Foods of Micronesia

Parkey presented túsolá, a word that connotes "surprise". Ground taro is folded around coconut milk and boiled in a taro leaf. The result is a flavor not unlike Pohnpeian rotama. This is a specialty of Oneop in the Mortlocks islands and is prepared by women.



Inside is the "surprise"!



Pohnpeian uht idihd, Pingelapese wis idihd. Ground and boiled banana. An everyday food.



Eauripikese mar - fermented breadfruit. Smooth as pudding, but enough body to hold shape.



Satawalese pwuna (taro) igeig. Known on Woleai as bulag igeig. Although the spellings differ, pwuna and bulag do not sound as different as the spellings would imply. Ground taro, copra, and sweet coconut juice. Today sugar is often substituted. This is a favorite across Micronesia.



A related dish, Sapwafikese kemelis. Coconut tree sap (skalui, tuba) is boiled down into a molasses like sweetener for this variant.



Pohnpeian uht sukusuk is another favorite - banana with coconut milk on top. The dish is also a double entendre in the local language and visually as well. This led to my covering the definition of a double entendre and the note that the second meaning often has sexual connotations.



Pohnpeian koroipali - stuffed banana boat. Half of the banana is ground and then boiled in the other half. Ipali means "half" or "part of".



Pohnpeian piahiahn sawa - coconut milk soft taro.



Ursula explains the Sunday tradition of Kosraean soup usr - soup made from banana. The soup usr was particularly good, unusually so. I asked who actually made the soup and learned that one of the local Kosraean soup master chefs, Notwe Asher, was the cook. 



Ursula and Chelsea serve up Kosraean soup.