I’ve just arrived back in Tonga after a really long trip to get here. It was raining when I arrived in Vava’u, but the weather has cleared up. My head is still foggy from the journey, but fortunately, I didn’t have any issues with jet lag. I slept 12 hours last night!

Though my settling-in process has just started, it’s been great seeing friends and saying hello.

For example, the photo below is of little Moses, one of my friend’s sons. We grabbed lunch together in Nuku’alofa just before I caught the flight to Vava’u. He’s a precocious little tyke, as you can see from his exasperation with the talkative adults.

Little Moses telling the adults to keep it down

And of course, I went to the Chinese restaurant in Vava’u last night to check-in and say hello to my favourite dish, fried roasted eggplant:

Roasted eggplant at Golden Lily restaurant in Vava’u

I’m delighted to report that dinner was…delicious.

I recently read The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, a book that reminded me of what a privilege and pleasure it is to be able to eat fresh produce year round. Fresh, locally grown food inevitably tastes better than store-bought stuff, and the nutritional content can be much higher as well.

In fact, this is one of my favourite aspects of spending a lot of time in Japan, where there is a long history of knowing what to eat, and when best to eat it.

Take these bamboo shoots for instance:

Fresh bamboo shoots from the bamboo forest next door

One of my neighbors owns land with a bunch of bamboo trees on it, and each year around this time, the family picks fresh bamboo shoots and shares with the neighborhood.

If you’ve never seen fresh bamboo shoots, they don’t look like much more than hairy stumps. But when you peel the fuzzy covering off and get to the tender, succulent part inside…yummy! So much tastier than canned bamboo products.

We’ve made a couple of dishes so far, the first being a simple stir-fry of bamboo shoots, fresh green peppers and garlic:

Stir-fried bamboo shoot with green pepper and garlic

And just now, we made steamed rice with bamboo, chicken and really fresh green peas:

Steamed rice with chicken, bamboo shoots and green peas

The only thing better than making the dishes is eating them!

After waking up just before 06:00 to catch the sunrise on New Year’s day, I visited a strawberry farm in Atagawa (just south of where I’m staying in Izu) to pick-and-eat Akihime (章姫) strawberries:

Delicious Akihime (章姫) strawberries in Izu, Japan

You can’t really think of these simply as strawberries. They’re sweet, succulent morsels of ambrosia that infuse your mouth with sensuous delight.

Yup, really that good.

Me eating Akihime (章姫) strawberries on New Year morning 2011

In fact, if you’ve never had fruits in Japan, you’ve led a deprived existence. Quite simply, the flavours are out-of-this-world. There’s no comparison anywhere else I’ve ever been.

Anyway, it cost 1500 Yen to go into the greenhouse and eat as much as possible in 30 minutes, straight off the plant. I didn’t count, but I’m pretty sure I scarfed down at least 75 strawberries, probably more. The strawberries are big(!) and juicy(!!), so that’s a lot.

It was worth every penny…or in this case, Yen.

How’s that for a delicious and decadent start to the new year?!

Surrounded by strawberry plants

Mmmm, mmmm good

Having noodles, specifically toshikoshi soba (年越しそば), on 31 December is a time-honoured tradition in Japan. The process of eating these long buckwheat noodles symbolises crossing from one year to the next.

Here’s a snapshot of the delicious, handmade soba I just had at my favourite soba place in Izu:

Toshikoshi soba to bid farewell to the passing year and welcome the new one

When I first visited Ambon a couple of years ago, I went for a tour of the island and bought some grilled fish (I think it was bonito or small tuna) along the way, together with a spicy, somewhat tangy sauce. The fish was fresh, and the sauce was out-of-this-world delicious.

Turns out that the sauce I had is a local specialty called colo colo (pronounced cholo cholo). Dewa, one of the chefs at Maluku Divers, made the sauce for dinner a few nights ago (yes!).

Colo Colo sauce, made with chili, tomato, red onion,

lime juice, sale, hot water and fresh basil

The best way to describe the flavour is probably to say that it’s somewhat like salsa with a Southeast Asian flair. Not quite accurate, but at least you get the idea.

Pak Dewa was kind enough to make some more today, and even to write down the ingredients for future reference (to stop me from pestering him, no doubt).

Pak Dewa and his delicious colo colo sauce

Ingredients for Colo Colo Sauce:
- Chopped red chili
- Sliced tomato
- Sliced red onion
- Lime juice
- Hot water
- Salt
- Fresh basil

If you visit Ambon, make sure to try this sauce, which is primarily served with grilled fish. Be aware that it carries a bit of a punch from the chili peppers.

