Hurricane Val and Koko Samoa

In March of 1992 my family moved to American Samoa to pursue my father's business - producing and selling Samoan Koko.  It was planned that we would live there for about 6 months, long enough to get the business up and going, and then move to Hawaii and run the business from there.

Hurricane Val had struck the islands just four months previously and had done some serious damage to the Cocoa plantations.  Needless to say, there was a limited supply.  My Samoan step-grandmother had connections in Western Samoa and was able to get us our first shipment of raw cocoa beans.

Hurricane Val devastated a Korean fishing fleet. 
These huge boats dotted the reefs in Samoa. 

The beaches were covered with dead coral reef remains.
Coconut trees were ripped from the ground and flung across roads.

The process for preparing Samoan Koko is pretty simple.  Roast the bean, shuck the outer shell of the bean and then grind the bean into a paste, package it and then sell it.  It's not the traditional Samoan way, but my father had a talent in producing a quality roasted bean that impressed the older Samoan's who always favored his Koko in many trials he had conducted over the years. 

My father constructed a roaster out of two fifty-five gallon drums.  He cut one in half and mounted it on a frame with the open side up.  This was the firebox that contained the wood.  The other drum was mounted on a rod through the length of it and set above the firebox.  A small door had been cut into the side of it attached with hinges to allow for pouring the beans into the drum.  The end of the barrel had another door cut in it to allow ease of dumping the beans out  by lifting the one end up. 



My turn at the roaster while chatting with a friend who was visiting from Utah.
Raw cocoa beans in a bucket next to me.

 There lies the trick of a good batch of Koko - the roasting.  If roasted too long, the bean would taste like charcoal.  If not roasted long enough, it would be bitter.  My father had a knack of knowing when the beans had roasted to perfection.

After the beans had been roasted, my father would pour them into large buckets and haul them into the house where we would all sit around and shuck beans while we watched TV.  We had to shuck the beans while they were still hot, because it was easier to get the hard brown crust-like covering off them.  We all developed callouses on our fingers from the shucking and brown dust got everywhere as the smell of fresh roasted cocoa beans filled our home.

Shucking cocoa beans.  We sometimes would
try to smear cocoa dust on each other for fun.

When all the beans had been shucked, my father would take them to the kitchen table where he had a large meat grinder set up.  Then, while he poured the beans into the hopper, one of us kids would hold a small plastic bag under the opening to catch the thick dark brown sludge.  Then the bagged Koko would be handed to another kid who would tie it, then passed onto another kid who would slap a label on it, and then to another kid who placed it in a box to cool. 

It would take a few days to roast a hundred pounds of Koko.

There was an ice cream maker on the island that my father got a deal with to make King Koko Samoa Ice cream - which was essentially vanilla ice cream with roasted Koko nibs inside. 

It was my job to stand in a grocery store in Pago Pago and hand out the Koko ice cream samples to the shoppers.  Most of the Samoans did not understand the concept of "free" samples and kept trying to give me money as I kept trying to get them to take a little paper cup of ice cream.  Finally, out of frustration, I just took their money so they would sample the ice cream.  I sold one carton of ice cream that day.  My mother, who was at a different store, sold two.  Things weren't going so well with our ice cream line.

It wasn't long after that experience that there were no more beans available.  At all.  The Koko business venture came to an end, and the struggle to return to Hawaii began.

Mom vs. McDonalds

NOTE: Scroll to bottom for recent updates

I'm very picky about what I set on my dinner table for my family to eat.  However, that picky factor goes missing when I'm busy running errands and I've got three hungry little boys who are turning into monsters because of their growling stomachs. 

So, in desperation (because I failed to plan accordingly and pack healthy snacks) I will head to McD's for Happy Meals for the kiddoes.  I never once stopped to take a close look at what my kids were eating (partly because the list of ingredients are nowhere to be found on those brightly colored cute boxes or bags they give us). 

