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Saturday, February 5, 2011

Poi It's Not A Condiment, It Is Food For Life

Diagram Picture of Taro plant from http://www.bishopmuseium.org/

Poi is not a condiment, it's a staple in Hawaiian survival, the bulb or root section is utilized, and a technique used to mash it up into a pulp, and eventually into a smooth paste like texture is called pounding poi.

The leaves are used for lau lau, which is a steamed mixture of beef, pork, chicken, and butter fish, or cod. Not all of these ingredient are in it at one time, but a combination of two or three at times. The meats are wrapped in the taro leaves (luau leaves), and then wrapped with ti leaves, and tied at the top, and is either steamed in a steamer, or cooked underground in an imu.


So when you visit Hawaii, and you visit a local dig, and you see this on their menu board: Special Today Hawaiian Plate. Usually you'll have 2 scoops of rice, 1 scoop of macaroni salad, and one lau lau, and some kalua pork. And a small dish of poi made from taro is also served, and maybe a small container of lomi salmon.


Below a Hawaiian Plate from http://www.tripadvisor.com/







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