Hawaii is a state of the United States (since 1959), but since it’s so far from the mainland both geographically and culturally it gets its own entry. It is an archipelago of hundreds of volcanic islands, of which the eight are known as the main islands. Only about 10 % of the people are Pacific [...]

Cook Islands is a “self-governing parliamentary democracy in free association with New Zealand”. What is more interesting than this bureaucratic monster of a word is that it has about 20,000 inhabitants, while there are nearly 60,000 people of Cook Islander descent living in New Zealand (a unique situation, perhaps?). The group of fifteen small islands [...]

New Zealand and Australia don’t have that many interesting culinary traditions. Pavlova is a famous dessert originating from the region, but being meringue-based it is difficult (although not impossible) to veganize. Still, I might be tempted to to try it in the future. I’d have liked to try something from Maori cuisine, but couldn’t find [...]