When a friend sent me a link to this article about the Happy Meals I was so happily handing to my children, and they were so happily enjoying -  my jaw hit the keyboard.  How could I have been so blind as to what is REALLY in those happy meals?  I felt cold horror sweep through me and I determined to do some serious investigation and an experiment of my own.

I had to go to other sources just to verify this article and to discover more about this woman who conducted an experiment of putting a Happy Meal kitchen counter for 6 months to see what would happen here and here.  I didn't feel she did a good enough job of portraying just how disturbing her discovery was.  So, after preparing my Mom's Happy Meal, I set it on a plate next to the McD's Happy Meal and put it up on top of my cupboard with the intent of checking on them in a week to see what would happen.  Check back next week for the updated photos.

      



McD's Happy Meal

Close up of McD's

 





Mom's Happy Meal



Close up of Moms



I didn't stop there.  I had to compare my Mom's Happy Meal and to the McD's version in every way.



I paid $2.98 + taxes for a Happy Meal from my nearest McD.  That involved about 30 minutes of my time to go down there, stand in line, give my order and return home with it.

I made Mom's Happy Meal in about an hour (from scratch - bun and all).

The cost breakdown for the complete deal (best guestimate for some of the items):

$1.00 for toy

$0.02 for paper bag

$0.17 Bun

$0.25 Fries

$0.94 Beef

$0.27 box of juice

$0.50 worth of assorted spices and seasonings, ketchup, mustard, pickles, tomato, and lettuce.

Total: $3.15 plus tax (this of course doesn't include cost of electricity or my wages).

Yes, McD.'s is cheaper, but is it healthier?



I couldn't resist comparing the nutritional value of Mom's Happy Meal vs. McD.'s. 

All information about McD's food can be found here and here .

 

My nutritional information came from the recipe for Mom's bun in Good Housekeeping Cook Book 2009 edition and from the various product's labels.

McD.'s Happy Meal Hamburger with small fries and juice:

580 calories, 20 grams of fat

Mom's Happy Meal:

472 calories, 17 grams of fat

Ingredients:

Mom's                                                   McD.'s

                               BUN



   Flour                            Enriched Flour (bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour,

   Yeast                           niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate,        

   Milk                             riboflavin, folic acid, enzymes)                              

   Sugar                           Water

   Butter                           High fructose corn syrup

   Salt                              Sugar

   Eggs                            Soybean oil and/or partially hydrogenated soybean oil

                                      Contains 2% or less of the following:

                                      salt

                                      calcium sulfate

                                      calcium carbonate,

                                      wheat gluten

                                      ammonium sulfate

                                      ammomonium chloride

                                      dough conditioners (sodium stearoyl

                                      lactylate, datem, ascorbic acid,

                                      azodicarbonamide,

                                      mono-and diglycerides,                            

                                      ethoxylated monoglycerides, monocalcium

                                      phosphate, enzymes, guar gum,

                                      calcium peroxide, soy flour)

                                      Calcium propionate

                                      sodium propionate (preservatives)

                                      soy lecithin

                                



                                 

                              BEEF PATTY

100 % Ground Beef        100% Ground Beef (salt, black pepper)

                                KETCHUP

Heinz Brand                         

Tomato (from concentrate)        tomato (from concentrate)

Sugar                                        High fructose corn syrup

Distilled vinegar                         Water

Salt                                           Corn syrup

Onion powder                           Salt

Garlic powder                           Natural flavors

Natural flavors

                                PICKLES

                                LETTUCE



                                 FRIES

Potatoes                            Potatoes

Olive oil                            Vegetable oil (canola oil, hydrogenated soybean oil,

Salt                                   Natural beef flavor [wheat and milk derivatives], Basil (citric acid),  Dextrose

Oregano                           Sodium acid pyrophosphate (maintain color)

(Baked in oven)                Salt

                                        Prepared in vegetable oil (canola oil, corn oil,

                                        soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with

                                        TBHQ and citric acid to preserve freshness),

                                        Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an anti-foaming agent

                            

    

