In former times, there was only one main meal, a midday meal cooked in an earth oven. Villagers would rise, eat some leftover food from the previous day's meal, and set out to work in the fields,
fishing, gathering
shellfish, etc. The results of the morning's work would be cooked by the men, and served to the assembled household. The remnants would be placed in a basket suspended from a tree. This food is served as an end-of-the-day snack as well as the next day's breakfast. Food past its prime was given to the pigs. The diet consisted mainly of
taro,
yams,
bananas,
coconuts, and
fish baked in leaves; shellfish were usually served raw, as a
relish. The liquid from the center of coconuts was commonly drunk, and the soft "spoon meat" of young coconuts much relished. Baked
breadfruit was eaten in season; said fruit itself as well as the banana and taro could be stored in pits until fermented into a unique staple preserve known as
mā.
Pigs were killed and cooked only on special occasions, such as
weddings,
funerals,
feasts honoring a visiting chief, and the like. Tongans also ate
chickens. They have also acquired a liking for
meat of horses (
hoosi, previously
puaka papālangi) which were originally brought by British sailors intended to be bred as transportation for missionaries; one delicacy is a braised dish with coconut milk called
loʻi hoosi. Food could be stored by feeding it to pigs. Pre-contact Tongans also built elevated storehouses for yams. Yams would keep only a few months. Hence a household's main security was generous distribution of food to relatives and neighbors, who were thus put under an obligation to share in their turn. Many new foods were introduced in the 19th and early 20th centuries, following Western contacts and settlements. The
cassava plant was one such introduction; it is called
manioke in Tongan. While it lacks the prestige of the yam, it is an easy plant to grow and a common crop. Introduced
watermelons became popular. They were eaten either by themselves, or pulped and mixed with
coconut milk, forming a popular drink called ''
'otai''. Other fruits, such as
oranges,
lemons, and
limes, became popular. Tongans also adopted
onions,
green onions,
cabbage,
carrots,
tomatoes, and other common vegetables. In the last few decades, Tongan farmers with access to large tracts of land have engaged in commercial farming of
pumpkins and other easily shipped vegetables as cash crops. Tongans now consume large quantities of imported
flour and
sugar. One dish that uses both is
topai (doughboys), flour and water worked into a paste and dropped into a kettle of boiling water, then served with a
syrup of sugar and coconut milk. Topai are a common funeral food, being easily prepared for hundreds of mourners. There are now bakeries in the larger cities. The most popular loaves are soft, white, and bland. There are also local soft drink bottlers, who make various local varieties of
soda. A Tongan who might once have breakfasted on bits of cooked
pork and yam from a hanging basket may now have
white bread and soda for breakfast. Purchased prepared foods have also made great headway, even in remote villages. Canned
cornbeef is a great favorite. It is eaten straight from the can, or mixed with coconut milk and onions, wrapped in leaves, and baked in the earth oven. Tongans also eat canned fish, such as
tuna. In villages or towns with refrigeration, cheap frozen "
mutton flaps" imported from New Zealand are popular. Tongans also eat the common South Pacific "ship's biscuit", hard plain
crackers once a shipboard staple. These crackers are called
mā pakupaku ("dry meal"). Tongans no longer make an earth oven every day. Most daily cooking is done by women, who cook in battered pots over open fires in the village, in wood-burning stoves in some households, and on gas or electric ranges in some of the larger towns. The meal schedule has also changed, to more Westernized breakfast, light lunch, and heavy dinner. Tongans say that the old schedule is unworkable when household members have Western-style jobs, or attend schools at some distance from home; such family members cannot come home to eat, then have a doze after a heavy mid-day meal. As well as drinking soda, Tongans now drink
tea and
coffee. Usually this is of the cheapest variety, and served with tinned
condensed milk. Some men drink
alcohol. Sometimes this is imported Australian or New Zealand
beer; more often it is home-brew,
hopi, made with
water, sugar or mashed
fruit, and
yeast. Imported drinks are sold only to Tongans who have liquor permits, which require a visit to a government office, and limit the amount of alcohol which can be purchased. There are no such formalities with
hopi. Drinking is usually done secretively; a group of men gather and drink until they are drunk. Such gatherings sometimes result in drunken quarrels and assaults.
Traditional Tongan dishes •
Lū •
'otai •
'ota ika •
Vai siaine Kava Formal
kava drinking is an important and intrinsic part of Tonga culture. However, the drinking of kava by men at kava clubs is somewhat equal to drinking beers in the bar in western cultures.
Tongan cuisine and health Tonga is notable for its high obesity rates with over 90% of the population being overweight. Consequently, many Tongan islanders have an increased risk of
heart disease,
diabetes and other obesity related diseases which place the nation's health service under considerable strain. Much of this is related to the nation's cultural love of food and eating as well as the modern influx of cheap and high-fat content
meat, with
corned beef and
lamb belly remaining firm favourites in Tongan cuisine. Despite being a highly obese population, there is little stigma attached to being overweight as one might find in many Western civilizations. Like a great number of South Pacific cultures, large bodies are often revered, though there is growing acknowledgment of the health risks involved. == Clothing ==