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Traditional Foods and Their Preparation
by Chad Baybayan
The land and sea
provided the Hawaiian with everything he needed to sustain himself.
His diet helped him maintain a healthy, disease-free body. Today, it
is our modern diet that produces many of the problems that ails
Hawaiians. A dietary reform back to a traditional diet is the cure
to some of the Native Hawaiian's health problems.
Preserving food was
essential to providing nourishment during a voyage. Drying and
fermenting were the two techniques used in food preservation. Fresh
foods were eaten at the start of the trip. Fishing along the way
also supplemented food the voyagers brought with them. The
Polynesians had to be excellent horticulturist also if they expected
to survive once they got to land.
Plants were transported as slips, cuttings,
tubers and seedlings.
The traditional diet
is everything the doctor ordered for a long trip--compact, light,
and nutritious. Here is what they brought:
Plant Food--'ulu
(breadfruit); niu (coconut, meat and drink); uhi (yam); 'uala (sweet
potato); mai'a (banana); kalo (taro); kukui (candlenut); ko (sugar
cane); hala (pandanus flour, paste)
Animal Food--i'a
(fish, dried and fresh); pua'a (pig); moa (chicken); 'ilio (dog)
Preparing Foods for
Voyaging by Paige Kawelo Barber, Moku Froiseth, and June Gutmanis
Pepeie'e 'Ulu
(Breadfruit and Coconut Cream)--Use the commercial variety of
coconut cream or make your own by grating ripe coconut meat. Cover
with warm water, let set, then squeeze through fine sieve. Liquid is
coconut cream. Thoroughly mash very ripe 'ulu, mix in a great deal
of coconut cream, wrap in ti leaves and cook thoroughly. Set oven at
350 degrees, bake until firm. Cool, slice and dry in sun so that a
hard oily film forms on the surface.
Kukui
(Candlenut)--Remove outer husk and roast in barbecue pit over medium
coals or in oven at 350 degrees for about one hour. Crack shell,
remove nut, mash, add rock salt. Use as a flavoring in raw fish
dishes. Oil of the nut serves as light fuel and body oil to prevent
sunburn.
Ki or Ti--Cut stalk
two to four feet long. About the time the stalk starts to sprout new
leaf buds, which will take about three months, cut the top of the
stalk off. Wrap in green ti leaves and cook. Use the lowest
temperature setting on your oven. Cook 24 hours. Dry.
Limu (Seaweed)--Clean
and wash well, set out to dry. Takes one to two days for drying.
Reconstitute with water when ready to eat. Sea water is acceptable.
Mai'a (Banana)--Select
firm-ripe mai'a with slight green tinge remaining on skin. Peel and
slice lengthwise into three or four strips. Arrange on drying rack;
turn once a day. Dries between four and fourteen days depending on
area; faster drying occurs in Makaha and slower drying in Manoa. Do
not be concerned with the change of color of the mai'a during the
process of drying. Mai'a is ready when consistency resembles dried
apples.
Ko (Sugar
Cane)--Select mature cane which has not begun to 'sprout;' cut at
base and bottom of leafy top. Wrap exposed ends to prevent cane from
drying out. Store in cool, dry place. Cut off bark and cut again in
stick-like pieces for eating.
Niu (Coconut)--Life
expectancy of fresh niu is quite good; the entire nut is useful as
food, drink, and fuel. The a a niu (coconut cloth) is not used to
wrap things. It substitutes for toilet paper; is not as rough when
wet.
'Ulu
(Breadfruit)--Select 'ulu which has reached the o o (mature) stage
of ripeness, picking those still on the tree. 'ulu has reached the
o'o stage when white sap appears on skin of fruit, and 'browning' of
the skin can be seen. Bake for one-and-a-half hours, or steam for
one hour. Let cool. Remove skin and seeds; mash into pulp. Spread on
sheet of wax paper; place similar length of wax paper over 'ulu
pulp. Using rolling pin or bottle, spread 'ulu out as you would when
preparing dough for pie. Remove top wax paper. Place 'ulu on lower
wax paper on drying rack; save the other piece of wax paper for
later. When surface of 'ulu dries, turn entire sheet of 'ulu onto
the first wax paper. Repeat until drying process is complete,
turning once a day. 'Ulu assumes a deep reddish brown color when
dried; takes four days in hot area to dry completely. Tuck in one
end of dried 'ulu, and roll as you would a jelly roll. Wrap in
plastic wrap.
Hapu'u or ama'uma'u
(Ferns)--Cook the butt ends of the fern stalk. Store when cool. The
Hawaiians considered ki and hapu'u to be famine foods. When food was
scarce, due to drought, these plants were eaten.
I'a
(Fish)--Immediately after catching, keep the fish cool and under
cover. As soon as possible after catching, cut and salt fish for
drying. Cut fish on one side of dorsal line through the head,
leaving the belly line intact. If fish are large, cut through bones
parallel to spinal column, and cut flesh to allow salt to penetrate.
Spread open the cut fish, remove gills, viscera, and the coagulated
blood along the spinal column and wash the cavity clean. Hawaiians
in the past rubbed the exposed flesh on both cut sections with the
blood. Slap the cut portion onto the salt which should be evenly
distributed over the exposed flesh. The skin section need not be
treated in this manner, as it will receive an adequate amount of
salt when the fish is stacked in the container. Place the fish in a
wide container with the salted portion down and stack in layers as
evenly as possible. The fish in each layer should be laid vertically
to those on the bottom layer. After all the fish have been salted,
place container under cover and allow to stand overnight. The next
morning wash salted fish thoroughly and soak in water for one or two
hours. During this period the water should be changed two or three
times. When salt can barely be tasted, fish is ready for drying.
'Uala (Sweet Potato)
and Uhi (Yam)--Rinse and cook, preferably by steaming. Test for
readiness by piercing with fork; do not overcook. Let stand to cool,
then slice into l / 2 inch pieces; arrange on drying rack, turning
once a day. Dries within three to four days.
He'e (Octopus)--Keep
freshly caught he'e cool and damp. Before drying, remove the ala ala
(ink bags) and salt them for drying (usually to be used for other
purposes although it is used as a flavoring ingredient when prepared
for raw consumption). Pound the he'e thoroughly with approximately
two handfuls of salt. Add more salt as it dissolves. Pound in an
up-and-down motion, grasping the central or head portion and
pounding it on the rest of the body and tentacles. After as much as
seven hundred strokes and intermittent washing, the whole he'e
becomes tender enough so that the flesh tears easily with a minimum
of effort. The process of pounding in salt serves two purposes: (1)
removing mucus and (2) tenderizing. After pounding and rinsing off
the extraneous matter, hang up the he'e to dry for three or more
days.
Kalo (Taro)--Wash and
cook thoroughly, preferably by boiling. Best to leave skin on while
cooking, removing skin as soon as kalo is cooked and cool enough to
handle. When dried after pounding, kalo is similar to hard-tack,
especially if rolled out into thin layers or sliced. To prepare
pa'i'ai, follow the above cooking instructions, wet board and
pounder lightly with water. With even strokes, begin mashing kalo
while still warm from cooking, producing a doughy mass. Lightly wet
board and pounder to prevent sticking. Be careful not to use too
much water; the less water the better. Be sure to mash thoroughly so
you have a smooth, heavy poi. Fermentation of pa'i'ai acts as a
preservative, as it does in regular poi. The process of fermentation
is much slower in pa'i'ai.
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