As you may remember, we don’t have a kitchen in Vanuatu. But we still like markets! And there are fantastic food markets in Port Vila, in addition to a couple of grocery stores and bakeries.
We begin with the Au Bon Marché, the major grocery store on the island. There are a handful of ABMs in Port Vila, of varying sizes but with more or less the same stuff. This includes lots of kitchen things (including the knife and bowl we bought for salads and the mugs for tea), and a good selection of basic toiletries.
The groceries available are influenced by the proximity of Australia; vegemite and the like, plus brands like Bundaberg. And we discovered something called Oxford Corned Meat, an Australian delicacy which we have not yet been brave enough to buy, much less to try. China and the Chinese are also important here, at least if the wall of soy sauce (below) is any indication. (We’ve heard a lot of people speaking Chinese, too.)
The vegetables in the grocery store are limited, but of good quality. Surprisingly, the carrots come from Australia, though we believe most of the other veggies are local. The cheese we found is a single kind, called ‘cheddar’ but tasting like not much of anything at all.
Local staples, like rice, taro, and manioc, are easy to find (and appear, often together, on every plate we have ordered so far). And there was an astonishing variety of canned tuna and mackerel.
Mama’s Market
This is a market not quite like any other we have ever encountered. It takes its name from the Mamas who populate it. All day and all night, from Monday to Saturday, in fact – unless they run out of their wares early, at which point they leave. Sunday is everyone’s day off, and the women and children go home.
The mamas display their wares on groups of tables, and they and their children sit, sleep, and play in the middle. We have mixed feelings about this. But someone told us that the mamas like being in town with their children, who can easily walk to the market after school, rather than taking the bus home.
Now, on to the food: here again, we found the range limited but the quality high. We saw lots of things we recognized and a goodly number that we did not. For instance, roselle, which is a flower related to the hibiscus, was new to us; its flowers make teas, chutneys, and jams.
The things familiar to us, however, often took on a new appearance because of the care with which the mamas displayed them. Like the bunches of peanuts, attached to a stem, which locals bought to snack on while they shopped. Or the scallions we bought, wrapped and tied around itself, or the many root vegetables in attractive handmade baskets.
The Mama’s market also offers cooked food, local specialties cooked by a bevy of colourfully-dressed women, and served at picnic tables in the back. We’ve tried the curried beef and fish, and look forward to sampling a few more dishes.
French Pastry Shops
In addition to the grocery stores and markets in Port Vila, there are also a lot of good bakeries. The French spent some time in this part of the world. Their influence continues in the high-quality breads and pastries available all over. We understand that it’s our duty to eat every one of these delicious-looking things and report back about the local variations. Please know that we take these responsibilities very seriously. We started with an enormous walnut brownie, which turned out to be fudgy and rich, and which took us days to finish. (This is not a complaint.)
So: in spite of being confined to making salads and ramen noodles in our hotel room, we think we’ll manage quite well given the great food markets in Port Vila. (And we haven’t even mentioned the restaurants…!)
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