Unfortunately, I was sick last week and wasn’t able to make much progress in my cooking challenge so I decided to take the week off. Although I had already cooked most of the food for this post, I was also still missing one dish. But now I am back sharing what I have found on food from Palau, which sadly is not very much!
Palau is an island country made up of around 340 islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It shares maritime boundaries with international waters, the Federated States of Micronesia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
The islands were settled about 3,000 years ago by Southeast Asian migrants. The islands were first drawn on a European map based on a description given by a group of shipwrecked Palauans in the Phillippines.
In 1885, the islands were made part of the Spanish East Indies, but were sold to Germany in 1899. Japan controlled Palau after World War I, and in 1947 it was eventually made part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, governed by the United States. Palau was given the opportunity to join the Federated States of Micronesia in 1978, but voted against it and instead became a completely sovereign nation in 1994.
Palau today still relies on the United States for defense, funding, and access to social services, and the US dollar is the official currency. The economy is based primarily on tourism, subsistence agriculture, and fishing.
What Do People Eat in Palau?
Traditional Palauan food is very basic, since dishes were based on the ingredients available on the islands. This meant seafood, taro (both the root and leaves), water spinach, coconut, and other tropical fruits.
As other countries arrived with new recipes and ingredients, more varied dishes emerged, with some of the heaviest influences coming from the Philippines and Japan. I found it difficult to find many traditional dishes I could make with the ingredients I could obtain, and most of those I came up with turned out to be borrowed from another country. Personally, I don’t think there is anything wrong with that, but it did make my challenge difficult this week since I prefer to focus on more traditional dishes.
What I Made
Scroll down to read about other popular Palauan dishes I didn’t make!
Taro Rösti (Taro Fritters)
I think most people have heard of potato rösti, made by forming flat cakes or fritters out of grated potato and then frying them. This is the same thing except made with taro root instead, taro being a more traditional ingredient in Palau.
These were super easy to make. I grated some taro and a bit of onion, and combined them with salt and pepper. I pressed the mixture into flat discs and then pan-fried them until golden and crispy. I’m still getting used to my new stove and the edges got a little overly brown, but it didn’t matter because these still tasted good. I’ve eaten taro in stews before and never really liked it, probably mostly because it looks like potato and I’m expecting potato and then I eat it and it’s not potato. However, I think these fritters tasted almost exactly like potato rösti!
I served these for breakfast with scrambled eggs and spinach, but they would also be great as a snack.
The recipe I used is from Pacific Daily News.
Korokke (Tuna and Spinach Fritters)
I was a little skeptical about making fritters out of tuna. I mean, I like tuna, but I thought these may be a bit weird. Also, I want to point out that Paluans don’t just eat fritters… it’s a coincidence that I ended up with two fritter recipes this week! These fritters are meant to have water spinach leaves in them, but I substituted with regular spinach since it’s a lot easier for me to obtain.
To make the korokke mixture, I combined canned tuna with spinach, onion, soy sauce, salt, flour, eggs, and enough water to make a fairly runny batter. Then all I had to do was dollop it into a pan with oil and pan-fry to create crispy fritters.
I served these with rice and a soy sauce-based dipping sauce as suggested by the recipe, and I have to say, these things were amazing! They didn’t even really need the sauce because they were very good without it. I had worried they would just taste like tuna and have a weird texture but the tuna taste was actually pretty mild and the texture was fine.
To make these, I followed a recipe from L&M Sisters on YouTube.
Mango Seboseb (Mango Pudding)
Seboseb is a simple pudding made from starch, water, milk, and sugar. It can also be flavored with fruit. From what I can tell, the most traditional starch to use is arrowroot, but I’ve also seen recipes with tapioca starch and cornstarch. I used the latter since it’s something I always have on hand. Coconut milk can also be used instead of regular milk.
To make this, I combined cornstarch and water in a saucepan. After mixing thoroughly, I turned on the heat and cooked, stirring until the mixture formed a thick gluey paste. I stirred in milk and sugar, followed by finely chopped mango a few moments later. It didn’t take long before the consistency was sufficiently pudding-like and the dish was done. I set the mixture aside to cool because it just wasn’t appetizing to me when warm.
I think the flavor of this was okay, but the texture was a bit too gluey for me. It’s probably something that I’d appreciate more if I had grown up with it.
If you’d like to try this, I followed a recipe from Viaja en mi Cocina, which is in Spanish but Google Translate works well.
Other Popular Palauan Dishes
- Demok – a very simple soup made from taro leaves and coconut milk, sometimes with crab too. It’s Palau’s national dish, but I couldn’t find taro leaves and it felt weird to try and substitute what I feel is a pretty important ingredient in this case.
- Ukaeb – crab meat mixed with coconut milk or cream, usually served in crab shells.
- Tama – I often say that just about every country has a fried dough dish, and this is the version that is popular in Palau. It was introduced by the Japanese and became a popular snack. Usually, it’s flavored with vanilla.
Final Thoughts
This was a light week but I was happy with the dishes I did make. The korokke was my favorite food from Palau.
Next week, barring further interruptions, I will be cooking food from Palestine.