Gastronomic links with Southeast Asia have been further strengthened with the settlement of Chinese and other Asian communities in the Pacific over the last 150 years. While national boundaries have become more distinct and barriers to food transfers have been erected in the form of import and agricultural regulations, rice and other oriental food habits have established a pervasive presence in Pacific households, whether in rural Samoa, an outlying island of Yap or metropolitan communities. Rice has been added to the food inventory as the centrepiece of many household foodscapes; rice is the hallmark of a transnational food.

Rice gained popularity in the Pacific after World War II as a cheap food, particularly for low-income urban communities. It can be served like the earlier starches, i.e. with a small accompanying dish such as grated coconut. It can be bought in bulk, stores readily, cooks reasonably quickly, fills and satisfies hungry adults and children, and thus is an ideal food for households on a small income.

Rice has its own gastronomic associations. It must be boiled and thus requires a special kind of fire, and a pot that will hold enough to feed large households. Boiling is women’s work. Cooking it requires experience that female children learn early. Rice with warm sweet tea is the weaning food on outer islands of the Marshall Islands. Rice has not been acceptable as a feast food, except in Guam. It is an important aid food during environmental disasters as well as financial downturns. Rice has become important to island food security in the face of food shortages for both household and national economies (Pollock 2002).

Rice comprises a major proportion in both volume and cost of Pacific food imports, whether from the Philippines, Australia or the US (e.g. Tonga Trade statistics 2004). Attempts to reduce this dependency on imported rice have largely failed in the face of strong demand. Most urban centres in the Pacific have at least one Chinese takeaway shop that has contributed to a gastronomic profile based on rice. Chinese restaurants and takeaway food outlets, established in island urban centres, along with Indian curry houses, and Thai and other Asian-style eating places, offer different tastes in food. Some dishes, such as Samoan chop suey may be served at home, or during feasts, with recipes adapted to local tastebuds. Market gardens established by Chinese families in Tahiti and elsewhere have contributed fresh vegetables not formerly used in Pacific cuisine. Chinese food use is not necessarily associated with any particular aspect of oriental ideology; the foods have been adapted to blend with a Pacific foodscape.

While takeaway foods have become a global phenomenon, the small Asian restaurants provide a marked contrast to American corporate fast-food enterprises such as KFC and McDonalds. Asian restaurants reflect a change in attitudes to Asian immigrants and rely largely on their own family labour (for US examples, see Mintz 2006, 18). In 1993, Chinese migrant families moved to Nauru to establish 83 small businesses attached to Nauruan houses to cater for the fast-food needs of the media and other followers of the South Pacific Forum meetings held that year on Nauru. Many had to return to China after the Forum, but a few stayed to join the Chinese community on Nauru to sell cooked rice to Nauruans. Chinese takeaway restaurants offer similar/familiar dishes and tend to be cheaper than McDonalds, fried chicken and other fast foods that derive from a western influence. Both forms of fast foods have gained appeal among Pacific communities, whether in Suva or Auckland.

Japanese and Indian influences on gastronomy have not been as pervasive across the Pacific, despite their strong presence in the region. Nauruans recall being paid a match box of rice per day during the 1943–45 Japanese occupation of the island. Few Japanese or Indian restaurants have been established in urban centres, with the exceptions of Honolulu and Suva. Soy sauce and curry powder are two ubiquitous links to Asian gastronomies.

Oriental influences on Pacific gastronomies have been enduring as well as expanding. They extend beyond foodstuffs to the prevalence of the starch component, simple cooking styles, an emphasis on sharing with relatives and the community, respect for food, and its importance in spiritual rather than material wellbeing. A monetary economy supports Asian-style takeaway foods and restaurants, as well as supermarket offerings, and Chinese gardeners’ produce. All reinforce Asian influences on today’s Pacific gastronomies.