Appetiser

Miti : The Preparation of Coconut Lemonade

Some scrapes ripe coconuts while another one goes to get  sea water.  Then they squeeze the coconut kernel juice out add sea water.  Then the bottles are brought which are cleaned.  When the coconut kernel juice is squeezed out, pepper pods are taken or small lemons and are stirred together with the coconut kernel juice.  Then the bottles are filled.  One eats raw grey mullet with it or cooked fish.

Faiai Limu: The Fai’ai of Seaweeds

One brings seaweed from the sea and puts it in a bowl of fresh water until the bitter taste is gone.  Then take coconut kernel juice squeezed out of coconut kernel and mix together.  Then take the banana leaves, put all in and cause it to bake.  When it is taken out of the oven, serve it, it is excellent, particularly for old women.

Main Dishes

Luau Fui: The Salt Water-Taro Leaves Dish

Only taro leaves and salt water are put together and cooked.  When it is taken out of the oven, it is given only to sick people who drink medicine.  Old women like it very much.

Faafatupa'o :Taro Leaves with Coconut Kernel Juice

Get some taro leaves and then squeeze out coconut kernel juice also.  Then take the taro leaves and add the coconut juice.  Then wrap it up and back.  No sea water nor fresh water is added.  When it is taken out of the oven, it is eaten.

The Preparation of Palusami

(Taro leaves with salt water and coconut kernel juice)

First, one goes out to pick taro leaf shoots, brings them and lays them down (in the cook house) and then goes to get old coconuts down.  One takes them and scrapes them with the scraper.  Then the oven is lit.  Then one brings good banana leaves and cooks them to make them pliable.  Then glowing rocks are taken and the coconut scrapings melted.  Then one picks breadfruit leaves.  When a strainer has been made ready, one man gets ready to squeeze out the coconut pulp.  He takes salt water and pours it on the scrapings; then the scrapings are squeezed out again.  Then the palusami is dressed; first it is dressed in taro leaves, then one takes banana leaves, and finally breadfruit leaves .  Usually about twenty dresses of palusami are made when a palusami baking is prepared.

Faiai fua: The Simple Pudding

When one cooks pudding, he first picks ripe coconuts.  Then they are taken and scraped into the fai’ai bowl.  Then banana leaves are brought, but big ones and good ones and they are heated.  Then the coconut juice is squeezed out.  Then one takes the banana leaves when they are hot and pours the juice into them ⁵².  Then one takes the ti leaves and wraps up once more.  Then it is cooked.

Faiai Vatia: The Starch Pudding

Also scrape coconut kernel into the bowl which is also called ‘umete.  Then squeeze out the scrapings, take starch flour and mix together with the coconut juice.  Then take the banana leaves and fill them.  Bake and then take out of the oven.  Vatia is very special and like jelly.

Faiai Valuvalu: The Yams Pudding

Take coconut kernel and scrape it.  Then take yam and grate it.  Then squeeze out the coconut juice.  Then take a grating coral and grate the yam.  Then take the coconut juice after all of it is squeezed out and mix it with the yam.  Then take the banana leaves that have been heated and put the mixture in them and bake them.  Then the oven is emptied out.  Valuvalu is very, very good.

Faiai Fe'e: The Pudding of Octopus

If one caught octopuses while fishing, he makes a dish of them, the fai’aife’e.  He scrapes coconut kernel, lights the oven and heats banana leaves.  Then the coconut juice is squeezed out.  Then one takes the octopuses and takes the ink out, and squeezes them together with coconut juice.  Then the tentacles of toe octopus are cut off.  Then he takes the banana leaves, puts the fai’ai in it and puts two or three tentacles in each.  Then all is wrapped up and baked.  It smells ever so good when it is cooked.

