Famous for cannibals, tribes, unconnected people and its grim ridden capital, but what is the street food Papua New Guinea scene? Well it turns it is a bit eclectic and well rather good.
Check out this article for Bougainville food.
Food in Papua New Guinea
The food in Papua New Guinea that people eat on a daily basis is very vegetarian friendly partly due to low incomes and partly linked to the ec0onomy o fythe countr. Most people in PNG still working in farming, in fact more than anywhere else in the world.This means that vegetables, partlticulay root ones, such as sweet potato, and fruits such as savory banana dominate.
Even restaurant wise there really is not all that much variety, with them being mostly Aussie style restaurants, as well as Kai Bar’s – more on them later.
Meat also tends ro be a treat here, with salvoes and sausages dominating the street food Papua New Guinea scene, while the underground cooked Mumu dominating village feasts.
Street Food Papua New Guinea at a Kai Bar
In Tok Pisin Kai means eat, while Bar implies a place you go retailer than booze, so like “eat place”, which is exactly what you do here. In fact they actually look like chip shops, with the English and Aussie influence paramount.
So, what do you get at a Kai Bar, well as you can imagine chips are the mot important dish, although these can switched for Kaukau, a local variant of the yam that is very starchy.
No two Kai Bar’s are the same, but other have saveloys, beef stews and indeed chicken to go with chicken and chips! Drinks worse there is no booze, but they. Have drinks, such as the wonderful Gold Spot selection. A Kai Bar is not cheap by global standards, but cheap locally with chicken and chips setting you back about $6, or so.
Street food markets in Papua New Guinea
When you are out of the cities there are no Kai Bar\s, but there are great markets that serve up treat food Papua New Guinea heaven. They of course have the classic dishes that you will get from a Kai Bar, such as the PNG saveloy, but also some unique treats, such as coconut chicken.
Other quality dishes which can be found on roadsides, as well as street food markets in PNG are basically boiled potatoes on a stick, as well as asvoiury bananas. To avoid plains you can simply add salt, which they have. Sadly salt can be decidedly lacking in the avenues.
ONe street food Paul New Guinea dish that definitely does not need alt is s afraid egg wrapped in a leaf of some distinction, salty and costs just 25 cents at Mt Hagen Market.
Here’s our Mount Hagen Guide.
Street Food Papua New Guinea – The Drinks
When eating street food in Papua New Guinea there is always an abidance of soft drinks, such as the Gold Spot range, as well as Solo, which is hugely popular. Oh there is also GoGo Cola, which I will give its win #ColaQuest article at some point.
Booze can at times be hard to get hold of, but when you can the beer of choice is either SP, or Bird of Paradise. And then of course there is Paia Wara, or firewater which has its own article and is frankly epic.
And that is the street food Papua New Guinea scene, weird, a bit same, but also very unique and indeed good!