Clear Lake and Galveston Bay Area Travel Guide

Hawaiian Culture and Cuisine
By Chef Rus Records

ALOHA! For many Americans, Hawaii is one of their favorite family vacation destinations and our family finally succumbed to the allure of fragrant flowers, pounding surf, and green mountains spouting towering waterfalls. I had been to Hawaii only once, during the Vietnam era, and only to change military aircraft for the final leg into Saigon. I got a chance to leave the C-141 troop transport plane and go outside for about an hour in the middle of the night, and didn’t see anything, but I did smell the fragrance of the plumeria flowers. I vowed that someday I would return, and finally, 40 years later, was able to take Sandy and my two teenage boys, Ryan and Morgan, on a week-long vacation to Oahu. Other than the obvious chance to relax on the beach and learn to surf, our other important goal was to explore Hawaiian culture and its impact on cuisine. I found that not only did the Hawaiian culture permeate the cuisine, but it also has a profound impact on Hawaiian art, music, and religion.

Hawaii is the ultimate melting pot of international cultures. Over the last 2,000 years, there have been many migrations of various Polynesian groups to Hawaii. The first to come were the Marquesans and later, the Tahitians. Traveling over the sea long distances in large canoes, these groups brought a variety of new plants and animals to the islands for food, including dogs, pigs, bananas, coconuts, sugar cane, breadfruit, and the taro plant, which is the basis for “poi”. These foods were welcome supplements to the rather poor indigenous food supply of ferns, fruits, fish, seafood, and birds.

The newcomers brought their own societal rules. Hawaiian society was controlled by the “kapu” or sacred laws, which among other things dictated what foods could be eaten by men vs women, and people at different social classes. Pigs were reserved for male royalty and priests, as were certain kinds of seafood. Women were forbidden to eat bananas and coconuts. Kapu also forbade men and women from eating meals together. Kapu was finally overturned in 1819 by a revolt of royal women including the wife and mother in law of King Kamehamea II. Today, signs reading “Kapu” are meant to mark sacred places like temples or heiau. At the time of the overturning of Kapu, large ceremonial feasts were cooked by the men, and the women would eat lesser foods and were segregated from the men. These feasts were called Aha ‘ aina, but as new coed dining rules were implemented, they became known as lu ‘au, which is a chicken dish, wrapped in young taro leaves and baked in coconut milk, that was always served.

At the lu’au, large pieces of meat, such as fowl, pigs and dogs, would be typically cooked in earth ovens, or spitted over a fire during ceremonial feasts. Hawaiian earth ovens, known as imu, combine roasting and steaming in a method called kalua. A pit is dug into earth and lined with volcanic rocks and other rocks that do not split when heated to a high temperature, such as granite. A fire is built with embers, and when the rocks are glowing hot, the embers are removed and the foods wrapped in ti, which are ginger or banana leaves. The food is then put into the pit, covered with wet leaves, mats and a layer of earth. Water may be added through a bamboo tube to create steam. The intense heat from the hot rocks cooked food thoroughly — the quantity of food for several days could be cooked at once, taken out and eaten as needed, and the cover replaced to keep the remainder warm. Sweet potatoes, taro, breadfruit and other vegetables were cooked in the imu, as well as fish.

English seafarer Capt James Cook visited the islands in 1778, leaving King Kamehameha a gift of a ram goat, ewes, a boar, an English sow, and seeds for melons, pumpkins, and onions. In 1793, Capt George Vancouver (for which Vancouver, Canada is named) left a gift of longhorn cattle from California, which are still seen on the islands today and which introduced the local people to cattle ranching. Hawaii's king Kameahamea then invited Spanish vaqueros from Mexico and California to come teach Hawaiians their ways of maintaining the herds. The Hawaiians called the Spanish cowboys "Espaniolo". In time, Hawaiian cowboys became known as "Paniolo". Hence, beef arrived in the islands.

The pineapple was introduced to the islands in 1813 by a Spanish Botanist, Don Marin, and by the end of the century American immigrants had planted great sections of Oahu, Maui, and Lanai with pineapple. This required a large workforce to produce, so workers were brought in from China, Korea, Portugal, the Philippines, and Japan. Later migrations included Samoans, Puerto Ricans, and after the Viet Nam war, large population of Vietnamese. Each of these groups brought their own native methods of cooking which they applied to the wide array of available foodstuffs.