Faiai Malasina: The Curcuma Root Pudding

Also for this, scrape ripe coconuts for the dish, scrape also taro and also peel bananas.  Then squeeze out coconut juice.  Then take banana leaves and put the fai’ai malasina in them.  Then cause it to bake.  It is very good and oily when it comes out of the oven.  Piasua is also made of it.  That is how the malasina can be used.

Dessert Dishes

Piasua: Simple Starch-Coconut Kernel Juice Pudding

First light the fire, then heat three or four rocks in it until they are red hot.  Then mix starch in the bowl with water.  Then take old coconuts and scrape them; when they are scraped, squeeze out.  Then take the red hot rocks and put them in the bowl where the starch is after it is prepared.  Now stir.  When the starch has become hot, take first the coconut kernel juice and stir it in togethre with the starch.  When in this way the juice is ready and the starch hot, remove the rocks.  Then cut the piasua in pieces.  This is very nicely gelatinous and tastes wonderful.  It is then eaten, it is very rich.

Vaisalo : The Soup to Strengthen the Sick

First light the oven.  Then pick half ripe coconuts.  Then split their husk, bring the basket full of nuts, crack them so that the water runs into a bowl, then cut the meat of the nuts out.  Pull off the lower part of a coconut leaf  and make a strainer of it.  Then the kernel is squeezed till it foams.  When it foams take hot rocks, put them in the bowl and stir until it boils.  Then take the starch, break it up inside your hand, sprinkle it into the bowl and stir until it is cooked.  This is very good when cooked, and useful for sick people.  It is excellent.

The following two dishes are included at this point because they are also prepared with masoa, the starch flour of the arrowroot.  They might be of a more recent date as the use of an iron pot may suggest.  Likewise pawpaw has also been introduced more recently (illus. 53).  But the recipe is at any rate genuinely Samoan, and perhaps because more pampered tongues might appreciate it.  I did not omit it.

Suafa'i Tunu: Banana Pudding Prepared in a Pot

Take ripe bananas; then wash out the pot and pour a little clean water in ti.  Then peel the bananas, cut them in little pieces, throw them in the pot and cook them.  Then also scrape coconut kernel of two or three nuts.  When the pot is boiling, take starch flour and stir it in.  When the starch flour has been stirred in, squeeze out the coconut juice and cook until starch and coconut juice are hot.  For stirring, split the stem of a coconut leaf.  When it is hot, it is excellent and like jelly.

Suaesi: The Pawpaw Pudding

Pick the pawpaw fruits, taken them and pull off the skins.  Also scrape two or three old coconuts.  When the water in the pot boils, cut the pawpaw fruit into the pot in small pieces.  Then cook till it boils.  Then squeeze coconut kernel juice.  When the pawpaw fruits boil, pour the coconut kernel juice into the pot.  Then take starch and sprinkle it into the suaesi, as with the suafa’i.  It is very good and like jelly.

Presented next is the fa’ausi, the special dish for chiefs which is served on a leaf in a plaited, plate-like basked called mailo.

Fa'ausi: Taro Dumplings in a Hot Sauce

One fetches talomanu’a, takes it and scrapes it off.  Then one cuts a banana stump, gets a rasping board, fastens it on it, then takes the taro and grates it fine.  Then one takes fern leaves and fills them.  When the filling in is completed it is called fa’apapa.  Then it is brought to boil.  Then coconut juice is squeezed out; then one takes some red hot rocks and stirs them around in it.  When they are stirred the oil is poured off while the firm part remains in the bowl.  Then one empties the oven, takes the fa’apapa and cuts it with the knife, and the name of the cut pieces is now fa’ausi dresses.  It is then served.  It is very popular with the chiefs.

Taufolo Talo: Taro Dumplings in Coconut Kernel Juice

One takes taro and cooks it.  Then one gets a bowl and a coconut leaf stalk ready, because when the oven is being emptied, first of all the taufolo is mashed.  Then one empties the oven.  Then one takes the taro, peels off the skin, takes the meat and mashes it.  Then the coconut juice is squeezed out and pounded (into the taro pulp) with the top of the coconut leaf stalk.  When it is soft, one takes the back of the coconut leaf stalk and cuts with it the way taufolo niu is cut.  Then one takes (the remainder of) the coconut kernel juice and pours it on the dumplings.  Then the banana leaves are filled with it and it is taken to the chiefs.

