Local Dishes

1. Mumu

   Mumu (earth-oven feast)

   Usage

   The national dish. A pit is dug, lined with fire-heated stones, and pork or chicken with kaukau, taro, bananas and greens is wrapped in banana leaves and steamed underground for hours. It is a feast for ceremonies, not something you order in a shop. If you are invited, do not refuse

   Grammar Note

   Also verbalised as "mumuim" (to cook in an earth oven)

2. Saksak

   Saksak (sago starch staple)

   Usage

   The staple of the lowlands and swamps such as the Sepik. There is the expression "Long ol tais na ol ples daun, em i nambawan kaikai bilong ol manmeri" ("in the swamps and lowlands it is the people's number-one food"). The trunk is rasped and washed until only the starch remains. Sago is to the lowlands what kaukau is to the highlands

   Grammar Note

   Covers both the starch and the palm. There are two source trees: the spiny Metroxylon rumphii and the spineless Metroxylon sagu

3. Hotwara

   Hotwara (sago stirred with boiling water)

   Usage

   Sago starch scalded with boiling water and stirred to a translucent paste. Described as: "Planti manmeri i save tainim wantaim hot wara long kukim. Dispela kain saksak ol i kolim hotwara" ("many people mix it with hot water to cook it; this kind of sago they call hotwara")

   Grammar Note

   Careful: written as two words, "hot wara" just means hot water. For the dish, write it as one word, "hotwara"

4. Kaukau

   Kaukau (sweet potato, the highlands staple)

   Usage

   The staple of the Highlands provinces. It is called "namba wan kaikai bilong planti manmeri" ("the number-one food of many people"). Roasted whole in the embers or steamed in a mumu. It is not a side on a plate — it is the meal

   Grammar Note

   It is glossed "potato or sweet potato", but in practice it is nearly always the sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas). The white potato is "poteto". Note that "kumu" is greens, though it is sometimes glossed "wild sweet potato"

5. Tinpis

   Tinned fish

   Usage

   Stacked in every trade store in PNG. Tipped straight over rice or kaukau it makes a meal. Inland in the Highlands fresh fish is almost unobtainable, so protein usually means this or tinmit

   Grammar Note

   A compound of "tin" + "pis". Written solid: not "tin pis"

6. Tinmit

   Tinned meat

   Usage

   The other trade-store protein alongside tinpis. Very salty; eaten as is or fried up with greens. In villages without refrigeration it is relied on more than fresh meat

   Grammar Note

   "tin" + "mit". The same thing is also called "solmit" (salt meat, corned beef)

7. Prairais

   Fried rice

   Usage

   A staple of town kai bars (cheap takeaway food bars). PNG has a long-established Chinese community, and fried rice with chicken and vegetables is also sold as a boxed lunch

   Grammar Note

   From English "fried rice". Tok Pisin breaks up English consonant clusters, so "fried" becomes "prai" and "rice" becomes "rais". Never write the English spelling

8. Sosis

   Sausage

   Usage

   Grilled and sold at shops and stalls. "Usually expressed as mit bilong pik" ("pig meat"), so if "sosis" does not land, try "mit bilong pik"

9. Pai

   Pie (meat pie)

   Usage

   Australian-style meat pies sit in the warmer at kai bars and service stations — one of the few reliably hot things you can buy in town

   Grammar Note

   From English "pie". Do not confuse it with "paia" (fire) or "paip" (windpipe; plumbing pipe)

10. Salat

    Salad

    Usage

    Raw vegetables, as served in hotels and restaurants. Villages and small towns rarely serve anything raw; greens are eaten cooked, as "kumu"

    Grammar Note

    There are two separate etymologies for "salat". Etymology 1 is the stinging nettle and similar plants applied to the body to relieve aches and fever — not food at all. Etymology 2 is the English "salad". Make sure the context shows you mean food

11. Babeku

    Barbecue

    Usage

    A grate over charcoal at the roadside or the edge of a market, cooking lamb flaps or chicken to order. Where mumu is ceremonial, this is everyday street food

    Grammar Note

    From English "barbecue". As a verb you would say "kukim long paia" (cook on the fire)

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