Cook Islands: Food and the National Dish

A Polynesian table built on the reef and the earth oven

The Cook Islands share the wider Polynesian food tradition found across the Pacific — taro, breadfruit, coconut and reef fish, cooked either simply or slow-roasted whole in an underground earth oven called an umu for special occasions. Fifteen small islands spread across a vast stretch of ocean means fresh fish is central to everyday cooking, prepared simply enough to let good, fresh fish speak for itself, even though much of the islands' food is now imported from New Zealand.

The national dish: ika mata

Ika mata is raw fish diced and marinated in lime or lemon juice until it firms and turns opaque, then mixed with coconut cream and chopped vegetables such as onion, tomato and cucumber. It sits in the same family as Tahitian poisson cru and Fijian kokoda, but is widely regarded as the Cook Islands' own national dish, served everywhere from home tables to resort restaurants.

Dishes to know

Five more to recognise in the Cook Islands:

• Rukau — taro leaves cooked down with coconut cream, closely related to

Samoa's palusami and found under similar names across Polynesia.

• Umu-cooked pork and chicken — meat wrapped in leaves and cooked for

hours in an underground earth oven along with taro and breadfruit, the traditional method for a large feast.

• Poke — a Cook Islands dessert of ripe banana or pawpaw mixed with

arrowroot starch and baked, topped with coconut cream; worth noting this is an entirely different dish from Hawaiian poke, the raw fish salad.

• Eke — octopus, one of the most typical local seafoods and a staple of

Cook Islands cooking.

• Coconut crab — a large land crab, known locally as unga or kaveu, found

in large numbers on outer islands such as Pukapuka, Atiu and Mangaia.

Eating as a traveller

Seafood, especially ika mata, is the highlight and reliably fresh. Vegetarians can rely on taro, rukau and coconut-based sides, though most main dishes lean on fish or meat. Tap water on the main island of Rarotonga is treated, though many visitors drink bottled or filtered water. The Saturday market at Punanga Nui is one of the best places to try a range of local food, drinks and produce in one visit, alongside the Island Nights put on for visitors, where local food is served alongside traditional dance.

What to take from the table

Ika mata, made fresh with good fish and real lime, is the dish that best represents Cook Islands food — simple, quick to prepare, and entirely dependent on the quality of what comes out of the surrounding reef.