Loiloi Talo:Stewed Taro Pieces

Go out and get taro.  Then take it and scrape it off.  After the ripe coconut kernel is also scraped off, pick good banana leaves and heat them in the oven.  When the oven is lit, take the taro and cut it in three pieces each.  Then take the banana leaves, wrap the taro in them and squeeze coconut juice into it.  Then wrape all in pawpaw leaves and cause it to be cooked.  If one starts cooking in the afternoon, he doesn’t take it out till the next morning^*75 .  These dishes are prepared for boat builders of bonito boats and for house carpenters.  It is very excellent, the loloi.

Dumplings of breadfruit are usually called taufolo; one distinguishes between two kinds; taufolosami with salt water, and taufoloniu with coconut kernel juice.  The dish is truly delicious.  As it is brought, people call uuu; when they are very good, the dumplings are called mata'’ma, one piece: sapoga (Pratt).

Taufolo Ulu: Breadfruit Dumplings in Sauce

Pick breadfruit of either the puou or the maopo or the ‘ulu uea variety.  Bring them, light the oven and lay them to roast on top of the hot rocks.  When two bowls or one are ready, look for some small breadfruits to get them ready to be pounded.  Cut several small sticks, three or four, and force them in around the area where the stems of the fruit to be pounded have their start.  When the breadfuits are speared in this fashion, peel their skins off.  Then take them and pound them till they are soft, five or six fruits.  And so one fills the bowl up with them.  If one want to make taufolo with salt water, one first adds the sea water and then squeezes coconut juice into it.  Then one breaks it up in little pieces.  This is highly praised in meetings of chiefs; the heat remains a long time and it does not get cold.

If one wants to have taufolo with coconut kernel juice – fai’ai’ulu is another name for taufoloniu – one also peels breadfruits and pounds them until they are warm and jelly-like.  Crush them very fine on the rims of the bowl; then take coconut kernel juice and pour it in the middle of the pulp.  Then take a hot rock and move it around in the coconut kernel juice of the pulp.  Then take the back of a coconut leaf stem and cut the pulp into small dumplings.  Now lay them in leaves and take it to the chiefs.  It is excellent.  There is also a loiufi; it is similar to a loloitalo and a loifa’I ; otherwise yam is used for dishes less than the other fruits.

Loi Ufi (sofesofe): Yam Baked in Coconut Kernel Juice

First dig up the yam.  Then take it and scrape it off.  Then squeeze coconut kernel juice of ripe nuts.  When it is scraped and when likewise banana leaves, indeed large ones, are heated, take the yam and cut it in thin slices.  Then take the banana leaves and put fourteen to twenty thin yam slices in one dress and squeeze also the coconut juice into it.  Then take it and bake it.  Sofesofe is another name for it.

Loi Fai: Bananas Baked in Coconut Kernel Juice

First light the oven, then take bananas and peel the skin off.  Then squeeze out coconut kernel juice.  Then bring the banana leaves.  When they are heated, pour the coconut kernel juice into them and add the bananas.  Then wrap them and allow to bake until all are cooked.  They are then called loifa’i.

Poi: The Preparation of Banana Poi

Banana poi is made with ripe bananas.  When a circle of chiefs is assembled, some chiefs may say:  Let some young people go and look for ripe bananas to make poi of them.  Then one of the young people goes and looks for yellow bananas.  Another one cleans a wooden bowl and scrapes three or four old coconuts.  They then bring the bananas and peel them into the bowl; that is, one peels while the other keeps on mashing the bananas until a very soft pulp is formed.  They then bring five small lemons, peel them and throw them in the bowl.  Then a little drinking water is also added and all is kneaded together with the bananas.  Then they squeeze out coconut juice, pour it also into the bowl and mix it with the yellow bananas.  Then they bring coconut shells, fill them and give them to the chiefs who are anxious for the.  The lemon flavour comes through nicely.

