Articles of Food and Drink in Hawaii
The food staple most desired in Hawaii nei was the taro (kalo, Arum esculentum). When beaten into poi, or made up into bundles of hard poi, called pai-ai, omao, or…
From: 1903 C.E. To: 1903 C.E.
Location: Hawaii
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
Articles of Food and Drink in Hawaii
From Hawaiian Antiquities by David Malo, 1903.
The food staple most desired in Hawaii nei was the taro (kalo, Arum esculentum). When beaten into poi, or made up into bundles of hard poi, called pai-ai, omao, or holo-ai, it is a delicious food. Taro is raised by planting the stems. The young and tender leaves are cooked and eaten as greens called lu-au, likewise the stems under the name of ha-ha. Poi is such an agreeable food that taro is in great demand. A full meal of poi, however, causes one to be heavy and sleepy.
There are many varieties of taro. These are named according to color, black, white, red and yellow, besides which the natives have a great many other names. It is made into kulolo (by mixture with the tender meat of the cocoanut), also into a draught termed apu which is administered to the sick; indeed its uses are numerous.
The sweet potato (uala), (the Maori kumara), was an important article of food in Hawaii nei; it had many varieties which were given names on the same principle as that used in naming taro, viz: white, black, red, yellow, etc.
The uala grows abundantly on the kula lands, or dry plains. It is made into a kind of poi or eaten dry. It is excellent when roasted, a food much to be desired. The body of one who makes his food of the sweet potato is plump and his flesh clean and fair, whereas the flesh of him who feeds on taro-poi is not so clear and wholesome.
The uala ripens quickly, say in four or five months after planting, whereas the taro takes twelve months to ripen. Animals fed on the sweet potato take on fat well; its leaves (when cooked) are eaten as greens and called palula. Sweet potato sours quickly when mixed into poi, whereas poi made from taro is slow to ferment. The sweet potato is the chief food-staple of the dry, upland plains. At the present time the potato is used in making swipes. The sweet potato is raised by planting the stems.
The yam, or uhi (Dioscorea) is an important article of food. In raising it, the body of the vegetable itself is planted. It does not soon spoil if uncooked. It is not made up into poi, but eaten while still warm from the oven, or after roasting. The yam is used in the preparation of a drink for the sick.
The ulu or bread-fruit is very much used as a food by the natives, after being oven-cooked or roasted; it is also pounded into a delicious poi, pepeiee. It is propagated (by planting shoots or scions.)
The banana (mai’a) was an important article of food, honey-sweet, when fully ripe, and delicious when roasted on the coals or oven-cooked, but it does not satisfy. It was propagated from offshoots.
The ohia or "mountain apple" was a fruit that was much eaten raw. It was propagated from the seed. The squash is eaten only after cooking.
The following articles were used as food in the time of famine: the ha-pu-u fern (the fleshy stem of the leaf-stalk); the ma'u and the i-i-i (the pithy flesh within the woody exterior).
These (ferns) grow in that section of the mountain-forest called wao-maukele. (See Chap VII. Sect. 12.) The outer woody shell is first chipped away with an ax, the soft interior is then baked in a large underground oven overnight until it is soft when it is ready for eating. But one is not really satisfied with such food.
The ti (Cordyline terminalis) also furnishes another article of food. It grows wild in that section of the forest called wao-akua. The fleshy root is grubbed up, baked in a huge, underground oven overnight until cooked. The juice of the ti-root becomes very sweet by being cooked, but it is not a satisfying food.
The pi-u (a kind of yam, Dioscorea pentaphylla) is a good and satisfying food when cooked in the native oven. It is somewhat like the sweet-potato when cooked. The ho-i (Helmia bulbifera) this is a bitter fruit. After cooking and grating, it has to be washed in several waters, then strained through cocoanut-web (the cloth-like material that surrounds the young leaves. TRANSLATOR) until it is sweet. It is then a very satisfying food.
The pala-fern (Marattia) also furnished a food. The base of the leaf-stem was the part used; it was eaten after being oven-cooked. This fern grows wild in the woods.
The pia (Tacca pinnatifida) is another food-plant, of which the tubers are planted. When ripe the tubers are grated while yet raw by means of rough stones, mixed with water and then allowed to stand until it has turned sweet, after which it is roasted in bundles and eaten. The wild pea, papapa, the nena, the koali (Ipomoea tuberculata) were all used as food in famine-times.
Among the kinds of food brought from foreign countries are flour, rice, Irish potatoes, beans, Indian corn, squashes and melons, of which the former are eaten after cooking and the latter raw.
In Hawaii nei people drink either the water from heaven, which is called real water (wai maoli), or the water that comes from beneath the earth, which is (often) brackish.
Awa was the intoxicating drink of the Hawaiians in old times; but in modern times many new intoxicants have been introduced from foreign lands, as rum, brandy, gin.
People also have learned to make intoxicating swipes from fermented potatoes, watermelon, or the fruit of the ohia.
Malo, David. Hawaiian Antiquities: (Moolelo Hawaii). Translated by Nathaniel Bright Emerson, Hawaiian Gazette Co., 1903.
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