Plants that feed us


Koahp en Palau in a beautifully woven basket. Ground and kneaded yam dumplings in coconut milk.


A wonderful way to present a local dish brought in by K'Con and Sean.

Koaph noair, a traditional variety of yam on Pohnpei

Sean and K'Con presenting koahp en palau, koahp noair

Kamaloni "Kai" presented sehu: sugar cane

This led to a brief discussion of the types and uses of sugar cane. Kai brought in seutoal (the long h being dropped in the two syllable word). Seatoal is noted in the dictionary as also being known as seun nukini (Papua New Guinea). Sean and K'Con noted that seupwet is normally used to invite the Sohpeidi to a feast or a social function. If the cane aligns with, points to, the Nahnmwarki, the invitation is to a feast. If the cane is placed cross-wise the invitation will be to a funeral. I noted that a student in U said that Nahnmwarki U must be invited with sehu kala, a yellow fleshed variety. The dictionary notes that seun nta, also seuweita, is a sugar cane cultivar used to ask a girl's parents for permission to marry. Nta and weita connote blood or reddish colored.

Kehp pirain

Yam fritters. The word "pirain" has roots in the English word "frying"

Caitlin presenting her kehp pirain

Piruno presented Chuukese sukusukun uch, also known as sakop


Pounded banana with coconut milk, although this was made with the sprouted coconut core. This presentation led to a look at noun and adjective order. Chuukese sukusukun uch sounds similar to Pohnpeian uht sukusuk, but the noun-adjective orders are reversed. Kosraean, like Chuukese, puts the adjective first: ainpat usr. Usr is banana, ainpat is "iron pot."

Joe Scott


Joe Scott brought in Kosraean ap made with a banana variety known as apact, clarified by the reference "apact regular." This is a ground banana dish found across Micronesia, although the texture and consistency vary by island and banana variety. On Pohnpei this is uht idihd. In Chuuk, feiren uch. 

Nukuoran dalo hagalolo: soft taro with coconut milk

Grace presented Nukuoran soft taro with coconut milk

 Esmirelda presented uht pirain: fried banana

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