Cuisine of Aitutaki Island for gourmets. Places for dinner - best restaurants

Aitutaki Island had been in almost complete isolation for many centuries, so even now you can find here dishes with thousand-years-old recipes. The major change which has happened in the last 100 years is rice adding into the great number of local meals and multiplication of meat dishes. Even though people of the island were eating meat in the past as well, still it used to be served only on major celebrations.

Onions and garlic are now delivered to the island in large quantities – indigenous people had never planted it here and so never used in cooking. Since locals got into communication with Europeans, dairy products, beans, cabbage, aubergines, zucchini, tomatoes, and oils started to be brought here and became something especially new for local cooks. Nowadays, all these ingredients are common ingredients for diverse meals on the island. Moreover, new meals appear on the island constantly and they’re being created by mixing local traditional recipes with foreign techniques.

Eve those people who are not fond of gastronomic experiments should really try Aitutaki’s cuisine. In addition, you don’t have to worry about your stomach, the island dishes are not that spicy, hot or sour. The thing you have to be careful about is to make sure that the dish you’ve chosen is not served raw. Copyright www.orangesmile.com

Umukai is definitely worth trying as it’s one of the main national dishes in the local traditional cuisine. Basically, it’s fish stewed in the earth-oven together with roots and turmeric («renga»). The dish also has a meat-version. Many chefs also like to add onion and garlic, but you can always the traditional recipe in the local remote villages.

Seafood is the base of the cuisine due to the location, so it’s not a surprise. If you’re looking for something specific, try matu rori. Even though no eggs are used in this dish, it kind of reminds an omelette. The main ingredients are sea cucumber meat, lemon and banana. White crab meat which is usually smashed into puree together with coconut is also rather original. People here eat it raw or fry in hibiscus leaves.

Shellfish grilled on an open fire are extremely tasty. If you’re not afraid of eating non-thermally-processed fish then you one hundred percent have to taste ika mata – raw tuna or flying fish filet with lime or lemon juice. A salad with fish, which was pickled in seawater and then steamed in order to increase salt concentration, is really tasty too. Then, there is moana-roa mahi mahi – white fish filet fried with colocasia and spices.

Papaya (or pawpaw) is the main ingredient for a bunch of local delicacies and it’s used of various ripe. What is more, there is a great variety of dishes with sauces made from coconut milk or coconut meat. Fun fact: coconut and papaya meats with lemon and spices are the most popular side dishes or appetizers here on the island. Fried green bananas and colocasia can also be served a nice side dish. Mangos, melons, peaches, and plums are, for instance, often added into salads with coconut chips.

Kuru papa or simply kuru – breadfruit fruit – is eaten here as a source of carbs. Kuru can not only be an ingredient for salads or appetizers also a base for pies and puddings which are baked in an earth-oven. Tiopu kuru – a breadfruit pie with meat – is rather tasty as well. Kuru is also sometimes served with punu puakatoro – canned beef – and pi and ham bean soup. Kuru is also usually added to stewed meat or fish with ginger, turmeric and curry. In addition, colocasia – the main local green vegetable – is served with major meat dishes.

As for deserts, the really well-known one is poke. It’s mostly cooked from bananas boiled in coconut milk or dried or baked ones. However, you can also cool it or simply use any other fruit – there are dozens of poke recipes and new ones appear literally every year. Maniota is one more peculiar dessert which is tapioca mashed with coconut milk and then cooked in earth-oven or mixed with starch and baked as a jelly-like pie.

Concerning alcohol, tumunu brewed from oranges and sugar – a local kind of beer – is definitely worth tasting. Kava is a local non-alcoholic beverage becomes increasingly popular here on the island. Also, you can try local tea which is grown on local plantations.