                                  JUICE

Apple and Eve Fruitables                      Minute Maid Brand

Apple                                                    Filtered Water

Purple Carrot                                         Apple juice from concentrate

Sweet potato                                          contains less than 2% of Vitamin C and

Butternut squash                                     calcium citrate

Beet

Pear

Strawberry

Kiwi

Tomato juice

Filtered water
Natural flavors

Citric acid

Vegetable color

Ascorbic acid (vitamin C)

Vitamin A palmitate

Vitamin E acetate

The thing that irked me the most was the advertisement on the Happy Meal packaging. According to McD.'s packaging, after your kids eat their sub-standard food, they want your kids to run off to the computer and play McDonald's games online.  As if they don't get enough opportunities to sit around practising their hand-eye coordination skills on the Wii or Xbox.

I just had to create my own marketing campaign for Mom's Happy Meal.  I encouraged them to play outside and then let them know how much I love them - and I do this for free!

Next week, I'll let you know what exactly all those ingredients listed in McD.'s food are and what they are used for.

Until then, eat well, be well, and be happy.

UPDATE 10/30/10


Mom's 1 week old burger and fries



McD's 1 week old burger and fries



Close up of Mom's 1 week old burger.  Notice fruit fly.

Close up of McD's 1 week old burger and fries. 



1 week old fries. Notice the white fuzzy mold.



McDs 1 week old fries.  Notice the plastic-like sheen.



Moms 1 week old burger.  Notice the white fuzzy mold on the burger itself.

Where's the mold?

Update #2 11-24-10  (Here are the final photos of my month long experiment).

If you are thinking of grabbing a McD's meal for your kids while you are traveling - stop and think about the pictures you are about to see.  My advice to you is to go to your local grocery store and pick up a fruit and veggie tray and give that to your kid and if your kid bellyaches about it - tell them you are doing them a favor by ensuring their health as adults, and if they still complain, ignore it.  Eventually, they will get hungry enough and eat it.  Start now, teaching your children healthy eating habits - so by the time they are adults they can enjoy good health.


This is Mom's Happy meal a month after it was prepared.  It is hard as a rock - completely dried out. 



McD's burger and fries still look edible.

Close up of mold.

Fries without the wrapper and opened McD burger - no mold.  And no smell either.

Mom's burger - hard to open as it was all firmly stuck together.  The bread was dried out and once the burger was open, a distinct scent of rot could be smelled.  Not only did it not look edible - it smelled horrible.  Nature's way of letting you know not to eat it.  In contrast, McDonald's burger is "UNNATURAL".

After I dumped the McD burger and fries - I noticed an orange greasy substance on the plate.  I could detect no smell and I have no idea what it was.

Mom's burger and fries only left a few crumbs.  The water droplets are from when I washed my hands after removing the food and before I noticed the greasy puddle on the McD. plate.

So there you go.  This experiment has scared me away from fast food.  I will now head to the grocery store for healthier alternatives if I need to grab my kids something to eat.  It's no more time consuming to go to the store than it is to go to a fast food joint. 

Eat well, be well and be happy.

Scraps, Samoan Canoe Team, and FOBs

I sometimes pretend I like to scrapbook.  I spread out all the photos, scissors, templates, stickers, do-dads and do-hickeys and pretty colored papers on the kitchen table and attempt to create something interesting.  But all I end up doing is creating something a three year old would be proud of.  So, I give up after ten minutes and spend the rest of the time looking over pictures and remembering the stories associated with them.

One such memory is of my sister Annie, (name has been changed).   Annie was seventeen, two years younger than me. She was five inches taller, had legs a mile long, blond hair and sparkling blue eyes, and a personality that was both inviting and entertaining.  So it was no wonder that she had the Samoan boys wagging their tongues as soon as she stepped on the island.

In contrast, I was a sober brunette that found the whole idea of dating to be tedious.  I just didn't quite understand or appreciate the way Samoan boys wooed their love interests.  Showing up on our doorstep at 11:00 pm, reeking of alcohol and in slurred pidgin English demanding that my father let them speak to me and my other sisters was not the least bit attractive, in my humble opinion.

