Oceanian cuisine

The cuisines of Oceania include those found on Australia, New Zealand, and New Guinea, and also cuisines from many other islands or island groups throughout Oceania.

Since the region of Oceania consists of islands, seafood is a prominent part of the diet, with vegetables such as potatoes, sweet potato, taro and yams being the main starch. Coconut, and its derivative products such as coconut milk, coconut oil and coconut sugar, is an important ingredient in the tropics of Oceania.

One of the most distinctive styles of cooking throughout Oceania is the earth oven, a method which involves laying food on hot rocks and burying it in earth. The technique originated in Papua New Guinea and was subsequently spread by Austronesian seafarers. It was historically the main method of cooking among the Polynesians ideal to their tree and root crops thus made the established pottery culture of their Lapita ancestors obsolete; some Polynesian peoples in their contact with European explorers centuries later quickly adopted to the latter's metal cookware, as was what happened between the Māori of Poverty Bay confronting James Cook's HMS Endeavour in 1769.^[1]

Australia

Other than by climate and produce availability, Australian cuisine has been influenced by the tastes of settlers to Australia.^[2] The British colonial period established a strong base of interest in Anglo-Celtic style recipes and methods. Later influences developed out of multicultural immigration and included Chinese, Japanese, Malaysian, Thai, and Vietnamese cuisines. Mediterranean cuisine influences from Greek cuisine, Italian cuisine, and Lebanese cuisine influences are strong, also influences from French cuisine, Indian cuisine, Spanish cuisine, and Turkish cuisine, German cuisine, and African cuisine. Regional Australian cuisines commonly use locally grown vegetables based on seasonal availability, and Australia also has large fruit-growing regions. The Granny Smith variety of apples originated in Sydney, Australia in 1868.^[3] In the Southern states of Victoria and South Australia, in particular the Barossa Valley, wines and food reflect the region's traditions and heritage.^[4] Australia's climate makes barbecues commonplace. Barbecue stalls selling sausages and fried onion on white bread with tomato or barbecue sauce are common.

Australian foods and dishes
A cooked Balmain bug. Also known as the butterfly fan lobster, it is a species of slipper lobster that lives in shallow waters around Australia.
Bush tucker (bush foods) harvested at Alice Springs Desert Park. Bush foods are edible native plant species and animal products used by indigenous Australians as a contemporary or traditional food.^[5]
Granny Smith apples originated in Australia.
Halal snack pack, an Australian fast food dish of doner kebab meat and chips with sauces.
A dish from an Australian restaurant.
A fruit dessert dish in an Australian restaurant.

Melanesia

Melanesian foods and dishes
Laplap, the national dish of Vanuatu.

Micronesia

Micronesian foods and dishes
Paniki in yellow soup

Polynesia

Polynesian cuisine encompasses the culinary practices of Polynesia, an area notably defined as the Polynesian Triangle and occasionally, the Polynesian outliers that have been settled by Polynesian seafarers. The vast area of Polynesia has had a great influence on the cuisine itself, differing as a result of climate, geography and neighbouring island groups, such as the practice of harvesting and boiling down coconut sap in the atolls from Micronesian peoples or the harvesting and processing of sago in the outliers from Melanesians. Polynesian cuisine has been influenced by the traditional ingredients and preparations of the Polynesians, as well as European, Asian and American culinary practices. The Polynesian cuisine had influenced the Malagasy cuisine.

Polynesian foods and dishes
A hāngī being prepared, a New Zealand Māori method of cooking food for special occasions using hot rocks buried in a pit oven.
A pavlova is a meringue-based dessert and an icon of Australian and New Zealand cuisine.
A bowl of poi, a starchy paste eaten in Eastern Polynesia.
Kiwifruit, a well-known New Zealand food.
Samoan umu, an oven of hot rocks above ground.

