Papua New Guinea

🇵🇬Papua New Guinea

Aigir

Hot-stone cooking method from East New Britain — hot rocks dropped into a pot of coconut milk with chicken, plantains, sweet potatoes, leafy greens, and ginger, cooked in 30 minutes.

🇵🇬Papua New Guinea

Betel Nut

Betel nut, or buai, is areca nut chewed with betel pepper leaf and slaked lime; users should be warned that the practice carries serious health risks.

🇵🇬Papua New Guinea

Bugandi Egg Drop Soup

Light soup of spinach, spring onions, and choko shoots boiled in water with a raw egg dropped in while cooking — a simple, nourishing PNG soup from the Bugandi region.

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Bully Beef and Rice

Tinned corned beef (bully beef) fried with onions and served over rice — an introduced staple now woven into everyday PNG eating, especially in towns and mining camps.

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Cassava Pudding

Poudine manioc

Grated cassava, coconut milk, sugar, and vanilla bake into dense, translucent-chewy pudding slices served across island tables.

🇵🇬Papua New Guinea

Chicken Pot

Homely stew of chicken simmered with mixed vegetables and coconut cream — a mild, comforting everyday dish found in PNG homes and guesthouses.

🇵🇬Papua New Guinea

Corned Beef and Pumpkin

Tinned corned beef simmered with pumpkin and coconut cream — a hearty PNG home dish combining introduced tinned meat with local squash and coconut.

🇵🇬Papua New Guinea

Dia

Sweet sago and ripe banana dumpling steamed in banana-leaf wrapping, served with clotted coconut cream — a PNG dessert where the banana provides all the sweetness.

🇵🇬Papua New Guinea

Galip Nut

Canarium almond from the galip tree — a native PNG nut eaten raw, roasted, or incorporated into dishes; one of the staple nuts of the PNG diet, found alongside karuka in local dishes.

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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.

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Highlands Pork Mumu

The Highlands version of mumu — pork is the celebratory meat, layered with kaukau, fern greens, and plantains in the earth oven; pork is a symbol of wealth and status.

🇵🇬Papua New Guinea

Kaima Bona Gatoi

Grilled vegetable dish of eggplants, zucchini, hot peppers, and onions, marinated in vinegar, olive oil, herbs, and garlic before grilling — a PNG vegetable preparation.

🇵🇬Papua New Guinea

Kapiak

Kapiak is the edible breadnut of Papua New Guinea, valued for its starchy kernels, which may be boiled, roasted, or incorporated into local foods.

🇵🇬Papua New Guinea

Karuka

Nuts from the mountain pandanus tree — a prized Highlands food, harvested between December and March, with a major harvest every second year; rich in oil and protein.

🇵🇬Papua New Guinea

Kaukau

Sweet potato — the everyday starch of the PNG Highlands, baked, boiled, or roasted, then mashed with coconut milk, garlic, and ginger; eaten at almost every meal.

🇵🇬Papua New Guinea

Kokoda

Papua New Guinean kokoda is fresh fish cured in lime juice and finished with coconut milk, onion, chili, and other coastal vegetables.

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Kol Pis No Rais

Cold fish and rice — canned tuna mixed with rice, sometimes with peas and corn; a simple, everyday PNG dish adapted from imported tinned fish and rice.

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Kulau

Green coconut filled with sweet, slightly tangy coconut water — PNG's national drink, drunk fresh from the shell before the flesh hardens.

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Kumu

Wild leafy greens cooked in coconut cream — the universal PNG side dish, where 'kumu' refers to any edible wild greens gathered from the garden or forest.

🇵🇬Papua New Guinea

Kumu Musong

Kumu musong is a leafy-green PNG preparation cooked with coconut and aromatics until tender; it is served as a vegetable side with roots or fish.

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Lamb Flaps

Lamb trimmings marinated with ginger, garlic, and chicken bouillon powder, grilled on roadside stands — PNG's most popular street food, served with cress salad and grilled plantains.

🇵🇬Papua New Guinea

Marita

Marita is the bright orange pandanus fruit of the PNG Highlands, eaten ripe or mashed into a thick fruit preparation; its oily pulp is intensely coloured and fragrant.

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Mud Clam

Mud clams from mangrove swamps, cooked with fern leaves and coconut cream — a Milne Bay delicacy, foraged from the mangroves and steamed in the traditional way.

🇵🇬Papua New Guinea

Mumu

Papua New Guinea's national dish — pork or chicken, kaukau (sweet potato), taro, plantains, and leafy greens wrapped in banana leaves and slow-steamed in an earth oven over hot stones.

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Nangu

Gelatinous sago dumpling from the Sepik region — sago flour mixed with boiling hot water to form a jelly-like starch, eaten as the basic carbohydrate with smoked fish or freshwater prawns.

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Okari

Okari is a PNG tree nut roasted or cooked into a rich paste, with a firm, oily bite and a flavour like a mild almond.

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Papua New Guinea Cocoa

Single-origin cocoa beans from PNG's smallholder plantations — prized by chocolatiers for their complex flavour profile, used in desserts and chocolate making.

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Papua New Guinea Coffee

Highland-grown Arabica coffee — PNG's second largest agricultural export, cultivated in the Highlands Region; a widely consumed beverage with a mild, balanced flavour.

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Papua New Guinea Vanilla

Vanilla beans from PNG — one of the world's premium vanilla sources, grown in the Highlands and coastal regions; used in desserts and baking.

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Pitpit

Pit-pit uses the tender inner shoots of sugarcane or related grass, sliced and cooked with coconut, meat, or fish into a soft vegetable dish.

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PNG Black Tea

Black tea grown in the PNG Highlands, introduced by the British — drunk steaming hot, black, and very sweet, especially popular in the southern coastal areas.

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Sago Flour

Starch flour extracted from the sago palm pith — the essential carbohydrate of PNG's lowland and river communities, used in pancakes, dumplings, puddings, and nangu.

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Sago Pancake

Sago pancake is a thin lowland PNG cake made from sago flour, sometimes with grated coconut, pressed onto a hot pan until flexible and lightly toasted.

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Sago-Crusted Tuna

Fresh tuna coated in sago flour and pan-fried or grilled — a modern PNG restaurant dish that uses sago as a crust, showcased at Port Moresby hotels like the Hilton.

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Saksak

Sago Balls

Saksak is made from sago flour and ripe banana formed into dumplings, wrapped in leaves, and steamed until sticky before being served with coconut milk.

🇵🇬Papua New Guinea

Stuffed Papaya

Halved papaya filled with spiced meat or vegetables and baked — a PNG dish that combines the abundance of tropical fruit with savoury fillings.