What to eat French Polynesia? culinary specialties and gastronomy

Polynesian cuisine offers a wide variety of specialties, mainly based on seafood and exotic fruits, with a subtle touch of French and Chinese influences. Dishes tend to use relatively few spices, and often include coconut milk, ginger, lime, vanilla or tamarind. Fish and shellfish are prepared in a wide variety of ways: grilled, skewered, baked, fried, raw and more. Polynesian lagoons also offer an incredible variety of fish used in traditional cooking.

The warm, humid tropical climate is particularly well-suited to growing fruit and vegetables. Fresh fruit is often served as a dessert, but is also used in salads, fish tartars and cooked dishes. A major feature of Tahitian cuisine, and that of much of the Pacific, is the Polynesian oven or ahi ma'a (from " ahi " fire and " ma'a " food). On festive occasions, food is always cooked in earthen ovens or cooking pits, using a traditional technique that dates back to ancient times. This involves digging a hole about a metre deep, the surface area varying according to the quantity of food to be cooked, of course. Wood and dried coconut shells are placed on the bottom and covered with volcanic stones. The wood is burned to heat the stones, then the food is wrapped in banana leaves and placed on the stones to cook. Tahitian gastronomic ingredients cooked in an ahi ma'a include pua oviri (wild boar),uru (breadfruit), taro, banana fe'i (a type of orange banana that is only eaten cooked),eia (fish), poe (a type of gelatinous dessert wrapped in banana leaves), fafa (a type of local spinach) or manioc. The food is covered with hotter stones, then earth and sand, to create a giant pressure cooker. The oven is then constantly monitored, and if smoke appears through a hole, it must be blocked off. A meal usually takes a few hours to prepare using this traditional method.

Because the cooking time is so long,ahi ma'a was traditionally prepared on Saturday, to be opened the following day and served after Sunday mass. A Sunday tradition, ahi ma'a is particularly popular at events and family gatherings, and is usually served at noon on Sundays.

Thanks to its tropical climate, French Polynesia is able to grow a wide variety of foods, although the small size and relief of some of the islands severely limit agricultural possibilities. Among the plants grown in the region are many root vegetables, used as a source of starch. Taro is common in Polynesia, both as a tuber and for its broad, heart-shaped leaves. Other starchy vegetables include the taro-like fafa, manioc and sweet potato. The fruit of theuru or breadfruit tree is a major component of Polynesian cuisine. This plant native to the Pacific produces fruit that - after cooking - resembles bread. It needs to be cooked for around 3 hours before eating, and is a nutritious superfood (rich in carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals) with a balanced taste. In terms of energy, 200 g of uru (255 kcal) provide as many calories as 100 g of white bread. On the other hand, the flour extracted from it is gluten-free. After harvesting, it is generally left to rest overnight to allow the sap to drain away. Theuru is then placed directly on a wood fire and left to cook for around 30 minutes on each side, until each side of the skin is well cooked and a fine layer of grey ash forms on the surface. This "crust" is then peeled: the uncovered cooked flesh is served in nice slices - the core, where the seeds are located, is removed. The slices can also be fried in oil.

But beyond this fruit tree, there are many other species of fruit that flood the markets, such as the passion fruit with its tangy pulp, the fragrant pineapple, the melting mango and the papaya. Starfruit is not very tasty, but once cut, it forms superb star-shaped yellow slices. Limes are widely used in Polynesian cuisine. Tamarind, widely used in Asia for its sour pulp, is often consumed in Polynesia as a fresh drink. The dragon's eye or longan, with its translucent, lychee-like flesh, originates from China. The cashew apple (anacardier) is the fruit that develops above the famous cashew nut. The margosa is used more as a vegetable. This astonishing bitter cucumber, with its pecked skin, is emptied of its seeds for stuffing. The anone corossol has a creamy white pulp and is very sweet. The noni, although naturally grown in Tahiti, is in fact native to India. Yet this fruit, which looks surprisingly like a white blackberry, is very popular in Tahiti. Finally, the apple or cythere plum - native to the Pacific - has a light, tangy taste and crunchy flesh. Tahiti is also a vanilla-producing region. Different from Bourbon vanilla - grown in Madagascar - with its subtle aniseed and caramel notes, Tahitian vanilla is in a way the black gold of French Polynesia, and most of it is produced in Tahaa.

