Kosrae - Food

Food

Traditional foods included breadfruit, coconut, banana, taro, yam, and sugarcane. Breadfruit was the usual staple food, and it was preserved in leaf-lined pits for times of scarcity. Coconuts were reserved for nobles.

Food was a central part of island life, since each settlement consisted of small family groups gathered around a cook house containing at least one earth oven. Soft taro was made into a feast food called fahfah by men trained in the elaborate skills needed to prepare it properly, who also prepared suhka (Kava). Brewed from the roots of a mountain plant, Suhka was served to members of the nobility. Fish were harvested mainly from the lagoon using nets.

Daily food for most families today consists of imported rice, tinned meats and fish, combined with fresh local fish and root crops. Even today, fahfah and pork are considered mainly feast foods. It is thought that the Japanese introduced limes to the island, which now bear fruit almost all year round and are of the highest quality. Tangerines, which are green when ripe, also abound, and are famous and sought after throughout the surrounding islands. Mountain apples, a tropical tree fruit unrelated to apples (Malus) are grown in many parts of Kosrae. There are many varieties of bananas, even some that must be cooked before eating and some could be eaten when still greenish (KALIFORNI). Few vegetables are grown on the island despite the favorable climate, in part because seeds are difficult to obtain. Although some state there are no pollinating insects on Kosrae, bees, flies and ants are known to pollinate plants on the island.