Otai: The Preparation of the Otai

When a chief’s gathering takes place and there are ti roots in the family of one of the chiefs, the chief speaks:  Let a young man go and get the ti dish so that one may prepare otai for the chiefs.  Then some go and pick half ripe coconuts; they are taken and grated like old coconut kernel, namely with a scraper.  But the water of the nuts, when they are cracked, is poured in a bowl.  Then they take the ti root and cut it in small pieces into the bowl in which the coconut water is.  Then everything is kneaded together with the ti and the coconut water.  Then they bring coconut shells, fill them and take it to the chiefs.  Ah, is that ever good and sweet and aromatic.

Preserves

Masi Fai: The Preparation of Banana Preserves

If there is a big surplus of bananas the chief or a woman says:  It is well if we make preserves, because there are so very many bananas rotting on the ground.  In the morning four or five women begin, each one with a peeling knife, to prepare everything for peeling bananas.  After two other women have hewn down leaves of wild bananas, the bananas are peeled.  A hole is dug a fathom and the length of an arm deep, round and five or six feet wide – lua’imasi it is called.  When twenty or thirty baskets of bananas are peeled, the first load of wild banana leaves is taken and the hole is lined with them.  Not until it is properly soft are the banana baskets thrown in.  When the hole is full, they take the second loan of banana leaves and cover with it on top.  Then they take several large rocks and weight it all down with them.  They are left there till fermentation sets in.  With some preserves this does not even take a month, usually they are soft in three weeks.  When they are good and soft, the women say:  It is well.  Then they take some preserve out in the morning and fill the preserve up again.  At the break of dawn namely the women again go to peel bananas while some other women get the preserve out and others go again to get banana leaves.  They take a basket and fill it with preserve, if it is nice and soft, and take it for cooking.  But the bananas that are peeled to fill in, are thrown into the preserve hole and then they take fresh banana leaves and cover the top; they also bring the rocks and weight the preserve down.

Masi Ulu: The Breadfruit Preserve

One picks breadfruit, particularly if the breadfruit harvest is big, and many rot.  The preserve hole is also lined with banana leaves.  Then breadfruits are brought and thrown into the preserve hole; some of them are thrown in whole, while others are split and also thrown into the hole.  With one kind of breadfruit preserve the breadfruit is first scraped off, with another kind they are thrown in in their skins.  When the breadfruit preserve is soft a little of it is taken out, but new breadfruits are again added.  The preserves are very useful when there is famine, because they do not spoil as long as they lie covered in the ground.  There is only one task  one always has to do, that is, to replace the banana leaves of the preserve so that they do not decay and thus spoil the preserve.

Masi Penu Nuti: A Preserve with Grated Coconut Kernel

When the women go to get the oven ready for the preserve, one of them says:  Good, let us knead coconut scrapings into our preserve.  And so old coconut kernel is grated while the oven in lit.  Then one takes a bowl and shakes the basket of preserve in it and the scrapings of the grate coconut kernel.  Then the preserve and the scrapings are kneaded together, banana leaves are brought, and filled and cooked.  Masi nutipenu is the name of the preserve.

Masi Niu Nuti: A Preserve with Coconut Kernel

Get preserve.  Also grate old coconut kernel in while the oven is being lit.  Then take a bowl and shake the basket of preserve in it and squeeze out the coconut kernel juice.  Then one takes the squeezed out coconut kernel juice and mixes it together with the preserve.  Then also fill the banana leaves and cook.  This is masi nutiniu.

