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Food is a
very important part of Samoan life. Wherever and whenever Samoans travel they take food
with them. If you spend any time travelling in and around the Pacific you will undoubtably
come across the sight of Samoans at airports carrying special boxes with the words 'Umu'
printed on the side. They are the equivalent of a take-away, but more of these later. If
they are travelling farther afield to visit friends and relations in America or Europe
then you can be pretty certain that somewhere in their luggage is a tin or two of
Hellaby's corned beef.
Samoan food tends not to be highly spiced or seasoned and consists of a number of cooked ingredients that are relatively unfamiliar or prepared in unusal ways to most Westerners such as cooked breadfuit, taro, taro leaves, cooked green bananas and raw fish.
Wherever you go and whatever you are presented with you should eat what you are presented with, with perhaps one exception; the easiest way to make friends in Samoa, and it is not difficult to do, is not to behave like a palagi.
An umu is the traditional
method used by Samoan's for cooking food. A fire is built and stones placed on it. When
the fire is down to the embers green bananas, breadfruit, taro, fish, and lu'au are placed
on the stones. When everything to be cooked has been placed on the umu, it is covered with
banana fronds and left to cook.
Oka
Most cultures eat raw fish: smoked salmon, sushi, Bismark herring, rollmops etc. Oka is the way Samoans prepare and serve raw fish. It consists of small bits of fish that have been left to marinate in a mixture of lemon juice, coconut cream, salt and onions.
Lu'au/Palusami
Lu'au is probably the dish that Samoa is most famous for and once eaten will never be forgotten. It is made from the leaves of the taro plant and coconut cream, however onions now tend to be added to it. The coconut cream, onions and some taro are wrapped up in whole taro leaves and, ideally, cooked in an umu. When cooked the parcel of taro leaves is opened and the contents eaten.
The taste is impossible to describe, but suffice it to say that this is truly a food fit for the Gods.
If you cannot obtain taro leaves it possible to produce a pale immitation using spinach. Take 2 pounds (1kg) of chopped spinach, two finely diced large onion and a pound of coconut cream. Boil the spinach for about 25 minutes, so that it is horribly overcooked, and fry the onions until they are soft and brown. Mix both of these together in a frying pan, add the coconut cream and salt to taste. Simmer this over a low heat for about 45 minutes.
Pe'epe'e
A general purpose sauce made from coconut cream and onions and eaten with taro, breadfruit or anything you like.
Sea
This
is a Samoan delicacy that is made from the innards of a sea slug. It is normally sold in
coke bottles at the food market. For the bold of heart and strong of constitution only.
Supoesi
Eaten for breakfast, this is a hot soup made from pawpaw and coconut cream. It's is worth trying once because you might like it, but there are many samoans around that wont touch it.
Supasui
A Samoan variation on chop suey, consisting of chunks of beef marinated in soy sauce, ginger, garlic and onions, which is then simmered with vermicelli, water and more soy sauce.
Povi Masima
Salt beef is the same the world over. However in Samoa it is one of the most common ways of eating beef, and most families will from time to time have large barrels of the stuff lying around.
Fausi
Fausi is a dessert traditionally made from taro, but outside of the islands it is more
commonly made from pumpkins. It is essentially baked pumpkin, served with a caramelised
coconut cream sauce: sweet and sticky.
If using taro, then finely grate it, but if using pumpkin cook it first until it is very
soft, then drain it mash it and some plain flour to thicken it.