The last time I spent more than a couple days in Papua New Guinea I learned how to make a bilum from a wonderful highland woman by the name of Kapaim. She was very patient with me–I was determined to finish before I had to leave to begin culinary school. I worked day and night, stubbornly insisting on rolling most of the string myself. I finished the job in time–I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to figure out how to finish if I didn’t get it done. Even then it took me at least three weeks and this is a small bilum! Unfortunately I didn’t manage to remember how to start a new one and haven’t been able to make another one since. I have just discovered these great detailed instructions for making a bilum on The Papua New Guinea Bilum facebook page.
I was digging through my old papers trying to find an old chart of my various ancestors the other day...I didn't find it, but I did find an old letter from Thanksgiving 1995 from our father, he's a linguist so he loves getting into all kinds of ways of looking at language--even spell check programs. ...
As you guys know I grew up in Papua New Guinea, I loved growing up there, but I also loved leaving there in my early teens. PNG is no place for a woman, or a girl for that matter, and although I tend to idealize traditions and indigenous cultures quite a bit on this site, I know it isn't all admirab ...
Chelsea Publishing Spring is morel season, and Greg A. Marley in his book Chanterelle Dreams, Amanta Nightmares: The Love, Lore, and Mystique of Mushrooms, gets us primed for mushroom hunting with Clyde Christensen's Foolproof Four: mushrooms that are easy to identify and have no look alikes. ...
I have mentioned my incredible, brilliant, creative and imaginative sister before in passing, but I haven't really expressed how much she means to me. My parents adopted two children from Vietnam when they were married there during the Vietnamese war. The eldest one was adopted when she was about 4 ...
I have a confession to make, I'm no patriot. In fact the very idea makes me nauseous. This is a post I have been thinking about writing for a long time now in the interest of transparency--but have been avoiding it as I know it will probably piss a lot of people off. To be honest I have a lot of co ...
Many, many years ago, when I was about 18 months old, our family took a trip around the world to move to Mt. Hagen, Papua New Guinea. It was 1975, just after Australia had granted Papua New Guinea independence. Most of the government houses were empty since the Australian administrators had left, an ...
This weekend I finally fulfilled a long-time dream and re-read The Cook by Harry Kressing. For anyone who loves cooking or who is interested in psychology and sinister plots, I highly recommend this book. For anyone who has worked in the service industry, catering for the excessively rich and snobby ...
Ever since I can remember, I have enjoyed working with food. I believe this has to do with the amount of involvement I had with fresh local food, growing up in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. The Mount Hagen market was filled with fantastic fruits and vegetables and the gardens around our home we ...
Many years ago, when we were growing up in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, we occasionally went on holiday to Madang, an incredibly beautiful coastal resort town in this (at that time) untouched, remote pacific island. It was a long trip on the Highlands Highway, which was a two lane dusty dirt r ...
