Impossible to miss

Last night as I was talking with some of my fellow SIT students I realized that I had forgotten to tell you about a very important part of our Savaii trip. At 4:30am on Thursday morning we woke up and walked about ½ a mile down the beach. Out in the water we saw what looked like a bunch of big stones. As we approached them they took on human form. We were in the right place! For the next hour we used pieces of mosquito netting strung on a stick to scoop black and brown moving strands of angel hair spaghetti into a big red plastic bucket. Once the sun came up the spaghetti strands began to disintegrate on contact and it was time for us to return back to the fales- but not before we took turns tasting the squiggly things we’d just caught. We took our catch to the kitchen and asked them to prepare it for us for breakfast. Cooked they were a darker green. They still retained some of their salt water taste, but were quite good on toast. For dinner again we ate more, this time prepare with eggs and onions. I liked the dinner version better.

And now you ask- what exactly were you eating? A Samoan delicacy. It is catchable only one night out of the year in the hours right before the sunrise. There are only a few locations where it can be found and people come from around the islands to catch and eat it. The small handful that we caught would probably make WS$30 in the market. It’s called Palolo. What is that? Do you really want to know? It’s the reproductive organs of a certain kind of coral worm. See! I warned you! It’s really not that bad and it was one adventure I was certainly not going to miss. When else would I get another chance to try it?