American Samoa Food and Drink

Restaurants offer a variety of cuisines, including American, Chinese, Japanese, Italian and Polynesian. There are also various drive-in restaurants.

Specialities

• Fia fia (suckling pig, chicken, fish, palusami (coconut cream wrapped in taro leaves and cooked in the umu, or pit oven), breadfruit, coconut, bananas, lime and mango).

Tipping

Not customary.

Regional drinks

Kava is the national drink and is often drunk in sacred ceremonies.

Note: If you become intimate with Samoans, you may be invited to a genuine kava ceremony. If you go, follow these basic rules: do not sip until you tip a little kava from its coconut shell cup onto the ground immediately in front of you while saying manuia (mah-noo-ee-ah), meaning good luck; do not drain your cup - leave a little and tip it out before handing the cup back to the server; remember that drinking kava is a solemn, sacred ceremony not to be confused with a casual round of drinks in Western society. The taste may take a while to acquire.