Monthly Archives: May 2010

They go together

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Beer and pizza go together like rama lama lama ke ding a de dinga a dong. And just because you are in a tropical location doesn’t change that fact.

I’m going to put it all out here and say that my favorite restaurant in Suva, Fiji is The Bad Dog Cafe.

The food is great, service friendly and it won’t break the bank. This was the first place we went to eat on this trip. We’ll undoubtedly make many more visits before we head home.

In addition to water, Fiji produces beer. It’s pretty good, quite drinkable and goes great with the fabu pizzas at the Bad Dog.

This is a Campagnola pizza that we ordered on our second visit. It’s loaded with chicken, onions, black olives and fresh basil. Our first visit we ordered the Mexicali which has the usual suspects adorning it including my absolute favorite – cilantro! 🙂

Each pizza comes with a little dish of sauce in the middle of it. I have no idea what it is but it is AMAZING. It’s sweet and tart and although it’s cool in temperature, it has a latent heat that makes you need and extra beer when you are done. I love it.

The pizzas are not huge, maybe 10 inches, but they are the perfect size to leave you very satisfied and not overly full. We save overly full for the many Indian restaurants here.

We give four thumbs up to the Bad Dog Cafe. Can’t wait to visit again!

Coffee 911

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When we were last in Fiji, we stayed at JJ’s on the Park which is a boutique hotel in the heart of Suva. We quickly learned that coffee here is made from powder and water and is not real coffee as we know it. At JJ’s, there is a small French Press in the room so we knew that if we could snag some beans, we’d have the real deal.

In our explorations, we soon found Gloria Jean’s where we purchased enough coffee, ground coarsely, to keep us real.

This time after we landed, our first order of business was to assess the coffee situation at a different hotel. The hotel website said that they offer complimentary coffee so we had to see what exactly that meant.

Powder. No, thanks.

The room already had an electric kettle so we grabbed a cab, and went to Suva with the sole purpose of locating a French Press. After much searching we found this cute little set in the New World grocery store.

We purchased it and because my total was over $30 they gave me a free bag of okra! Wowza. Okra. My least favorite veggie in the world. (I was traumatized by it as a child but that’s a whole other post. )

I graciously accepted my okran gift and gave it to the cab driver who seemed thrilled to receive it. Kinda how I would react if someone gave me cookies. Seriously.

We then went to Gloria Jeans and got a bag of French Breakfast Blend and we were set.

After many hours of being awake drinking coffee and trying to get used to the radical time change, I was afraid that we would run out of coffee before Monday evening rolled around and we could get back to Suva. And I wasn’t sure what time Gloria Jean’s closed so wasn’t sure if we would make it there on time after David finished work.

The complimentary hotel coffee, comes in the form of these little packets that you are to add water to. But how much water? Would two packets work better than one? I’m pretty adventurous but not willing to try this form of “coffee”.

In the restaurant, there is a machine that puts the water and the powder together in the proper proportions. In a pinch, it might be drinkable but on a normal basis, I wouldn’t drink this either. Still, we might be headed for a coffee emergency and….

…the machine is broken. For real! Now everyone has to guess how much powder to add to their water, or how much water to add to their powder to make “coffee”. Ummm no.

I saw an espresso machine behind the bar. So I decided to order a cappuccino this morning. There ARE coffee beans in this hotel! I heard them being poured into the machine and I tasted them in my cappuccino which was mostly foam but, hey, beggars can’t be choosers.

After breakfast, I caught a cab to Suva, hustled into Gloria Jeans and loaded up on real coffee. I also learned that they are open until 9 p.m. each night so we shouldn’t have any more close calls in the future. Whew!

Crisis averted! 🙂

Note: It is Monday, May 3rd here in Fiji.

Selling the drama

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Missive from FJ811

It takes a long time to get to Fiji which resides on the other side of the equator and the other side of the date line from Oklahoma. Our first leg passed rather uneventfully and quickly.

This ain’t no disco
It ain’t no country club either
This is LA!

LAX didn’t seem quite as scary the second time around but we also had about 5 hours to kill until we boarded the plane for Fiji. Boarding time was 10:30 p.m. PST which is 12:30 a.m. in Oklahoma. I was tired. I could not wait to get on board the plane so I could just go to sleep.

Our seats were towards the back of the plane so we were in the first group of passengers to board. I grabbed my pillow, snuggled down as best I could and went to sleep.

I’m not sure how long it was but I could hear a big ruckus ahead of us. I woke up to see this woman, who would be sitting two rows in front of us, freaking out because she didn’t know where she was going to put her “stuff”. Of course she had more bags than you are really supposed to carry on a plane but she looked at the row between us accusingly like it was their fault she had no place for her “stuff”.

She asked if she could put her “stuff” on top of theirs in the overhead bin. They said that was fine. She was loud. And whiny. She disturbed my peace. I just wanted her to sit down and shut up so I could go back to sleep.

As she scurried around putting one bag in a bin behind us and another in the cabin in front of us, her husband Dough, I mean Doug, just sat there like, well, he sat there like a lump of dough.

She finally sat down. Loudly. And then, somehow (poetic justice?) the overhead bin popped open and her stuff landed on her head. Now she’s crying. Loudly.

This is my third time flying Air Pacific*. If you haven’t had the pleasure, I recommend them. The flight attendants are lovely. Welcoming, friendly, helpful. The women wear flowers in their hair. Soon, Wendy Whiner was surrounded by three of them. One had brought her ice wrapped in a towel to put on her head. Another told her if she wasn’t feeling well and wanted to get off they could do that but it would take some time to sort out which bags were theirs. A third was asking if she felt okay. Oh the drama.

“I don’t feel well”, Wendy whined.

Meanwhile an entire 747 full of people was waiting for her to decide if she would get off the plane or if we could head out. She seemed happy with all the attention and chose to stay on board.

It was then that I realized the impact of where the Whiners were sitting. They were in the exit row. Yes, if there is an emergency with the plane Doh!, I mean Doug, and Wendy Whiner will be in charge of calmly and efficiently opening the exit door and ushering us off the plane. Yikes!

She’s sleeping and it’s quiet, but bumpy. I’m praying we have a safe landing and that we are able to get off the plane before we get behind her trying to figure out where she stashed all her “stuff”. I’ve had enough drama.

Note: Air Pacific reminds me a lot of how the big airlines like United and American were in the 70s. The flight crew really seems to care about your comfort and making sure you have enough water or whatever you need. They also serve full meals. If you have Air Pacific as an option on your trip you should choose them. We have flown all over the world on many different airlines and they are, by far, my favorite.

PS – Wendy got up after they announced that the plane was landing and pointed to her head and the flight attendants made her sit down as the captain had ordered. I guess they weren’t buying the drama anymore either. We did end up passing them on the way out of the plane because she couldn’t remember where she had stashed all of her “stuff”.