simply breakfast

In a deviation from my normal green smoothie breakfast, I opted to cut up the banana, half the papaya and put them on a plate with a few highly prized dates.  Wild stuff.  Aquaman is in the office, taking up his position in the dawn patrol, and I missed the power cut off to make a green smoothie, so I thought I'd take the time to sit down and savour my organic fruit with an Earl Grey tea and my notebook.

For a while now I have been following a beautiful, austere blog by Jennifer Causey titled Simply Breakfast.  It is exactly that; photos of her breakfast.  Who would have thought it could be so captivating? Trust me, when you are thousands of miles from the nearest blueberry, loaf of fruit toast, or resupply of rolled oats, even skillfully shot photos of muesli can be strangely intriguing.   

above two photos by Jen Causey

Like my four legged friends in the village, my breakfast has a green component, however I serve it in a glass blended with papaya, banana, ginger and water.  A blog dedicated to photos of green smoothies would be rather dull, so I can eliminate that from my to-do list. What did you have for breakfast today?

out on the town

On the village chief's new motorbike for the ride into town. Despite the shock absorbers and a padded seat, a scooter is not built to comfortably negotiate the pot holes and corrugations, and while the first half  hour was pleasant enough, the butt numbing pain soon set in.  I long to ditch the helmet and take the weight off my neck, but catastrophic thinking imagines us skidding into a roving goat and my head meeting the road.  Slowly, slowly.  There isn't anything in town worth rushing for.

We are on the mission to find steel and a boilermaker-welder to build us a new, termite proof tank stand.  Tom draws up the specs while I sip floral iced tea and admire the decor.  There is little choice of eating joints in town, and nothing you would call a cafe. This in Indo for Indonesians.  Rice, deep fried balls of unidentified meat, oily curry and boiled beans. A still life display in the window behind a lacy curtain.  Very still and not much life. We select a jackfruit curry, boiled kankung (water spinach) and rice. $1.00 per plate.   For dessert there is the option of an es campur from a street cart. Jellied bits with all artificial colours and flavourings, shaved ice, sweetened condensed milk and coconut.  A month's sugar intake in a single bowl.

Behold we have a shopping list, and start our search in the magic shop for WD40, a battery charger, a toilet seat and 2cm screws.  Plenty of buckets, no toilet seat and a rusty battery charger.  It is also he place to get your official photos taken; amongst the exhaust pipes, fans and guitars. 

Waste management is not high on the council agenda, nor the public's awareness.  The sign above says "It is prohibited to throw rubbish into the river and ocean."

We track down a metal worker, who has a side line in busted motorbikes.  He claims he is up for the job and will study the plans and SMS us with a quote, which we will duly counter offer, and much polite laughter will ensue as we agree on a fair price. 

the paradise part

Cue coconut palms, white sand, sunshine and turquoise lagoon.

Twenty steps from the front gate. 

Need I say more?

catch of the day

Home delivered on foot.

Organic.

Gigantic.

$2.00

Breakfast, lunch, dinner.

In a green smoothie, added to salad, eaten directly with a spoon, frozen and blended with ginger and orange juice as a sorbet.

when life gives you lemons

Apart from some lengths of rope, the shredded blinds were beyond salvage and met a fiery end.  The replacements are hung, and providing us with excellent wind, sun and privacy control. A simple solution to open walled living.  

The first few days I was making meals I would never dream of in Australia, where the stunning array of ingredients sends my raw vegan self into spins of joy. Mung bean curry with red rice. Bok choi marinated in orange juice. Fibrous leafy greens tossed with fresh air. 

We are on the tail end of lean times at the weekly market.  Fungus and waterlogging are the enemies of a vegetable garden, but the deluge of rain has produced a bumper crop of rice. Leafy greens are always available and we can't keep up with the home delivered papayas.  Lemons are juicy, tempeh and tofu are cheap following the soya bean harvest, and legumes are fresh and weevil free.  Carrots are yet to appear and tomatoes are frightfully expensive and scarce.  Avocados and mangoes have finished and the sesame crop was flattened by the cyclone.  

After a summer of indulging our gustatory senses we were looking forward to returning to a simpler way of eating. Less about stimulation, more about sustenance.  Raw nutrition; light, organic, fresh and nourishing. Green smoothies in the morning and evening,  papaya, bananas and a meal somewhere in the day.  I call it "high-tea", but Aquaman says high-tea is meant to have cake. Coffee is still sneaking its addictive nose in and Sunday's are an almond milk smoothie fest. You would be right in thinking our life revolves around the blender and our outdoor dining table with ocean views. We sure aren't here for the shopping.