Polynesian Food and Tahitian Vanilla: What to Eat

The traditional diet rests on the lagoon and the garden: fish, coconut, uru (breadfruit), taro, sweet potato and fe’i, the orange mountain banana. For a ma’a Tahiti feast, food is wrapped in banana leaves and slow-cooked on hot stones in the ahima’a, an underground oven, still a favorite for family Sundays and celebrations.

French bakeries and bistros arrived with colonial history, and Chinese families, part of Tahiti’s community since the 19th century, added chao mein and other dishes that are now local staples. The result is a cuisine you won’t find anywhere else.

Look for these on menus, at the market and at feast nights:

In Papeete, the roulottes, food trucks on the waterfront at Place Vaiete, serve grilled fish, steak frites, crêpes and Chinese dishes in the evening at local prices. The Papeete Market is busiest early in the morning, especially on Sundays, for fruit, poisson cru and coconut bread. See our Tahiti guide.

On the islands, roadside snack bars serve casseroles and sandwiches, and resorts host Polynesian nights with a ma’a Tahiti buffet and dance show. On the Tuamotu, family pensions serve fish caught that day; it’s some of the best eating in the country.

Tahitian vanilla, Vanilla tahitensis, has a floral, fruity aroma prized by pastry chefs. There’s no natural pollinator in the islands, so growers pollinate each flower by hand, then cure the pods for months, sweating and sun-drying them until they turn dark and supple.

Taha’a, the vanilla island, grows much of French Polynesia’s crop, and family plantations welcome visitors on island tours, often alongside a pearl farm. Buy pods direct and declare food items on your return; our guide to US customs explains how.

Moorea’s pineapple valleys supply the island’s distillery, which offers tastings of juices and liqueurs, and Taha’a has its own rum producers. On Rangiroa, Domaine Dominique Auroy grows grapes on a motu, the only vineyard on an atoll. Wash it all down with a cold Hinano, the local beer, or fresh coconut water.

If you eat reef fish, ask locals what’s safe: ciguatera, a toxin carried by some reef species, is known in French Polynesia. Tuna and other open-ocean fish used for poisson cru are the usual choice.