Feast and Famine: A Gourmet's Guide to Rapa Nui

Abstract

A few years back I received a letter asking if I could recommend a cookbook that described and discussed the cuisine of Rapa Nui. Before there is a rush to Amazon.com, let me assure readers that, to date, no Rapanui cookbook exists. If there were one, it would be very slim indeed. Not that there is anything wrong with the traditional food of Easter Island, it is just that, in the past, choices were very limited. When an old Rapanui was asked to describe what life was like in the 'old days', she replied, "Here we begin at birth by eating sweet potatoes, then we go on eating sweet potatoes, and finally we die" (Metraux 1971:153).