Papua New Guinean
Mumu earth-oven feasts, sago palm extracted into saksak banana pudding, aigir fish in coconut milk, Highland pork with kaukau — 820 languages eat from three altitudes and one common pantry.
Mumu
Papua New Guinean earth oven — a pit is dug; volcanic stones heated in a fire are placed in the pit; food (pork, chicken, kaukau sweet potato, taro, banana) wrapped in banana leaves is layered on top; earth and leaves seal the oven; food cooks 2-4 hours. The communal celebration cooking method across PNG. Source: Wikipedia (Mumu); Cuisine of Papua New Guinea.
View page →Papua New Guinean cooking is the food of the most-linguistically-diverse country on earth (820+ languages) — a Melanesian nation spanning highland-jungle valleys, the Sepik River basin, Bismarck Archipelago islands, and the southern Papuan coast. The cuisine spans three altitude zones with different staples: highland kaukau (sweet potato, post-16th-century introduction), lowland sago (extracted from sago palm pith) in the Sepik and Gulf provinces, and coastal taro-yam-banana across most of the country. The signature is mumu — the earth-oven cooking common to all Melanesia. Saksak (sago pudding with banana and coconut milk) is the lowland dessert. Aigir (fish-and-coconut-milk stew), kokorako kaukau (chicken with sweet potato), and Highland pork preparations round out the table.
On the Map
Where this cuisine is found
The Palate
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Volcanic stones heated in a fire, food (pork, chicken, kaukau, taro, banana, coconut-milk-soaked greens) wrapped in banana leaves layered on top, sealed with leaves and earth, cooked 2-4 hours.
Why start here · The universal Melanesian earth-oven cooking — parallel to Māori hāngī. The communal PNG celebration method.
Sago flour mixed with mashed ripe banana and coconut milk, wrapped in banana leaves and steamed into a dense sweet pudding.
Why start here · The Sepik-Gulf-Western lowland dessert. The clearest taste of PNG's sago-palm-and-coconut tradition.
Fresh reef fish simmered in coconut milk with onion, garlic, ginger, hot pepper, and aibika greens.
Why start here · The everyday coastal PNG family meal. The universal Pacific coconut-milk-and-reef-fish tradition.
The Pantry
See all 29 ingredients›
Regional Styles
Highland Provinces (Mt Hagen, Goroka, Enga)
The highland valleys where kaukau (sweet potato) is the dominant staple and pigs are the central ceremonial animal.
Sepik and Gulf Lowlands
The river basins and gulf coast where sago palm grows and lowland tropical cooking thrives.
Coastal (Morobe, Madang, Milne Bay)
The coastal provinces with the strongest reef-fish, coconut-milk, and banana traditions.
How They Cook
Techniques that define this cuisine
