A fifth floor Parisian apartment doesn’t quite have the same
ambience as a Port Vila nakamal – but we did our best to channel some Vanuatu
vibes by putting out on display every Vanuatu relic we’d brought over with us in our luggage –
baskets, tamtams, posters, plastic flower leis and flags a-plenty.
We had Vanuatu tunes playing at an appropriately muted and tinny level
in the background and, of course, we also had our lovely big kava bowl and
coconut shell drinking cups which kept it pretty authentic.
For the ‘washem maot’ (the food you stuff in your mouth
after kava to wash out the foul taste) we had peanuts and mango (as Pacific as we
could find at the bobo market around the corner) and some other fruity
offerings.
The kava was ‘hariap kava’ or instant kava powder that you
mix with water. We bought it just before
leaving Vanautu. At $60 for 100g it was ‘sas
lelbet’ (a bit expensive) so we were expecting it to offer a reasonable kick.
We mixed it up until it looked about right and then starting
handing the shells around. The biggest
problem was spitting. After a shell of
kava it is a necessary custom to have a big hocking spit, to get the sediment
and taste out of your maot. Of course, a
regular Vanuatu nakamal offers plenty of dark corners and tramped-earth nooks to
do this. We didn’t really want big globs
of spit in the corners of our living room, so after each shell everyone
traipsed off to the bathroom for a bit of a spit in the sink. Yum.
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| Romain gives hariap kava a big thumbs up |
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| Kala sharing a shell with one Man Ambrym |
For seasoned kava drinkers, the verdict was that it was ‘olraet’
but no where near as good as the fresh stuff.
For the newbies, they all reckoned they felt the kick, especially one
friend who kind of quietly rolled up into a ball in the corner and didn’t say
much for the rest of the night.
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| Storian i swit tumas |
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