Grant Allen and Gabriel Levionnois cooking together in Noumea, New Caledonia. Photo / Jason Burgess
Grant Allen and Gabriel Levionnois cooking together in Noumea, New Caledonia. Photo / Jason Burgess
Local markets can often take visitors to a country off the beaten tourist track, writes Grant Allen.
I love staying in hotels but recently I have been trying to stay in places where you can be a bit self-sufficient. Apartments or self-catering hotels offer the best of both worlds. For a start, you get more space, you're able to cook for yourself, you get to know the local shops and you can usually do your own washing.
This may all sound a bit prosaic but, as well as being easier on the pocket, it gives you a glimpse of day-to-day life. You encounter locals who are usually more than helpful, especially if you show interest in an ingredient you have never come across before.
Noumea, New Caledonia. Photo / Jason Burgess
There is often a hilarious exchange using the few words you know of each other's spoken language and talking with your hands. Shopping for food will often take you off the beaten tourist track and give you a more real experience of the place you are visiting. I like the feeling of trying to "live like I live here" even if it is for only a week.
Most of the kitchens will be adequately set up with pots and pans, glasses and dinnerware. You will need to do a basic shopping trip to set yourself up in your temporary space.
I usually go to the local supermarket and buy olive oil, butter, salt and pepper, some rice, pasta and noodles.
You also can't go wrong with a small bottle of sweet chilli sauce, soy or wasabi and a can of tomatoes. Just check there is a can opener back at homebase.
Crackers, nuts and, of course, chocolate are usually added to the basket. Use the local bakery, butcher and market for the rest of the supplies, such as a few onions, a head of garlic, a bit of ginger and some fruit.
I have been lucky enough to visit Noumea frequently over the past few years. It's a perfect place to self-cater. I won't wax lyrical about New Caledonia's charms as I've done that often enough before, but I am still as enamoured by this place as I was 30 years ago on my first visit.
Only a short flight from New Zealand, you are in a place full of French style and Melanesian charm, the gentle, balmy climate soon slows you down to an amble.
New Caledonia remains staunchly true to France in terms of food - the big French supermarket chains are well represented and sell many French products we buy in New Zealand, but there the prices are cheaper.
Gabriel Levionnois buying fresh produce at the market in Noumea, New Caledonia. Photo / Jason Burgess
Add to that imported cheeses and charcuteries, great local bakeries, patisseries, sorbetieres and many restaurants and cafes and it is a bit of a foodie paradise.
The local market (closed on Mondays) includes a great fish market where the fresh catch are all well displayed and priced. It all looks so inspiring you will want to whip up your own lunch or dinner. Seafood is ideal for self-catering because it takes little cooking and is best treated in the simplest of ways.
I enlisted the help of my friend Gabriel Levionnois to show me around the market. As a hunter and gatherer, he's more likely to want to go out diving to catch his own fish and cook it in his country patch. Here, tamarind and other tropical trees thrive among his ducks, chickens, geese, pigs and livestock.
However, this time he stayed on land and we cooked in the kitchen of my room at the Chateau Royale. This hotel was once Club Med but has been recently refurbished. Here are the recipes Gabriel and I made up on the run after a market shop. We used fish I knew we could buy back in New Zealand.
