Welcome back to Why Eat That? where we explore cultures and why they eat what they eat. Today we will be studying Hawaii past and present.
When people initially arrived on the island around 1600 years ago, the island was lacking in much edible food. There were ferns, which could be eaten boiled, and some fruits. This meant that many plants needed to be shipped over so that they could be eaten. These were called canoe plants because they were brought over in canoes. The most famous of these was taro which was made into a sort of paste known as Poi. Taro roots were pounded into a paste as water was added. Through light fermentation it gains a sort of sour taste in addition to it’s starchy taste. This became a staple of their diet for a long time. Sweet potatoes were also a canoe food and were enjoyed greatly. Many other foods were later introduced to the island, including bananas, breadfruit, and sugarcane. 1
For the desire of protein, the water around the island supplied fish. However, the islands lacked many mammals and had only some birds and bats. So once again, people sailed with all many of animals in order to expand their diets. Pigs were brought over and were used as sacrifice and then eaten in great feasts. 2
Food was often season with sea salt, but even more interesting was an older version of relish which they used to season things. The relish was made up of mashed kukui nuts. Edible sea weeds were often eaten to add flavor to foods and prevent constipation.
One of the biggest feasts held by the ancient hawaiian people was the ‘Aha‘aina Mawaewae feast which celebrated the birth of a child. The center of the feast was a pig which was raised and prepared specifally for the event. Shrimp, crab, taro, and even octopus were also served at this event.
In the late 1700s, western exploration reached the islands of hawaii. Cattle were brought over to the island as a source of food. However, with no natural preditor, they multiplied uncontrollably. Thus, they all had to be either massacred or domesticated and beef was introduced to Hawaii. Pineapples were discovered and more and more westerners came to settle Hawaii and grow food. By the late 1800s, pinapple and sugarcane farms took over most of the land on these islands and were run by most Americans. They became the primarily sources of revenue for the islands.
However, the pinapple business still hadn’t reached it’s height yet. Then came Jame “The Pinapple King” Dole. Over 50 years, his company became the biggest pinapple company in the entire world. Not until the late 20th century, did the island return to the idea of grow local, buy local, and eat local, when they realized that food was being imported in massive quantities while local foods were rotting on the ground after falling off trees.
Today, the state tries to embrace some of their more classic foods including the guava plant and some of the things that were brought over so long ago, like bananas.
