fijians, led to a colonisation campaign. English missionaries converted islanders in a process known as lotu, partially voluntarily, and partially by force. When a civil war broke out between Fiji’s chiefs in the 1840s, both the English and Americans intervened, supplying the chiefs sympathetic to the Europeans with weapons and supplies. By 1855, the coastal chiefs had been coerced into converting to Christianity, with the American and British backed chief, Seru Epinsa Cakobau, being declared king of Fiji. The rivers were poisoned, the sacred trees and temples demolished, and by the 1860s, Fiji saw a massive influx of settlers from the United States and Australia, hoping to establish vast cotton plantations. These settlers had the backing of the British and American navies, and so, bit by bit, Fiji became a plantation and a colony in all but name. In 1874, its colonisation became official, with Cakobau ceding the islands to the British.

Cakobau, last king of Fiji

However, cotton did not remain a cash crop for long. With the price of cotton collapsing with the invention of the cotton gin and its increasing availability, plantation owners on Fiji turned instead to sugar cane. Sugar cane is a deeply labour-intensive crop, requiring large amounts of labour and resources. However, due to a measles outbreak in 1876 killing a third of the population of Fiji, paired with the practice of abducting Fijians to serve as enslaved labour on other islands, meant that there was an insufficient population on Fiji to support these sugar cane plantations. Instead, British landowners shipped people from the Indian subcontinent to Fiji, disguising the terms of the arrangement and consigning them to near slavery.

Indo-Fijian workers (Source: girmitiya.girmit.org)

As with every case of migration we’ve discussed in this series, though, the culture of those brought to Fiji did not die. Instead, it became integrated into the landscape of Fiji. Fiji Hindi grew from a lingua franca between diverse groups of immigrants, Fijians, and Europeans to become its own, independent language. Staples of Hindustani cuisine became ingratiated into the Fijian landscape, with roti and curries incorporating local ingredients to become something new. Today, half the population of Fiji is descended from these workers, with Indo-Fijians having played and continuing to play roles in the history of Fiji.

This is not to say there is a perfect integration in Fiji. The communities of indigenous Fijians and Indo-Fijians have historically remained separated from one another, with there having been numerous attempts to marginalise Indo-Fijians or expatriate them back to India. However, in 2010, the Fijian government issued a declaration, establishing firmly that the future of the islands were a shared future; all those of Fiji are Fijians, regardless of their ancestry.

The long arm of colonialism continues to cast a shadow over Fiji. However, piece by piece and bite by bite, the essential nature of humanity to overcome oppression and remain resilience shines through. Modern Fijian cuisine is a blend of the traditional and the new, creating something unique and delicious.