Papua New Guinea is a small island country in the pacific, located in the north of Australia. It is made up of 22 different provinces with 800 different languages. The country is divided into 4 main regions, Southern region, Momase region, Niuguinea Island region and the Highlands region. The country gained its independence in 1975 after being under the Australian government.
Among the four regions of Papua New Guinea, the highlands region is unique and rich in minerals, cash crops and food. The highlands people are unique and they have their unique ways of doing things. Having that been said, these people stay united by strengthening their relationships through gatherings and sharing food.
Food preparation in the highlands is different from the other three regions. Up in the highlands, the highlanders the main method of food preparation is mumu. Mumu Is the main traditional way of preparing food. It's a cooking method where food is cooked with hot stones in a pit. Bellow is the procedure of how the mumu is done.
1. Firstly, a pit huge enough to cater for all the food is dug.
2. Fire is made inside the pit, a brace is built with dry woods and round river stoned are placed on it for burning.
3. After the stone are burnt, some of the stones are kept aside and covered with burning charcoals to ensure that the stone doesn't lose its heat.
4. The pit is cleared while leaving the remaining hot stones at the bottom of the pit with charcoals.
5. Banana leaves are used to cover the hot stones.
6. Food is placed on top of the Banana leaves and some stones covered with leaves are placed among the proteins and starch.
7. After all the food is placed in the pit with hot stones. Banana leaves are then used to cover the pit.
8. After the pit is carefully covered with the leaves, soil remains are then used to cover the whole things throughly ensuring no steam to escape.
9. After all is done, set a timmer and wait for about 1 hour.
10. After an hour, carefully remove the soil on top, remove the leaves and reach the food that was cooked and ready to eat.
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