Calamansi

I started off trying to write this about food here in general, kept getting stuck, and after typing a few paragraphs just on calamansi, I figured that should be the focus of this post:

Since getting here, I've done my best to try out fresh, local, ingredients and try to incorporate them into our diets (as well as some of the Asian pantry staples) both in traditional ways and in twists to our standard eating. I'm starting to love quite a few things I've been finding, and though I know a few of them I'll be able to find in the mainland (and actually have a clue now what to do with them) others I'm already trying to figure out how I'll live without.

For example, our first night here we tried calamansi, otherwise known as Phillipine lemons. They're about the size of my thumb, and have a flavor that is tangerine-y sweet with a bright lemony sour note if that makes sense. The sweet/sour balance changes as the color changes from green to orange, though the green ones are the most common for use and sale. They're standard in all sorts of Phillipine dishes, and you can even buy calamansi infused soy sauce at the market. They are also now a standard in our household for about anything requiring a squeeze of lemon or lime juice, including my gin and tonics.

<< sidebar:Thinking about it, I should try them as a base for sour mix to add an island twist to standard drinks. OH! As a margarita base too. I'll let you all know how those turn out.>>

My kids are in love with calamansi too. Every time they see them they want me to buy more and squeeze them and make juice. Given how small they are I'm grateful for the fact that I can just go buy the already squeezed juice instead, or if I'm feeling particularly nice the already mixed calamansi lemonade.

The kids have also talked me into buying a calamansi bush (that I still need to actually get in the ground). I'll admit, it really wasn't that hard to sell me on the idea. Hopefully it produces something before we move, or I think the kids will be heartbroken.

Is it bad that I'm already trying to figure out how I'm going to get these on the mainland?

More Randomness

1. There are chickens everywhere here. There's a whole family of them that spends half their time in my yard (until I figure out how to catch them.......)

2. This is probably the coolest guy. Ever. Walks his carabau down One of the main roads here with the dogs on its back frequently. He's very friendly and lets kids walk and ride the carabau.

According to him, he caught the carabau wild a few years back and trained it gradually not to freak out near cars. He used to ride the carabau himself, but no longer. Now just his dogs and random kids ride it (I personally think the dogs are the best).

3. Tried homemade pickled green papaya this week that I bought from a random vegetable stand on the side of the road. Amazing. I need to figure out the pickling spices they use here, they pack a punch.

4. I have no idea why, but there was a pig in my street this week.

5. Being in a port that ships from all over the world pull in and out of all the time is neat. Getting to catch up with old friends because they pull in randomly is even better!

6. I need to learn how to properly clean an octopus. This is so that when I'm driving down the street and I see the girl selling the ones she just caught I can stop and buy one from her and have a clue what I'm doing with it.

7. The power crews here are neat to watch. My power went out randomly 2 nights in a row this week and I guess the power company decided to completely redo some of the lines as a result. Saturday morning I woke up to no power, but at least 5 trucks and cherry pickers working simultaneously on the street lines. Only took between 6 and 7 hours (non-stop) for them to finish.

8. In a related note, waiting until the power went out for an extended period to get the generator out was not the best idea I've ever had. On the bright side, the outage wasn't due to a storm so it was an easily recoverable mistake.

9. Sunsets here still astound me every time I see them.

Agat Mango Festival

Hafa Adai!

Last night we went to the annual Mango Festival in Agat, which is the village just south of the Naval base. The location and set up for the event was great, and being able to see the sunset during the event was priceless.

We all had a great time walking around and meeting the merchants and seeing the displays. They had one display showcasing all the different mango varieties, another with about 6 different types of mango pickles, and another with the winners from each contest category: biggest, prettiest, and most bizarre. They even crowned a "Little miss mango" (the oldest girl has a goal in life now I think).

Trying Mango Jam

Of course, tried lots of food. The mango pie, which had a cheesecake consistency was my favorite, though the sweet and sour mango pickles were great as well. The mango jam was amazing, so we picked up a jar to share with Adam when he gets home.

I purposely skipped the McDonald's tent that was selling their "Mango Pineapple" smoothies. Though I'm sure they contributed financially to the event, it just didn't seem right given what was available from locals.

On our way out there was an area with representatives from local nurseries. I was naturally curious (I've been looking for a local nursery since I got here) and was fully drawn in when I saw the selection of orchids. They had many other plants beyond orchids, and my kids spent a good 5 minutes trying to convince me to buy a ghost chili pepper plant, but the orchids won the night. I ended up buying 2 plants and let the girls decide which. As a result they are both pink.

All in all, another great Guam night. I hope to start hitting the beaches again this week now that things are settling out.

Week 2 observations

1. I know I mentioned that Google maps is worthless here last week, but I had no idea how messed up the address system was here until this week. When turning on utilities, companies require that you turn in a map of the area pinpointing your house.

2. The Exchange here will shut down for the day every time  the power goes out.

3. The base post office frequently closes as well.

just use part of the lid to pop
the marble down then drink!

