Breadfruit

Chuuk

Breadfruit, or mai, is a most important fruit. Makes the Chuukese food known as kon or pounded breadfruit. This is a food that when prepared must be first be served to the head of the family.

Put the pieces into a pot of water. Cook for an hour. Poke breadfruit with fork. If soft, then done. Use a nif (pounding board) and po (pounding tool) to pound it while it is still hot. The breadfruit must be pounded hot. Apply coconut milk to the pounded breadfruit.

Tanya Mori
Chuuk

Pohnpei

Breadfruit is a common food plant. Traditional Pohnpeian usage: Cannot be eaten right away. Each community has to take some to Nahnmwarki (King) before eating it. Each community has their own unique preparation. Breadfruit is plucked from the tree. A nahi stick is used to poke out the center stuff. The center is then filled with ripe breadfruit, bananas, banana leaf, or salt water. This method of preparation is known as dokoamai. The breadfruit is then put in the uhm to cook.

Lory-Ann Anson
Kepar, Pohnpei

Tapioca

Thiogang (tapioca).

  1. Harvest. Remove the skin. Put in water until the tapioca turns red.
  2. Grind it. Add sugar.
  3. Put it into a riich leaf (Ti plant, Cordyline fruticosa)
  4. Fold riich to hold tapioca. Shred choy' leaf (pandanus) and tie it around the riich leaf.
  5. Boil in a pot.
  6. Grind copra/grate it. Add water. Squeeze milk out.
  7. Boil coconut milk until thick, add thick coconut milk like frosting. Serve at family gatherings.

Josephine Rikin
Yap

Taro, Hard

Chuuk

Giant taro is called puna. Konun puna: pounded taro. Peel the skin. Clean the taro using water. Cut into pieces. Put into tin pot. Cook one hour (boil). Prepare to pound with nif and po. Put into taro leaves. Chön puna (wrapper). Used at wedding party.

Renita Meingin
Chuuk

Taro, Soft

Pohnpei

Black soft taro (sawa toantoal). Plant it in farm. About six to nine months to harvest. How to apply. Remove skin. Slice. Boil until cooked. Use stick to punch it until soft. Squeeze coconut into it. Very useful to women who are going to deliver. At eight to nine months family gives this food to her. When you deliver the baby it is easy for you.

Manwelida Spencer
Pehleng Kitti

Yam

Pohnpei

Kehp (yam). Many kinds of yam. Valued the most as a feast/funeral food. Men plants yams. A man who comes to a komadipw without yam, sakau, and pig is an embarrassment. Some kinds of yam are kehp neir (koahp noair in Kitti) and kehpin palau.

Maylani Elias
Palikir, Sokehs

There are many yam families. Two varieties are important in tributes, koapin dol en Pohnpei with a blackish skin and koapin dol en wai with a whitish skin. Men bring koapin dol, pig, and sakau to a tribute festival or funeral. According to our culture we really take care of yam. There are three months in which yam can be planted: January, February, and March. We can

Yam

Student written report

There are different kind yam in the small island of Pohnpei. Yam is one of the food in Pohnpei that the Pohnpeian value the most, because Pohnpeian used yam for the funeral and feast. Men are the one that need to plant yam in order for them to act like a men, because if the men went to the funeral and feast and didn't bring with him some yam, big or sakau his going to embarassed in front of many men.

You cannot eat yam everyday. There are yam that you can eat everyday you want such as Koahp Noahr, Koahpin Palau and Koahp Moair. And these kind of yams you cannot bring to the Nanmwarki. There are yams that you can bring to the Nanmwarki such as Koahpin Dohl, Koahpin Kipar, Koahpin Dohlen Pohnpei and many others. In order for you to eat yam, you must have to bring to the Nanmwarki first before you eat it. We all know how to cook or prepare yam as food. We also know that we can uhmw yam.

To conclude, if you considering that you're a Ponpeian men make sure that you have yam, big or sakau for your funeral and feast someday. Don't make people to laugh at your beautiful face. Don't pretend that you don't know how to plant you.

Maylani Elias