Vanilla

Green Brain AKA Kaffir Lime ...

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... this is what made our Javanese poisson cru so amazing, and Jean Jacques actually grows these on his property.

Value Proposition ...

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... the price of breakfast at Fare Vai Nui is similar to that at the Hotel Hibiscus, but varies greatly in quality. It isn't an all-you-can-eat buffet, but it might as well be - the fresh fruit today was a fruit salad that included papaya, melon, pineapple, and passion fruit, good-quality baguette, some decent frozen pastries imported from France (croissant, pain au chocolat, pain au raisin), some fresh home baking of some sort (banana bread today), and a hot dish (assorted omelet). Things were changed up every day, so we never got tired of the breakfasts during our three nights here.

Pain Perdu and Sausage ...

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... sure, it's just French toast, but one this cakey and delicious deserves to be called by its more gourmet-sounding name! The sausages are interesting, a bit of a cross between chorizo and Chinese sausage both in flavor, and in texture, since they were a tad dense. A nice change up from the eggs that we had been having the first couple of breakfasts.

Light, Fluffy, Eggy Muffin ...

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... perhaps a little more soufflé than muffin, this was by far the best home baking the Fare Vai Nui served up. Though we only had this once, we wished that this was served up every single morning.

Good Multi-Grain Buns ...

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... not sure if they made these themselves or if they were store bought, but they were flavourful and cakey. In fact, we swiped a couple of them on our last breakfast before catching a flight to Bora Bora, and used them for a picnic at our overwater bungalow.

One Final Lagoon Excursion BBQ ...

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... probably the worst of all of our meals, because our fellow tour members took forever snorkeling, so the food had been prepared long before we even had arrived. The chicken held up fairly well ... but the poisson cru was nearly cooked through by the lime juices. It may have well been a very interesting meal here, because it included some items we had not seen before - a type of local fried banana fritter that had turned cold and greasy, and a seemingly steamed banana bread.

Fried Clam and Shrimp Back at Fare Vai Nui ...

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... the clam was a bit chewy, but the shrimp was perfect. Nice and crispy, not greasy at all, and great with the accompanying sweet and spicy sauce, similar to a Thai chili dipping sauce. This was a good start in rescuing us from our earlier culinary missteps at the lagoon excursion BBQ.

Chinese Poisson Cru ...

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... because we had eaten a pretty mediocre version in Huahine at the Yacht Club, we were not quite sure what to expect here, though it was safe to assume that Fare Vai Nui would turn out a far superior version. It was nicely tart, though a bit sweeter than the Javanese version - ginger, onion, green pepper, and carrots, made for some nice flavourful and crunchy elements. Our preference was still for the Javanese poisson cru, though this one was still pretty delicious.

Deconstructed Crayfish w/ Ginger Sauce ...

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... perhaps the easiest lobster to eat, ever! It wasn't deconstructed per se, but the way it was served, we simply had to lift off the tail's shell and pull out the tail, in its entirety. The lobster was a tad mushy, however, but had a very sweet flesh.

Tahitian Coral Wine ...

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... who knew that wine is produced in Rangiroa? There's a reason why - it's not the most ... shall we say ... pleasant of wines to drink? Definitely not cheap, either - most of the overpriced wines imported from California and Europe were still quite a bit cheaper.