Puka Kopai - Kopai Dumplings

By panipopos

Samoa , together with much of the Pacific , is prone to cyclones. If i of these tropical storms hits actually difficult , together with then the natural nutrient resources that Samoans depend upon are severely depleted. When such a disaster happened inwards the past times , nutrient relief together with help came inwards mainly from New Zealand , Commonwealth of Australia , together with the US. Now , where am I going alongside all this seriousness?

Oh aye , I was trying to laissez passer yous guys a historical context for kopai. So anyway , because assistance was coming inwards from benevolent Western nations , the nutrient help packages typically consisted of flour , carbohydrate , rice , canned fish together with canned meats.

In my imagination , the starting fourth dimension native cyclone survivors to have these packages of Western staple foods were likely thinking ,"What the -?!? Huh?!?"

But together with then Samoan ingenuity kicked in. Cooking fires were started upwards , cans were forced opened upwards alongside sapelu (machetes) , together with people idea of every bit many ways every bit they could to role the unusual white materials - rice , flour together with sugar.

I'm convinced that Samoan classics similar sua alaisa , koko alaisa , fa'apapa , panikeke , together with alaisa fa'apopo , all originated during a post-cyclone flare-up of cooking creativity. But prize for the close inventive Samoan dish using exclusively 3 ingredients has got to be...(drumroll)...kopai.

I hateful , how...really , HOW create yous possess got flour , carbohydrate together with H2O together with brand a dish that's super tasty , stands the exam of fourth dimension , together with is honey past times Samoans the basis over?

I'll never know. But it's GENIUS.