Luau – Experiencing the food and culture of the Hawaiian Islands

A visit to the Hawaiian Islands is not complete without experiencing a luau. Luau a Hawaiian feast featuring lively music and vibrant cultural performances from Hawaii and greater Polynesia.

Even though Hawaii is part of the United States, it has a very distinct cultural heritage that distinguishes it from other states. To enjoy this wonderful culture, we went to Luau one evening. After lots of research we picked Chief’s Luau and it was a good choice as it turned out to be an amazing experience.

We were picked up from our hotel and taken on a bus to Sea Life Park. Our guide was Cousin Ben and he was really funny. He entertained us for the entire journey, sharing some great jokes.

Once we got to the Sea life park, we were greeted with drinks and a seashell garland and then taken to our seat.

The whole thing was set right on the beach with a perfect view of the sunset. There was a stall selling souvenirs and a guy doing temporary tattoos. We joined the queue and all of us got a tattoo each. Chhori loved hers so much that she kept on talking about it the whole night.

While everything was being organized the guest were being entertained with spear throwing and leaf headband demonstrations.

We made a few headbands with the help of the staff which we wore through the evening.

The main course at a luau is kalua pua’a – pork roasted for eight hours in a pitlike earthen oven known as imu. They showed us how a pig is unburied before being served to the guests.

The food is buffet style and has kalua pua’a, fresh mahi-mahi and poi (mashed taro plant) and an array of salads and sides. I would say the food was OK as I was not overly impressed but it made us full for sure.

I actually enjoyed the hula and fire dancing. The chief introduced each dance and we enjoyed the Chief’s Journey through the Polynesian Islands which included New Zealand Haka and the Fijian Warrior Dance.

Also during this dancing, the volunteers were asked to come on stage to dance with the dancers. Chhori wanted me to go on the stage so we went on the stage together and we had a great time. It was fun as we danced with the drum beats.

We also went on the stage when they called for people celebrating anniversaries as we were there for our 6th anniversary as well. We were given a beautiful bouquet of flowers and drinks.

The fire dancers at the end was amazing and it was the highlight of the show for me.

Overall, we enjoyed the show a lot.

After the Luau was over Cousin Ben took us back to our hotel.

Some Popular Luau Dishes

Poi: Pounded taro plant root; a starch meant to be eaten with everything.

Kalua Pig: Pork prepared in an imu or underground oven and shredded.

Chicken Long Rice: A chicken noodle soup-like dish with bean thread noodles and ginger.

Laulau: Meat wrapped in luau (taro) leaves and steamed. Traditionally, this is prepared in an underground oven called an imu.

Lomilomi Salmon: A side dish made from salmon, tomatoes, onion and crushed ice.

Haupia: Coconut pudding.

Poke: The term literally means “to slice cross-wise into pieces” and commonly features raw fish served with a variety of condiments such as shoyu (soy sauce), green onions, kukui nut (candlenut), limu (seaweed). However, the dish isn’t exclusively fish-based and there are other variations as well.

Take care everyone,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

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