Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's American Samoan recipes, part of Oceania. This page provides links to all the Samoan recipes presented on this site, with 11 recipes in total.

This is a continuation of an entire series of pages that will, I hope, allow my visitors to better navigate this site. As well as displaying recipes by name, country and region of origin I am now planning a whole series of pages where recipes can be located by meal type and main ingredient. This page gives a listing of all the American Samoan recipes added to this site.

Sundays are traditionally a day of rest, and many families congregate to share an umu together for a Sunday afternoon meal. In a traditional household, the older members of the family will sit and eat first, and as the meal continues the younger members and then children are invited to eat. A staple of the modern Samoan diet is pisupo, or canned corned beef. Commonly imported from New Zealand or Australia, pisupo is conventionally served alongside white rice or alaisa fa'apopo (coconut rice), combined with vegetables and noodles to make sapasui, simmered with taro leaves in coconut milk as in palusami, or mixed with supoketi (cooked spaghetti).

These recipes, for the major part, originate in American Samoa. Otherwise they are fusion recipes with major Samoan influences.

American Samoa (Amerika Sāmoa in Samoan), is an unincorporated and unorganized territory of the United States located in the Polynesia region of the south Pacific Ocean. Centered on 14.3°S 170.7°W, it is 40 miles (64 km) southeast of the island country of Samoa, east of the International Date Line and the Wallis and Futuna Islands, west of the Cook Islands, north of Tonga, and some 310 miles (500 km) south of Tokelau. American Samoa is the southernmost territory of the United States, situated 2,200 miles (3,500 km) southwest of the U.S. state of Hawaii, and one of two U.S. territories south of the Equator, along with the uninhabited Jarvis Island.

American Samoa consists of the eastern part of the Samoan archipelago – the inhabited volcanic islands of Tutuila, Aunuʻu, Ofu, Olosega and Taʻū and the uninhabited Rose Atoll – as well as Swains Island, a remote coral atoll in the Tokelau volcanic island group. The total land area is 77 square miles (199 km2), slightly larger than Washington, D.C.; including its territorial waters, the total area is 117,500 square miles (304,000 km2), about the size of New Zealand. American Samoa has a tropical climate, with 90 percent of its land covered by rainforests. As of 2024, the population is approximately 47,400 and concentrated on Tutuila, which hosts the capital and largest settlement, Pago Pago. The vast majority of residents are indigenous ethnic Samoans, most of whom are fluent in the official languages, Samoan and English.

Inhabited by Polynesians since prehistory, American Samoa was first contacted by Europeans in the 18th century. The islands attracted missionaries, explorers, and mariners, particularly to the highly protected natural harbor of Pago Pago. The United States took possession of American Samoa in the late 19th century, developing it into a major naval outpost; the territory's strategic value was reinforced by the Second World War and subsequent Cold War. In 1967, American Samoa became self-governing with the adoption of a constitution; its local government is republican in form, with separate executive, legislative, and judicial branches. It remains officially unorganized and is thus directly administered by the federal government. American Samoa is listed among seventeen 'non-self-governing territories' but is a member of several intergovernmental organizations, including the Pacific Community, Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), and International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Due to the territory's strategic location, the U.S. military has a significant presence and plays a major role in its economy and society. The territory is noted for having the highest rate of military enlistment of any U.S. state or territory; as of 2021, the local U.S. Army recruiting station in Pago Pago ranked first in recruitment. Tuna products are the main exports, with the U.S. proper serving as the largest trading partner. Tourism is a nascent but underdeveloped sector, owing in part to the territory's relative geographic isolation, which also accounts for its high rate of poverty and emigration.

Since the Deeds of Cession were signed in 1900 and 1904, Samoans have avoided further integration into the U.S. system. In 1949, the Department of Interior moved to incorporate American Samoa through an Organic Act. Afraid that incorporation might undermine the Samoan culture and traditional land ownership, Samoan matai intervened and Congress halted incorporation. Instead, Samoa created its own government, the Samoan Fono, based on indigenous system of governance. Since then, Samoans have declined to establish a federal district court, refused birthright citizenship, and remains the only U.S. territory with its own immigration system.

Because Samoans have prioritized indigenous culture and government over and above integration into the United States, some consider residents of American Samoa to be politically disenfranchised, with no voting representation in the U.S. Congress, though American Samoa itself has a highly democratic system of governance. American Samoa is the only permanently inhabited territory of the United States in which citizenship is not granted at birth, and people born there are considered 'non-citizen nationals' with limited rights. A primary reason that Samoans do not have birthright citizenship is that Samoans oppose birthright citizenship, as evidenced by the unanimous resolution of the Samoan Fono in 2021 against birthright citizenship, and multiple statements and actions by government officials over the decades. The elected representatives of American Samoan people unanimously fear that birthright citizenship would lead to the erosion of indigenous governance, collective ownership of indigenous lands, and the indigenous language of Samoa, gagana Samoa.

Etymology: The name of 'Samoa' means 'Holy Center', uniting a compound of the Samoan sa ('sacred') and moa ('centre'). The name is alternatively derived from a local chieftain named Samoa or an indigenous word meaning 'place of the moa', a now-extinct bird.

Although the sovereign state of Samoa changed its name from Western Samoa in 1997, the territory is also sometimes referred to as Eastern Samoa to distingush from its neighbor.

American Samoan Cuisine:

Sundays are traditionally a day of rest, and many families congregate to share an umu together for a Sunday afternoon meal. In a traditional household, the older members of the family will sit and eat first, and as the meal continues the younger members and then children are invited to eat. The umu contains an abundance and variety of dishes ranging from a whole pig, fresh seaweed and crayfish to baked taro and rice. Coconut appears in many Samoan dishes, for example, luau, a parcel of coconut cream wrapped in taro leaves baked in the umu. This dish is eaten in its entirety including the leaves and is rich in taste due to its coconut content. The green young coconut is a main ingredient in samilolo, a kind of sauce made using the flesh and sea water that is cooked inside the nut on an open flame and then fermented, usually within the palolo fishing season.

A staple of the modern Samoan diet is pisupo, or canned corned beef. Commonly imported from New Zealand or Australia, pisupo is conventionally served alongside white rice or alaisa fa'apopo (coconut rice), combined with vegetables and noodles to make sapasui, simmered with taro leaves in coconut milk as in palusami, or mixed with supoketi (cooked spaghetti).

The word pisupo is derived from pea soup, which was one of the first canned foods introduced to the island in the 19th century. Today, the word is applied more generically to all foods preserved in cans, especially corned beef, which has become incorporated into the daily social and gastronomic life of Samoans. On occasions such as weddings and birthdays, it has become commonplace to receive cans of corned beef as gifts.