Lakatoro market

Every day except Sunday's there is a small market in the Lakatoro market house. Every day of the week a certain number of villages surounding Lakatoro are allowed to bring their goods to market. On Fridays however, all villages are allowed to come, so Friday is the biggest market day, with the biggest selection of vegetables and some seafood. As tending the family plot - called 'garen' (garden) - is women's work, so is taking and selling the goods at the market.

Prices are fixed and very reasonable indeed. Today I bought 1 kilo of cherry tomatoes (100 Vatu), 1 kilo small dark green chillies (100 Vatu), 50 spring onions (100 Vatu), three enormously fat green beans of which I am still not sure how to cook them (100 Vatu), 1 small cabbage (30 Vatu), 1 small bag of peanuts in their shell (20 Vatu), 1 leaf with some 20 nagae nuts on it (20 vatu). This totals about 3,50 euro (or 2 GBP if you like)
Goods are sold in bulk. In Vanuatu no-one except foreigners live alone, so it is quite difficult to buy small quantities of stuff. For instance you can imagine that I did not set out to buy 50 spring onions or 1 whole kilo of chillies, but when I asked if I could buy half, the lady said: "Sure, you can buy half. Give me 50 Vatu and take the whole bag anyway...". Which offer I declined. Likewise I am still working my way through 10 kilos of kumala (sweet potatoes) that I bought a couple of weeks ago. Please find above one of my favourite recipes. For variation sake I would be pleased with any other you might be able to supply...