Blue Lagoon Resort, Chuuk, Micronesia

Ordered at the Blue Lagoon Resort Restaurant in Chuuk, Micronesia.

This island/archipelago has an identity crisis in more ways than one. For starters, Germany occupied them during World War One, naming the location Truk, with a long “u” sound. After America conquered it from the Japanese in World War Two, the original name of Chuuk, again with a long “u” sound, went back in place. Of course, that left names of locations, both in the archipelago and on maps around the world, quite confusing. That’s the place. As for the people, Christianity had swept into the islands leaving a myriad of different churches in its path; the locals liked being Christian, but didn’t understand the different churches or why one would choose Latter Day Saints over Baptist. It created a lot of questions. That’s their faith. As for the food, while one might think fish and seafood were abundant in Chuuk, due to the importation of pork, chicken, barbeque sauce, and anything you could imagine that could be canned, fish and seafood took back seats to everything that was imported… in our minds, it was a shame. You couldn’t even find fresh vegetables on the island, but then again it was hard to find people who wanted them; I guess when you’ve lived off of fish and basic produce your whole life and canned corned beef comes along one day, your desires change.

We were staying at the Blue Lagoon Resort on Truk Lagoon in Chuuk, pretty much the only hotel within a 2 hour plane flight. Although you probably haven’t heard of the place, it was actually a coveted destination during World War 2. The Japanese occupied it and one day, America unleashed a wrath of fury faaaaar more devastating than Pearl Harbor sinking tons of ships, planes, tanks, etc right into the waters. It’s by far some of the best wreck diving in the world, and people literally come from everywhere to experience this underwater museum.

Of course, being in such a remote place I was not expecting a club sandwich when we arrived in Micronesia, let alone Chuuk, but on the last day we tried the resort restaurant for lunch (we had been having picnics or barbeques on remote islands each day) and low-and-behold, a club sandwich was looking right back at me on the menu.

No sliced chicken in this club – solid breast meat filled the sandwich with a thick layer of ham hanging out beneath it. A small yet perfectly fried egg was nestled in below the third slice, with crispy cucumber surrounding it. However, what dominated the taste in this sandwich was the thick onion covering the bottom; I was not expecting such strong onion flavor and wow did that take me by surprise. Quartered and nicely toasted, the bread was slightly larger than the ingredients; it’s almost as if they forgot to decrust it.  The accompanying french fries were your standard: nothing too great but very filling. I had been eating them nearly every day with fish during dinner, so I hadn’t been expecting anything else.

While the sandwich wasn’t anything special, it didn’t reflect the other fantastic food we had been dining on while at the resort, and I feel it’s important to remember the person preparing this club sandwich has probably never eaten one or seen one on a menu themself. They probably never eat sandwiches unless it’s ham and cheese, and probably don’t understand why this one has three slices of bread. With that in mind, they did a decent job putting a description on a menu together in real life with no point of reference. I enjoyed the hearty club sandwich and the smile on my face after showed everyone how nice it felt for me to enjoy such a comforting meal in such a remote destination.

Kudos and thank you to the Blue Lagoon Resort team for adding this to the menu. While I literally ate fish or eggs every other meal (with the exception of delicious pancakes one morning), it was a treat to enjoy yet another club sandwich on and island far from any civilization.

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