Popondetta, the provincial capital of Oro Province, sits in a lush river delta where the kitchen is shaped by the land and sea in equal measure. The staple here is sago, worked into flat cakes or stirred into soups with smoky fish pulled fresh from the Kumusi River. Taro, sweet potato, and banana fill out most meals, and everything is cooked with a directness that lets the ingredients speak — coconut milk softening the edges, chili lifting the whole thing alive.

The Popondetta market is your best first stop, and go early. Vendors arrive at dawn with bilums heavy with garden produce, smoked bush meats, and still-wriggling freshwater prawns. Local women sell pots of pork cooked in coconut cream alongside banana-leaf parcels of rice steamed with turmeric and forest greens. Grilled corn on charcoal braziers costs next to nothing and tastes like a proper reason to travel. It's communal, noisy, and completely unpretentious — the real dining room of the city.

For something with four walls and a roof, the guesthouses and small trade-store canteens along Oro Bay Road serve reliable plates of rice, tinned fish stews, and slow-cooked chicken that locals eat for lunch every day without complaint. The Lamington Hotel dining room has long been a default for visitors wanting a hot meal in comfortable surrounds. Don't overlook the church-run guesthouses either — their breakfasts of fresh pawpaw, boiled eggs, and sweet tea made on an open flame are a genuinely lovely way to start a morning in Popondetta.