References

^ Leach, Helen (2007). "Cooking with pots - again". In Anderson, Atholl; Green, Kaye; Leach, Foss (eds.). Vastly Ingenious: The Archaeology of Pacific Material Culture in Honour of Janet M. Davidson. Otago University Press. pp. 53–7. ISBN 978-1-877372-45-2.
^ "Australia – Aborigines And White Settlers The Breaking Down of Aboriginal Society." Janesoceania.com. Accessed July 2011.
^ "Granny Smith and her Apples". Archived from the original on 2007-08-11. Retrieved 2007-08-11.
^ "South Australian Food and Wine Tourism Strategy 2009 – 2014." Archived 2011-06-26 at the Wayback Machine South Australian Tourism Industry Council. Accessed July 2011.
^ Lister, Peter R., Holford, Paul, Haigh, Tony, Morrison, David A. (1996). "Acacia in Australia: Ethnobotany and Potential Food Crop." Purdue University Horticulture & Landscape Architecture. Accessed July 2011.

[1] Leach, Helen (2007). "Cooking with pots - again". In Anderson, Atholl; Green, Kaye; Leach, Foss (eds.). Vastly Ingenious: The Archaeology of Pacific Material Culture in Honour of Janet M. Davidson. Otago University Press. pp. 53–7. ISBN 978-1-877372-45-2.

[2] "Australia – Aborigines And White Settlers The Breaking Down of Aboriginal Society." Janesoceania.com. Accessed July 2011.

[3] "Granny Smith and her Apples". Archived from the original on 2007-08-11. Retrieved 2007-08-11.

[4] "South Australian Food and Wine Tourism Strategy 2009 – 2014." Archived 2011-06-26 at the Wayback Machine South Australian Tourism Industry Council. Accessed July 2011.

[5] Lister, Peter R., Holford, Paul, Haigh, Tony, Morrison, David A. (1996). "Acacia in Australia: Ethnobotany and Potential Food Crop." Purdue University Horticulture & Landscape Architecture. Accessed July 2011.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

v t e Oceanian cuisine
Sovereign states	Australia Federated States of Micronesia Fiji Kiribati Marshall Islands Nauru New Zealand Palau Papua New Guinea Samoa Solomon Islands Tonga Tuvalu Vanuatu
Associated states	Cook Islands Niue
Dependencies and other territories	American Samoa Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Easter Island French Polynesia Guam Hawaii New Caledonia Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Pitcairn Islands Tokelau Wallis and Futuna