Pak Dewa cutting chili for the colo colo sauce

Incidentally, there’s apparently a similar sauce in the Manado area called dabu dabu, with the primary difference being that colo colo is made with water, while dabu dabu is made with vegetable oil. Whatever the name, I can at least verify that colo colo is yummy yummy, so I’m confident dabu dabu is as well.

Oh…Hafes, one of the ever-jovial staff members at the resort, saw me taking photos of Dewa and wanted in on the action, so here’s a portrait of Hafes giving his thumbs-up to the colo colo:

Hafes is always friendly and entertaining

To work off some of the calories from indulging in far too many new year treats, I spent most of the afternoon yesterday helping out at a friend’s citrus farm, a place called Suzuki-en (鈴木園).

There are acres and acres of citrus trees, with different varieties in season throughout the year. Mandarin oranges, known in Japan as mikan (蜜柑, ミカン, or みかん), are the main fruit right now.

Since I spend much of my time in tropical climates with white sand and palm trees, it took a while to acclimate to the single-digit ºC temperature and winter wind, but it was certainly refreshing being outside, breathing in the crisp, clean air while I raked up leaves and fallen citrus bits, emptied containers, hauled stuff around, etc.

My body ached a bit last night from the manual labour, but I had so much fun that I’m heading back after I post this to lend a hand again.

Of course, I sampled a few mikans here and there throughout the day, and took some back as natural Vitamin C supplements for the cold winter evening…which is to say…I ate too much again.

Eating (too much) is an integral part of the new year celebration in Japan.

A staple of new year fare here is mochi (お餅), which is basically mashed-up sticky rice.

In times gone by, everyone made their own mochi by steaming and pounding the rice themselves. In our modern, civilised existence, most people just buy mochi pre-prepared.

Store-bought mochi can still be delicious and filling, but it’s even better hand-made, as I learned a few days ago when I had a chance to participate in a mochi-making party (餅つき) for the first time.

Below is a short video:

Making Mochi from Tony Wu on Vimeo.

In case you’re interested, l took all the footage with a Canon EOS 7D.

…time to eat again.

In case it’s not completely obvious, I love the fact that I get to try lots of great food in many of the places I travel to, especially in Asia.

When I was in Phuket last year, we spent two entire days eating at local food stalls and restaurants…places not on the tourist map.

This is a short video summary of 10 recommendations for places to try, which goes together with this PDF file that has details of the specific locations and dishes…in case you’re heading over to Phuket.

An integral part of the pleasure of travelling in Japan is the food.

Izu, for example, is famous for fresh seafood, as fishing is one of the primary pillars of the regional economy and society. Fresh fish and other marine products are available each day, which means awesome sashimi, sushi and other traditional Japanese seafood dishes.

Perhaps less well-known outside the country is the long-standing noodle tradition in Japan.

You may have heard of soba noodles, which are made out of buckwheat, and you might have even had some.

But store-bought dried soba (or even worse, the sad soggy stuff they serve on some airlines) is to the real stuff what pre-packaged, mass-produced white bread is to piping-hot, fresh-from-the-oven French bread.

Not to be a culinary snob, but there’s just no comparison to the real thing.

Here in Izu, Shinohara-san took me to a well-kept secret…a soba place that’s tucked away in a residential neighborhood, inside a normal house. The family who lives there serves lunch five days a week…and the soba noodles are out-of-this-world delicious.

Even better, it’s inexpensive. For somewhere between 800 and 1000 Yen, depending on what you order, you get fresh soba plus side dishes…more than enough to satisfy even big eaters like me.

The best part though, is that the restaurant is completely off the tourist map, which means there are usually people there but it’s never swamped, the food is always terrific, and the people there remember you.

Finally, I managed to have Thai food for dinner. We went to a place known as pad thai pratuphi for pad thai, certainly among the most popular of well-known Thai dishes and one of my favourites.

It’s a small local restaurant near the Grand Palace. The restaurant is really famous and always packed. It’s also impossible to find by myself, which means I need to rope friends into going (not difficult to do).

The pad thai is absolutely delicious. I always get it haw khai style, which means having the noodles wrapped in a delicate layer of egg, along with a glass of the restaurant’s freshly squeezed orange juice, which is out-of-this-world yummy.

Watching the cooks prepare the pad thai and wrap it in egg is fascinating. Of course, eating the finished product is even better. I never manage to escape without at least two servings.