68 MAY 2019
fiji
SWIM
This nation of 333 islands has an
embarrassment of riches when it
comes to beaches, with peak splen-
dor at golden-sanded, reef-guarded
Natadola Beach. Take a ferry from
Viti Levu to Vanua Levu to visit
J. Hunter Pearls, where you can tour
their sustainable farming opera-
tions and take home colorful pearls
from Fijian oysters (fijipearls.com).
VITI LEVU
AS LOUIS TIKARAM, the Fijian chef behind Los Angeles’ E.P. &
L.P. restaurant, remembers it, every household in Fiji shares
one common feature: a metal stake, driven straight into the
foundation for the singular purpose of husking fresh coco-
nuts. “My job at my grandmother’s house was to climb the
coconut tree,” recalls Tikaram of the time he spent scaling
trunks near the sea in the town of Lami on the island of Viti
Levu. “We would husk and split the coconuts and use the
cream to make dishes like kokoda [a Fijian ceviche cured
with coconut milk]. Then we would always have a huge pile
of the husks in the yard.” Those husks, dried in the South
Pacific sunshine, came in handy for another Fijian tradition:
grilling. “They burn very easily, so you don’t have to wait for
the coals to die down, and they impart a really beautiful,
light flavor,” he says. It’s a taste of place for Tikaram, who
was born in Australia but spent a chunk of his childhood in
Fiji, his father’s ancestral home. It was here on the islands
that Tikaram shook his childhood shyness and came into his
own: following the train tracks to the then-secluded Natadola
Beach; laying river rocks for lovos (Fijian earth ovens); and
taking long journeys to Dreketi, his great-grandmother’s
village on Vanua Levu, arms heavy with sevusevu—offerings
of kerosene, flour, oats, and rice. “I used to hide behind my
big brother, but coming to Fiji turned everything around. I
started to experience life and the culture, learn how it all
came together,” says Tikaram. “That’s where the seed was
originally planted in me—I knew I wanted to do something
with my hands.” —JORDANA ROTHMAN
The Home
FIRES
of Fiji
