Labasa, Part 3 - The Lovo

Lovo are traditional Fijian feasts where the food is cooked in an underground oven using stones heated by an open fire. We had expressed to Semoko our interest in experiencing this, thinking we could buy the food and he could just cook it in his back yard, not realizing until very recently the huge amount of time and effort involved, which is why they don't happen every day. But Semoko may have passed our desires along to his village where we found upon our arrival that a lovo was planned for that day. We felt very honored by the many villagers who came to meet the Americans and to help in the preparation of the lovo.

Fish, chicken, dalo (taro), tavioka (cassava), and palusami (coconut cream and onion wrapped in dalo leaves) were on the menu, along with watermelon and, believe it or not, Tang. I haven’t had Tang since I was a kid but it’s surprisingly popular here. The chicken was moist and tender. The dalo root tastes somewhat like potato and is a bit bland without some sort of condiment. The lolo wrapped in dalo leaves, however, was to die for. We were told that once you have real coconut cream you will never be satisfied with the stuff you buy in a can. We believe it. It was impressive that in addition to the dalo root and dalo leaves, the dalo stalk was also eaten: peeled and sliced and sautéed with onion. The photos below describe the whole delicious process of the lovo.

Coconuts are scraped

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A little water is added to the scraped coconut and it is squeezed multiple times to wring out the coconut cream

Coconut cream (lolo) is poured into a stack of dalo leaves

The leaves are folded and placed into coconut shells or aluminum foil

A kind of steamer cage is constructed from palm fronds

Chunks of cassava are inserted into the cage

More dalo is peeled

An impatient Myra contemplates sushi

A hole is dug in the ground

A fire is lit in the hole using chopped wood and coconut husks

Stones are stacked on the fire to be heated up

An improvised shelter keeps the fire going during a rain shower

A layer of steel mesh and palm stems creates separation between fire and food


The food is piled on top

(photo by Myra)

...then covered with palm leaves

...then burlap (or something like it)


...then dirt

(photo by Myra)

The honored guests sit around while everyone else does the work. Semoko takes a break, still with cleaver in hand.

After and hour and a half of cooking, the pile is uncovered...

...and the food is removed....

...and set out to cool.

(photo by Myra)