Annie was lucky.  She got a job in Pago Pago as a store manager for a paint shop and got to meet civilized Samoan guys (for the most part).  When she told me she had met a guy that was part of the Samoan Canoe team and wanted me to come with her to meet him and the rest of the team at some awards ceremony, I agreed.  I had nothing better to do. 

I have to point out that there wasn't very much to do on the island for a single white girl.  I wasn't going to school; I was working part time as a political cartoonist for my grandparents newspaper (the previous cartoonist disappeared, they thought he had been murdered or something). And I was directionless at this point of my life.  All I knew was that I wanted to get off the island and go to school - but we were broke and I had no other prospects.  So, getting a chance to go out and meet new people and socialize was very appealing for me - as it distracted me from the seemingly hopelessness of my situation.

So, we got dressed in our finest clothes and slathered on the makeup and did our hair and headed to Pago. Annie's new love interest wasn't Samoan at all.  He was Hawaiian.  He was HUGE!  He had to be at least 6'-6", totally ripped and weighed 250 - 275 with solid muscle. He was just like one of those intimidating pictures of an ancient Hawaiian Warrior. We saw him from a distance hanging out with his teammates who were Samoan.  I turned to Annie and grinned at her wickedly, "He is fair game."  I told her.

This was the first time I ever openly challenged my sister for the attention of a man.  You see, in the looks department, I couldn't compete with her, but I had watched and studied her behaviour as she flirted with other guys and I was pretty sure I could imitate her.  So, with a look of shock on her face and possible worry, we approached the team.  I kept pace with her every step of the way, and smiled and laughed and joked with them all just like she did.

Annie asked to take a photo with them, and I jumped right on the other side of Luther(name has been changed).  As soon as the photo was taken, Luther took off and we never saw him again.



Pago Pago during a very stormy August afternoon
The guy standing to my left started leaning in to kiss my cheek
I threw up an arm to block his attempt. 



We were ditched and soon realized that Luther was not the least bit interested in either of us.  To make the whole experience of rejection more painful, as we waited for a bus at the market place, a FOB (a slang word for someone from the bush on Western Samoa who doesn't speak English and isn't very educated) came and sat down next to us.  Leaning forward to look past Annie at me, he asked her, "Is this your brother?"  Annie laughed and said, "No, this is my sister."

He thought about that for a moment, then said, "He is very beautiful."  I nearly cried.

Our beach in Amouli

Tutu's Kitchen Table, Epic Lego Battles, Demons and Angels.

Tutu is what my mother prefers to be called by her grandchildren; because Grandma just doesn't cut it (Tutu is Hawaiian for grandma).  And she welcomed me and my three darlings to her home this past week so I could indulge in a marathon session of uninterrupted writing while she entertained the boys.

Imagine my boy's delight when they walked into Tutu's kitchen and discovered a HUGE tub of Legos waiting for them on the kitchen table.  They thought Christmas had come early and without hesitation, dived right in. 

While I was deeply immersed in the struggle for true love between my protagonists Julia and Nathan, my boys were massing an army of Lego men with weapons of mass destruction, pirate ships and treacherous jungles with snakes and killer monkeys.

A dangerous jungle with snakes, killer monkeys and even a ghost!

While Julia was being confronted by Drogo, the Demon Master of LA; Lego soldiers and horses were in the heat of battle across the kitchen table landscape.

As Julia fought the forces of evil by herself, canon balls exploded and Lego men by the dozens were falling by the sword as they defended their small squares of green Lego plastic. 

It was an epic weekend.

I finally emerged two days later from a world of demons and angels, triumphant with the completion of the 4th revision of THE DEMON'S FEATHERS, while my boys cleared the battlefield and resurrected fallen heroes to begin the epic battle again.

Hurricane Iniki, Aunty P. and Sausages

Looking out over Honolulu from Punchbowl Cemetary.
Diamond Head is in the background.

