A pig set in a ground oven, or imu,
at lu'au at Magic Island, Honolulu
Photo by Carl Hefner, 1989
Virtual Festival
Lu'au foods
In ancient Hawai'i men and women ate separately, but today the lu'au is a celebration that brings together an entire family and community. The lu'au is a contemporary expression of a traditional Hawaiian feast set with food cooked in an earthen pit oven, the imu, covered with hot rocks and leaves This traditional form of cooking is found throughout Polynesia.
Foods at a lu'au are as varied as the people of Hawai'i. The word "lu'au" refers to the leafy tops of young taro plants cooked in coconut milk, as one dish at a traditional feast. A contemporary meal includes this and a variety of other Hawaiian foods. Try these recipes.
- laulau using kalua pig, pork cooked in the imu
- fish
- opihi, raw limpets
- haupia, coconut milk custard
- Hawaiian staple, poi, a pounded starch made from cooked taro root
A lu'au usually includes an array of other ethnic foods including
- char sui introduced by Chinese immigrants,
- sushi by Japanese,
- chicken adobo by Filipinos,
- macaroni salad by U.S. mainlanders
- lomi-lomi salmon, which can be traced back to whalers from the Pacific Northwest
You can find more lu'au recipes in Smithsonian Folklife Cookbook. by Katherine S. & Thomas Kirlin.
Washington DC: Smithsonian.
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29 April 1996