What are some Maori foods?!
Food and religion
In traditional Māori religion, food was noa, or non-sacred. This meant it could not come into contact with tapu (sacred) places or objects. If it did, the tapu would be removed and the power of the place or object, and often the people associated with it, would be destroyed. High chiefs, or people engaged in tapu work such as tattooing, were tapu and were restricted in how they could deal with food; the most tapu needing to be fed by others. One story tells of a war party which had to be postponed as no non-tapu people were available to load the food supplies into the party's waka.
Present day Māori cuisine is a mixture of Māori tradition, old fashioned English cookery, and contemporary dishes. Most large Māori gatherings will feature a hangi, which is likely to contain foods brought to New Zealand by Māori and by Pākehā. There will probably also be a wide selection of cakes and other sweet foods of the kind beloved by ninteenth century English people - which many Māori have become very fond of. In less formal occasions, distinctively Māori dishes include the boil-up - of pork, potatoes, kumara, and dumplings, which is also similar to traditional British cooking methods, and pork and puha - sow thistle, which combines an introduced meat with an indigenous vegetable. In recent decades there has been much concern that Māori have picked up the worst of European eating habits and as a result are disproportionately likely to suffer from obesity, heart disease and diabetes.
http://www.genuinemaoricuisine.com/Folde...
Answers: When Māori (New Zealand's indigenous people) first arrived in New Zealand from tropical Polynesia, they brought with them a number of food plants, including taro and kumara (sweet potato), and also dogs and rats, which could also be food sources. The plants did not grow as well in New Zealand's temperate climate as they did in the tropics, and would not grow at all in the colder South Island. Bananas and coconuts - which they also brought with them - would not grow even in the North Island. Foods such as fernroot became a more important part of the diet than in other Pacific Islands, and some native New Zealand plants were also eaten, along with insects such as the huhu grub. Problems with horticulture were made up for by an abundance of bird and marine life. Larger species, such as the moa, were quickly hunted to extinction, and so systems of tapu and rahui were developed to ensure the survival of remaining species. These included forbidding the hunting of certain species in particular places or at certain times of year, so that the species could regenerate. Like other Polynesian peoples, Māori cooked their food in earth ovens, known in New Zealand as hangi, although the word umu was also used - as in other Pacific languages. Other cooking methods included roasting and, in geothermal areas, boiling or steaming using natural hot springs and pools. Occasionally food would be boiled in non-geothermal areas by putting hot stones into a bowl with water and the food; and some food was also cooked over the open fire. Some foods were preserved using smoke, air-drying, or layers of fat - particularly muttonbirds. Māori were one of the few peoples to have no form of alcoholic beverage.
Food and religion
In traditional Māori religion, food was noa, or non-sacred. This meant it could not come into contact with tapu (sacred) places or objects. If it did, the tapu would be removed and the power of the place or object, and often the people associated with it, would be destroyed. High chiefs, or people engaged in tapu work such as tattooing, were tapu and were restricted in how they could deal with food; the most tapu needing to be fed by others. One story tells of a war party which had to be postponed as no non-tapu people were available to load the food supplies into the party's waka.
Present day Māori cuisine is a mixture of Māori tradition, old fashioned English cookery, and contemporary dishes. Most large Māori gatherings will feature a hangi, which is likely to contain foods brought to New Zealand by Māori and by Pākehā. There will probably also be a wide selection of cakes and other sweet foods of the kind beloved by ninteenth century English people - which many Māori have become very fond of. In less formal occasions, distinctively Māori dishes include the boil-up - of pork, potatoes, kumara, and dumplings, which is also similar to traditional British cooking methods, and pork and puha - sow thistle, which combines an introduced meat with an indigenous vegetable. In recent decades there has been much concern that Māori have picked up the worst of European eating habits and as a result are disproportionately likely to suffer from obesity, heart disease and diabetes.
http://www.genuinemaoricuisine.com/Folde...
http://teaohou.natlib.govt.nz/teaohou/is...
Kumaras (potatoes), puha or rauriki (compared favourably with cabbage, silver beet or spinach), fish (octopus, sea eggs, rock oysters, crayfish, kuku paua, pipis, toheroas, pupurore, hapuku, rawaru, tarakihi, snapper, kahawai, mango, patiki, kuparu, kanae, tope).
fish poy and pineapples
I have a friend in New Zealand, and hangi is a Maori tradition like Hawaiian imu-an inground oven pit where food is roasted.
Here are some great recipes of the Cook Island Maori's.
http://www.ck/food/
They love most anything with coconut, fresh fruits(especially papaya, what they call paw paw, bananas, lemons, limes - no pineapple), arrowroot, taro, breadfruit, capsicum, fish, crab, lobster, prawns, and many other shellfish, pork, chicken and corned beef (canned) are also favorites. The Cook Island Maori are also fond of mild curries, however their primary diet is very bland. Only recently have they started incorporating chili pepper (Hawaiian) into their diet. I love one of their favorite salads - Paw Paw Salad (Papaya) is simply diced fresh papaya with mayonnaise and curry, chilled until the flavors blend. And oh by the way..the mayo must be Best Foods! (no kidding). The Cook Island Maori's eat very little or no fresh dairy products, and unlike the Hawaiians, rice is not a staple, although this may soon change with the huge recent Chinese influence.