In old Hawaii a luau meant a lavish food extravaganza to honor royalty, foreign dignitaries, powerful chieftains, or hundreds of guests at important weddings, christenings or birthdays. Each guest is customarily greeted with leis of flowers or kukui nuts. Much preparation is required for these often three-day parties. Guests eat a bit, danced a bit, drank a little and sang a lot. A luau is the true experience of "aloha".

Today the luau is a major visitor attraction and dozens are held daily throughout the islands. Needless to say, some preparations have been streamlined, although the traditional roast pig and other authentic delectables are still served.

 

Luau

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Dancers and musicians at a commercial luau

A luau (in Hawaiian, lū‘au) is a Hawaiian feast. It may feature food, such as poi, kalua pig, poke, lomi salmon, opihi, haupia, and beer; and entertainment, such as Hawaiian music and hula. Among people from Hawaii, the concepts of "luau" and "party" are often blended, resulting in graduation luaus, wedding luaus, and birthday luaus. When a baby reaches 12 months of age, the occasion may be celebrated with a "baby luau".

Contents 1 Etymology and history 2 Common luau foods

 Etymology and history

According to Pukui & Elbert (1986:214), the name "luau" goes back "at least to 1856, when so used by the Pacific Commercial Advertiser." Earlier, such a feast was called a "paina" (pā‘ina) or ahaaina (‘aha‘aina). The newer name comes from that of a food always served at a luau: young taro tops baked with coconut milk and chicken or octopus.

 Common luau foods

• Poi. "[T]he Hawaiian staff of life, made from cooked taro corms, or rarely breadfruit, pounded and thinned with water" (Pukui & Elbert 1986:337). It can be thick or thin, and can be new and sweet, or old and tangy (fermented). Hawaiians also had poi mai‘a "[m]ashed ripe bananas and water" before 1778, and thereafter, poi palaoa "[f]lour poi, made by stirring flour in hot water, eaten alone or mixed with taro poi". Breadfruit poi is called poi ‘ulu. Another of the various pois is poi ‘uala, or pa‘i ‘uala, "[c]ooked and compressed sweet potatoes allowed to ferment slightly and used as a substitute for poi when poi was scarce" (Pukui & Elbert 1986:303, 337). Mashing is a common characteristic of Hawaiian food preparation.
• Poke. The traditional Hawaiian poke was raw fish, gutted and sliced across the backbone. The slices still had skin and bones, which were spit out after all the flesh had been eaten. Poke was eaten with condiments such as salt, seaweed, and crushed roasted kukui nuts (inamona). Modern poke is made with skinned, deboned, and carefully filleted fish, and takes a variety of dressings and condiments. Poke means "slice" in Hawaiian (Pukui & Elbert 1986:337).
• Lomilomi salmon. Raw salmon "worked with the fingers and mixed with onions and seasoned" (Pukui & Elbert 1986:212). Lomi means "mash".
• Laulau. "Packages of ti leaves or banana leaves containing pork, beef, salted fish, or taro tops, baked in the ground oven, steamed or broiled" (Pukui & Elbert 1986:196).
• Kalua pig. Pork cooked in a pit oven (imu). A whole dressed pig (pua‘a) is salted, wrapped, lowered into the ground oven, and covered. Kālua is the earth-oven cooking method (Pukui & Elbert 1986:123).
• Opihi (‘opihi). Raw limpet meat. Three species are called koele (kō‘ele), alinalina (‘ālinalina), and makaiauli (makaiauli) (Pukui & Elbert 1986:292).
• Chicken long rice. Bean noodles, boiled and served hot with pieces of chicken.
• Rice.
• Haupia (haupia). Coconut-arrowroot pudding. Cornstarch is substituted for the arrowroot (Pukui & Elbert 1986:62).
• Kulolo (kūlolo). Coconut-taro pudding (Pukui & Elbert 1986:181).

At modern luaus, drinks may include beer, soda, juice, etc. Many 19th century public luaus would have been "teetotal". At the lavish private luaus hosted by 19th century figures like the genial King Kalakaua, imported wine and hard liquor were prominent items on the menu.

Hawaiian feasts before 1778 would have featured pig, chicken, dog, seafood, bananas, coconuts, sweet potatoes, and taro. None of those, except seafood, were indigenous to the Hawaiian islands, but were introduced by Polynesian settlers. Many of the foods now considered "traditional" at luaus were introduced by Europeans, Americans, or Asians. Dog meat is no longer eaten (legally) in the islands.

Before the breaking of the kapus in 1819 (the ‘Ai Noa), Hawaiian men and women ate separately, and certain foods, such as pig and most species of bananas, were forbidden to women.