Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-11-30
THINGS TO EAT.
They Are Plenty, and Easy to Get, In
the Society Islands.

the Society ISLANDS.
About 40 kinds of fruit, including nuts
grow in Tahiti. OF these, fei (fayee) OIL
plantain; vi Tahiti; mountain banana
AHA, small, inferior fruit somewhat
like an apple; and the Otaheite chestnut
Unecarpus edulis) are indigenous. As
breadfruit was found here in abundance
by Captain Cook on his first visit in 1863
it is regarded as also Indigenous. 1t is
interesting to note that the British ship
Bounty, made famous by the mutiny OF
her crew who became the first settlers
on the island of Pitcairn, came to Tahiti
in 17SS to take breadfruit to other tropi-
cal possessions of Great Britain.
Until the Chinese shopkeepers and
bakers throughout the island of Tahiti
taught the natives in the last three or
four decades to eat the bread made OF
American flower they lived almost wholly
on fruits and fish, which are still their
principal articles of food. The fruit most
eaten by the natives is plantain. which
they call fei The plantain is of the same
genus as the banana. Both are perennial
heIbaoceouS plants of treelike size with
immense leaves, each plant bearing one
bunch OF fruit at the extreme top and
then dying to the ground to be succeed
ed by another plant. The fruit of the
plantain points upward, while that Of the
banana points downward on the stem.
They are similar in shape but differ in
color, the banana being yellow and the
plantain yellowish red. Both flourish
and ripen the year round
MI OF fin1o of
diet comes breadfrut. This fruit grows
as large as child's head. 1t is round or
oblong in shape of a green color, the
outside being rough and differentiated.
The common method of preparing it is to
cut in half, remove the single oblong
seed and then bake it on hot stones on
which shreds of banana plants are first
placed, the whole being covered by large
leaves to retain the heat. In this man
ner the natives cook plantain and other
municipalities, fish and meats, espec-
tally young pigs whole, one Of the fav-
orite dishes of Tahiti. The cooked bread
fruit looks and tastes somewhat like an
inferior white, mealy sweet potato while
plantain looks and tastes in spite of a
little ascridity rather more like yellow,
soft and watery, baked sweet potato.
Both are good substitutes for bread
The natives often eat oranges, which
are plentiful, with breadfruit as a sub
stitute for tea or coffee at their early
morning meal NfanGoes of many vare-
ties abound. They vary in size from Il
few ounces to two pounds. In color they
are yellow. red or green or Il blending of
two of these colors: in shape some are
nd ctil al
Kidneys shaped, most OF them being
somewhat flattened: in taste some have
the flavor of turpentine others deli
cious SAVIOR suggestive of a rich, mellow
peach. They are usually eaten by cut
ting off the part on each side of the long,
fiat seed and using a spoon for these
parts, but the middle portion contain
ing the seed must he taken in the fingers.
This fine fruit is frequently seen hang
ing by long. slender stems like fruit on a
Christmas tree. There are hundreds of
mango trees in Papeete, and in the
height of the season many bushels of
this luscious fruit are carted off daily In
the removal of rubbish from the streets
There is, too. an almost endless variety
of bananas which vary in size from the
little fig banana, the size of finger, to
the largest and best of all. the Somoan
which attains an extreme length of 10
inches and weight of two-thirds of a
pound. A banana should not be eaten
until it is fully ripe, just before it begins
to decay. The natives like green bana-
mas boiled. In the Austral Islands, one
of the five groups in this consular dis
trict. bananas are dried in the sun and
put up in packets wrapped tightly in
pandanus leaves.
The pineapple of the Society Islands ara
OF fine quality. Guavas. one of the best
fruits for making jellies, grow almost
everywhere and lines are so plentiful
that they rot under the trees. Two lines
and an orange make IL delicious drinl,
Tor tropical country. The avocado
'alliSator pearl grows to perfection in
these islands, where it often attains a
weight of four pounds. 1t is of a dark
green color even when ripe, of the shape
Of Bartlett pear, though it sometimes
has rather long neck like a rourd IT
has one large seed shaped like a bows
spinning top. This rich, buttery fruit is
pest when made into salad or eaten
with seasoning of olive or other sweet
Oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. One of the
best Tahiti fruits is the papaw or papa-
va, the fruit of the carica papaya tree.
which has a branchless stem from 90 to
~ feet high, crowned with tuft of large,
lonS-stalked, palmately libed leaves. The
lrult is borne on short stems close to the
body of the tree. 1t resembles in shane,
color and taste an obOng muskmelor
and weighs from one to five pounds The
numerous small black seeds contained in
large cavity like that of the muskmelon
nave the quality of pepsin. The water
melon and muskmelons of these islands
ane not generally as good as those of the
United States, though one may now and
then get a cantaloupe or watermelon of
hne quality. Both the soursop and GUS
tard apple grow here. the latter being a
delicious fruit. 1t is about the size of an
orange. slightly ovoid in shape, pale
green in color the surface being dis
tnctly reticulated. It's soft white pulp
is eaten with spoon. What the natives
call wi Tahiti is the fruit of the large
tree, Spondias duscis. 1t is about the
size of an orange and highly priced by
the natives. 1t is eaten either raw or