Day 41 - I'm Just A Lonely Banana

I went to an Umu today. It was in celebration of Aaron's pending baby. So in essence, a man baby shower.

For those of you who are unsure of what an Umu is, it is like a Hangi, but above the ground.

Here is an excerpt from resources.ccc.govt.nz :

A Hangi or Umu is a traditional Maori and Pacific Islander way of cooking food in the ground using hot rocks to produce steam. The rocks are heated on a pile of burning timber. Once heated they are then rolled into the cooking pit and wire baskets of food wrapped in foil or similar material are put on top of these rocks. The food baskets are covered with wet sheets and then with wet sacks. All this is then covered with dirt. The water in the cloths and sacks turns into steam that is trapped under the soil and cooks the food.

My favourite part of this Umu was watching Josh shove some tongs into the backside of a whole chicken, and stretching its little arsehole into a size it was never meant to be, whilst the hospitable Kim, (it was at his house) jammed a hot rock in there with a shovel. Fucking GOLD!

(I have some shitty pictures on my phone, but the only way to get them off there is to email each one separately to myself and that can wait for now.)

Anyway, food cooked in this way is undeniably delicious. Everything turned out really tasty and well cooked...

But.

It's not really a Barbeque.

So that evening, I resigned to the fact that I needed to have a BBQ, even though I was still so fucking full from the Umu we ate a few hours earlier.

I was certain that I didn't want any meat, or anything substantial for that matter, but I had to get it done. The thought of Barbequed meat, or even Falafel burger made me feel a little dizzy, so I decided I would eat a banana.

I set off to the trusty BBQ with 1x banana, wrapped in foil with sugar and cinnamon, went through all the usual routines like taking the cover off, then the lid, turning the gas bottle on, then lifting the grill off with two spanners so I can spark the gas hob with a lighter as the built-in one had failed long before the BBQ was in my possession, then...

Shit. Outta gas!

In all honesty, I was so full and tired from drinking beer in the sun next to a fucking Umu fire all afternoon, and slightly alarmed, surprised and disgruntled that the BBQ was out of gas. Not to mention it was about 8:00 or 8:30 in the evening and I wanted to have a nap before heading off for a night of drinks and live music, and for quite a long moment, all I could think was "fuck it". But then I thought to myself, "I have come this far and I don't intend on stopping yet. 40 days is pretty sweet but it's not as sweet as like, 103 or some shit, I need to find a BBQ."

Benkins had text me earlier with the promise of beer, and in a flash of commitment to the BBQ, I dialled...

"Bro, your gas bottle full?"

"Yep".

"Sweet, I need to come over and cook a Banana".

"Sweet as".

And so I got my shit together and busted a move up to Benkins place, where he and Karolina were enjoying a quiet drink on the back porch, accompanied by the sweet sounds of Tomahawk.

The cover was whisked from the BBQ, gas fired and Banana placed appropriately.

After the recommended cooking time of "Yeah, that looks about right", I did the gentlemanly thing and shared the Banana with my friends.

Mission fucking accomplished.