Umu Preparations

Umu Ti: The Preparation of the Oven for the Ti Root

A full week is required to dig the root; a whole lot is needed to have enough.  Then a very big hole is dug.  Then cut some coconut trunks and lay them on four sides around the oven.  Then the wood to be burned is brought, but big stems; then put rocks on top.  Then the oven is lit in the morning, that is if one doesn’t

want to cook before the evening.  When the rocks are to be spread, lines are brought to tie the people on who will spread the rocks, so that they will not fall into the oven.  Then the baskets with the ti roots are brought and they are thrown into the oven, for the roots are cooked in the baskets.  For two or three days the ti is left in the oven until it is done.  When then the oven is emptied, some baskets of ti are taken and distributed among the families.  It is very sweet and smells good.

The Preparation of the Pig for Roasting

First, it is caught and tied while the over is being lit.  Then another man goes and breaks the filling material, the leaves of the Bischofia tree.  When the oven is hot a stick is brought and the pig is laid on its back.  Then the stick is laid across the pig’s throat and pressure applied, enough to strangle the pig.  Then they take it, and pull it back and forth on the oven till the hair is burned off.  Then they take a coconut shell and water and coconut fibres, bring water and wash it well until it is clean.  Then the body is opened up.  First the throat is pulled out and tied of.  Then the same is done with the great gut and it is likewise tied off.  Then the belly is also made ready and the intestines are taken out.  This is done very carefully so that nothing will burst and ruin the good entrails and the whole body of the pig.

Then banana leaves are brought after they have been heated up in the oven to use them as wrappers for the pig.  The things of which the pig dishes are made are blood, fat, the lung, the heart and the kidneys.  First the lung is blown up, grated fine and combined with the other things.  Then a dish is made of the heart; this delicacy is excellent and is taken to the chiefs.  The things of which the heart dish is made are the heart and fat and blood, but not the lung.  Then the rest of the dishes are made from the respective ingredients.  But the liver is baked I the oven to prepare it as a kava snack for the chiefs.

Then the hot rocks are taken and put on the inside of the pig.  Then one takes the leaf stuffing; pigs, you see, are stuffed with ‘o’a leaves called lavai.  Then the pig is baked in the oven; when it is cooked it is taken out to be cup up.  First the legs are cut off.  Then the body of the pig is cut apart lengthwise.  The head is removed and the rest cup up in three parts; the hind quarters, the back and the ribs.  Then the lower jaw section is removed, at which point the pig falls apart.

The stomach, the small intestine and the large intestine are taken to the sea.  The small intestine is opened up with a knife and rubbed on a rock until it is good and clean.  The large intestine is turned inside out and similarly cleaned.  Then also the stomach is cut in two and rubbed on a rock until it is good and clean.  Then the fire is lit, they are first smoked then cooked until they are ready to be eaten.

The Preparation of Turtles Cooked in an Oven

Several people light the oven while two others prepare the turtle.  The preparation however is not like that of the pig as it is cleaned out, but in the preparation of the turtle the man who is at the head of the turtle reaches for the knife and cuts the throat.  Then he lays the knife aside and reaches with his left hand for the turtle’s intestines which he holds firmly while the right hand enters inside to free the entrails so that they will not tear and the good entrails of the turtle will not be spoiled.  Now the left hand keeps pulling things out while the right hand continues to loosen things inside.  When all entrails are taken out, the left hand reaches in and holds on to the place closes to the anus of the turtle, while the right hand seizes the turtle’s anus on the outside and forces it in.  Then the left hand pulls it out with utmost force.  Then the entrails are put aside and the man reaches in with both hands and brings out the heart and the lung.

This preparation takes place as with the pig:  They dress the heart and fat and a little blood, then the lung is rubbed fine into banana leaves and this is also dressed.  Then the fat and the blood of the turtle are dressed.  One hundred and fifty dresses are made of a fat fish, but of a bad turtle only fifty.  But always some fat and some blood are left inside of the turtle.  Then red hot rocks are taken, six or seven, and thrown into the turtle.  Then the places cut open by the knife are closed off with breadfruit leaves or leaf stuffing.  Then it is taken to the oven to be cooked and it is cooked lying on its back.

