Fijian Island Favorites

The local people of the Fijian islands typically make food that can be eaten without silverware or other utensils. Pillows and mats are used for sitting during meals instead of chairs and the whole meal is worlds apart from a typical American dinner table. Their dishes are typically made up of brown rice, root vegetables like potatoes and turnips, coconuts and various types of fish. Fiji is also highly renowned for its extremely pure water aquifers. Fijian artisanal water is sold all around the world.
The way traditional Fijian food is prepared is very unique to the area. The Fijian “Lo-vo” or clay oven is very common for preparing meats, fish and other dishes. Typically the food is buried in a large clay pot a few feet underground, and covered with hot stones so that the ground itself acts like a large oven, cooking the food inside the pot. It usually takes quite a while to cook in a clay oven, but more stones can be added to the ground to speed up cooking times. Lo-vo festivals and feasts are very popular in the Fijian islands. Typically, meats such as chicken and fish are cooked along with turnips and plantains to slow-cook in the pot. The raw foods are wrapped in aluminum foil or banana leaves to absorb and distribute heat evenly. Lo-vo festivals are most often held in the resort towns of Fiji. Weddings are also another very popular time for Lo-vo feasts.

The traditional Fijian Breadfruit has been gaining is becoming more and more popular in Fiji and around the world where it can be imported. Originally the Fijian Breadfruit was considered a food for the lower class, but like almost all ingredients like this around the world, it has grown to be a delicious and traditional dish of the area. The breadfruit trees grow very fast and can reach almost 90 feet tall. Its fruit can be sautéed, grilled or roasted into what the Fijian’s call ”bread”. Breadfruit doesn’t actually resemble bread itself, but the texture of the fruit is very much like a crusty French baguette when cooked. Raw Breadfruit is commonly made into purees, deep fried or even candied.

There are various foods indigenous to Fiji that you’d have a hard time finding anywhere else in the world. One of the staple Fijian root vegetables, Dalo, tastes very close to an artichoke, although it looks a lot like a potato.

Fijian Seafood is typically sauced in a coconut béchamel sauce made with shallots, lemons and peppers in a preparation called “Minti” Palusami, a very traditional island side dish is composed of taro leaves that are formed into cups with fish, root vegetables and spicy peppers added in the middle. The “cup” is then steam-cooked.

A typical Fijian meal isn’t going to be quite like a Sunday lunch at Grandma’s although you soon won’t forget the unique flavors and textures of indigenous Fijian ingredients.