Yesterday, continued After showers and a short nap, we were off again for a Tongan feast. This time we booked a reputable feast through a booking agent and we were hoping this one was better than the last one at Alofi’s. We were told that feast quality varies from location to location as families put on these feasts. The one we went to is put in every Saturday night and we were told it was good. It was still raining, cold and gloomy.

We needed to stop at the ATM for cash before getting in the taxi to Ano Bay. In the few minutes that it took to go to the ATM, we were soaked all the way through. In the cab, we asked if the feast was indoors. The driver told us no. This was looking like it could be a wet night.

The drive from the dinghy dock to Ano Bay took about ten minutes. As we pulled up in the taxi, we saw straight ahead was a large lean to on the beach, consisting of a metal roof held up by tree branches. There were a few picnic bench tables towards the back of the lean to. At the end of the lean to closest to us several women were selling handcrafts, mostly baskets and tapa art.

To the left was a similar hut, but much smaller, where the cooking was going on. On a nice day it was probably a lovely setting with the hut, beach and bay, but in the heavy rain it was gloomy, cold, and wet.

The festivities started out with three men sitting on mats on the ground, 2 playing guitars and one playing a banjo, singing Tongan songs. Like in Niue, Tongan music is definitely closer to Hawaiian music than Polynesian.. It is slower and more melodic than the fast paced pounding of Polynesian music. In the center was a bowl of kava, which looked like muddy water. They instructed us to come forward for a drink of kava. They used a half coconut shell as a ladle and scooped a small amount of kava into another half coconut shell for you to drink from. The kava drink has a subtle flavor, almost reminiscent of dirty sock water. Actually it almost has no taste at all. Kava is a drug of sorts, but we had such small amounts that no effects were felt. It mostly makes you sleepy.

After everyone partook in the kava, the dancing began. The dancers were all school children, 2 boys and 5 girls. Their outfits looked very Hawaiian, with grass skirts, flower leis, and flowers in the hair. The female dances were slow and gentle, with the girls’ telling a story with their arm and hand gestures, with little lower body movement, unlike the Polynesian dances with non-stop hip gyrations. The boys’ dances were a subdued version of the Polynesian male dances. There was someone drumming a pounding beat on a steel piece of roofing, but it was accompanied by the soft Hawaiian guitar/banjo music instead of the fast, vibrant Polynesian music that matches the pounding drum beat. The boys’ dances mimicked hand to hand combat scenes, like Polynesian dance. But in French Polynesia, the male dances were a serious workout, with lots of squats and jumping around. The Tongan version of the male dances were a gentle mimicking of war moves. It was still raining on and off, quite hard at times, and the kids just danced away, paying no attention to the rain. There was a basket on the ground to donate money to the kids.

After the dancing, it was time to eat. The table was completely covered in big coconut leaves. We noticed a couple spiders in the leaves, one particularly large. We watched as several people walked up and down the table placing food items every few inches.

Once they were done, we admired the spread. Lying on the banana leaves were chunks of beef, large pieces of breadfruit, green papaya halves stuffed with watermelon and banana, whole bananas, and slices of watermelon.All the “plates” were made from natural plants and trees. The plates contained a few dishes of cold food. There was a seafood salad with cabbage and heavy mayo, a dish that looked like chopped suey with cabbage, carrot and mystery meat (Christi thinks it was lamb, Eric chicken, and Adrienne thinks it was chicken liver), and fried fish. There were a few half coconut shells spread along the table containing a papaya, banana and pineapple dish. We expected it to be sweet, but it was smoked and had a strong smoky flavor. There were lots of small taro leaf packages on the table containing hot foods. They were fun to open, because you had no idea what you would find inside. It was like opening Christmas presents. There were several dishes in the taro leaf packages. There was a spongy banana bread in coconut milk (that looked like fish), chicken wrapped in taro leaves with coconut milk, clams on the half shell, and a sweet dish very similar to banana Tahitian cakes.

It was explained to us that in Tongan tradition they ate on the floor without plates or silverware. They put the food on tables for our comfort, but we weren’t getting plates, silverware, or napkins. Thank God Adrienne had some moist wipes with her. All the food was apparently cooked in an umu, an oven inside the ground. The host led us in prayer and we dug in. Most of the dishes were good. Christi didn’t like the fish, and none of us cared for the mystery meat dish. Christi loved the spongy banana bread, Adrienne didn’t like it. We all loved the clams. Christi liked the chicken in taro leaves, Adrienne and Eric didn’t care for it as much. The breadfruit had no taste at all, which was to be expected. All in all, we were pretty impressed with the spread. There was a ton of food left. Someone told us that the people in that village would come and finish off all the food — none of the leftovers would go to waste. This feast was half the price of Alofi’s, with 20 times as much food, quadruple the variety of food, and most important, this food was good.