One of the fruits most associated with the islands is, of course, the coconut. The trunk of the coconut palm, known as the "tree of life", is used as a building material, while the fruit is eaten in all its forms. It is wrapped in a thick layer of fibers, beneath which a thin brown shell envelops pure white flesh. When coconuts are young, part of the interior is liquid: this is coconut water. Then, as the fruit matures, it becomes solid. Coconut milk is used in many culinary preparations, and is made by pressing the grated coconut flesh. Coconut blossom sugar, more simply known as coco sugar, can also be extracted from the blossom of the coconut palm. This is an unrefined sugar obtained by crystallizing the sap from the stems of coconut flowers. It is a variety of palm sugar.

Although French Polynesia has a modest surface area, the entire territory, including the maritime zones, stretches over some 5,500,000 km². This means that fish and seafood play a vital role in Polynesian cuisine. The most popular lagoon and ocean fish are tuna, mahi-mahi, perch and swordfish, not to mention the large freshwater shrimp known here as chevrettes. It has to be said that the small amount of agricultural land means that local cuisine is highly dependent on seafood, the pig being the only land mammal imported by Polynesians when these islands were first settled. Cows, goats, rabbits, etc., are more recently acclimatized animals, having been here for around two centuries, and most of the meat consumed in French Polynesia is imported from New Zealand. Traditional whaling, particularly on Rurutu, stopped in the middle of the ^20th century, and its meat is no longer eaten, unlike the green turtle, which is still hunted despite bans.

Farming on these islands, which is practised in the traditional way, is made all the simpler by the fact that the animals - goats and pigs in particular - can't swim, so there's no need to keep a close eye on them. Polynesian families often own one or more pigs(pua) and have been raising chickens since their ancestors landed on the islands. In the Marquesas Islands, goats roam freely. All you have to do is hunt them, and eat them on the spot. An extraordinary experience. Although much of the milk is imported, Tahiti and more specifically the Vaiora cooperative, located on the Taravao plateau on the Tahiti Iti peninsula, has a herd of 1,100 cattle, including 220 dairy cows, spread over 300 hectares and producing around 1,000 liters of milk every day.

There are, however, a number of foodstuffs that cannot really be produced on the islands. These include corned beef, Chinese vermicelli, wheat flour and kidney beans, as well as products that flatter the palate of French people back home, such as Roquefort or a good Bordeaux, which will of course cost a fortune locally. Tahiti's three main cultures (Polynesian, French and Chinese) have learned to take advantage of the richness of each cuisine. Haute cuisine is (admittedly) confined to the tables of the great restaurants and hotels of the Society Islands. Most of its inspiration comes from French or Chinese cuisine: try mahi-mahi with vanilla sauce, or beef fillet sautéed with mahogany. Any snack bar or restaurant will serve you poulet-frites or entrecôte with Roquefort cheese. So you can enjoy pure French cuisine, or French with local ingredients. The average Polynesian family prepares tasty dishes such as raw fish in coconut milk, grilled fish or fish en papillote, garnished with rice or a variety of vegetables, various chicken curries, chevrette curries, etc.

Fafaru, with its powerful and disturbing aroma, is a real culinary surprise. It's raw fish or shrimp macerated in seawater for several days. Faranis often wonder how anyone can eat this stuff. Nevertheless, the taste is more subtle than the smell would suggest. Probably the best-known dish is raw fish à la tahitienne or i'a ota, marinated in lime juice and coconut milk. This dish is prepared with fresh tuna, but other Polynesian fish such as mahi-mahi, bonito and barracuda also work well. In addition to fish, which is well-suited to this type of preparation, seafood such as sea snails, clams, lobster or shrimps make excellent raw recipes. Ina'a au rea fritters are a recipe for small fry croquettes. Other classics include poulet au fāfā, a chicken stew with taro leaves and coconut milk. Another simmered dish, pua'a choux is a pork stew with cabbage, turnips and carrots. Otherwise, roast suckling pig is a popular holiday dish, as is veal on the spit. Maa tinito (literally "Chinese meal") consists of pork belly and kidney beans cooked in a sweet-and-sour sauce.

Starches are highly prized and often combined to create dense, slightly elastic breads such asipo (made with flour and coconut milk), rēti'a (made with starch and coconut) or tāota (grated cassava, starch). And let's not forget po'e, of which there are different versions, often presented at Tahitian banquets and sold in markets: po'e ī'ītā (with papaya), po'e mei'a (with banana), po'e hi'o (with coconut water), po'e ape (with giant taro), po'e māpē (with Tahitian chestnut) and po'e mauteni (with pumpkin). Banana and papaya po'e are generally considered desserts. Ma'a Tahiti is a large plate of Polynesian dishes, containing raw fish in coconut milk, po'e, fafa, cooked bananas, taro and coconut bread. Punu pua' atoro is the Tahitian term for corned beef, an American import that has since enjoyed great success throughout the Pacific. It is often served with peas and rice.

