Palauan snack foods

Tama

Every time we go out on the boat, MJ and Maikani, the two team members who live locally, bring with them Palauan snack foods to share. There's a culture in Palau of swinging by a convenience store in the morning to buy the pre-made food that will constitute your lunch for the day. I've even heard MJ ask Maikani "Where did you get your bento today?" 

So in the spirit of local cultural flavor (literally!), I'd like to introduce you to a few Palauan snack foods.

Matt, Cas, and I having abrabang on the boat

Tama are small spheres of fried bread - basically savory donut holes. You eat them in the morning, and they're apparently great to dip in coffee. I've had plain and banana versions. The banana tama was like deep-fried banana bread! 

Abrabang are also donut-like, but savory. They're disc-shaped, fried, and filled with a reddish bean paste. The flavor reminded me of raspberry jam, if raspberries were naturally low in sugar. Abrabang are extremely filling!

Cas modelling coconut juice

The display case at the Island Bakery 

There are a lot of Japanese products available in Palau. One example is an electrolyte-filled sports drink called Pocari Sweat. It's like Gatorade, only lighter, less in-your-face. So far, I have not been able to bring myself to drink a clear-ish liquid out of a can labeled "sweat," but the others say it tastes good. 

Coconut juice was something I had never encountered before, but in Palau, everything is made from coconut. There's coconut water, coconut milk, coconut cream, coconut oil - and apparently coconut juice. The best way to describe it is coconut water with a lot of added sugar and some pulp. 

There are all sorts of baked goods with various combinations of flavors and origins. A Filipino pastry filled with butter, sugar, and cheese called Ensaymada. "Chicken pockets," which as far as I can tell are spicy chicken turnovers. A little cylindrical pastry with onion and sugar. All sorts of American-looking cakes. Twisted fried dough called Mahua.

It has been very fun to experience various snack foods in Palau!