The Epicurean Tongan Taste.

The azure blue sky looked ethereal. With nine other adventurous souls, I was sitting cross legged in an elliptical circle, on a hand woven Tapa mat; set down on the lush and velvety grass. One young boy dressed in a Tupenu (a sarong) fanned us using palm tree leaves. It was blissful.

An unknown woman clapped thrice. Holding an empty dried coconut shell bowl in my palms, I managed to drink the brown rusty colored water in one gulp- this was the tradition. The taste tingle my throat. I am in Nuku'alofa, Tonga and this is the Kava ceremony. Ancestrally restricted only to the royals; today, Tongans welcome honored visitors with a Kava ritual followed by a gargantuan banquet.

Adorned with fiery red hibiscus-made kiekie (an ornamental girdle) on their delicate waist and assorted with Frangipani necklaces; some girls came to us. Swaying their hips celestially and doing utterly graceful hand gestures in perfect synchrony with rhythmic Polynesian acoustics; they escorted us inside a sacrosanct hall. Regardless of the resources and the antediluvian amenities, the locals prepared a real buffet.

Positioned exactly in the middle of the room, with eyes wide opened; there laid a huge roasted Pu’aka (pig) on an Acacia wood platter. Abundant taro, cassava, fish, lobsters, mangoes and papayas surrounded the main meal. I was mouthwatering and left in awe.

Food plays a pivotal role and the Tongan culture is in itself very food-centric. Welcoming guests with delicious home-made gourmets is the essence of Tonga- the land of friendly people. Dauntlessly protecting their heritage by keeping up with ancestral traditions; the Kava and the various dishes, that the altruist islanders offer foreigners epitomize modesty, respect, prosperity and kinship.

The Tongan delicacies were bestowed to me in the most unusual plate- a horizontal bamboo halved into two. This lost archipelago of the Pacific Ocean will never cease to amaze me. I had two more days left to spend in the Kingdom.