Timor-Leste

The original plan was to cook a meal from Timor-Leste with Andrea, Mike, Shasten, Kaden, Perry, and Marcy on November 30 last year, but we postponed two weeks due to Andrea’s COVID diagnosis. All was well when we gathered in December. The deep-fried boiled eggs were delicious. Andrea asked around (being from Australia, Timor-Leste’s neighbor, she knew who to ask). She was told that the eggs should be dipped in siracha sauce. As the appetizer, that would flavor the rest of the meal, and it worked. The dish of mung beans, corn, and pumpkin was so delicious and flavorful. The next day, it was still good, but not spicy, so if you make it without the full meal, I recommend adding a drop or two of siracha.

We made both the fish and fish recipe with vegetarian scallops. Both were good, but I think the scallops were better than the fish. Marcy spent a lot of time cutting fruit and the salty dressing was really interesting. This page with the recipes also includes a couple of poems from Timor-Leste, a good thing because Timorese literature is hard to find: https://www.internationalcuisine.com/about-food-and-culture-of-east-timor/

I decided not to spend the $260 for a used copy of Luis Cardoso’s book The Crossing on Amazon Marketplace. Hoopla has Glimpses of Hope in East Timor by Christine Platt, a Country Gender Assessment, and The Timor Man, a novel by an Australian. Considering the difficulty of getting translated literature by a Timorese author, I will at least point out one of my favorite books in which the goal of the entire book is to reach Timor.

When I was a teen, there was only one book that could keep me up all night reading. I read it several times, always determined that this time I would keep it reasonable, but no, I couldn't stop. This was The Bounty Trilogy, made up of three parts, Mutiny on the Bounty, Men Against the Sea, and Pitcairn's Island by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman. Men Against the Sea was based on the logs of Captain Bligh as he and eighteen other men rowed more than four thousand miles to Timor. Finding Timor and safety was such an unlikely outcome and fascinating reading. The Bounty Trilogy is available at both San Bernardino and Los Angeles County Libraries. Bligh's logs are available here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15411

To broaden my experience with Timor-Leste, I watched a couple of documentaries on Kanopy. Punitive Damage covers how Indonesia has treated Timor-Leste and Wild Honey shows Timor-Leste’s bee keeping practices. There are several other films covering the lack of a sea boundary with Australia and the resulting conflicts. For videos available online, I enjoyed the relevant episodes by:

· Geography Now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy2OZZJwBYU

· Deadliest Roads: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHCcB_9QWQ0

I found just a few videos with music and dance:

· A dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CIVaEA9pQY

· A street singer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp8LW_Av4os

· A posted video: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/0jgBygCyG1g

There are beautiful places to visit in Timor-Leste included some listed here: https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-places-visit-east-timor-timor-leste/#more-16624

I would love to go! I look forward to a time when broad travel gives us new perspectives. In the meantime, I’m hoping we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace, health, and safety to flourish in Timor-Leste and throughout the world.

Photo Credit: Thomas Vuillemin https://unsplash.com/photos/HuFL2VfO41U