Our amazing food tour of Moorea was 5 months ago, so I am piecing this together by reading TripAdvisor reviews to supplement my memory. I read about and reserved the food tour before we left. It had nothing but 5 star reviews, sounded amazing, and it did not disappoint. The guy who does the tour is named Heimata. He is a native of Moorea and a trained chef. Someone said on TripAdvisor that he was the chef for the 2024 Women’s Surfing team, which he didn’t mention to us, but is pretty cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heimata picked us and two other couples up at the Sofitel at 8:30 am, picked up another couple at their hotel, and then drove us to the ferry terminal. I had read about this first stop where there is a fruit stand so I thought I knew exactly what was next, but then he told us we were going to take the ferry to Papeete. I was a little disappointed, but knew we were in good hands. He said we could leave all our stuff in the van because he would drive the van onto the ferry. We all got out of the van and walked a couple feet away to a table where two women were selling various food items. Heimata explained to us that the food in French Polynesia is a combination of French, Polynesian, and Chinese cuisines. In March of 1865, 337 men from Hong Kong were brought to the islands to work as low-wage laborers. (I know little of the history, and the last sentence comes from AI. I’m not sure what “brought to” means. In my quick Google search I don’t see anything about Chinese slave labor in French Polynesia, but I do see that in the 19th century European colonists kidnapped and enslaved people from many places, including French Polynesia – https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Blackbirding<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first thing Heimata purchased at the fruit stand was crunchy mangos dusted with plum powder – the plum powder is the Chinese influence. I didn’t know that there are mangos that are meant to be crunchy. I always thought crunchy = unripe. The plum powder is a very dark red and it is divine sprinkled on the mangos. We all took one or two pieces and our hands were immediately dyed red. We also tried some fresh pineapple. He bought some banana fritters but didn’t hand them out to us. Mary and I purchased some pineapple and some breadfruit chips and maybe some banana bread to eat later. (They were divine.) We paid in the few American dollars we had but didn’t have quite enough so Heimata lent us some money because we would be near an ATM later in the tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We got back in the van and Heimata started up the van and drove out of the ferry terminal parking lot. At first I thought the automobile entrance to the ferry must be located further up, but he kept driving. We all sat in silent confusion and after a little while he said, “Did you notice we’re not getting on the ferry? I was just kidding. People read about the tour ahead of time and I don’t want you all to think you know what’s going to happen.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our next stop was an overlook on the side of the highway directly above (way above) the Sofitel. The view was fabulous. There we had the banana fritters, which were good, but nothing I would fly nearly 5000 miles for – not like the mango and chips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I can’t remember the order of the stops, but I think the next stop was a Chinese restaurant. One of the specialties there is Chow Mein sandwiches and that is exactly what it sounds like – chow mein in a very fresh baguette. It wasn’t at all healthy ( and probably contributed to the FOUR pounds I gained on vacation) but it was delicious. I think I remember Heimata saying that in Tahiti they make sandwiches out of all sorts of things – like a pasta sandwich. This is because bread is very cheap and subsidized by the government. Every morning all the stores get fresh deliveries of these huge baguettes and they cost something like 50 or 60 cents. Once I heard that I was determined to go buy a baguette. (More on that in my next post.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe our next stop was this little restaurant where we were served two types of poisson cru (raw fish marinated in citrus juice and coconut milk) and some sort of beef dish. The poisson cru looks disgusting. Mary and I were both very very afraid of it, but also brave. It was SO DELICIOUS! The fish just melted in my mouth and it was seasoned perfectly. I don’t know why we never had it again on our visit because we both loved it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Prior to entering this restaurant we had found an ATM but it was broken so we were still without cash. Once in the restaurant, Mary’s headache came on and she needed coffee. (She has a spinal fluid leak that goes away when she lies down but comes on very strong after she has been upright for more than an hour or so.) Heimata said, “Do you want me to buy you a cup of coffee?” and Mary said no and I said, “Yes, can you please get her a cup of coffee and we will owe you?” All this is just to say what a great tour guide Heimata is. He also gave us tons of cultural information and history throughout the tour – and drove us past his elementary school!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think we had dessert at two different places, but I only remember the second place, where he said we could choose anything we wanted on the menu. I believe Mary and I chose lava cake to share. They asked if we wanted ice cream and of course we said yes. The ice cream was so delicious – kind of coconut, kind of vanilla – and I spent the rest of our vacation trying and failing to get an ice cream that good. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I think we also went to a second restaurant that I can’t remember. Our last stop was the Manutea Rum factory where we all stood at a bar in the back of the room and a drill sergeant-like bartender poured us glass after glass of different rums, alcoholic drinks, and fruit drinks. They were all delicious but the pours came so fast I basically had to gulp each one down, and if I asked her a question, like, “What is this that we’re drinking?” she ignored me and also skipped giving me whatever she was pouring. Among each other, we mostly figured it out though and Mary and I bought a carton of something called “Tahiti Drink L’Original”. It came in a quart milk carton. It had some sort of alcohol in it and was delicious – full of sugar I’m sure, though we never really knew what was in it. We just enjoyed it for the rest of our trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At some point we finally managed to find a working ATM and we paid Heimata back plus a hefty tip. This food tour was worth every dollar (I think we paid about $120 per person) and if we ever go back to Moorea I hope we can do it again. Heimata’s web site is here: https:\/\/tahitifoodtour.com\/<\/a>. We booked through Viator because they offered free cancellations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There was a couple from Eugene on the tour (small world) and they said they take a food tour everywhere they go and have never been disappointed. I would like to start doing that also. <\/p>\n