Yummy Nutmeg Jam/ by Emily Cicconi, Palace Server
Perhaps my favorite and definitely most fascinating part of my Indonesian vacation this summer was my adventure to the remote Banda Islands.
The Banda Islands are a volcanic group of ten small islands located in eastern Indonesia, part of the Maluku province, and also referred to as “The Spice Islands.”
In the 1600′s, this area was the epicenter of the Spice Wars, a struggle between European powers. The greater province (Maluku) had a reputation for cloves, but the Banda Islands were the only place in the world where nutmeg was grown. Eventually, the Dutch gifted the British with New Amsterdam (modern day Manhattan!) in exchange for a local monopoly on nutmeg exportation.
Getting to and from Banda Islands was part of the fun, no doubt. My sister and I stayed with some friends of friends in the city of Ambon for a couple nights, and bought a ticket once in Ambon to the Bandas, (a 14 seat plane flies there twice weekly, however often canceled due to weather and tough to get a ticket.)
We stayed at a nice guesthose for a week on Bandaneira. We ate nutmeg jam every morning on delicious brioche bread, served with fruit and terrible instant coffee. The nutmeg jam is tangy, gooey, and wonderful. The food was delicious: tasty fish, fried chicken, and nutmeg filled pastries were some of my favorites. We snorkled daily, visited a couple forts, hiked a volcano, and enjoyed life with no internet, no distractions. To leave the Bandas, we rode a 10 hour ferry back to Ambon, then flew back to Surabaya, Java, the next day.
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