Maori Food

Before the Europeans got to New Zealand, the Maori's brought food from their homeland (Polynesia) including Kumara (sweet potato), yam (similar to the potato family), taro ( a root

plant similar to potatoes), Kiore (the Polynesian rat), Kuri (the Polynesian dog), birds, seafood including Paua (abalone), Tio (oysters), Tipa (scallops), Kutai (green-lipped mussels), Kina (sea urchin) and Koura (fresh crayfish). They also had Rewena bread, native ferns, vines, palms, fungi, berries, fruit and seeds

They cooked their food in a Hangi (red hot rocks in a hole which cooks the food above it. The food is covered in leaves and dirt is put over it). Since they didn't have any non-flammable clay pottery and things like that, they put a really hot rock in a wooden bowl of water to boil it.

Maori's got their food by hunting for it. They hunted animals using fish hooks made from sharp animal bones, bird spear points (points that go on the end of spears), spears, flax nets (a net made from vines) with fish hooks attached to the end. They also caught other river animals and went out looking for vegetables or used the ones they had brought from Polynesia.

INTERESTING FACT:

The Maori's never cooked in the same house that they slept in. Instead, they cooked outside or in special cooking sheds.