Week 11 - Samoa

SUPOESI

Okay, so we didn't really go on vacation to Samoa (that would've been wonderful), but we did spend a lovely weekend visiting family in Ottawa.  I wasn't inclined to force a random breakfast upon them, but everyone was enthusiastic to join in our project.  So I brought out a recipe I've been saving for awhile - Supoesi, a breakfast soup from Samoa.

I don't have a lot of information about Supoesi and the breakfast culture in Samoa.  From what I've read, food is quite important to Samoans (as it seems to be in most countries) and their national cuisine features lots of local fruit and vegetables like coconut, breadfruit, taro, and bananas.

Supoesi is quite a simple recipe and features only five ingredients - papaya or paw paw, water, coconut milk, sugar and tapioca flour.  It took a while to boil the papaya down to a mushy texture, but other than that it was a snap to prepare.

I've read that even in Samoa, Supoesi isn't a universally loved dish and the taste test results among us reflected that.  I personally didn't enjoy it very much.  It tasted like melon (I hate melons) and had the texture of tapioca pudding.  However, there were several in the crowd that seemed to like it.  And I even heard tell that some ate it days later as left-overs!

The Verdict:

For Ease of Preparation:







For Degree of Separation:







Like Chilaquiles this isn't even close to your morning bowl of Cheerios.

For Guestability:






Everyone was very polite about eating it, but I don't think it has a very big wow factor.

For Sustainability:







I think we all cheated and had some toast with our Supoesi.  Actually, I'm not sure if people in Samoa eat it by itself either.

For Overall Appeal:







This gets a solid three Cheerios rating.  In general, I don't feel completely comfortable judging other countries' breakfasts when I know so little about them and I prepare the recipe myself.  Who knows, maybe I absolutely missed the mark when I prepared it?

Next week - Oktoberfest...