Produce Market in Nadi, Fiji, and a few tips for Veg* travelers

If you are a Vegetarian or a Vegan and you travel to the Islands, the best thing for you to do is to go to the market! Hotels, restaurants and resorts have little choice, sadly, with the exception of Indian restaurants which always have some vegetarian dishes. But if you are staying in an apartment or unit with kitchen you can also bring in your own packaged food (cereals, snacks, olive oil, bread, pasta, tofu and other ingredients) and then buy the fresh stuff. We are doing this for a week, and then staying a second one in a island resort (so no kitchen), so some of the vegetables will be ok for cooking, and others can be used for salad anywhere (I always carry a little olive oil…).  Another staple for me is always coconut, a drink and a meal all in one, so filling! And fruit, you can never have enough fruit! Because of the recent bad weather there is less fruit this season in Fiji, and very few bananas, so I didn't get any this time, and also I try to get only local fruit (not imported from Australia or New Zealand!), and cherish the opportunity to talk with the growers and sellers at the market. Here is my shopping:

Taro and coconut

'Older' coconut flesh needs to be scraped with a knife but it is nutty and tasty

Brassica greens, good with rice and noodles

Small papaya and cucumbers

More taro, ask them to peel it for you, and cut it, unless you have a machete...

Tomatoes and mandarins

Watermelon

Pineapples

Yummy eggplants 

I get drinking coconut from bars and cafes, they know how to choose it and cut it.

First you drink the coconut water...

And then you eat the soft flesh. A whole coconut is incredibly filling!

Photos by Alessandra Zecchini ©