Demarcation Diaries
14 September 2001
The Deni seemed quite surprised that the Chinese eat "makha"
(the Deni word for "snake") because the Deni do not
even though there are plenty of makha around here. Flavio was
very enthusiastic to catch a snake and make me cook it. If that
really happens, it will be the first snake I see in the Amazon.
But I wish I never see an Amazon snake, whether in the kitchen
or in the forest, because either way is unpleasant.
Today we stayed on the ship while the other team worked in the
field. We helped the Deni build a bigger tent this morning, then
in the afternoon, we had more cultural exchanges with the Deni.
This time, the topic was about exotic food. The Deni all shook
their heads no at the suggestion of cooking makha. They asked
whether the Chinese eat "phuvini" (the Deni word for
"frog"). I said we do and there are many ways to cook
them, like steamed with mushroom, deep fried (this dish goes well
with beer), stir fried and in soup. The Deni insist that deep
frying is the best way to cook frog.
Inspired by the food conversation, I decided to make a dish for
dinner. It was nothing exotic
like makha or phuvini, but only cabbage and onion in a coconut
and garlic sauce. The Thai coconut sauce was a gift from a friend
in Hong Kong and I brought it all the way from Hong Kong via Los
Angeles, Sao Paulo, Manaus and Tefe to here. It was truly a globalised
dish.
Marilene and Rosa were making jokes about me when I was cooking,
but the dish was well received, it was gone in five minutes. It
turned out Jan was the biggest fan of my dish, he took the empty
dish, picked out all the bugs swimming in the sauce, and drank
it.
Kontau
(Team A)
Find out about the different
volunteers on the demarcation project.
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