Good Eating Monday: Eat Like a Samoan!

We have an Air Force girl in our Bible study, named Hope, who's originally from American Samoa, which is a Pacific Island. As you might guess from the name, it's an American Territory, like Guam.

I invited her to share native Samoan food with our group on Sunday night and she made Samoan Chop Suey (Sapasui) and Green Banana in Savory Coconut Sauce (Fa'allifu Fa'i).

She explained that the Green Bananas in Savory Coconut Sauce is a  Samoan meal stable---it's their starch, like potatoes.

 Funny thing, these hot bananas in coconut milk actually tasted very similar to potatoes. They weren't sweet at all and had absolutely no banana flavor. Being green, they were quite firm and not mushy at all.
To make it, she baked the bananas in their skins, then sauteed sliced onion, combined it with unsweetened coconut milk, added salt & pepper then poured the hot sauce over the hot bananas.

(photo is the actual dish she made)

It was good, but my taste buds just couldn't compute bananas that didn't taste like bananas, but like potatoes.

If you'd like to try making some, you can go to this link for a recipe!

The other dish she made was Samoan Chop Suey with Chicken Thighs & Drumsticks;

I tried taking a picture of her dish, but for some reason I didn't end up with one, so I found a Pinterest picture of Samoan Chop Suey with Beef just for a visual example.

Samoan Chop Suey is a mixture of transparent rice noodles stir fried with vegetables, ginger, garlic & soy sauce. A chopped meat is often included, such as beef, pork or chicken.

Now, Hope didn't use chopped meat. Instead she baked 6 chicken thighs & 6 drumsticks in a large baking dish, then, once done, poured her Chop Suey over top and stirred it together, allowing the noodles to absorb the flavor of the chicken fat left in the pan, which was more her family tradition.

For vegetables, she just used a bag frozen mixed vegetables and a little bit of fresh spinach.

If you'd like to try making your own, you can go to this link for a recipe! 

I think I could make the Chop Suey, but I'll pass on the Savory Bananas. My taste buds just didn't understand what I was eating!.