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.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Fala Paste (Tuvalu and Tokelau Pandanus Preserve)
Created by
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.
Sauces & Condiments
Polynesian
Make Ahead
Budget Friendly
45 min
Active Time
8 hr cook•8 hr 45 min total
Yield6 to 8 thin sheets, about 12 servings
Pulaka, the giant swamp-taro, sits like an elder under the coral in Tuvalu and Tokelau, down in pits dug by hand until the freshwater lens can feed it. That is where I start this preserve, even though the bowl in front of you is fala, ripe pandanus fruit, because on those low islands every food has to answer the same question: can it stay with the people when the wind shifts, the sea comes up, and the barge is late?
This is Tuvaluan and Tokelauan keeping food, and I cook it with my hands open. It is not my family's old preserve to claim. The deep harvest rules, the drying signs, the way a family stores and gifts it, those belong to Tuvaluan and Tokelauan elders, and they should tell their own story. I can bring you the kitchen method: cook the ripe keys, work out the pulp, dry it thin, roll it away.
Back home on Oʻahu, my kumu's line was Eat what you have. In Tuvalu and Tokelau that can mean pulaka hauled from pits, toddy tapped from the coconut tree, a coconut crab taken few and rare, and yes, corned beef and rice from the barge. No scolding that. But food on a barge is the wound, and feeding the island from its own ground is the repair.
The paste comes out amber-orange, sweet and resinous, chewy when dry, soft again when you wake it with coconut water or milk. Across the Triangle, every island learned how to keep what the land gave: Hawaiʻi pounds kalo into paʻiʻai and poi, Tahiti and the Marquesas know popoi, Sāmoa and Tonga wrap the taro leaf in coconut cream, and Tuvalu and Tokelau dry fala into sheets for lean days. One ocean, one canoe, one root, and each island with its own hand.
Tuvalu and Tokelau are low coral-atoll homelands where deep soil is scarce, so pulaka, giant swamp-taro, is grown in pits dug down toward fresh groundwater and guarded against salt for years of feeding. Ripe fala, pandanus fruit, is one of the old keeping foods: cooked, pulped, dried into thin sheets, and rolled in pandanus leaves so sweetness could survive cyclone seasons, drought, and lean months before barges made rice and corned beef ordinary. As the pits go saline today, the line between deep food and food on a barge is not nostalgia; it is the daily question of whether Tuvaluan and Tokelauan families can still feed the island from its own ground.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
ripe edible pandanus fruit cluster (fala)
Quantity
1 large cluster, 4 to 5 pounds
broken into keys, or about 3 pounds cleaned ripe keys
clean water
Quantity
6 cups
plus more as needed
food-safe pandanus leaves (optional)
Quantity
as needed
washed and briefly wilted, for rolling the dried sheets, or use parchment
coconut water or fresh coconut milk (optional)
Quantity
as needed
for softening pieces to serve
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| ripe edible pandanus fruit cluster (fala)broken into keys, or about 3 pounds cleaned ripe keys | 1 large cluster, 4 to 5 pounds |
| clean waterplus more as needed | 6 cups |
| food-safe pandanus leaves (optional)washed and briefly wilted, for rolling the dried sheets, or use parchment | as needed |
| coconut water or fresh coconut milk (optional)for softening pieces to serve | as needed |
Equipment Needed
- •Large 8-quart pot
- •Food mill or sturdy fine-mesh sieve with a wooden pestle
- •Wide heavy skillet or saucepan for thickening the pulp
- •Dehydrator trays or rimmed sheet pans
- •Clean pandanus leaves or parchment for rolling
Instructions
- 1
Choose the fala
Start with ripe edible fala, pandanus fruit from a food tree. Ask a Tuvaluan or Tokelauan family, a Pacific grocer, or a grower who knows the tree. If nobody can tell you it is eating pandanus, don't put it in the pot. Ripe keys loosen from the cluster, glow yellow-orange, and smell sweet, like honey and sun-warmed leaf.
