Niuean Food

Being an island, sea food is available in a huge variety.  A lot many English and Polynesian varieties of food preparations are available. The island is the home of al huge variety of tropical fruits and these are usually available at the village markets or special market which operates only on Tuesday and Friday morning in the capital of Niue – Alofi. Native foods like coconut, bread fruit, crabs, cassava, taro and shellfish are also available on sale. 

Being very fussy about the quality of food preparations, the Niuean are known for their standards of preparation quality. Niueans usually proudly distinguish themselves from their neighbor countries using the quality of food preparation as a benchmark.

Food has a very important role to pay in the Niue society as it serves a benchmark of quality among the villages of Niue. The 14 day annual celebration by the 14 villages show a glance of how the Niueans revere their food preparation qualities when each of the 14 villages play a host a show-day which is showcase of the local methods of cooking quality, craftsmanship, sports and cultural skills. Each day a large earthen oven is made and used for community cooking. This earthen oven is known as ’umu’ locally and all the visitors get to taste the local preparations.

Visitors to Niue often have to face problems in shopping for food. The only supermarket ‘Swans’ work between 9am to 4pm from Monday to Friday only. Other wise every village has its own small local groceries shops selling items of daily requirement. If the tourist plans to prepare his own meals he must procure the groceries as soon as he lands on Niue as restaurants are also not open at all times in Niue and you need to book your seats in the restaurants prior to your visit.