A FOOD TRADITION
Bougainville Cuisine
Bougainville cuisine draws on the island's fertile gardens, rainforest resources, and surrounding Pacific waters. Taro, sweet potatoes, cassava, bananas, breadfruit, coconut, greens, pork, fish, and shellfish are commonly boiled, roasted, steamed in leaves, or cooked in earth ovens. Coastal communities emphasize reef fish and shellfish, while inland foodways give greater prominence to root crops, greens, and forest products. Examples include taro or cassava cooked with coconut, roasted pork and root vegetables, and grilled fish or shellfish with greens. Bougainville shares many techniques with the Solomon Islands and other northern Melanesian societies, but its regional food culture merits separate representation from a generic Papua New Guinean entry.
Dishes linked to this cuisine
1–5 of 5
Kaukau
Kaukau is Papua New Guinean sweet potato, typically roasted, baked, or boiled and served as a starchy accompaniment or simple main food.
Kokoda
Kokoda is a Pacific raw-fish preparation associated especially with Fijian and Papua New Guinean cuisine, in which fish is cured or marinated in citrus juice and combined with coconut milk or cream, onion, tomato, and chilli.
Mumu
Mumu is a Papua New Guinean earth-oven feast in which root vegetables and selected meat, poultry, or fish are slow-cooked together, commonly with banana leaves used as a liner or wrapping.
Tamatama
A Bougainvillean family of starchy cakes made from cassava, banana, taro or sago with coconut, wrapped in banana leaves and cooked over a fire; local versions vary across the region.
Taro in Coconut Milk
A traditional preparation of boiled taro served in a rich coconut-milk sauce, often lightly sweetened or seasoned.
Catalogue preview Cuisine connections may be unreviewed. Regional comparisons include their food references and do not establish the ingredients of a particular meal.