Monday, December 5, 2011

Beautiful Dangerous

Featuring on our Christmas menu this year is a dish that is loved in the islands. Can I even call this a "dish"? All that is required to cook it is to chuck it in a big pot with water and boil the heck out of it.

Presenting ... (drumroll) ... povi masima!

Povi masima.
Killing islanders since ages ago.
 For the non-Samoans (and wannabe non-Samoans, ha!) it's basically salted beef brisket. And I don't mean salted as in "just add a pinch of salt there" or even "make sure it's well seasoned". It's more like "oh crap, did I just dump the whole bucket of salt on that beef" salty. I'm not sure if it's the salt that's the killer or the juicy globs of yummylicious fat around the edge of the meat. Drool. That's what the Samoans are doing right now as they read this.

On Christmas day, when I eat this with my umu kalo, I will pretend I hadn't read this earlier today on some NZ diabetes website:
Povi-masima, corned brisket marinated in salt, is a food that increases the risk of obesity and diabetes for many Pacific people. It is fatty and literally thick with salt and many people eat it every day as well as on special occasions.
Povi-masima is not seen in any country outside the Pacific and it is not good for our health. The government needs to stop butchers producing this food that plays a role in making our people sick, or at least limit the amount of salt and fat that is allowed in each bin.

We don't eat it every day. Well, if we could afford it we would. But we can't, so we don't. The government needs to stop butchers producing this food? Eh. The government needs to stop cigarette companies from making cancer sticks. Leave my povi masima alone! Mmmmmerry Christmas!

4 comments:

Donna said...

OH MY GOD... My salivary glands are going crazy right now... *sigh* This is gonna one heck of a weird Christmas for me... No pig out. I can't afford to, Ruta's being too much of an ano.

Enjoy a (substantial) piece for me?

Elizabeth To’oā MacDonald said...

Looks so yummy. I hope it's on our Christmas menu also!

polysuburbanmumma said...

But it tastes soooo damn good!.
I think we all know it's not the most healthiest option but we all still enjoy sinking our teeth into a nice piece of it ever now and again!.

:)

unii said...

Cooking with fresh brisket so its not as salty. Mum used to just change the cooking water 2 or 3 times to boil out a lot of the saltiness before adding the veges. Chunks of taro soak up some of the salt too. Friend even adds vinegar, mustard seeds, peppercorns, cloves, honey. Bay leaves, garlic and onions to hers to make a palagi styled corned silverside. Better still its not as dry as lean silverside is, because of the fat in the povi.