Liliuokalani at the table

The Hawaiian meal is not divided into starter-main-dessert: it is organized around poi, the taro paste that is the foundation of every table (the quintessential 'food', kaukau). It is accompanied by fish, pork, sweet potato, and kukui relish (ʻinamona), all eaten with the fingers from wooden calabashes (ʻumeke). When celebrating, these same dishes are spread in abundance on mats of tī leaves (lāʻī): this is the lūʻau (or ʻahaʻaina), the great royal banquet where the imu, the underground oven, smokes all day.

The imu, an oven dug into the earth and heated by volcanic stones, is the heart of festive cooking: it cooks pork, fish, and sweet potato in a gentle smoke of banana and tī leaves. Seasoning is done with paʻakai, Hawaiian sea salt, whose ʻalaea variety, tinted with red ferrous clay, is the most prized on royal tables.