Vermont Maple Syrup finds its way to Vanuatu

Being born and raised in Vermont I have a slight addiction to real pure maple syrup. Whether it is maple candy, sugar on snow, drizzled (ok dumped!) over vanilla ice cream, baked into salmon, mixed with pepper on shrimp, or made into maple butter I love it. For example, I am more than willing to pay more for the real syrup at restaurants that usually serve "Aunt Jemima" and have been known to ask the server to show us the bottle to make sure it is pure!

My host family had seen pictures of maple trees and sugar houses that my parents sent on post cards and they always ask about what we eat in America. I told them about maple syrup and they wanted to try. So, Mom and Dad sent me a bottle along with some pancake mix. One sunday morning I cooked up a bunch and we ate them with some fresh fruit from the trees around our house, avoka (avocado), nangai nuts, and tea. It was a success!















This is one of our neighbors that came to go to my Mama's store and was there when I arrived with the food. Talk about good timing! He took some back to his house to share with his family too.








Here's Mama and my baby sister Jenny. Jenny has even got some crumbs on her face!

Then I brought a plateful down to my Bubu's kitchen and counterpart's family's house. They shared them equally between all the kids and I think almost everyone loved them! Here is Mama Vira splitting them in half for the kids to taste. Charlotte looks happy!

My family make pancakes sometimes but they don't use eggs or baking soda to make them fluffy. Their pancakes usually end up greasy and flat like crepes. In Bislama they actually call them grease!! So, they loved the fluffy ones that I made.

They all agree...Vermont maple syrup is "namba wan!"