Nadi Market is the epicenter of the city’s fresh food supply, and direct connection to the surrounding farms, rivers and sea.
The markets are also a reminder of our ancestral eating habits that is synchronised with the seasonal produce that are packed full of natural medicines to keep us healthy.
Welcome to tonight’s Nadi market episode and my Taste of Paradise…
There’s a reason why Mother Nature provides us with such a rainbow of colourful fruits and vegetables. It’s her way of colour coding the food and signaling us to come and eat me.
Red foods are for the heart; orange is for vitamin C and our eyes; green is for our immune system; yellow is for our skin and digestion, and purple is for a healthy brain.
Wild birds and animals instinctively know the secret colour code that humans have long forgotten, but luckily Fiji’s open-air markets still provide that reminder to enjoying food as medicine.
Season 3 of Taste of Paradise focuses more on the outdoor markets because I strongly believe that the answer to many of the South Pacific’s health problems can be found at the markets; it’s all about the fresh local produce.
Nadi’s recently expanded municipal markets are unique, as it is the centre of the city’s fresh food with meats, seafood, fruits and vegetables, all located within a few square blocks.
Although smaller than Suva’s mega market, you can literally create a feast with everything around you, and that is the message in tonight’s Nadi Market episode.
The smaller market also makes it easier to find the strange and unique produce that farmers have grown, or stallholders have made at home.
In tonight’s episode, we discover so many different varieties of foods that are not always on the shopping list like Tahitian chestnut or ivi, green radish, bean sprouts, green snow peas, salted mullet, ladies finger banana or liga ni marama and Chinese winter melon.
I’m always on the look out for different seasonal vegetables as these are nature’s medicine foods that appear only at certain times of the year.
The unusual fruits and vegetables are also a testament to the farmer’s hard work and remind me of where our food comes from.
Just around the corner from Nadi market are Halal-certified butchers with their freshly killed meats, supermarkets for the staple foods of rice, flour and oil, and Chinese grocery store, Fong Hing which has a range of different sauces including tonight’s fermented red bean curd I use with beef.
Whenever I visit a new town, I’m always on the lookout for the local Chinese grocery shop and restaurant.
The Chinese never let an opportunity go by, and if they can be the first one to open a business then even better.
Nearly everyone around the world, including Fiji, eats Chinese food. So selling the ingredients to make it, or opening a restaurant that serves it, is surely to bring profit and fortune for the family.
By the way, have you ever wondered what those golden cats with the moving arm are for? Take a close look when you next visit a Chinese shop, market stall or restaurant.
The colourful cat is pointed towards the door or entrance to attract business, luck and money.
The swinging arm of the cat “catches” or “pulls” in the good luck to help the business prosper.
Whether you believe in the Chinese superstition or not, no business owner would dare not to include this lucky charm in their store!
Tonight’s episode is again packed full of ideas for kai freshwater clams; a curry that uses masala chai tea as its base; a minced beef stir fry and a dessert made from the wild baby taro.
It’s amazing to see how interested people are in cooking today, especially of the local produce.
As I move my stove around the market, people ask “How did you come up with that dish?”
A good example is the kai clams. Most Fijians know the recipes of curry, lolo, miti or just boiled. But to me, kai is simply a shellfish that can be prepared not only in many Asian ways, but there are recipes for clams in Mediterranean and European cuisines too.
Minced beef is another example is this episode, as I stir fry the meat with green radish and an Asian sauce.
Minced beef may be seen as an ingredient for burger patties, spaghetti bolognese or a filling for stuffing samosa or roti, but it is also delicious in a stir fry.
Fiji’s open air markets are a garden of Eden and humankind’s last connection of how we should be eating; not from a packet or tin; but from the ground and sea.
I loved filming this episode as the market vendors also learned new ways to cook the foods they sell every day.
The Nadi stallholders were also very clever to get a free meal, as many ran across the road to the shops to buy a $1 plastic plate or container, as the smells of food began wafting across the market. No matter what your ancestry; food speaks only one language.
NEXT WEEK: Chef Seeto visits
Bounty Island, the final resting place of two American sailors that the US has long forgotten, and the story of the Malolo War in the 1840s. Kadavu lailai, the native name of the island, is also home to one of Fiji’s most exciting and activity packed islands.
* Chef Lance Seeto is the host of Taste of Paradise: A Slice of Life, every Sunday 7.30pm only on Fiji One, and appears courtesy of Castaway Island Fiji.
