Women of Mand Share Traditional Recipes

by Amy Levendusky

Members of the Mand community continue to meet together twice weekly to provide important information on local crop varieties featured in the Mand Food List. This is part of the on-going project entitled, "Documentation of the Traditional Food System of Pohnpei", coordinated by the Island Food Community of Pohnpei. Each time the Mand working group meets, in addition to providing traditional knowledge on local foods, a local recipe is also prepared by one of the women and shared with all the participants. These recipes are being photographed, recorded, and then sampled. This project began in May and will be completed by the end of August.

During the following months of documentation, community members will identify which local foods have the most potential for promoting in a 2-year intervention campaign. This is aimed at assisting the residents of Mand to meet their food needs, increase self-reliance, improve health and nutrition, economic savings, and protect agricultural biodiversity. This campaign will begin in September 2005 and finish in September 2007. The sharing of traditional local recipes by the women of Mand is a valuable addition to this project as it will assist the community members in deciding which foods to promote, having high nutrient content as well as being highly acceptable.

The project is being led by Kiped Albert and Podis Pedrus of Mand, and Adelino Lorens of Pohnpei Agriculture. The research team includes Dr. Lois Englberger of IFCP, Douglas Nelber of the Historic Preservation Office, Yumiko Paul of the Pohnpei Department of Health, Welsihter Hagilmai of the College of Micronesia-FSM Land Grant Program, Amy Levendusky of Pohnpei Agriculture/ Peace Corps, Mari Yanagisaki of the Japanese Overseas Cooperation Volunteers, and Sarah Shaeffer of Emory University.

Thanks are extended to Nelihser James for preparing her delicious recipe of Kariana listed below.

Kariana

Ingredients

• 1 medium-sized giant swamp taro (mwahng or mweiang)
• 1 cup coconut cream, approximately

Method

1. Peel and grate the giant swamp taro.
2. Shape the grated taro mixture into round balls about 3 inches in diameter.
3. Make a hole.
4. Place balls in a baking pan.
5. Pour the coconut cream over the shaped pieces.
6. Bake until done.

Option: Mix the coconut cream into the grated taro, make hole, and fry.

For the greatest health benefits, choose yellow-fleshed varieties like Mwang Tekatek, Mwahng Pwiliet, Smihden, Songpwong Weneu, and Saleng Walek.