On September 11th, 1992 a category 4 hurricane swept through the islands of Hawai'i - striking Kaui'i the hardest.  Hurricane Iniki took 6 lives and was the costliest hurricane to ever have hit the Hawaiian Islands.

My Mother and I arrived in Hawai'i just 5 days later from American Samoa. My mother sold some of her silver coins to purchase the plane tickets to get us there.  It broke our hearts to have to leave the rest of our family in Samoa -  my 7 younger siblings and my father.  But, we couldn't afford to purchase everyone a ticket.

The plan was that my mother and I would get jobs in Hawai'i and save up the money we earned to buy plane tickets for the rest of the family.  When we first landed in the Honolulu Airport, I quickly discovered that if I returned baggage carts to their docking stations, I could get a $0.50 refund.  I spent an hour collecting those carts as we waited for a family friend to pick us up at the airport.  I think I made a whopping $5.00. 

At first, all we could find was temporary jobs that paid very little.  On September 30th, my mother got a job with FEMA as a loan officer, processing emergency loans for victims of Hurricane Iniki and a few days later I was hired on as a credit checker. The hours were horrible.  We worked 7 days a week - 12 hours a day for nearly a month.



Charo came to the FEMA offices seeking an emergency loan to restore her restaurant on Kaui'i. 
I think they turned her down - she wasn't very happy about that.

 We stayed with our family friend, a woman we called Aunty P.  I thought she was very beautiful and noble.  My Dad said she was descended from Hawaiian Royalty - but she certainly didn't live like a princess.  She lived near Punchbowl Cemetery, at the bottom of a dead end street.  Part of her house rested on top of a hillside, the other part was supported by a dozen or so twenty foot long 6" x 6" posts.  Our house in Amouli was much nicer. 


Aunty P.


Half of Aunty P.'s house was boarded up because the floor was falling, or it was infested with bees and other vermin.  She gave us a warning about the bathroom, "don't sit on the toilet" because it was only supported by a couple of two by fours and the pipes were rusting, about to give way.  I remember peering down the holes on either side of the toilet at the concrete foundation twenty feet below and chuckling at the image that came to mind of me falling through the floor while using the bathroom.  I was deliriously tired and the idea seemed so funny to me. 

We slept beneath mosquito nets, sweating and miserable under the heavy humid air.  The air didn't seem to move at all beneath the canopy of mango trees that surrounded Aunty P.'s house.  The neighbors that lived slightly down the hill from us played Bob Marley music all night long and the scent of marijuana drifted occasionally into our room on the rare breeze that made it up the hillside.

Mom and I would wake at 5:00 am to take turns using the bathroom to shower and dress for the day.  We skipped breakfast since we didn't want to wake the rats and roaches that infested the kitchen and caught a bus into downtown Honolulu.  We'd grab a breakfast sandwich at McD's, eat cup of  Ramen noodles for lunch and then at the end of a 12 hour work day, ride the bus home at night to Aunty P.'s house.

Aunty P.'s neighborhood was old and run down.  You could hardly see the houses along the pot-hole covered street for all the trees, vines, bushes and shrubs that seemed to cover everything, including the light poles.  There wasn't much light along the street to Aunty P.'s house - so mom and I would always walk down the middle - avoiding the dark rusted cars that were abandoned alongside it. 

When we walked into the kitchen (using the side kitchen door since the living room had been boarded up), we discovered Aunty P. had left us dinner.  A rice pot bubbled away emitting a very delicious smell.  Mom removed the lid and inside we found two fat sausages laying on a bed of pristine white rice.  I have no idea what kind of sausages they were, except that it was the best tasting food I had eaten in a long time.  Everyday, I looked forward to coming home and eating those sausages at Aunty P.'s kitchen table. 

Our work schedules didn't allow us time to see much of Aunty P.  But after a long day, I would sit down at her kitchen table, which was wrapped in pink and blue floral print sticky contact paper and have a bowl of rice and a sausage, thinking life was getting better and better every day because my belly was full at the end of the day and I was happy. 

Until next time, eat well, be well and be happy.