Tahiti travel guide

Poisson cru

Papeete's evening roulottes (food trucks) around the waterfront serve the best poisson cru outside family homes; a generous carton at the port-side roulottes eaten standing after sunset is the truest Tahiti experience

Ma'a Tahiti (Tahitian oven feast)

Traditional Tahitian food cooked in an ahimaa earth oven—breadfruit, taro, pork and fish wrapped in banana leaves and slow-cooked overnight in a pit; consumed at heiva festival gatherings and village celebrations

Po'e (fruit pudding)

Tahiti's ancient pudding—cooked banana, papaya or taro mashed with coconut milk and starch, baked then sliced; sweet, gelatinous and deeply traditional; Polynesia's oldest dessert, found at every island celebration

Fresh tropical fruit

Tahitian pamplemousse (sweet grapefruit), papaya, mangoes and tiny fragrant pineapples from roadside stalls; the Tahitian pamplemousse is sweeter and more floral than any other grapefruit in the world

French bread

The French baguette tradition thrives across Polynesia—fresh Tahitian baguettes baked nightly and delivered by motorbike before 5am; eat one warm with strong café au lait and coconut jam (coco vanille) for the complete Tahitian breakfast ritual