By the early 20th century, Japanese immigrants were the largest single ethnic group, today comprising 30 percent of the population. By comparison, disease introduced by immigration and contact with outsiders decimated the native Hawaiian population to only tens of thousands, and today only 2 percent of the Hawaiian population is native Hawaiian. There appears to be a very strong and growing Japanese flavor on Oahu, as evidenced by the many Japanese-owned business and properties such as the ubiquitous ABC convenience stores, which are literally on every street corner of Honolulu. Much of the food we enjoyed has been influenced by oriental influences, such as serving rice with many meals and the frequent use of soy sauce, neither of which was native to Hawaii. (But neither was the pineapple)

During our week on the island of Oahu, we were able to sample a number of these different ethnic foods, from roadside buttered garlic shrimp, to a rooftop lu’au complete with Hawaiian, Tongan, Samoan, and Maori dancers. We stayed on Waikiki beach in the Hilton Hawaiian Village Resort, which we chose because of its location on Waikiki and the many great restaurants on the property or nearby. (That, and using free Hilton points) The first night we ate at the Tropics Grill restaurant where we sampled the grilled Mahi with Jasmine rice. The most consistently good cuisine we found at the Japanese restaurant Hotsuhana where we really enjoyed the teppan beef and noodles, garlic chicken, and baked butter fish. No trip to Waikiki would be complete without a visit to Duke’s Canoe Club and Grill next to the Outrigger Waikiki hotel. At Duke’s, we had a very tasty grilled Mahi, which was rolled in parmesan cheese and dusted with ground macadamia nuts. Heavenly! Next day, we rented a Jeep and took a self-guided tour of the island starting with the 738 foot climb to the top of Diamond Head volcano. Great view of Honolulu from up there.

We then drove up to the North Shore, famed for 60 foot ocean waves and death-defying surfing during the winter, but in the summer, the waters were like a pond, great for snorkeling, fishing, and netting shrimp. While we were there, the big waves (8-10 foot) were coming from the south onto Waikiki beach, and the teenage boys learned surfing. At Leia, we stopped by one of the roadside mobile kitchen trucks, which were all selling the same eight fresh-farmed shrimp dishes, including butter garlic sautéed, teriyaki, and various tempuras. I bought a to-go butter garlic shrimp lunch, and we devoured it sitting in the Jeep. Yummy!

Returning to Waikiki, we bought tickets to the lu ‘au which was held on the roof of the Mid-Pacific Conference Center. The lu ‘au was a combination of a buffet dinner and a floor show, with a wide variety of salads, seafood, chicken, fish, and pork, and with Polynesian entertainers and fire dancers. We all sampled the poi, which we decided looked like purple goo and tasted like wallpaper paste. Poi had great significance in the Hawaiian culture, as it represents Haloa, the ancestor of chiefs and kanaka maoli (Native Hawaiians). There was a great reverence for the presence of poi at the table. It was unforgivable to have a quarrel, argue or haggle when poi was on the table. Pleasant conversation and heartiness was promoted. Maybe that was reason enough to serve it at every meal.

Another popular Hawaiian dish at the lu’au was the “poke”, made of marinated fish with herbs, kind of a sashimi salad. Poke is one of those dishes that has many local and regional variations depending on the ethnicity of the cook. It may be marinated in soy or sesame oil, and have hot spices or not, or sliced onions or scallions, or not, depending on who made it.

The highlight of the lu ‘au entertainment was the Maori warriors “Haka” which is a group dance that warriors would do for special events, or when challenged by another war or hunting party they might encounter. The leader (called the Hairy Man) would issue the challenges and insults to the other warrior band to gain favor with the gods, and to intimidate the opposition into withdrawing or being defeated in battle. The Haka is used by the New Zealand soccer team “All Blacks” and the University of Hawaii football team the “Warriors” in pre-game spirit activities. The haka performed at the lu’au was the "Ka Mate", attributed to the Ngati Toa tribe. The "Ka Mate" haka is classified as a haka taparahi – a ceremonial hakal and may be interpreted as a celebration of the triumph of life over death. Speaking of triumph, the Ngati Toa tribe sued the All Blacks over the use of the “Ka Mate” haka to promote their soccer games and received a multi-million dollar settlement.

Despite the great variety of foods we enjoyed, much of the food products are shipped into Hawaii from all over the globe. Only 15 percent of the food consumed is produced locally. Consistent with global trends in food production and consumption, there is an emerging Hawaiian consensus on the value of initiatives to “grow local, buy local, and eat local." Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle has initiated a number of programs to make Hawaiian agriculture more sustainable and more locally focused .

There are many reasons to visit the Hawaiian Islands, and the food is one very good reason. Good food and celebration are an integral element to the Hawaiian culture, and these are even more enjoyable in the breathtaking beauty of the Hawaiian Islands.
            

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