Local Dishes

1. Laplap

   Laplap (grated tuber or banana baked with coconut milk)

   Usage

   Vanuatu's national dish. Grate yam, taro, cassava (maniok) or breadfruit (bredfrut), spread it on banana leaves, add fish or beef (buluk), pork (pig) or chicken (faol), pour over squeezed coconut milk, wrap it in the leaves and bake it in a pit oven lined with hot stones

   Grammar Note

   Baked to be shared by a large group — at a village feast (lafet), a market or a kastom ceremony

2. Nakwa

   Nakwa (an island name for laplap)

   Usage

   The dish carries different names from island to island, and this one turns up on menus and market signs

   Grammar Note

   Both name laplap

3. Tuluk

   Tuluk (traditional pudding with beef inside)

   Usage

   It belongs to the same baked family as laplap, but with the meat inside. Market stalls sell it by the piece

4. Nalot

   Nalot (pudding of breadfruit and cooked coconut)

   Usage

   Breadfruit (bredfrut) pounded together with cooked coconut. Unlike laplap it is pounded rather than grated

5. Simboro

   Simboro (grated cassava dish)

   Usage

   It appears under this name at Vanuatu eateries and markets

6. Tanna sup

   Tanna soup (a stew from Tanna island)

   Usage

   A stew that spread from Tanna in the south of Vanuatu and is now cooked on other islands too. Staples such as cassava, taro and yam go in with island cabbage and beans, simmered with beef, goat or fish and coconut milk. Its appeal is that it is quick to make after coming back from the garden

   Grammar Note

   ⚠ The spelling wobbles. Rather than the English-mixed "Tanna soup", the Bislama form "Tanna sup" is used

7. Supsup

   Supsup (a soup or stew)

   Usage

   The reduplicated form is what names the dish itself

   Grammar Note

   A Bislama reduplication

8. Lasup

   Lasup (gravy)

   Usage

   The meat juices poured over rice or root vegetables

   Grammar Note

   From French "la soupe", with the article la- fused onto the word. Vanuatu was an Anglo-French condominium, so French-derived food words survive in Bislama

9. Gato

   Gato (doughnut, cake)

   Usage

   Sold hot and by the piece at markets and roadside stalls, it is the sweet you see most often in Vanuatu

   Grammar Note

   From French "gâteau".The two name the same thing

10. Gatowit

    Gatowit (a figure-of-eight doughnut)

    Usage

    Market gato comes round or twisted into a figure of eight, and this word names the twisted kind

11. Fisanjips

    Fish and chips

    Usage

    A staple of Port Vila takeaway shops

    Grammar Note

    Three English words fused into one

12. Fraeraes

    Fried rice

    Usage

    The dish you see most often at the Chinese and other Asian eateries in Port Vila and Luganville

    Grammar Note

    The frae- element is the same root as the adjective "fraed" (fried)

13. Waetraes

    Boiled white rice

    Usage

    The plain rice served alongside a main, and often in place of island root vegetables

14. Kari

    Curry

    Usage

    Curry powder is "karipaoda"

    Grammar Note

    ⚠ The same spelling names a village in South Santo

15. Sanwis

    Sandwich

    Usage

    The spelling is "sanwis", not the English "sandwich"

16. Ragu

    Stew

    Usage

    Meat and vegetables simmered together

    Grammar Note

    From French "ragoût" — like "lasup", a French word left over from the condominium period

17. Raonbred

    Bread roll

    Usage

    Sold by the piece at bakeries and markets

18. Switbred

    Sweet bun

    Usage

    The sweet roll eaten for breakfast or as a snack

19. Pepastek

    Pepper steak

    Usage

    Vanuatu raises its own cattle (buluk), and this is a fixture of Port Vila restaurant menus

    Grammar Note

    ⚠ The pepa- element means pepper, but the standalone word "pepa" means paper — treat them as different words. The French-derived "stekopoaf" (steak au poivre) is also used for the same dish

20. Aeskrim

    Ice cream

    Usage

    Available in the towns with reliable refrigeration — Port Vila and Luganville

Browse all TravelPhrases languages