Unripe keys are hard, green-smelling, and sharp on the tongue. No blame the fala if you rush it. Wait for ripe fruit. - 2
Break and rinse
Pull the cluster apart into individual keys and rinse away sand, leaf bits, and any grit caught in the fibers. The fruit is work before it is sweetness. That is true on a coral island, yeah, and true in your kitchen too.
- 3
Soften the keys
Set the keys in a large pot with 6 cups clean water. Bring to a gentle boil, then lower to a steady simmer for 35 to 45 minutes, turning the keys now and then, until the orange pulp softens and the cooking water smells sweet and grassy. Keep that water. It helps loosen the pulp later.
- 4
Press the pulp
When the keys are cool enough to handle, press and scrape the soft orange pulp through a food mill or sturdy fine-mesh sieve, using small splashes of the cooking water to help it move. Discard the woody cores and tough fibers. Do not grind the whole keys in a blender; the fibers fight back and the paste turns stringy.
- 5
Cook to paste
Put the strained pulp in a wide heavy pan and cook over low heat for 15 to 25 minutes, stirring often, until it thickens, turns glossy, and a spoon dragged through it leaves a clean path for a moment. No sugar here. The fruit has what it has, and the drying will concentrate it.
- 6
Spread it thin
Line dehydrator trays or rimmed sheet pans with parchment, or with washed food-safe pandanus leaves if you have them. Spread the paste about 1/8 inch thick, smooth and even from edge to edge. Thick pockets stay wet too long, and wet pockets spoil before they become keeping food.
- 7
Dry the sheets
Dry at 135F in a dehydrator for 6 to 10 hours, or in the lowest oven you can manage, around 150F, with the door held slightly open. In the old sun method, the sheets dry outside under clean mesh and come in before night dampness, often for a day or two. They are ready when they peel up in one leathery sheet, bend without wet shine, and show no damp spots when pressed.
- 8
Roll and store
Cut the dry sheets into strips and roll them in clean wilted pandanus leaves, or in parchment if that is what your kitchen has. Tie loosely and store airtight in a cool, dry place. The old hard-dried preserve could keep a very long time; for a home kitchen, keep it 2 to 3 months in the pantry, 6 months in the fridge, or a year in the freezer.
- 9
Wake and eat
Eat the strips as a chewy sweet, or tear pieces into a bowl and soften them with a little coconut water or fresh coconut milk for 10 minutes. Spoon that beside pulaka, breadfruit, or even plain rice. Deep food does not need to be precious to do its work.
Chef Tips
- •This is Tuvalu and Tokelau food. I can walk you through a kitchen method, but for the older harvest signs, storing rules, and family meanings, go sit with Tuvaluan and Tokelauan elders.
- •Use only pandanus from a known food tree. Ornamental screw-pines are not the same promise. A good ripe fala smells sweet, releases from the cluster, and stains your fingers gold.
- •A dehydrator is honest work. The atoll sun has its own rhythm, but an apartment oven and parchment can still carry the method. Eat what you have.
- •Keep the paste thin. Thin sheets dry clean and store well; thick sheets trap moisture and turn sour before they become preserve.
- •Corned beef and rice off the barge are part of the table now, same as toddy from the coconut tree and pulaka from the pit. Keeper, not gatekeeper. Still, every roll of fala kept from local trees is one small repair.
Advance Preparation
- •Break and rinse the pandanus keys up to 1 day ahead; refrigerate them covered until you cook.
- •Cooked and strained pulp can rest in the refrigerator for 24 hours before drying.
- •Once fully dried and rolled, the sheets are the make-ahead food: store airtight 2 to 3 months in the pantry, 6 months in the fridge, or 1 year frozen.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 35g)
Calories
90 calories
Total Fat
0 g
Saturated Fat
0 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
0 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
10 mg
Total Carbohydrates
22 g
Dietary Fiber
4 g
Sugars
13 g
Protein
1 g
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