Cuisine ~ Culture

Happy Holidays Everyone!

We have been exploring New Caledonia with a bit of camping and looking for work, but as it is the holidays some of the latter has been put on hold. New Caledonia looks a lot like the pictures of New South Wales, Australia with the red earth, hot & dry climate, and flora are very similar. The fauna is the greatest difference. It would be nice to have kangaroos and koala, but we are quite pleased to not have the populations of alligators, snakes, and spiders which Australia boasts.

Beginning on Christmas things are looking a bit more promising on the job front, so hopefully in a few weeks we can post some good news.

In the meantime we are getting to know our neighbors who seem to mostly German. Maybe my German will improve more than my French. I invited one couple over for Hanukkah. I think we were both a little surprised about the similarity of cultures foods. I served them latkes, and they said, “oh our grandparents used to make this for us all the time”. I had invited them over for traditional German food from circa WWII. It makes sense as so many Jews lived in Germany and Yiddish has so much German in it. Then we were invited over for Christmas Eve on another boat, where I have yet to find a practicing Christian. They served what I would consider traditional Jewish food of fresh smoked fish and horseradish for the appetizer. It was lovely to have freshly smoked mackerel caught by the hosts themselves!

Last night I expanded my culinary horizons by learning how to make bananas flambé, from our neighbor Olivier, who happily declares himself an expert. What I can say for my skills at the moment is, while the carmel was pleasing to the palette, the flambé effect needs further practice in order to achieve the appropriate amount of the “ahh” factor by the dinners.

So I guess I will have to practice and make others "suffer" to help me perfect my flambé skills. Olivier and Carol is his wife are happy to oblige.

Noumea

Greetings everyone, How is everyone. We would love to hear how people are and what everyone is doing, so feel free to drop us a line at zayasail@gmail.com

We arrived in Noumea, New Caledonia in late November. It’s defiantly a city, as even the French will tell you how French the city is. It is interesting because the native ethnic population, the Kanacks are seeking independence from France. France does not want to give up New Caledonia easily because of the money generated from the nickel mines and other businesses. It makes for an interesting cultureral dynamic The downtown itself is very pretty with a large park which boasts a fair every Thursday night with live music, food, and crafts from locals who hail from many other overseas French departments and territories and throughout the world. We found people from Reunion for JP to speak Creole with.

Upon further exploration we found the beaches and beach front cafes which has a striking resemblance to the French Riviera I am told. We saw part of the world championships in kite surfing the other day which is quite impressive watching people literally fly through the air. We also learned that there is a nude gay beaches in the area. We were just going for a walk to get a better view of the ocean, when we learned we could get a view of “other things”. Well, we saw the nudity, and later learned about its sexual orientation.

We are now officially staying in a marina which is wonderful because we have easy access to town and can move about independently. No more braving the weather or the sea conditions in the dinghy or having to coordinate when we go into town. It also means neighbors which is something we are not used to. We had been spoiled in Baltimore being at the marina because people were rarely on their boats.

I am posting pictures and will coon begin to show you our travels over the last few months!

Our address is:

Sara Berman or Jean Philippe Chabot
Capitainerie de Port Moselle/Voilier Zaya
B.P. 2960
98846 Nouméa Cedex