What do people do in such a warm climate with no refrigerator? Just not pick food until they eat it, and then eat everything they make? Or buy ice? Or put the food in a watertight container and then leave it in water?
While preparing to move here, I studied up on various food preservation methods. When we arrived, I learned that few people bother with preserving food. If the rains cooperate, there are multiple harvests of various foodstuffs.
It is common for people to leave leftovers from one meal on the table, covered only with a basket to keep the flies off until the next meal. Sometimes it is reheated, sometimes not. Foods are cooked with an incredible amount of salt, and sometimes vinegar, which retards some of the spoilage.
Folks also seem to have a resistance to the bacteria in old foods that westerners lack. Among the highlanders, there is a delicacy of meat that is intentionally hung out over a smokey fire, and not considered ready until it is somewhat rancid.
Many people subsist on tinned sardines and rice. The sardines are incredibly inexpensive by our standards, still some cannot afford them regularly.
edit: I neglected to add that dried fish is also a staple that will keep without refrigeration.
