Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia · Volume 07, The Reef, the Earth Oven and the Girmit Table
Vakalolo
iTaukei Fiji
Illustration
- Time
- 45 minutes
- Researched
- 9 sources cited
Grated cassava mixed with grated coconut, sugar and warming spice, wrapped in banana leaf and steamed, then served with hot coconut milk poured over. Suva market vendor Josese Nabau sells thirty containers, F$3 to 5 each, every Saturday from 10am, reportedly sold out by 2pm, a genuine, still-thriving piece of everyday food culture behind a dish that could otherwise read as archival.
As tradition built it
Serves 2 to 3. About 45 minutes.
Ingredients
- 1½ cups grated cassava
- ¼ cup grated coconut
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground cardamom
- 2 tbsp sugar
- to serve hot coconut milk, to serve
Method
- Mix the grated cassava, coconut, cinnamon, cardamom and sugar together thoroughly.
- Wrap tightly in banana leaf.
- Steam for 40 minutes.
- Unwrap and serve with hot coconut milk poured generously over the top.
What a modern chef changes
The spice and the coconut given a little more precision, without changing the dish's plain, honest character
Kit note, not tied to a numbered rung
Method
- Dry-toast the cinnamon and cardamom briefly before adding, waking up their aromatics rather than folding them in raw, a small step no traditional recipe insists on but that costs nothing.
- Use a genuinely thick, first-press coconut cream for the pouring sauce, thinned only slightly with hot water, rather than a standard tinned "coconut milk," for a richer finish that better matches what fresh-pressed lolo would give.
- Serve slightly warm rather than hot, letting the cassava's own starch set a little first, for a firmer, more sliceable texture that holds together better on a plate than straight off the steamer.