Tongan faikakai topai

SDDated text Family F · British suet/flour

Drag to turn · tap to squish

Region: Pacific Islands
First record: 1817 · Empires & migration
Fold: Ball
Cooked: Boiled, then coated in coconut-caramel syrup

Wrapper: Wheat or bread doughUnfilled or filled; sweet
Filling: Flour dough, sometimes filled with coconut, banana or breadfruit
Cooked: Boiled, then coated in coconut-caramel syrup
Served: Family and festive occasions
Size: About 6 cm across
Note: A borderline case: it stretches the definition of a dumpling.

Not known yet We don’t yet have a photo we can use, a written story, a recipe or a precise place of origin for Tongan faikakai topai. What we do have is below, with its sources.

Where

Open the map →

From Tonga.

Evidence

Fairly sure. A dated text records it by 1817.

We list 2 sources: 1 primary or archaeological, 1 dated text. How grading works.

First record Mariner/Martin 1817: "Fy'caky lolo tootoo", beaten breadfruit in coconut sauce (D); first found, the breadfruit form, flour topai still undated

Sources

A
An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands, in the South Pacific Ocean ... compiled and arranged from the extensive communications of Mr. William Mariner, vol. II, p. 285 (London: John Murray, 1817)
Archaeological or primary source · John Martin (from William Mariner); Internet Archive scan, OCR text read · 1817
List of the principal Tongan 'made dishes' includes 'Fy'caky lolo tootoo; bread-fruit beaten up and cut into small pieces: it is eaten with a preparation of cocoa-nut, and the juice either of the chi or sugar-cane: it…
List of the principal Tongan 'made dishes' includes 'Fy'caky lolo tootoo; bread-fruit beaten up and cut into small pieces: it is eaten with a preparation of cocoa-nut, and the juice either of the chi or sugar-cane: it very much resembles, in appearance and taste, batter pudding, with melted butter and sugar', and 'Fy'caky lolo matta; same as the above, eaten with the expressed juice of the cocoa-nut'. Mariner lived in Tonga 1806-1810.
D
POLLEX-Online, protoform FAI-KAI
Dated text · Greenhill & Clark, POLLEX-Online · 1827 (edition cited); 1959
POLLEX entry FAI-KAI 'food cooked with coconut cream': Tongan 'fýcaký lolo tootoo, fýcaký lolo matta', 'names of particular preparations of food' (cited to Martin's 1827 edition); Tongan 'faikakai', 'native puddings of…
POLLEX entry FAI-KAI 'food cooked with coconut cream': Tongan 'fýcaký lolo tootoo, fýcaký lolo matta', 'names of particular preparations of food' (cited to Martin's 1827 edition); Tongan 'faikakai', 'native puddings of various kinds' (Churchward 1959). Cognates in East Futuna, East Uvea, Samoan, Marquesan, Niuean.

Family F

Kin

More british suet/flour