I was looking for someone who might sell me shaddocks (pampelmouse), breadfruits, and bananas. At a corner of a garden I saw quite some shaddocks on the ground and it seemed nobody wants them. So I looked around for people to whom this tree might belong and found a father and a son doing maintenance work at their house. I asked and their next question was “How many?” “What else?”. Thus I asked carefully for 3 shaddocks and maybe 2 breadfruits. While I talked with the father, he asked the son to prepare some for me.

The conversation was about the island and life here. Jobs – 90 % are in the pearl farming industry. But they all love to live on Mangareva. I can understand.

When I asked for the French word for breadfruit, which i can’t find in my of-line dictionary, he was in trouble. Here people only use the Polynesian word – uru – even when they speak French. So from today on I also say “uru”.

At the end I got
– 5 shaddocks
– 3 uru (breadfruits)
– about 20 – 25 bananas.

I should mention that the bananas, growing here without any agro-chemicals, taste extremely good. They have the taste of bananas, and not the watered down taste of Chiquitas, Dole, etc. I wonder if I ever will eat a supermarket banana again.

As it was my lucky day I can start from tomorrow on the create new recipes. I’m curious what will come out.