Traditional Tongan Cuisine

Tongan food blends Polynesian staples with coconut, seafood, and root crops. Signature dishes:

• Oka: Raw fish marinated in coconut milk, lime, onion.
• Lu pulu: Taro leaves cooked in coconut milk with meat/fish.
• Feke: Fermented breadfruit in coconut milk.
• Pulu aki: Chicken/pork in coconut-tomato-onion sauce.
• Tapa: Sliced beef/pork in similar coconut sauce.
• Vai si: Taro leaves in spiced coconut milk.
• Tongafusi: Banana-leaf parcels of taro, coconut, sugar cane, baked in earth oven (umu).
• Maumi: Sweet potato, coconut milk, sugar dessert.
• Fai kai: Banana, coconut milk, sugar dessert.

Staples: taro, yam, cassava, breadfruit, coconut, fish. Feasting central to social life.