Chef Makoa
Kaleve (Tuvaluan Fresh Coconut Toddy, Sweet Palm Sap)
Sweet sap from the bound coconut flower-spathe, drawn at dawn in Tuvalu and served fresh before it turns, or boiled down to syrup so the tree feeds the table longer.
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Chef Makoa
Faikakai (Tokelau Coconut Bread)
A sweet, sturdy Tokelau coconut bread, rich with grated mature coconut and fresh cream, baked golden for tea, travel, and one more cousin at the table.
Chef Makoa
Pisupo mo te Laise (Tuvalu and Tokelau Corned Beef with Rice)
Pulaka is the deep anchor, but tonight the barge fed the pantry: Tuvalu and Tokelau pisupo fried with onion, spooned over rice, simple, salty, and real.
Chef Makoa
Teasu (Tuvaluan Stuffed Breadfruit with Fish and Coconut Cream)
Tuvalu hollows a whole breadfruit, fills it with fresh fish, onion, and coconut cream, then bakes it until the shell darkens and the inside turns rich and soft.
Chef Makoa
Faikai Ika (Tuvaluan Baked Tuna in Coconut)
Tuvalu's faikai ika bakes fresh tuna in coconut cream until the fish flakes soft and drinks the nut in, lagoon catch and palm brought together on one low coral island plate.
Chef Makoa
Uga (Tuvaluan and Tokelauan Coconut Crab in Coconut Cream)
Coconut crab from Tuvalu and Tokelau, simmered gently with fresh coconut cream until the meat turns rich, sweet, and glossy. A celebration food from low coral islands where the sea feeds the table.
Chef Makoa
Ika i te Lolo (Tokelauan Fish Simmered in Coconut Cream)
Tokelau's ika i te lolo, reef fish held gently in coconut cream and onion until the sauce turns rich and the fish flakes soft. Lagoon food, coral-soil food, weeknight food.
Chef Makoa
Tunu (Tuvaluan Grilled Reef Fish with Lime and Coconut)
Tuvalu's tunu keeps the day's reef fish close to the fire and closer to the lagoon: salt, lime, coconut, and no fuss beyond sourcing it right.
Chef Makoa
Ota (Tokelauan Raw Fish in Coconut Cream)
Reef fish cut clean, glossed with lemon and fresh coconut cream, and eaten close to the lagoon. Tokelau calls it ota: same fish, atoll bowl.
Chef Makoa
Lukau (Tokelauan Taro-Leaf Parcel in Coconut Cream)
Tokelau's taro-leaf parcel, young leaves folded around coconut cream and cooked until dark and silky, cousin to Sāmoan palusami, Tongan lū, Cook Islands rukau, and Hawaiian laulau.
Chef Makoa
Fala Paste (Tuvalu and Tokelau Pandanus Preserve)
Tuvalu and Tokelau keeping food: ripe fala cooked down, spread thin, dried to amber sheets, and rolled away for the days when coral soil, salt water, and the barge all tell the truth.
Chef Makoa
Mā (Tuvaluan Fermented Breadfruit Keeping-Paste)
Ripe breadfruit folded into leaf, weighted, and left to sour into mā, Tuvalu's old keeping-paste for the lean season, served warm with coconut cream beside pulaka and fish.
Chef Makoa
Pulaka (Tuvaluan Boiled Swamp Taro)
Tuvaluan pulaka, giant swamp taro hauled from coral pits, boiled until its bite softens, then eaten with lolo, coconut cream, fish, or whatever the kaiga, the family, has that day.
Chef Makoa
Tulolo (Tuvaluan Pulaka Mash with Coconut Cream)
Tuvaluan tulolo is pulaka from the coral pit, cooked until it gives, mashed slow, and crowned with fresh lolo, coconut cream. Two Tuvalu foods, one bowl, enough for the family.
Chef Makoa
Fekei (Tuvaluan Grated Pulaka in Coconut Cream)
Tuvalu grates pulaka from the pit, folds it with rich coconut cream, then cooks it in leaves until it sets dense and tender, coral-island food with the old root still holding the table.
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