v t e Cuisines
Continental	African North West list Americas Caribbean North South list Asian Caucasian Central Levantine South list European Balkan Central Eastern list Oceanian Intercontinental Global Latin American Mediterranean Middle Eastern
National and regional	Afghan Albanian Algerian American Californian Floribbean Hawaiian Lowcountry (South Carolina) Midwestern US New English New Mexican Pacific Northwestern Puerto Rican Southern US Southwestern US Texan Angolan Argentine Armenian Australian Austrian Azerbaijani Bahraini Bangladeshi Barbadian Belarusian Belgian Belizean Beninese Bhutanese Bolivian Bosnian-Herzegovinian Botswana Brazilian British Anguillia Channel Islands English Gibraltarian Northern Irish Saint Helena Scottish Welsh Bruneian Bulgarian Burkinabé Burmese Burundian Cambodian Cameroonian Canadian Acadian Québécois Central African Republic Chadian Chilean Chinese Beijing Cantonese Hong Kong Macanese Shandong Sichuan Tibetan Xinjiang Colombian Congolese Croatian Cuban Cypriot Czech Danish Faroese Greenlandic Djiboutian Dominican Dominican Republic Dutch East Timorese Ecuadorian Egyptian Emirati Equatorial Guinean Eritrean Estonian Ethiopian Fijian Filipino Kapampangan Finnish French Corsican La Réunion French Guianan Occitan Gabonese Gambian Georgian German Ghanaian Greek Cretan Epirotic Greek Macedonian Heptanesean Guatemalan Guinea-Bissauan Guinean Haitian Honduran Hungarian Icelandic Indian Andhra Arunachali Assamese Bengali Bihari Chhattisgarhi Goan Gujarati Haryanvi Kashmiri Jharkhandi Karnataka Kerala Maharashtrian Manipuri Meghalayan Mizo Naga Odia Punjabi Rajasthani Sikkimese Sindhi Tamil Telangana Tripuri Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhandi Indonesian Acehnese Balinese Banjar Batak Betawi Gorontalese Indo Javanese Madurese Makassar Minahasan Minangkabau Palembangese Sundanese Iranian Iraqi Irish Israeli Italian Abruzzese Apulian Ligurian Lombard Lucanian Neapolitan Piedmontese Roman Sardinian Sicilian Tuscan Venetian Ivorian Jamaican Japanese Okinawan Jordanian Kazakh Kenyan Korean North Korean South Korean Kosovan Kuwaiti Kyrgyz Lao Latvian Lebanese Lesotho Liberian Libyan Liechtensteiner Lithuanian Luxembourgish Macedonian Malagasy Malawian Malaysian Sabahan Sarawakian Maldivian Malian Maltese Marshallese Mauritanian Mauritian Mexican Moldovan Monégasque Mongolian Montenegrin Moroccan Mozambican Namibian Nauruan Nepalese New Zealand Nicaraguan Niger Nigerian Niuean Norwegian Omani Pakistani Palestinian Panamanian Papua New Guinean Paraguayan Peruvian Polish Portuguese Qatari Romanian Russian Bashkir Chechen Circassian Cossack Komi Mordovian Sakha Tatar Udmurt Yamal Rwandan Saint Lucian Salvadoran Sammarinese São Tomé and Príncipe Saudi Arabian Senegalese Serbian Seychellois Sierra Leonean Singaporean Slovak Slovenian Somali South African Spanish Andalusian Asturian Balearic Basque Canarian Cantabrian Catalan Extremaduran Galician Manchegan Valencian Sri Lankan Sudanese Swazi Swedish Swiss Syrian Taiwanese Tajik Tanzanian Zanzibari Thai Togolese Tunisian Turkish Turkmen Tuvaluan Trinidadian and Tobagonian Ugandan Ukrainian Uruguayan Uzbek Vanuatuan Venezuelan Vietnamese Western Saharan Yemeni Zambian Zimbabwean
Ethnic	African American Ainu Arab Arab-Indonesian Aromanian Assyrian Balochi Berber Buryat Cajun Chinese American Australian British Cambodian Canadian Filipino Indian Indonesian Malaysian Pakistani Peruvian Crimean Tatar Gagauz Greek-American Hazaragi Hmong Indian English Indonesian Malaysian North Indian South Indian Indigenous American Indigenous Australian Inuit Italian American Jewish American Ashkenazi Bukharan Ethiopian Mizrahi Moroccan Sephardic Syrian Kurdish Livonian Louisiana Creole Malay Ossetian Parsi Pashtun Pennsylvania Dutch Peranakan Pontic Greek Romani Sámi Tejano Transylvanian Saxon Yup'ik
Religious	Buddhist Christian Goan Catholic Mangalorean Catholic Mennonite Hindu Islamic Chinese Ital Jain Kashrut Kosher food Ritual slaughter Sikh
Historical	Ancient Egyptian Ancient Greek Ancient Israelite Ancient Roman Antebellum America Aztec Byzantine Early modern European Historical Argentine Historical Chinese Historical Indian subcontinent Historical Japanese Historical North Indian and Pakistani History of agriculture History of alcoholic drinks History of bread History of seafood History of vegetarianism Hittite Inca Mayan Muisca Mughal Medieval Ottoman Peasant Pre-contact Hawaiian Korean royal court Scottish royal household Soviet Thirteen Colonies
Styles	Classique Fast food Fusion New American Eurasian Haute Molecular gastronomy Note by Note Nouvelle Vegetarian
Lists	List of cuisines List of historical cuisines Lists of foods Prepared
Related	Cookbook Cooking Culinary arts Drink Food history sociology Diet Fat Meal Meal preparation
Category Outline

Oceanian Culture
This article is part of a series on

Society
Shared Histories Languages Religion People Indigenous European
Arts and literature
Architecture Art Literature
Other
Cuisine Cinema Mythology Sports
Symbols
Flags Armorial World Heritage Sites
Oceania Portal
v t e

Australia

Melanesia

Micronesia

Polynesia

See also

References