Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia · Volume 12, The Umu, the Mission and the Sunday Table
ʻOta ʻika
Samoa
Illustration
- Time
- 4 hours
- Researched
- 29 sources cited
Raw fish, commonly tuna, is cut into pieces and cured in citrus juice, then mixed with coconut cream, onion and chilli. This is the same dish family as Tonga's ʻota ʻika and Niue's ʻota ʻika, documented at Manuiz in Alofi, and this chapter treats the citrus-and-coconut method as one continuous Pacific technique under slightly different national names rather than claiming Samoa invented it.
As tradition built it
About 4 hours, mostly marinating
Ingredients
- 500g raw fish, commonly tuna
- Enough to almost cover the fish fresh citrus juice
- 2 tins coconut cream
- 1 whole onion, finely diced
- 1 tsp chilli flakes, optional chilli
Method
- Cut raw fish into even pieces.
- Cure in fresh citrus juice until the flesh firms and turns opaque.
- Fold in coconut cream, finely diced onion and chilli to finish.
What a modern chef changes
After Michael Meredith's geoduck oka at Metita.
Rung 2
Method
- Cure the protein in citrus alone first, timed to firm the flesh without over-curing it, before any coconut touches it. Rung 2.
- Fold the coconut cream in only at the point of service, not during the cure, so its fat does not blunt the citrus.
- Consider a non-fish protein that behaves the same way raw, following Meredith's own logic rather than treating fish as the only correct base; this is offered here as the chapter's own extension of a documented technique, not as an assertion that any other named chef has done the same.
Notes
Meredith's version replaces the fish with geoduck clam harvested from Golden Bay, New Zealand, which he says gives "a beautiful texture and flavour that works well raw," paired with fresh grated coconut and finger lime. The Denizen, as above