Solomon Islands
Motu earth-oven feasts, taro pounded into poi, and reef fish over rice — Melanesian island cooking.
Solomon Islands food comes straight from the garden, the reef and the earth oven. The traditional communal method is the motu, hot stones under banana leaves steam-roasting root crops, fish and meat for a village feast; the dish many call national is poi, cooked taro pounded smooth and often enriched with coconut cream. Coconut runs through everything — milk and cream thickening stews and puddings, oil for cooking, grated flesh for flavour.
The everyday plate is humbler and cheap: grilled reef fish or tuna over rice, sold from roadside stalls and kai bars, with slippery cabbage greens softened in coconut cream. In the Western Province, prized almond-like ngali nuts are roasted and folded into puddings, and coconut crab is saved for special occasions. Buy the day's catch and betel nut at Honiara's Central Market, where a long Chinese trading history has left its own imprint on the pot.
- Motu (earth-oven feast)
- Poi (pounded taro)
- Fish and rice
- Slippery cabbage (aibika in coconut cream)
- Fish in coconut
- Ngali nut (roasted canarium nut)
- Coconut crab
