June – September, 2013
With all the great and inexpensive eateries in Savusavu, we didn’t need to do much cooking on the boat while in town. Going out cruising in eastern Fiji was another matter. There were very few places to provision, and even fewer eateries.
Thus we had to provision as much as possible before we left Savusavu. We found that we could turn down our fridge enough to make some of it freeze and keep meat frozen. This enabled us to stay out for weeks at a time.
I found it’s actually more work to provision for periods at anchorages than it is for a long passage. On passage, we eat a fraction of what we usually do because of boat stomach (that vaguely nauseated not-very-hungry feeling), but at anchor after days of swimming and hiking, we have hearty appetites.
Luckily we had good stores in Savusavu which provided pretty much everything we needed.
MH Supermarkets
This is Fiji’s main supermarket, and there were two of them in town. It wasn’t exactly Albertson’s, but it had a pretty good selection of stuff and some decent produce. This was our go-to market for cereal, milk, butter, cheese, things that came in jars and cans, carrots, onions, potatoes, apples, garlic, red bell peppers and occasionally broccoli.
Savusavu Wines and Spirits
Our favorite store! This is part liquor store and part gourmet market. Any exotic ingredient I needed for a recipe, I could find here. Plus they had a lot of familiar goods from America and New Zealand. It was cool, quiet, and the people were so nice. We’d go in there sometimes just to look around even if we didn’t need anything. They had some great sale prices on wine, too.
The Small Markets
There were numerous markets that were small but crammed with goods so you never knew what you might find. Usually we’d come to these places when the bigger markets were out of something, hoping to find it here. I was overjoyed once to find my elusive favorite breakfast cereal high up on a shelf in a small, one-room market. It was the last of that cereal in town just when I was provisioning for a long trip to a remote anchorage.
Bakeries
There were two bakeries in town, one a large Fijian chain, and the other, Lee’s, individually owned. Lee’s was our favorite; we could get decent brown bread (wheat bread) here. Otherwise, I would say Fiji has a lot going for it, but this not the place to find good bread.
Butchers
There were two butchers in town, but we only tried one: Fiji Meats. We liked it so much we stuck with it. We could buy vacuum-packed, frozen-solid meat that would stay frozen in our fridge if we put it against the cold plate. We always stocked up on boneless chicken breasts, steaks, hamburger, and a pork tenderloin or two. (They have more to chose from than that; those were just the things we liked). The meat always tasted fresh and delicious.
Savusavu Farmers Market
This is the big central market in town, filled with produce grown by local farmers. Many people love the energy and excitement of a market like this, but I find it a stressful way to shop. It’s annoying to get tomatoes at one table only to spot nicer ones down the way. And it’s distracting to look at the wares and have the vendor start trying to sell me stuff. And bargaining? Forget it! It’s hard enough trying to hear above the din without creating a discussion to try to get a better deal.
Unfortunately for us, the central farmer’s market is how you have to buy a lot of the produce. Green beans, lettuce, cucumbers, papaya, pineapples, chilies, eggplant, bananas, lemons, green bell peppers, and tomatoes were staples for us, and we could only buy them here.
Shopping at the farmer’s market was worse for Rich than it was for me; so I’d volunteer to enter the fray. I found if I went early and on a weekday, things were much quieter and the vendors more relaxed. Shopping on a Saturday would require more valium than I have on the boat. –Cyndi
