Umu

Umu is a Samoan earth oven cooking technique, closely related to other earth ovens such as the Hawaiian imu, but built above ground rather than dug into a pit. Rocks are heated over a fire, then stacked around food that has been wrapped in banana leaves or, in modern practice, aluminum foil, after which vegetation is layered over the whole assembly and the food is left to cook for several hours. An umu structure is typically sheltered by a roof but left without walls, so smoke can escape freely. It remains a common everyday method of preparing roasted food in Samoa, although Western-style ovens have reduced how often it is used day to day, and its labor-intensive nature keeps it especially important for communal cooking of tuber crops and for special occasions.