Even though each country has absorbed various external influences over the course of its history, which have shaped its gastronomy, there are two dominant trends in French Polynesia. Tahitian Chinese cuisine, inherited from the Hakka people who settled in the archipelago at the end of the ^19th century, has been adapted through cultural contact with European and Tahitian populations, and is now an integral part of the local culinary tradition. Some of these dishes can be found in mainland France, but their flavors differ from their Tahitian equivalents. Chop suey, chao pao, poultry heart skewers, shrimp fritters, Cantonese rice, egg rolls and so on are classics. Chinese cuisine is not confined to restaurants, but can be found in every snack bar and on every plate. Chao mein is an almost transparent distortion of the Chinese dish known as chow mein. Here, we're talking about a dish of stir-fried wheat noodles, topped with vegetables (cabbage, turnip, carrots, green onions), shrimps, pork and chicken. A very complete and delicious dish. chao bao is a type of steamed bun often known simply as bao in China, filled with a tasty mixture usually containing minced pork, vegetables or, even more fragrant, lacquered pork with a delicious sweet and sour taste. Lemon chicken is a recipe for fried chicken pieces coated in a sweet-salty lemon sauce, while tapen lou, or Chinese fondue, is composed of a multitude of finely sliced foods (meat, vegetables, seafood, etc.) that are plunged by the guests themselves into a very fragrant broth.

French gastronomy has a more diffuse influence on everyday food. A few chefs have settled in the islands, and offer high-priced meals worthy of their nationality, but the average Tahitian family does not cook "à la française". Inherited from the French presence, everyone has a baguette, but French products are mainly found on the shelves due to the tax system. Tahiti's French community simply imports the products they're used to. Rather, Europe and the West in general have contributed to the Polynesian food palette, given that, like everywhere else, people eat pasta, pizza, red meat and dairy products.

As for pastries, in addition to classics such as the chocolate-banana cake, gourmets can try pai, small turnovers filled with coconut or banana, or coconut bread, or firifiri, sweet fritters in the shape of an eight. Po'e banane is a dessert made from bananas, tapioca flour, vanilla and coconut milk. It's a kind of flan, usually served warm. It can also be made with pineapple, guava or papaya. Po'e can also be made with pumpkin, in which case it's not a dessert, but an accompaniment to a main course. Coconut bread is a kind of brioche that incorporates coconut water to give a little taste to this soft bread, much appreciated for breakfast. In the Marquesas, popoi refers to cooked and grounduru (breadfruit), to which coconut milk is added. Fei is a variety of banana eaten cooked.

Coconut water has long been the only source of drinking water on the atolls, especially when it didn't rain. Each coconut holds around two full glasses. Today, all the islands have running water from the tap, but it's not always drinkable, especially on small atolls where there is no natural water source. In the Tuamotus, the islands are supplied with mineral water containers. Fresh water is a very rare commodity here, and should therefore be consumed without wasting. The two main brands, Vaimato and Eau Royale, are produced in Tahiti. A few others are imported. Many homes are equipped with water fountains that can be refilled with a canister, as can be seen in the United States. Succulent juices are extracted from the islands' fruit riches. Rotui pineapple juice, made at the Moorea factory, is available everywhere in cans. The one-liter bottles, 100% pure juice, are excellent, but expensive. The factory also sells grapefruit and guava juices.

It's possible to wash down a good meal with a grand cru: most stores in Papeete sell French, Chilean and Californian wines, as do hotels and restaurants with cellars. Of course, wines cost much more than in mainland France for the same quality. Even if hotels and restaurants have discounts, which allow them to have "conventional" rates making the bottle more accessible, but quite expensive, at least €15-20. Strong spirits remain expensive, as there are no rum distilleries like in the West Indies. The flagship whisky is Cutty Sark, which is mixed with Sprite. On the other hand, the local ti-punch exists to accommodate rum. The maitai cocktail ("excellent" in Tahitian) is made with white rum, dark rum, coconut liqueur, pineapple juice, grenadine, lime, Grand Marnier and Cointreau. Hinano beer is the most popular alcoholic beverage, but there are also good rums and liqueurs. Tahitian wine is produced in Rangiroa, in the heart of the Tuamotu Islands. Although the vine is not necessarily a tropical plant, it has been able to adapt and we produce red coral wine, rosé and white. The white wine in particular is soft and fruity.