How would you describe Polynesian cuisine?

Take a dose of ancient Polynesian dietary traditions, consisting of fish, tubers, starches, fruit and coconut milk. Add a good handful of Asian flavors and dishes, a legacy of the Hakka community that settled in Polynesia in the late 19th century. Sprinkle with French cuisine. The result is a multicultural cuisine found nowhere else.

In the same meal, you can have a fillet of Satay beef, shrimps in a sweet and sour sauce, raw fish in coconut milk, a papaya tarte tatin and to top it all off? Baguettes, the staple of Polynesian meals.

While some ancestral hakkas and cantonese recipes have retained their original character, others have been tropicalized and still others have been created in Tahiti to become traditional in their own right.

But the star of Polynesian meals is undoubtedly fish, especially tuna, which is prepared raw as carpaccio, in coconut milk, tartare or sashimi.

Food trucks, specializing in raw fish, kebabs, grills, pancakes and Chinese cuisine, are part of Polynesian daily life, setting up nightly around the island.

In addition to a large number of Chinese restaurants and snack bars, Papeete is also home to French, Italian, Japanese and even Thai restaurants.

In the mornings, and especially on Sundays, there’s something for everyone, from sweet to savory, and most of the big hotels offer the traditional brunch of fish, pastries, eggs, cold cuts, dairy products and fruit, often accompanied by live music.

So Tama’a Maita’i, (bon appétit in Tahitian), as we say back home!