As a result of attending a traditional Hawaiian Luau at Christmas I found it appropriate to tell you some interesting facts about the Hawaiian cuisine.

There are only about 1000 pure Hawaiian people left in the world so island residents try to maintain the island culture and its foodways. One of the most important national Hawaiian dishes is poi, a sticky food made from the taro root. It is considered a traditional Hawaiian food because it was already eaten before Hawaii was influenced by the Western world. When the first native settlers arrived they fished, raised taro for poi and planted lots of fruits like coconuts, pineapples and many more. For centuries taro was a main part of their diet and it is still much loved today.

Taro is a well respected plant and also another dish can be made from the leaves: laulau. Being wrapped in layers of taro leaves and cooked in a rock oven for hours, pork is usually added. Nowadays you also easily find fish or chicken laulau in Hawaii.

Another popular luau dish is “Lomi Lomi Salmon”, named for the Hawaiian words for rub, massage or knead. It is a fresh tomato and salmon salad which is always served cold. Traditionally, they rub salt onto the salmon and afterwards everything is massaged together with their hands.

An old friend of mine who lives in Big Island, Hawaii, told me that her favourite Hawaiian dish is poke: freshly caught fish or seafood like octopus that is cut into small pieces, so basically it is a simple seafood salad. The locals often mix it with tomatoes, green onion, soy sauce, sea salt or chili pepper. Sometimes it’s hard to decide which one to order – I loved the island-style tako poke that can be seen on the picture.

Noting that Hawaii imports most of its food, the production of the dishes mentioned above could not only make life on the islands more sustainable, it could also create lots o f new jobs.