Fiji
Earth-oven feasts and coconut-cured fish, Indian curry and roti, all washed down with kava.
Fiji's kitchen splits along its two founding communities. Indigenous iTaukei cooking centres on the lovo, an underground stone oven where food wrapped in banana and taro leaves cooks for hours over hot rocks — the heart of every wedding and church feast. Coconut is the flavour backbone: cream and miti sauce dressing reef fish, taro leaves and root crops. The signature light dish is kokoda, raw fish cured in citrus and coconut milk, served in a coconut shell.
Then there's the other Fiji: a large Indo-Fijian population whose ancestors arrived as indentured labourers in the 1800s, bringing the goat curry, dhal and flaky roti you'll find in cheap, brilliant town curry houses. Binding the whole country together is kava — the earthy, mildly numbing root drink poured in the sevusevu ceremony that welcomes a visitor to a village. Present the root, share the bowl, and you're in.
- Kokoda (coconut-cured raw fish)
- Lovo (earth-oven feast)
- Palusami (taro leaves in coconut cream)
- Dalo (taro)
- Fiji-Indian curry and roti
- Miti (coconut sauce)
- Kava (yaqona)