When it comes to Tahitian dishes, she said, 'It's always a matter of remembering to respect what you're eating. Next, it's on to a roulotte (food truck) or snack (a casual canteen best known for big portions and small prices) for lunch, where you can order a Tahitian or Chinese fusion meal like poisson cru (recently caught, raw parrot fish with creamy, rich coconut milk), ma'a tinito (fatty pork belly with starchy red beans and vermicelli), or – a crowd favourite – chow mein sandwich (exactly what it sounds like, yet more delicious than you could ever imagine).Īccording to Hall, these modest, 'quick service' spots, including Snack Rotui and Snack Mahana, are gradually becoming easier to find, thanks to their good value, high quality and a demand for authenticity from residents and tourists alike.Īlexandrine Wan, Tahiti-born CEO of French Polynesia tour company Nani Travels, has also discovered a rise in guests looking for meaningful travel. On a typical afternoon with Hall, you might stop on the side of the road to buy ripe soursop or some crunchy mango with plum powder, as sweet as it is tart.

Most visitors don't even know that they exist.' I realised, 'Man, there's all these other little mom-and-pop snack shops where we as locals eat, and tourists aren't tapping into that.' These places use incredibly diverse ingredients, especially from the sea. 'We went stagnant for a while, and it was really French cuisine that took the upper hand. 'A lot of times when people come to Tahiti, they get stuck going to the same mainstream restaurants,' said Hall. He wanted to show travellers bite-by-bite how his homeland's bounty has more to offer than imported duck confit and how it bears the mark of two other prominent cultures: Native Tahitians and the Chinese who, brought here to work on coffee and sugar plantations in the 1860s, now make up the third largest population on the islands. After spending five years in Honolulu working with the now-closed Town restaurant's Ed Kenney, a leader of the Polynesian farm-to-table food movement, Hall returned to his community with a similar 'local first' ethos. One such person is Heimata Hall, Moorea-born chef and the founder of Tahiti Food Tours. Even the price of baguettes is controlled by the government, set to roughly 50 Pacific francs.īut in recent years, young Tahitians have been reclaiming their heritage, putting traditional ingredients like lagoon fish, taro leaf and star apple on the menu, and making them more accessible to their community – as well as tourists. An overseas country of France, the Islands of Tahiti, as French Polynesia is sometimes known, continue to feel an outsize influence from abroad. Visit French Polynesia and you'd be forgiven for forgetting that you're in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, nearly 26,000km away from Paris. Powered by the ESHA Research Database © 2018, ESHA Research, Inc.Foie gras. If you are following a special diet for medical reasons, be sure to consult with your primary care provider or a registered dietitian to better understand your personal nutrition needs. (-) Information is not currently available for this nutrient. (For example, it’s recommended that people following a heart-healthy diet eat less sodium on a daily basis compared to those following a standard diet.) Depending on your calorie needs or if you have a health condition, you may need more or less of particular nutrients. Per the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the daily value is based on a standard 2,000 calorie diet. Percent Daily Value (%DV) found on nutrition labels tells you how much a serving of a particular food or recipe contributes to each of those total recommended amounts. * Daily Values (DVs) are the recommended amounts of nutrients to consume each day. Nutrition information is calculated by a registered dietitian using an ingredient database but should be considered an estimate.

French plum tart