Fiji

🇫🇯Fiji

Aloo Boda Tarkari

Aloo boda tarkari combines fried split-pea fritters with potato and spices in a thick Fijian curry; the fritters soften as they absorb the turmeric-scented gravy.

🇫🇯Fiji

Babakau

Yeasted dough cut into triangles and deep fried until puffed and hollow, eaten plain, with butter and jam, or split around a curry.

🇫🇯Fiji

Baigan Valo

Baigan valo is eggplant filled with fish or a spiced savoury mixture, then finished in coconut cream until the flesh is soft and fragrant.

🇫🇯Fiji

Cassava Chips

Tavioka chips

Cassava sliced thin and fried into hard, salty chips, sold in bags at markets and bus stands.

🇫🇯Fiji

Cawaki

Cawaki is sea urchin served raw or briefly cooked with citrus and chilli; its creamy roe carries a clean, briny reef flavour.

🇫🇯Fiji

Fiji Asparagus

Duruka

The unopened flower of a wild cane, peeled from its sheath and cooked in coconut milk — available for only a few weeks a year.

🇫🇯Fiji

Fijian Bhaji

Bhaji

Chickpea-flour batter loaded with onion, chilli and greens and fried in rough spoonfuls, sold hot in paper bags.

🇫🇯Fiji

Fijian Dhal

Dhal

Split peas boiled thin with turmeric and finished with garlic, cumin and chilli fried in ghee and poured in.

🇫🇯Fiji

Fijian Lamb Curry

Lamb curry

Imported lamb flaps cooked down with masala, tomato and potato into a very rich, fatty curry.

🇫🇯Fiji

Fijian Masala Tea

Masala tea

Black tea boiled with milk, cardamom, ginger and cinnamon and sweetened heavily, drunk in Indo-Fijian homes and canteens all day.

🇫🇯Fiji

Fish Suruwa

Suruwa

Firm white fish cooked in a thin coconut-milk curry with cumin, turmeric, garam masala, tomato and chilli.

🇫🇯Fiji

Green coconut

Bu

A young drinking coconut opened with a machete at the roadside and drunk straight from the shell, then split so the soft flesh can be scooped.

🇫🇯Fiji

Gulgula

Small sweet fritters of flour, banana and cardamom fried into dark balls, made in Indo-Fijian homes for tea and prayer days.

🇵🇬Papua New Guinea

Hibiscus spinach

Bele

Hibiscus spinach (Abelmoschus manihot) is a tender, slightly mucilaginous Pacific leafy green known as bele, aibika, pele, and island cabbage, usually cooked with coconut milk or added to soups and stews.

🇫🇯Fiji

Ika Vakalolo

Whole fish or fillets simmered in coconut milk with onion, chilli and lime until the cream thickens around them.

🇫🇯Pohnpei State (Capital FSM), Fiji

Kava

Suhka

Kava is a ceremonial Pacific root beverage prepared by pounding Piper methysticum roots, mixing them with water, and straining the earthy drink for communal sharing.

🇫🇯Fiji

Kokoda

Raw white fish cured in lime juice until opaque, then dressed in thick coconut cream with tomato, onion and chilli and served in a coconut shell.

🇫🇯Fiji

Kovu Walu

Kovu walu is fish or seafood wrapped in banana leaf with coconut cream, then baked until the parcel steams the flesh tender and aromatic.

🇸🇧Solomon Islands

Lolo

Coconut cream squeezed by hand from freshly grated flesh, the fat that carries almost every Fijian dish.

🇫🇯Fiji

Lolo Buns

Lolo buns are soft Fiji bread rolls flavoured with coconut cream, baked until the crust colours and the crumb stays tender.

🇫🇯Fiji

Lovo

Meat, fish and root crops wrapped in banana leaf and buried over fire-heated stones for several hours, then dug out and unwrapped at the table.

🇫🇯Fiji

Lumi

Lumi is a Fijian leafy-green preparation, commonly cooked down with coconut milk, onion, and a little chilli until tender and silky.

🇫🇯Fiji

Miti

Coconut cream sharpened with lime, chilli and onion into a dipping sauce for fish, taro and lovo meat.

🇫🇯Fiji

Octopus in Coconut Cream

Kuita vakalolo

Octopus tenderised and cooked in coconut cream with onion and chilli until the tentacles soften.

🇫🇯Fiji

Ota

Young forest fern shoots blanched and dressed with coconut cream, lime and chilli into a cool salad.

🇫🇯Fiji

Palusami

Taro leaves wrapped into a parcel around coconut cream, onion and often corned beef, then baked in the lovo or steamed until the leaves collapse.

🇫🇯Fiji

Purini

A steamed pudding of flour or cassava with burnt sugar, cooked in a cloth or tin and served with coconut sauce.

🇫🇯Fiji

Roti Parcel

A soft roti wrapped around curry — potato, chicken, goat or bean — folded into a square and sold in paper.

🇫🇯Fiji

Rourou

Taro leaves stewed down in coconut milk with onion and salt into a dark green side dish.

🇫🇯Fiji

Sea Grapes

Nama

Clusters of green sea grapes harvested from the reef and eaten raw with coconut cream, lime and chilli.

🇫🇯Fiji

Sui

Cassava or flour dumplings dropped into a spiced coconut broth, sold in cups at markets.

🇫🇯Fiji

Topoi

Topoi are flour or cassava dumplings cooked in coconut milk; the small pieces become soft and springy while the coconut broth turns gently sweet.

🇫🇯Fiji

Ura Vakalolo

Ura vakalolo is crab or other shellfish simmered in coconut sauce with aromatics until the meat is tender and the sauce coats the shellfish.

🇫🇯Fiji

Vakalavalava

Grated cassava baked with shredded coconut, sugar and butter into a dense, chewy slab — Fiji's cassava cake.

🇫🇯Fiji

Vakalolo

Grated cassava mixed with coconut, ginger and sugar, wrapped in banana leaf and steamed, then covered in hot coconut caramel.

🇫🇯Lau Islands, Fiji

Vakasakera

Vakasakera is a Lau preparation of chopped leafy greens with fermented coconut and seafood folded through coconut milk; it is savoury, creamy, and softly textured.