Welcome to the summary page for FabulousFusionFood's Papuan recipes, part of Oceania. This page provides links to all the Papuan recipes presented on this site, with 14 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 Papuan recipes added to this site.

The cuisine of Papua comprises the traditional varied foods found in the eastern part of the New Guinea island. Approximately 80 percent of the population is reliant on subsistence agriculture, so a large percentage of food energy and protein consumed in Papua New Guinea is produced locally. The staple foods in Papua New Guinea include root crops, bananas, and sago. Papua's diet is largely vegetarian, especially in the Gulf and Highlands regions.

These recipes, for the major part, originate in Papua New Guinea. Otherwise they are fusion recipes with major Papuan influences.

Papua, also known as Western New Guinea, Indonesian New Guinea, and Indonesian Papua is the western half of the island of New Guinea, formerly Dutch and granted to Indonesia in 1962. Given the island is alternatively named Papua, the region is also called West Papua (Indonesian: Papua Barat). It is one of the seven geographical units of Indonesia in ISO 3166-2:ID.

Lying to the west of Papua New Guinea and geographically a part of the Australian continent, the territory is almost entirely in the Southern Hemisphere and includes the Biak and Raja Ampat archipelagoes. The region is predominantly covered with rainforest where traditional peoples live, including the Dani of the Baliem Valley. A large proportion of the population live in or near coastal areas. The largest city is Jayapura.

Papua is a province rich in natural resources and cultural diversity, offering great potential for future development. Efforts to improve the region's Human Development Index, currently at 0.604, are ongoing, with significant investments in education, healthcare, and infrastructure. For example, the Trans-Papua Highway project is creating new opportunities for connectivity, trade, and tourism. Additionally, the government's focus on empowering indigenous communities and promoting sustainable development is bringing economic and social benefits to the region. Despite the challenging terrain and climate of New Guinea, major infrastructure projects are being implemented, connecting remote areas and fostering economic growth. The expansion of telecommunications services and renewable energy projects are further accelerating development in rural areas.[

The interior is predominantly populated by ethnic Papuans while coastal towns are inhabited by descendants of intermarriages between Papuans, Melanesians and Austronesians, including other Indonesian ethnic groups. Migrants from the rest of Indonesia also tend to inhabit the coastal regions. The province is also home to some uncontacted peoples.

In 2020, the region had a census population of 5,437,775, the majority of whom are indigenous; the official estimate as of mid-2022 was 5,601,888. It is currently governed as six autonomous provinces of Indonesia. The official language is Indonesian, with Papuan Malay the most used lingua franca. Estimates of the number of local languages in the region range from 200 to over 700, with the most widely spoken including Dani, Yali, Ekari and Biak. The predominant official religion is Christianity, followed by Islam. The main industries include agriculture, fishing, oil production, and mining. The province has a large potential in natural resources, such as gold, nickel, petroleum, etc

Etymology: Papua is derived from a local term of uncertain origin, that may have referred to at least part of the island now called New Guinea. In 1526 Portuguese explorer Jorge de Menezes named the island Ilhas dos Papuas. The word 'Papua' has applied to various areas of New Guinea since then, with its inclusion in 'Papua New Guinea' coming from its use for the Territory of Papua.

Name: Speakers align themselves with a political orientation when choosing a name for the western half of the island of New Guinea. The official name of the region is 'Papua' according to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Independence activists refer to the region as 'West Papua', while Indonesian officials have also used 'West Papua' to name the western province of the region since 2007. Historically, the region has had the official names of Netherlands New Guinea (1895–1962), West New Guinea or West Irian (1962–1973), Irian Jaya (1973–2002), and Papua (2002–present). The expected Indonesian translation of 'Western New Guinea', Nugini Barat, is currently only used in historical contexts such as kampanye Nugini Barat 'Western New Guinea campaign'.

Papuan Cuisine:

The native Papuan food usually consists of roasted boar with Tubers such as sweet potato. The staple food of Papua and eastern Indonesia in general is sago, as the counterpart of central and western Indonesian cuisines that favour rice as their staple food. Sago is either processed as a pancake or sago congee called papeda, usually eaten with yellow soup made from tuna, red snapper or other fishes spiced with turmeric, lime, and other spices. On some coasts and lowlands on Papua, sago is the main ingredient to all the foods. Sagu bakar, sagu lempeng, and sagu bola, has become dishes that is well known to all Papua, especially on the custom folk culinary tradition on Mappi, Asmat and Mimika. Papeda is one of the sago foods that is rarely found. As Papua is considered as a non-Muslim majority regions, pork is readily available everywhere. In Papua, pig roast which consists of pork and yams are roasted in heated stones placed in a hole dug in the ground and covered with leaves; this cooking method is called bakar batu (burning the stone), and it is an important cultural and social event among Papuan people.

In the coastal regions, seafood is the main food for the local people. One of the famous sea foods from Papua is fish wrap (Indonesian: Ikan Bungkus). Wrapped fish in other areas is called Pepes ikan. Wrapped fish from Papua is known to be very fragrant. This is because there are additional bay leaves so that the mixture of spices is more fragrant and soaks into the fish meat. The basic ingredient of Papuan wrapped fish is sea fish, the most commonly used fish is milkfish. Milkfish is suitable for 'wrap' because it has meat that does not crumble after processing. The spices are sliced or cut into pieces, namely, red and bird's eye chilies, bay leaves, tomatoes, galangal, and lemongrass stalks. While other spices are turmeric, garlic and red, red chilies, coriander, and hazelnut. The spices are first crushed and then mixed or smeared on the fish. The wrapping is in banana leaves.