Kenner Update: mifala i mekem laplap

Grace, Gretchen and I went to our friend Winnie's home to learn how to make Vanuatu's staple food - laplap. Laplap is made from taro, manioc, yam, wild yam, or banana which is ground to a mush and wrapped in island cabbage, add some coconut milk, and some kind of meat if you have it. Then wrap it all up in some laplap leaves and cook it on a special fire and voila, you have laplap. On this particular day we were making laplap after the fashion of the island of Tangoa. Here are a few pictures for you to get a better idea...

Here I am 'graonum' the wild yam the guys brought back with them from Ambrym. Our friend, Winnie, had specially requested them to bring some for her so this is what we used to make the laplap...

this is what the yam looks like when I am done with it... yum =)

Here Winnie, Grace, and I are building the laplap fire. You lay a bed of stones, build the fire evenly across the top of them and then add another layer of stones. After the fire burns down, the stones are heated.
They sure got a kick out of my attemp to split wood for the fire (sorry, no picture). Now, I am a country girl... I've split firewood before. They just do it a little different here. Lets just say I wasn't graceful, but niether did I chop off my leg - which is a good thing because we were a good half mile or so from any road. Winnie kept cautioning me to be carefull. I told her I would be fine... if I chopped my leg she could just carry be to the road... and she thought that was hilarious.

the wood is arranged in just the right way...

Grace and Beverly prepare the island cabbage...

The laplap is prepared on a bed of giant laplap leaves (like banana leaves). First goes a layer of island cabbage. Then the ground yam is spread out until it is about an inch thick, then more island cabbage and some sliced onions and salt went on top. After that the edges of the whole thing are folded over to make something like a big square pie. In this case, chicken wings were then arranged on top of that, and then Winnie squeezed a bunch of coconut milk over everything...

(the cheapest form of chicken at about $2 per pound)

When the laplap was assembled and the fire stones were hot Winnie's sisters, Jen and Margaret, carried the laplap bundle to the fire area and placed it on top of the hot stones. It was then covered with the second layer of hot stones. After that, we covered the entire thing with these huge laplap leaves (like banana leaves), and then covered the heap with a canvas tarp.

Two hours later...
It is finished cooking. We removed the tarp and leaves covering our lunch and we use the tongs made from wood to remove the still hot stones from on top of the bundle of food...