As Chef Seeto finishes filming the highly anticipated new season of Taste of Paradise, he discovers there is one ancient fruit that is common across nearly every distant village he visits — breadfruit.
It is often an underrated and underutilised fruit in Fijian cuisine, but the humble breadfruit, or uto, deserves special recognition as an enduring reminder of humankind’s greatest seafaring journeys in the South Pacific.
Unlike coconuts, which can float across oceans to land and germinate on far distant islands, island explorers brought breadfruit by canoe and introduced it across the Pacific islands as far as Hawaii.
Thought to originate from present-day Papua New Guinea, breadfruit has been cultivated for over 3000 years, with Polynesians introducing breadfruit to Hawaii as a “canoe plant,” along with other plants including bananas, coconut, sweet potato and ginger.
But it was the latter European explorers who spread breadfruit to the Western world in the 18th century.
BRITISH DISCOVER BREADFRUIT
In 1769, Sir Joseph Banks sailed with Captain James Cook to Tahiti, and discovered the delights of breadfruit.
He recognised its potential as an abundant food crop that could cheaply feed enslaved laborers across the colonies, and proposed to King George III that a special expedition be commissioned to transport breadfruit plants from Tahiti to the Caribbean.
In 1787, the infamous William Bligh was appointed captain of the HMS Bounty and instructed by the Royal Crown to transport over 1000 breadfruit trees from Tahiti to the Caribbean to be used as a high-energy, nutritious food source for British slaves.
However, a month into that voyage, Bligh’s crew mutinied-expelling him from the ship in a longboat and throwing all the plants overboard. Bligh successfully navigated the small boat on a daring 47-day voyage to Timor without charts or a compass.
He recorded the distance as 3618 nautical miles, or 6701 km. The ambitious Captain eventually returned to Britain, and five years after the original voyage, commissioned a second trip aboard the HMS Providence.
CALLED BRESHAY IN JAMAICA
It was this journey that successfully introduced breadfruit to the West Indies.
There you can find some of the original trees, planted over 200 years ago in Jamaica, still producing fruit, with breadfruit an integral part of the Jamaican diet today.
Today, hundreds of varieties of breadfruit can be found in nearly 90 countries from the Pacific Islands, to Southeast Asia to the Caribbean and Central America.
Left untouched, a tree can grow to near 25 metres, and yield between 150-200 fruits each year. One hundred grams of fruit has 27 grams of carbohydrates, 70 grams of water, as well as vitamins, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and other minerals.
While the easily grown trees, with its distinctive large, cut leaves, flourished in the South Pacific, it took more than 40 years for the breadfruit to become popular in the Caribbean.
Now, every Jamaican household has at least one tree in its backyard and breadfruit or breshay is a staple of their diet; eaten at breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even as a snack.
It is baked, fried, boiled, roasted and even turned into a juice there.
Although it has limited recipes in Fiji, breadfruit can also be used to make chips, porridge, dumplings, salads, fritters, cakes, muffins and puddings from this almost year-round fruit; all the while being mostly oblivious to the story behind their introduction to the islands.
MYTHICAL ULU LEGEND IN HAWAI’I
Back in early Polynesian time, breadfruit, or ulu, had reached the Hawaiian islands around 500-750 AD, and over the centuries contributed quietly to just about everything the Hawaiians needed to survive.
The trunk was used to make surf boards, drums, canoe parts, poi boards and wood for house and furniture construction.
The inner bark lent itself as a second-grade tapa cloth. Leaf sheaths, like the finest of abrasives, polished utensils, bowls, or kukui nuts used for leis. The young buds were used as a preventative medicine for mouth and throat.
The white sticky sap that oozes from the ripened breadfruit became glue, caulking, chewing gum, or medicine. And of course breadfruit filled the stomach of many Hawaiian.
The legendary origin of such an invaluable plant was contributed by the war-god Kuka’ilimoku. During a time of famine, he buried himself in the ground to emerge again as a healthy breadfruit tree.
“Eat some, feed our kids,” he told his mortal wife and subsequently saved his family from starvation.
There is a saying in Hawaii: “Look for the oozing breadfruit” and do what the war-god’s wife did; marry someone who always makes sure you have breadfruit.”
* Lance Seeto is the multi-award winning executive chef based on Mana Island, and is Fiji Airways’ Culinary Ambassador and host of Fiji TV’s Taste of Paradise. Season 4 premieres August 30 on Fiji One TV.
