A Giant Omelette In New Caledonia!!

I have been in New Caledonia now for 5 days and yesterday was by far the most interesting. I attended the wackiest and most amazing festival in the whole of the whole of the Pacific Ocean. It is called the Giant Omelette festival, and yes, it is exactly what you think it is. 12 of New Caledonia’s best chefs whisk together over 7000 eggs to create one of the largest omelettes in the world!!! The festival dates back to when napoleon ordered the towns people of Bessieres to create a giant omelette for his soldiers. Ever since then, at around Easter time, a humongous omelette is made. I caught a small outdoor taxi to Par Fayard Square where the enormous omelette is constructed annually. There were hundreds and hundreds of people watching these 12 chefs cracking egg after egg. The eggs where going to take hours to crack so I decided to go for lunch and then, afterwards, come back to watch the cooking of the massive omelette.

I found a lovely little café just around the corner called Terrasse. I ordered a traditional new Caledonian dish called Bougna. It consists of chicken, fish, bananas, yam and potatoes cooked together and wrapped in a banana leaf. When the waiter brought it to the table, it was not what I expected; it was enough to feed 6 people!! Once finally managing to finish the very tasteful dish, I made my way back to the courtyard where the omelette was already cooked. The smell was not great as it stunk of egg, but I guess it was worth the experience. Even though I didn’t get to see the cooking of the omelette, I still got a taste and it was defiantly one of the best omelettes I have ever eaten!!

xx Justine