4. If you don't care about brands, KMART is better than the Exchange here for many things, even here where things are so "expensive". Makes me wonder why if you drive by the Exchange it's always so full.

Bonus: with all the Japanese here, KMART holds quite a few of the fun food things we liked in Japan. The kids were stoked to find the drinks they bought off a street vendor in Narita. I have a feeling anytime we go there I'll be asked to buy them.




5. Check labels. Always. "Guam" beer is made in Korea and "Guam" coffee is only repackaged here on Guam. There are many local things that are amazing, but just because it says "Guam" doesn't mean it's from here.

6. I never thought I'd see Firefly Vodka (the original Sweet Tea Vodka made using 100% US tea from the Charleston Tea Plantation) in Guam. They sell  it at the local grocery store. They also Firefly Bourbon here (Sweet tea infused bourbon) that I guess Firefly came out with after I left SC.

7. There is a real interesting balance on this island. On one street there will be houses in dire need of repair, and on the next street there is a shopping complex with Rolex and Prada stores.

8. The amount of fresh fish available here is astounding. Being able to get fresh, local, tuna and marlin is the best thing ever.

Busy few days

Saturday and today we went out with our Realtor (who for the record is amazing) and looked at rental homes in the area. (more on the house situation later) That night we went to a Guam food festival downtown. It was a beautiful evening, and gave us a chance to try some local island style BBQ (pork, chicken and squid) and sausage. It was delicious!

They also had a Whopper eating contest sponsered by Burger King, a best burger on island contest (didn't try it, too preoccupied with foods I can't get anywhere else), and a local fruit and vegetable stand. Finished up the night with calamansi juice and headed home.

Sunday we went to church and then took the kids to go see "The Lorax". It was a cute movie, and the kids appreciated the change of pace.

Since Sunday, storm clouds (that are now part of the newly formed tropical storm) have kept us from doing too much exploring outside.

our "view" of the Solar eclipse

We've had plenty to do otherwise though. Yesterday we registered the kids at medical. Medical here, I have to say, is much more customer service oriented than I've seen in a long time. It may be an old building (they are building a new one), but the care and concern among the staff for the patients is huge! I had a Commander stop us and give us a positive comment on the size of our family too (not the normal smart remarks I get). Bonus for the visit: The lady who set our records up is a local, and after talking she realized that I have a genuine interest in her island and the local food, and gave me a few pointers on places to go!

After medical we hit another Payless market, this time in the Agana Shopping Center. The center as a whole is a smallish mall, but has what appear to be cute little shops, and there's a "Tokyo Market" with quite a few of the food things I came to love while in Japan. The Payless there is a bit larger than the last one we went to, so of course we had to spend some time figuring out all the things they had there for sale.

Today it was back to medical for Levi's 6 month shots (I found out they require an MMR by 6 months here unlike12 months in the states) and an appointment for the younger girl before heading out to look at more houses with our Realtor.

We've seen quite a few homes over the last few days and finally selected and put a rental offer in on a house today. Unfortunately, it doesn't have an ocean view but we'll never find a place that has everything we want, even in the 3 bedroom range.The one place we found with the view we liked had no way to enjoy it (a porch or big windows that faced it) which made the view a bit pointless. Village choice and area is what won out, and given the 5 kids probably one of the more important factors. If we get it, there is more than enough room for guests, which is another big upcheck! Now, we just have to wait on the reply, get housing to approve the lease, etc. etc. Fingers crossed it all goes well!

1st week observations

1. Brown tree snakes-probably one of the things I heard the most about before getting here. It seems as if it's the first thing you find information about when doing a search about the island. Granted, I've only been here a week, but the only ones we've seen are in traps placed by the USDA. Talking to people who have been here a lot longer, I'm not really surprised as the population has come down considerably from its peak a few years back.

2. The heat-the 2nd most frequent thing I heard about before arriving. Thus far I have yet to find it any worse than Charleston. In fact, I find it nicer here than Charleston during the summer. Midday is really hot, but the breezes are wonderful and by 5 it's very comfortable outside.

To combat the sun base playgrounds have or are putting in shade covers over them. Brilliant! SC needs to get the memo on that one.

It also rains here daily, but it usually blows through and doesn't last long.

3. As much as I live in the US, I don't. I live in Asia. While Chamorro and English are spoken, about everything is printed in English and Japanese (and some Korean). The area really caters to Japanese tourists, which is understandable, because the tourists really bring money into the community.

Beyond that, the prevalence of Asian food items at local stores makes it quite clear how close to Asia we really are.

4. Eating local has it's advantages here as always, with a few surprises. I was expecting the mangoes and bananas, but not avocados and eggplants. (Avocados for $1 a pound? Yes please!)

5. This is a Catholic island. Very, very, very Catholic. It seems as if every village has its own thriving Catholic church, and the Catholic Saints are prevalent throughout the cemeteries. I can count on one hand the churches I've seen that aren't Catholic.

