- Country of origin
- 🇻🇺 Vanuatu
- Category
- Main Course
- Difficulty
- ●●● Hard
- Preparation
- 45 min
- Cooking
- 3h
- Servings
- 8 people
History
Lap lap, Vanuatu’s national dish, combines grated roots (taro, yam, or cassava depending on the island) and coconut milk, all cooked for several hours in an underground oven called a “lap lap,” like the dish itself, heated by volcanic stones brought to high temperature. This cooking technique, common throughout Melanesia, is believed to date back to pre-colonial practices.
Served at customary ceremonies, weddings, and major community celebrations, lap lap remains Vanuatu’s most identity-defining dish today, prepared collectively by several families gathered around the open-air underground oven.
Ingredients — serves 8
- 2 kg grated roots (taro, yam, or cassava)
- 500 ml coconut milk
- 500 g meat (chicken, pork) or fish
- Banana leaves
- Salt
Lap Lap, step by step
- Grate the peeled roots finely until you get an even pulp.
- Mix this grated pulp with half the coconut milk and a pinch of salt.
- Dig a pit and heat large volcanic stones in a wood fire until they’re glowing hot.
- Line the bottom of the pit with banana leaves, pour in the root pulp, add the meat or fish and the remaining coconut milk.
- Seal the banana leaf parcel tightly, then cover it with the hot stones and a layer of earth or additional leaves.
- Cook, covered, for 3 to 4 hours before digging it up and opening the steaming parcel to serve.
Cooking method
Technique: a slow, covered cook in an underground oven heated by volcanic stones, a collective method typical of all Melanesia.
Traditional equipment: a pit dug directly into the ground, volcanic stones, and large banana leaves used as natural wrapping.
Signs it’s ready: the roots should turn translucent and soft; the leaf parcel must never tear, to keep all the cooking steam inside.
Nutrition, per serving
Calculated from the raw ingredient quantities above, divided across eight servings — enough for a large communal parcel, the size lap lap is meant to be made in.
Note on the technique: because lap lap is sealed in banana leaves and cooked slowly by buried, stone-radiated heat rather than over an open flame, no oil is added at any point — the entire fat figure here comes from the coconut milk itself. Fibre, at 11 g per serving, is unusually high for a main course and comes entirely from the roots.
Economic context
Vanuatu, like many small Pacific island states, has no individual data point in the World Bank dataset for 2024; the regional East Asia & Pacific average is shown instead. Lap lap itself is built from what grows locally — root vegetables, coconut, and whatever meat or fish is on hand — closer to the cost of a garden harvest than a shopping list, which is part of why it remains the dish of choice for large communal gatherings.
Source: World Bank / FAO, Food Prices for Nutrition database (Cost and Affordability of a Healthy Diet) v4.0, 2024 data, CC BY 4.0, DOI 10.57966/41AN-KY81. Retrieved 29 July 2026. Vanuatu has no individual 2024 data point in this dataset; the figure shown is the East Asia & Pacific regional average for 2024. It is not a costing of this specific recipe.
Who this dish suits
Fits well with
- High-fibre eating patterns — 11 g per serving from the roots alone
- Gatherings and shared meals cooked in bulk
- Diets built around root vegetables rather than grain
Worth knowing
- 535 kcal per serving, energy-dense from the roots and coconut milk together
- 14 g saturated fat, entirely from coconut milk, not added cooking fat
- Contains coconut; no dairy, egg, or gluten in the base recipe
- Requires an underground oven and several hours of unattended cooking
What about you?
In your opinion, what’s the best place or restaurant to try good lap lap?