Among the ocean peoples, there is neither starter nor dessert: they share the kai (food) around the umu — called hāngi by the Māori —, an oven dug into the earth where fire-heated stones cook roots, fish and birds wrapped in leaves together. The meal is organized around a staple starch (taro, kūmara, fern root) accompanied by what the sea or forest has provided. Sweet dishes (cooked tī root) and travel foods are prepared separately, for long waka voyages. Eating is honoring Tangaroa (the sea) and the ancestors as much as nourishing oneself.

The master technique of all Polynesia: white-hot stones in a pit, food placed on top on leaves, everything covered with earth to steam-cook for hours. For Māui, it is a sacred gesture: without the fire he wrested from the goddess Mahuika, humans would never have been able to heat these stones nor cook their kai.