What is an underground earth oven meal called in Samoa?

The underground earth oven is an umu, although some websites indicate that the umu may be above ground as well. Traditionally, the oven was below ground because volcanic activity provided the means of heating.

There is no single traditional Samoan meal that would be cooked in an umu. Chicken, pork and various tropical vegetables are suitable for cooking in this way. However, the most likely name for a meal cooked in this way is toonai. The toonai is not a specific dish but the name given to a feast in which copious amounts of food are served up to the participants. Toonai literally means meal.

To complement such a feast there is usually plenty of music and dancing, known as fiafia.

I cannot provide a definitive source for this information as I have derived it a bit at a time from about twenty websites. If you use the Google search engine and input words like Samoa umu and toonai you can substantiate it yourself.

Yes you're correct, it is a Umu. It's an earth heated oven. We use it to cook foods such as Ulu, Taro, Banana, Fish, Pork, Chicken and some sort of Taro leaf to give it an extra taste.

An Umu is always made whenever there are
*Funerals
*Weddings
*Fiafia Nights(celebrations)
*Or just if you run out of food

so hope that explains it

According to my father (who is from Western Samoa) the above ground version is the Umu and the underground version is the Hangi (Which originated in New Zealand). An Umu is food cooked over heated stones from a fire pit. The food is then covered with banana leaves and basically roasted from the heat underneath.
The Hangi on the other hand is set in a hole, the hot rocks and embers and food are placed in, wet bags are also usually used to create steam, the food is placed in and covered over with a liberal layer of dirt and if you need to (If the pit is large) more hot rocks.
But well...