Traditional Torres Strait Islander kaikai revolves around seafood (fish, crustaceans, shellfish), accompanied by garden starches (taro, yam, cooking banana), and bound with fresh coconut milk. There is no starter-main-dessert sequence: dishes are shared from the center, everyone serving themselves according to appetite. On festive days (tombstone opening, dance), an earth oven (kup mauri) slowly cooks meats and tubers wrapped in leaves. In town, in Townsville, this cuisine blended with Australian damper and market produce.

Freshly grated and hand-pressed coconut is the matrix of Torres Strait cuisine. It binds fish stews, coats taro, and permeates earth-oven preparations. On Mer Island, each family owned its coconut trees; the coconut also marked the boundary between gardens — at the very heart of Eddie Mabo's land claim.