6.318

19 (Thu) November 2015

Flash-Fried Bugs with Black Pepper & Curry Leaf

1.5

at Flying Fish

-Denarau Island, Nadi-

with MK and other meeting participants

Mission to Fiji : Day 5 (see previously 6.317 Broccoli Stir-Fry with Prawns).

My third visit to Fiji (see most recently 6.108 Kovu Ura).

In Nadi.  Here to attend a workshop on tobacco control, Tuesday to today.  Flying back tomorrow.

On the road for two weeks, two missions, back to back, Switzerland (done), then Fiji (done).  Both trips involve long haul flights, inherently difficult due to travel time and time difference, but the business class compensates somewhat.  Arranged the itinerary — MNL > ICN > GVA > ICN > NAD > ICN > MNL — to allow for three consecutive weekends at home, the final one starting tomorrow, though only for a day and a half per stop.  I’ll take my blessings however they may come.

Brainstorming to determine where we should have dinner on our final evening in town, I described various dining experiences on prior trips, including Flying Fish Fiji (see generally 5.180 Mahi Mahi with Snake Beans…), not an endorsement by any stretch — in fact, left on my own, I would’ve chosen to eat elsewhere, somewhere new to me — but it was enough to get everyone enthused.

So there we went.

Far less impressed than before, I found the food this time to be disappointing all around.  The “bugs” (spiny lobster) were too small, barely any meat, drowned in deep-fried breading, little flavor beyond salt.  Everything else, whatever.

Admittedly, most posts these days seem somewhat perfunctory, lacking something, whether wonder/curiosity about a dish (however simple), excitement about a venue/location (however mundane), search for higher/deeper meaning in the topic (however trivial), glee/wit in the writing (however futile).  I hope that it’s just a phase, perhaps a consequence of being so busy with other matters.  If the problem is more fundamental, then maybe the time has come to fold.