A lūʻau is a Hawaiian feast. And this feast grows every year, so everyone brings a dish and a drink to share. We encourage you to try your hand at a Hawaiian recipe. There are a few listed below, and I’ve tried to offer alternative ingredients that are easier to find in the Northeast. You can find many more recipes online, too. You can also bring a big, beautiful seasonal salad to share… salad goes with everything ;) Mahalo!

Sheldon Simeon describes the cuisine of Hawaiʻi.

Imu (underground oven)

Hawaiian cooking is done in an underground pit called an imu. Friday afternoon we’ll heat stones and then layer wet corn stalks (in lieu of banana stumps), burlap bags, food, tī or laʻi leaf, more burlap bags and dirt. The food wrapped in Hawaiian salt and ti leaves will steam overnight in the ground. Here are a few things you can bring to put in the imu on Friday night…

• All meats with fat and skin on: Pork, Chicken, Fish, Goat, Lamb

• Root veggies (carrots, potatoes, turnips, etc.)

• Japanese or Okinawan sweet potatoes (purple kind)

• Breadfruit (if you can find it)

• Kalo (Taro, again if you can find it)

Along with imu-cooked foods we ask that you bring a Hawaiian-Pacific-Asian main dishes, side dishes, veggies, salads, fruits and dessert. Here are a few things you might bring…

Pupu (Appetizers)

• Ahi or Aku Poke (raw fish with onion, sesame oil and shoyu)

• Spam Musubi

• North Shore Style Garlic Shrimp

• Pipikaula Short Ribs

• Teriyaki Beef or Chicken Sticks

Main Dishes

• Kalbi (Korean-style Beef Short Ribs)

• Chicken Long Rice

• Teriyaki Chicken

• Hawaiian Shoyu Chicken

• Hawaiian Oxtail Soup

Side Dishes

• Lomi Lomi Salmon (salted salmon with sweet onions and tomatoes)

• Hawaiian-style Collard Greens (collards, onions and coconut milk)

• Baked Taro

• Baked Sweet Potatoes (Japanese kind)

• Seasonal Salads

• Fruit Salad

• Collard Greens & Coconut Milk

• Warm Hijiki Rice Salad

• Kalua Pig & Cabbage

• Portuguese Bean Soup

• Hearty Salads

• Hawaiian-style Potato Salad

• Hawaiian Fusion Recipes—Food & Wine

• Pupu—Hawaiian Appetizers, Hawaiʻi Magazine

• Pupu—Hawaiian Appetizers, Honolulu Magazine

Desserts

• Butter Mochi

• Bourbon Butter Mochi

• Chocolate Butter Mochi

• Chocolate Mac-Nut Pie

• Coconut Banana Pancake

• Coconut Cake

• Lilikoʻi Bars

• Lemon Macadamia Olive Oli Cake

• Haupia (somewhere between coconut pudding and jello)

• Other Hawaiianized Desserts: Coconut Cake, Liliko’i Cheesecake, Pineapple Upsidedown Cake, Mango Bread, etc.

Other Easier Essentials

• Sushi Rice (preferably in a rice cooker)

• Spam + Nori for onsite Spam Musubi Station

• Ingredients for sushi and musubi (easy pressed sushi using a mold which we have many of)—blanched carrots, cucumber, avocado, green onions, nori, rice

• Sweet potatoes

• Kid-friendly snack foods

• Pineapple

• Mango

• Coconut

• Mochi

• Homemade Shave Ice Syrups (adult kine, too;)

Hawaiian Cookbooks:

Cook Real Hawai'i by Sheldon Simeon is my favorite cookbook of all time!

Aloha Kitchen is filled with so many of my childhood favorites! (and Alana Kysar’s food blog Fix Feast Flair)

Email us if you have a Hawaiian-Pacific-Asian recipe you’d like to share here: maile@humanconnectionproject.com