Then the intestines are opened up in the sea.  Then they are taken back up and fried in the fire.  They are then eaten by the people who do the cooking, or they are taken to the chiefs.  Then the oven is emptied and the contents taken into the house where the chiefs are.  And then the chiefs command:  Cut the turtle up.  So people cut off the front fins of the turtle, and this is as with the preparation of pork shanks, and in

like manner the hind fins.  They are then put aside while a young man reaches for the knife, cuts in at the chest, and runs the knife al the way down.  Then he raises the lower shell and takes it away; then the young man again takes a hold and removes the rocks from the inside of the turtle.  Then the young man again reaches in and takes out all the fat that was in the turtle and throws it into the broth.  Now each chiefs and several people first of all partake of the broth.  When they are through, only then the turtle is divided up.  They take the head to the king as his portion while the front fins are the orators’ portions and the hind fins those of the chief’s daughters.  But the young people are satisfied with the back of the fish.

The Preparation of the Fish of Chiefs, the Shark(Tanifa), for Cooking

It is first cut up into little pieces.  The neck of the fish is cut through from four sides; then the gills section is removed; then the chest and belly part is cut out.  When that is done it is thrown out.  Only then the throat section is made ready.  When the throat is prepared, the entrails are removed, the throat and the chest and belly part.  Only then is the body of the fish cut and prepared.  First the sides, cut in three or four lateral strips, are removed.  Not until then the body of the fish is cut up.  When the rump of the fish has been removed, the head is lifted off and taken to the orators.  Then the neck section nearest the head is lifted off and taken to the teacher or the guests.  After the chest fins of the fish have been lifted off, they are taken to the king.  But the three cuts behind the breast fins of the fish are given to the multitude.  Then the tail is removed and taken to the chiefs.  When all are finished with the body, people turn to preparing the chest and belly part, the throat and the entrails.  Then the neck part of the fish is cut off and, taken to the women.  But the chest and belly part is cut off, taken and stirred in a bowl with some hot rocks, wrapped, cooked in the oven and taken to the chiefs to be eaten.

Ulua: The Preparation of A Big Travelly Fish(Ulua)  for Chiefs.

This fish is cut up in eight strips and the backbone of the fish laid open.  People make these strips very nicely.  Then the strips are distributed among the chiefs and orators, but the head is taken and given to the king, or the head is also taken to lofty ladies.  Because it is sacred fish, the head is taken only to lofty ladies or the king.

Tuna: The Preparations of the River Eel

First the slime is rubbed off on the oven.  Then it is taken out, cooked and then taken to be cut open.  The tail is taken and given to the king.  The remaining pieces of the fish however all the rest of the people may eat.

A special and frequently practised form of preparation of fish is one using coconut kernel juice, very appropriate especially with dry fish such as they grey mullet (anae), the bonito (atu), the mackerel, etc.  Otherwise fish are mostly plaited in between coconut leaves, filia (laui’a, Pratt), or without further ingredients cooked in the oven tied in leaves .

Frying fish in their skins directly on hot rocks (tunupa’u), a normal procedure f.i. on the Marshall Islands, is on Samoa only practised during journeys when time does not permit the construction of an oven.  Entrails are not eaten.  Cleaning fish out before they are brought ashore in not permitted;  according to toio means to divide a fish into its four quarters, unafi – to remove the scales.

Vaisu: Fish Cooked in Coconut Cream

Coconuts are grated  and the coconut cream is squeezed using a "tauuaga.
The fish grilled on a charcoal  oven.  When the cream is squeezed out and the banana leaves are also heated, they take hot rocks and move them around in the coconut cream, then bring water and pour it in (while stirring), take the banana leaves and fill them.  Four or five fish each are laid in one dress.  Then it is cooked.  This is very good eating