2.1

This is part of our dorm area...


This weekend we are going to have to make our own outdoor kitchens in the back of our dorms and then the weekend after that we start our “haus kuks”. In Tok Pisin “Haus kuk” literally means house you cook in, or kitchen. In POC “haus kuk” means we cook our own food in our own homemade kitchen, kind of “village style” on the weekends. It’s an exercise to help us get more used to cooking how we would if we were to live in the village (and we will live in a village for 5 weeks at the end of the course). I think it’s going to be really fun!

But anyways, today we had our first orientation about “haus kuks”. The kitchen manager (Missy) showed us a bunch of the different types of food you can find in the stores here. There’s lots of canned tuna (which I can’t eat because I’m allergic), canned mackerel, canned corn beef, and spam. The main thing is that we won’t have any kind of refrigeration, and she told us lots of surprising ways to keep some “refrigerated” things good. Did you know that eggs can keep for 10-12 weeks without a fridge?! All you have to do is turn them once a day to make sure the egg yolk doesn’t settle again the shell (so that there’s some airflow). You can keep mayo if you only use clean knives (no double dipping) and add a layer of vinegar to the top. Unfortunately there’s some kind of baking soda shortage and you can’t find it anywhere in town. Maybe it will be there by the next time we go shopping! :D