6. I'm blown away by the scenery. We picked up a Guam hiking guide yesterday, and I can't wait to put use to it!

I also can't wait to dive into the  history here. Magellan landed here, and shortly thereafter the Spanish colonized the island (explains the Catholic influence). It was then taken by the US during the Spanish American war. In Dec 1941 the Japanese invaded and took over the island, and then it was eventually retaken by a US Marine invasion in 1944 (they celebrate Liberation day here as a state holiday).

7. The locals I've gotten the chance to interact with are very sweet and helpful.

8. Google maps is worthless here, even the maps that come with rental cars are more useful (though half written in Japanese). We bought a real map yesterday, but most of what we've found we just found by driving around. I figure the worst that can happen is we get lost for a bit, it's not like this place is huge or anything.

House hunting and exploring

Yesterday we finally got a rental van (woohoo!). It's amazing what a difference it has made. Unfortunately exchanging cars took the better part of the day, but we were still able to hit another beach (Dadi Beach) before sundown. It did not disappoint.

Not ony was it beautiful, but the kids had a blast seeing all the hermit crabs, sand crabs, and other sea creatures. They even caught a few!

This morning we started searching off base for a pace to live, either permanent or short term (whichever works out best). Base housing is full through August, and they won't let us stay in the on base temp lodging until then. They want us to get a month to month lease while we wait, but I'm exploring all my options.

The housing office gave us a list of companies they recommend for rentals with for month to month leases that "work". Their idea of working and mine are different I guess, as many of the locations on the list are, to put it mildly, crap. One place reeked of urine and mold (mind you, this is for $2500 per month in rent for a less than 1200 sq foot unit). I know it's just because the companies that do month to months are lazy knowing there's an endless revenue stream from the military, and they aren't all bad, but those that were kind of soured me on the month to month waiting for Navy housing stuff (though Navy housing does look pretty amazing and has some nice advantages).

It looks like there are some really nice places in our price range out in town, making putting up with a month to month like that even harder to do. We're meeting with a realtor Saturday to explore more permanent rentals, but in the mean time started driving around to explore the island and where we'd like to live if we decide to go out in town.

Of course along the way we stopped and explored a bit! We stopped and walked up an overlook with steep stairs:

and views that made the stairs worth the climb :)!

We then found this little cove:

with little fish playing in the tide pools. (and a bunch of Japanese tourists).

We also hit Jacks Pirate Cove for lunch. It's a restaurant with quite a bit of history, and is a bit of an icon on the island. While there we tried some kelaguen, a local dish made from marlin in this case. It was quite delicious (and I think I need to learn to make it).

All the sandwiches had this singed in them! :)!

We ended up today hitting the local Payless supermarket, getting some locally grown fruits (mmmmm mangoes) and coming back so I could experiment more with these green papayas. This time: green papaya salad. It was delicious!

Diving in

Sunday morning we got up early, ate breakfast and loaded on the bus for the plane. I think the kids were a bit wary about boarding a plane after the 12 hour flight to Japan, but were ok once they found out it was only a 3 hour flight.

When we arrived on the island, there was a duty van waiting to take us back to the Navy Inn, where we had a "villa" (2 bedroom townhouse)  waiting for us to stay in. After living on couches, floors and hotels for the last month, this place seems huge. We thankfully have a full kitchen and a washer/dryer set. I've already done 2 loads of laundry and cooked a few meals.

Our original plan was to walk around here until our van arrived, but we've had to change our thinking on that. The base is highly spread out, and it looks like since there's a 2 month wait for housing we have to move off base into a furnished apartment until housing is available, or just avoid the 2 move thing and rent a house off base (will be meeting with a realtor this week about the second part). We looked at buying a cheap car, but those seem to be in short supply here and everyone who is selling has a note they need paid off. Also, once our van gets here I'll have 2 cars, and since Adam is going back to Hawaii and will be going out to sea quite a bit we don't see the point to having 2 cars for any length of time. So, tomorrow we will be renting a van for about a month.

Once we get a van, we'll be going out and exploring more so I can get pictures of the island!

The commissary here has not only standard American fare, but a huge (as in, more that I've ever seen in a standard store) Asian section, and a decent local selection as well. Our first night here I went over to get stuff to cook dinner, and found local green papayas and little calamansi. Calamansi are little green citrus fruits that have a very distinct and delicious flavor that will do well in many applications, but right now are used to mix in our Gin and Tonics. I've already used the papaya to make a fresh salsa. Came out well, just need to tweak the recipe a little bit.

Papayas and calamansi

Calamansi size relative to my thumb. Aren't they darling?!

Yesterday I went back to the commissary for a bit more food (and to explore) and found a few things from a local bakery: Spanish rolls, bread and guguria. Guguria are little sweet, crunchy bites made from flour, coconut milk and sugar. I'm hooked on them already.

Given all the neat things I've found so far, I can't WAIT to get out in town to find more local goods!