The Wonderful Tisa!

Tisa!

Mostly every Wednesday night Tisa's Barefoot Bar prepares an umu full of traditional Samoan foods.  An umu is a traditional way of cooking, some say it's the Samoan oven.  Hot rocks are heated to a high heat and then the food (wrapped in banana leaves or alumnium foil these days) are placed on the rocks.  Once all of the food is on the rocks (chicken, pork, lamb, fish, taro, breadfruit etc.) then it's covered with leaves and left to cook for a few hours.  When it's finally uncovered a great smelling culinary feast awaits.

The umu is a great cultural experience for visitors coming to the island and Tisa's Barefoot Bar does a great job. We had a visitor coming on island and friends also had some visitors so we were keen to take them out to Tisa's for the umu experience.  I had made a booking on Sunday and called to confirm on Monday - however I had a sneaking suspicion that these hadn't been written down or added to the list.  We arrived Wednesday and it was crowded, no it was packed.  We then found out we had not made a reservation - hmmm.

To cut a story short, it turned out fine.  Tisa did a wonderful job!  She assured us it would be fine, there would be plenty of food and she'd rustle up a table. Then she went on her way ukulele in hand and singing.