Food and Drink in the Cook Islands
Food and Drink in the Cook Islands
While in the Cook Islands you should indulge in the abundance of local produce which includes a wide variety of citrus and tropical fruits, island chestnuts and garden vegetables. Seafood features on many restaurant menus and so does coconut as the coconut palms produce a supply of fruit all year round.
Umukai, the national speciality, is a traditional Polynesian feast which involves baking food in an underground oven, and is usually accompanied with traditional entertainment by local people.
The national drink is tumunu, traditionally brewed alcohol made from fermented oranges. The legal age for drinking in the Cook Islands is 18.
A few of the local specialities are:
- Ika mata (raw fish) with coconut milk, finely chopped vegetables - It's delicious!
- Umu food (prepared in the traditional earth oven)
- Curried eke (octopus in coconut curry)
- Rukau (Taro leaves, usually cooked with coconut cream)
- Poke (cooked fruit pudding) (banana, pawpaw) with coconut milk.
Some of these are available every day at the market in Avarua.
There are two microbreweries (Matutu and Cook Islands Brewery) which both produce a range of delicious beers. Go. Drink. And be merry...
