Palau

Palauan cooking rests on a Micronesian base of taro, cassava and reef fish, but its accent is unmistakably Japanese — the legacy of decades of pre-war administration you still taste in everyday sashimi, bento boxes and rice. The national dish is demok, taro leaves slow-simmered in coconut milk, often enriched with mangrove or land crab; taro itself carries ceremonial weight, especially in women's customs. Around it come crunchy squash-and-shrimp ulkoy fritters and whole reef fish grilled in banana leaf.

The sea is the pantry — mangrove crab, seasonal coconut crab, ultra-fresh lagoon fish — and, for special occasions, the traditional fruit bat soup that guidebooks always mention, served whole and eaten rarely. Koror holds the restaurants, from Japanese counters to Filipino and Korean kitchens; prices run high because so much is imported. Between dives on the Rock Islands, eat demok and sashimi, and you're eating Palau.