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| Food truck at Takuaha Baie anchorage, Hiva Oa, Marquesas, French Polynesia. |
Looking for breakfast in town? Or a bar? You’re out of luck in Hiva Oa, the second most populated island in the Marquesas. Food trucks, those delectable purveyors of marvelously affordable munchies on wheels, however, can claim a firm foothold in Atuona’s edible options.
For a mere $3.50, a tasty tuna salad sandwich with cukes and tomatoes on a satisfyingly crusty baguette longer than my forearm more than staved off my lunchtime hunger. It was served with a smile from the gaily red and yellow painted cart in the parking lot adjacent the pharmacy center, across the street from the post office.
We passed on the smaller white food truck at the intersection of the top end of town. Popular with the local teens, it prominently featured sweets for sale, though I did notice a teen eating a fry sandwich, which presumably came from there.
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| Poisson Cru Chinois from the food truck at Takuaha Baie anchorage, Hiva Oa, Marquesas, French Polynesia. |
We contemplated a romantic poolside dinner at the elegant Pearl Lodge, high above Tahauku Baie, but our mellow mood was foiled by four loudly thrashing toddlers. Back at the bay, we ambled over for our second shot at the local food sometimes-there food truck. Despite its easy proximity to anchored cruisers, its clientele was nearly all locals, eating there at the tablecloth-covered picnic tables or picking up to-go orders.
Our first time, Wayne was a little let down by their $10 steak and fries, and the tasty $10 poisson cru a coco lait (tuna ceviche in coconut milk) wasn’t as good as pizza place Relais Moehau’s poisson cru, but then that was $18. After we ate, we regretted not ordering the crevettes (shrimp), also $10 and they looked far more sumptuous.
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| Carpaccio from the food truck at Takuaha Baie anchorage, Hiva Oa, Marquesas, French Polynesia. |
“No crevettes?!?” we complained, as they drew up their daily menu, noticing they were not an option. Instead Wayne ordered the $10 Chinois-style poisson cru (no coconut milk, with a slightly sweet Thai-like mild fish sauce and oodles of freshly grated veg). I ordered the $10 carpaccio, tuna sashimi in a delicious savory sauce of extra virgin olive oil a light dusting of curry, shredded onion, finely shredded carrot and cabbage, a few thin slivers of fresh ginger, speckled with capers and kalamata olive bits. It was lip-smackingly good! Served on glass plates, with real silverware – it was much classier than you’d a Portland food cart serving. It was the best $20 sit-down meal for two we’ve had for longer than I can remember.
“Honey… they won’t even need to wash your plate,” kidded Wayne. I didn’t take my tongue to it, but it was indeed nigh well licked clean, no small feat without bread to sop up its last bit of saucy goodness.
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| Takuaha Baie anchorage, Hiva Oa, Marquesas, French Polynesia. |
Location Location
The food trucks were in Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas, French Polynesia, 2015, our first stop in the Maquesas. The truck featured in this blog seemed to show up most weekend nights at Baie Tahauku. This post was prescheduled at our second Marquesa island stop, at Fatu Hiva (S10.47.854 W138.40.053). By the time this posts, we’ll like be on our third Marquesan Island,Takuaha, or at Hana Menu on Hiva Oa. It’s quite possible there will be no internet at either location. Watch for more photos and adventures! My biggest challenge is simply finding the internet access time and availability to post!
