I recently attended the Baby Luau of a friend’s first grandson. What is a Baby Luau you ask?
It’s an island tradition to throw a party on the first birthday of a child
which initially started within the Hawaiian community. Back in the day when
childhood mortality wasn’t an uncommon occurrence, reaching the 1st
year was a cause for celebration as from that point on, the infant had a
greater chance of surviving to adulthood. This was especially true in the
Hawaiian Islands where contact with the Western settlers often lead to mumps,
measles and typhoid fever that the kanaka
maoli had no immunity to and being infected with those common Western
diseases often meant death to the infected. And since infants rarely develop
immunity to any type of infection, they often suffered the greatest consequences.
So reaching one year of age was indeed a great accomplishment worthy of an
equally great celebration!
Of course in this day and age with the inevitable
intertwining of cultural traditions, it’s not uncommon for all ethnicities in
the 50th to celebrate that first birthday. And with it comes that
traditional Hawaiian feast known as the Luau complete with traditional Hawaiian
delicacies though once again, the melding of ethnicities and traditions in
modern Hawaii means you see a vast array of foods at your usual Baby Luau.
The Traditional Luau
I know the first image that pops into your head is that
vision of a whole pig cooked in the ground that you either saw on The Travel
Channel or The Food Network. Well, slow cooking a whole hog in that underground
oven or imu is a reality and is still
based on the traditional method of making that succulent pork dish known as kalua pig. Simply put, a raging fire is
first created then large smooth basalt stones are heated on said fire then a
whole splayed hog is simply seasoned with Hawaiian salt (usually air dried
coarse sea salt) and is first placed in a chicken wire cage lest any fallin’ off
the bone morsels get lost in transport (but obviously not traditional in old
pre-colonial Hawaii) then placed on split banana tree stalks layered over those
blistering hot stones. To facilitate cooking, some of those incendiary stones
are also placed in the cavity of the hog then additional banana tree stalks and
leaves are then layered over the splayed hog and the whole porky party is
covered with burlap (again not really traditional before Hawaii was annexed),
sprayed with water and buried with sand to semi steam, semi smoke said hog for
about half a day. The resulting succulent porky flesh rivals anything Memphis
in May creates and is true to the authentic Hawaiian luau.
Another traditional dish is known as Squid Luau though
the “squid” is usually its related cephalopod, the octopus (tako in Japan) or he’e in Hawaiian which are abundant in Hawaiian waters. Cooked low
and slow with chopped taro or luau
leaves (kalo in Hawaiian) with salt
and coconut milk, the resultant “stew” is rich, salty and satisfying at the
same time.
And tying both the pork and luau leaves together is another traditional self-contained meal in
itself, the lau-lau or salted coarse
chopped pork wrapped in luau leaves
then ti leaves and steamed for
several hours that creates a melt-in-the-mouth tender pork with slightly
astringent greens akin to cooked spinach that pairs best with that most
maligned Hawaiian starch, poi.
Taro or kalo
was the lifeblood of the Hawaiian community providing the early Hawaiians not
just with food but a spiritual metaphor of the continuity of life itself. The
water that kalo was cultivated in
provided a steady source of water and provided another source of sustainment
with the crustaceans and fish that lived in these ponds. The corms or main
“root” was the main source of poi
while the stalks gave life to future generations of kalo and the leaves providing the “greens” in lau-lau and squid luau.
The little baby corms or keiki that
sprouted off of the main root provided the metaphysical connection that just
like humankind, keiki came from the
creator. And for those who still think poi
is simply like eating wallpaper paste, I dare you to sample poi in the context of the whole meal.
Since refrigeration was almost non-existent in early Hawaii, food preservation
was accomplished by liberal doses of salt. The neutral taste of poi IS the perfect foil for heavier
salted dishes like those found in the 50th.
And if that isn’t enough evidence for you, poi is very hypo-allergenic. Kinda like
the Labradoodle of foods. Children with a vast array of food allergies can
usually tolerate poi without any
adverse consequences. In fact this very writer was just a couple of ounces away
from life in the incubator post-partum and as a result of my minuscule birth
size, couldn’t feed as robustly as normal newborns. So much so that Mom
consulted non-traditional medical providers to increase my mass and poi was
suggested as the supplement. Well, it increased my mass so much so that I was
almost granted immediate entry into the Makuuchi division of the sumo federation!
And finally, no self-respecting family throws a Baby Luau without some type of traditional
raw or cooked seafood whether it’s Ahi
Poke (raw cubed tuna mixed with seaweed, onions, green onions and salt),
Crab Poke (split crab served raw
spiced with the same seasonings as other Poke),
Tako Poke (boiled sliced seasoned
octopus), Opihi (limpets or small
abalone-like shellfish) or all of the above. And if you visit the 50th
and order some of these delicacies, it’s pronounced po-keh, not po-key. Po-key
is Gumbo’s orange buddy.
The Modern Luau
Along with the usual traditional fare, you’ll also find lomi-lomi salmon at most Baby Luaus. While many lifelong residents of the 50th will tell you lomi-lomi salmon is a traditional Hawaiian dish, its ingredients suggest otherwise. For example, the namesake salmon or salted salmon used in the dish isn’t even found anywhere near Hawaiian waters. My guess is that Western sailors carried it like salted cod or bacalao due to its almost infinite shelf life especially in hot, temperate climates. The remaining vegetable matter found in lomi-lomi salmon probably arrived with Western settlers since tomatoes, round onions and green onions aren’t endemic to the 50th. My educated guess is that they were propagated by the Johnny Appleseed of early Hawaii, Francisco de Paula Marín who hailed from the Andalusian region of Spain and became one of Kamehameha I confidants and is credited with most of the non-endemic flora, especially fruit trees now found in Hawaii.
You’ll also find Chicken Long Rice at most luaus and while our fowl friends may
have traveled with the earliest settlers of the Hawaiian Islands, I’m
definitely certain that long rice wasn’t on that journey. In fact I’m pretty
certain that long rice came over with the original Asian settlers of Hawaii,
the Chinese. Along with the ginger and maybe even the green onion that’s found
in chicken long rice.
And at Captain P’s first birthday, there was the classic Shoyu Chicken which more than likely is
from the Motherland since it’s usually simmered in shoyu… unless it’s spiced with star anise which means it’s Chinese…
or balanced with vinegar then it might be Filipino. But then again, that really
is Hawaii. A perfect blending of cultures and ethnicities and like the
traditional dishes, the people make it one big melting pot.
So hauoli la hanau (happy birthday) Captain P! Hope you had a great first birthday and wishing you many, many, many more!
Update on Walking
the Walk
I started the journey by averaging my weight and body fat
over the last several days of 2013. I was approximately 146.4 pounds and 19.4%
of that was body fat. The goal wasn’t as much to lose weight as it was to
reduce body fat. Currently I’m about 1 pound less and my body fat is about
19.2% but for all intents and purposes, nothing has really changed. Though I
have been making an effort to reduce my dinner portions, since my last column
we have lost a pharmacist at work so to assist with the workload, all
pharmacists were asked to do an extra hour of overtime every day. Which means
less exercise time (yes, I know I’m making excuses again) and just last week
Safeway brought back my favorite potato chips, Cape Cod Reduced Fat which
hasn’t been seen in the islands for several years. I guess I’ve been purchasing
(and consuming) my fair share (less Safeway discontinues the line again). I
know, another excuse. Though I will focus on getting that additional regimen
re-started…
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