53 Fun Facts About Luau

Which son of Kamehameha the Great broke the eating kapu in 1819 by dining with women?

Kamehameha II, born Liholiho, was urged into the public meal by his mother Keōpūolani and his co-ruler Kaʻahumanu in 1819, ending the kapu that kept men and women from eating together.

What is the name of Hawaii's 1819 taboo-breaking that let women eat forbidden foods and dine with men?

ʻAi Noa means 'free eating'; after Liholiho's public meal with the chiefesses in 1819, messengers were sent across the islands to announce that the eating kapu had fallen.

Under the kapu system, pork was forbidden to Hawaiian women as a body form of which god of farming and rain?

Lono counted the pig among his body forms, so women could not eat it; most kinds of banana were barred too, as the form of another god, until a king's public meal with women in 1819 swept the rules away.

Before 'lūʻau' became the everyday word, a large Hawaiian feast was called what?

ʻAhaʻaina was the old word for a large feast, with pāʻina for smaller dinners; lūʻau as a name for the party is documented in print from 1856, in a report on a royal celebration.

Kālua pig, the centerpiece of a luau, is slow-cooked in an imu, which is what?

An underground oven, the imu is a pit lined with banana stumps and leaves, then covered over so that trapped steam keeps the pig moist while it cooks for hours.

When a whole pig is cooked in an imu, what is placed inside its body cavity so the meat cooks through?

Hot stones are placed inside the pig's cavity so it cooks from within; cooks choose rocks that hold little moisture, because steam trapped in a damp stone can make it burst in the fire.

Waikiki bartender Harry Yee began dropping which flower into tropical drinks in 1955?

An orchid replaced the sugar-cane sticks that drinkers chewed and left in the ashtrays: Yee said he wanted the ashtrays easier to clean and 'wasn't thinking about romance'.

Poi is graded as 'one-finger', 'two-finger' or 'three-finger' to describe what?

How thick it is: the label counts the fingers needed to scoop up a mouthful, so runny poi is three-finger and the thickest is one-finger.

Left at room temperature for a few days, freshly made poi does what?

Poi turns sour as Lactobacillus, yeasts and Geotrichum fungi ferment it; a few days on, it smells like plain yogurt, and some people stir in milk or sugar to soften the tang.

In Hawaiian belief, what had to stop the moment a bowl of poi was uncovered?

All arguments had to stop because the spirit of Hāloa, the legendary ancestor of the Hawaiian people, was believed to be present once the bowl was open at the family table.

In lomi-lomi salmon, the luau side dish of salted salmon, tomato and onion, what does 'lomi' mean?

To massage: lomi means to rub or knead, and the salted salmon is worked by hand into diced tomato and onion. Salmon is no island fish; Hawaiians met it in the 1800s through work in the Pacific Northwest trade.

Samuel Kamaka's oval-bodied ukulele of the 1920s is named after which fruit?

Pineapple: friends told Kamaka his new oval ukulele looked like one, an artist among them painted the fruit on its front, and he patented the 'pineapple ukulele' in 1928.

Laulau, Hawaii's steamed pork bundle, doubles the Hawaiian word 'lau' to give which literal meaning?

Leaf leaf: lau is Hawaiian for 'leaf', and the pork is wrapped first in edible greens, then in an outer leaf that is peeled off after steaming. In everyday use the doubled word now means any wrapped package.

The word poke, as in the raw-fish dish, literally means what in Hawaiian?

To slice, or cut crosswise into pieces, is what poke means: fishermen cut up trimmings from the catch and ate them raw with sea salt and seaweed; soy sauce and sesame oil came later with plantation workers from China and Japan.

ʻInamona, the roasted-nut-and-salt relish that seasons traditional poke, is made from which nut?

Kukui, or candlenut, is roasted and mashed with sea salt to make ʻinamona; the same oily nuts, strung on a palm-leaf midrib and lit one after another, served Hawaiians as candles.

Which salted fish is traditionally bundled with the pork inside a laulau?

Butterfish, salted, is the classic companion to pork in laulau; its fat and salt season the whole bundle as it steams inside its leaf wrapping.

Spam musubi is a slice of grilled Spam on a block of rice, wrapped in a band of what?

Nori, the dried seaweed of Japanese rice balls, holds it all together; Spam itself became an island staple in World War II, when the canned meat arrived with the US military amid wartime rationing.

Because it is so popular in the islands, canned Spam is sometimes given what tongue-in-cheek nickname?

Spam earned the nickname 'Hawaiian Steak' for its place at island tables; McDonald's Hawaii restaurants put Spam on the breakfast menu, and Burger King followed in its Hawaii stores in 2007.

Trader Vic said he built his first Mai Tai in 1944 around a 17-year-old rum from which island?

Jamaica: Bergeron said he took down a bottle of 17-year-old J. Wray & Nephew; within a few years the drink's success had drained the supply, and he blended other rums to imitate it.

The name Mai Tai is said to come from maitaʻi, a Tahitian word meaning what?

Good, or 'the best': Bergeron said a friend visiting from Tahiti took one sip and cried 'Mai tai roa ae!', which he glossed as 'out of this world, the best', and the name stuck.

The Mai Tai reached Hawaii in 1953 when Bergeron wrote a cocktail menu for the Moana and which other hotel?

The Royal Hawaiian and the Moana belonged to the Matson shipping line, which hired Bergeron in 1953 to write their bar menus; the fruit juices of today's island versions were added only later.

Which liqueur gives the Blue Hawaii cocktail its signature color?

Blue curaçao gives the drink its color; Harry Yee mixed the first Blue Hawaii at the Hawaiian Village in Waikiki in 1957 after a Bols sales rep asked him to showcase the Dutch distiller's blue liqueur.

Which potent rum cocktail, invented in 1934, became the best-known drink of Hollywood tiki bar Don the Beachcomber?

The Zombie hid its heavy load of rum behind fruit juice and caught on so fast that a rival was selling a copy of it at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

Which explorer's 1947 raft voyage across the Pacific helped feed America's post-war tiki craze?

Thor Heyerdahl sailed the balsa raft Kon-Tiki from Peru to Polynesia in 101 days to show that South Americans could have made the trip; his bestselling book about it followed in 1948.

What was the Oakland bar Victor Bergeron opened in 1934 called before it became Trader Vic's?

Hinky Dink's opened in 1934 as a small Oakland saloon; after a trip to Cuba and a look at Don the Beachcomber, Bergeron gave it a tropical makeover and the Trader Vic name.

The fire-knife dance performed at luau shows comes from which Pacific islands?

Samoa's warriors once showed their skill by twirling and catching a toothed war club, a display called ailao; the luau version swaps it for a machete wrapped in burning cloth.

What is the fire-knife dance called in its homeland?

Siva afi is the name used at home. Freddie Letuli said he first lit his knife in 1946 after watching a fire-eater rehearse beside him in San Francisco: he asked for some of the man's fuel and wrapped the blade in a towel.

Hawaii celebrates Lei Day on which date every year?

May 1 was picked to ride on May Day: Honolulu residents were urged to wear lei that day in 1928, and territorial lawmakers made Lei Day an official holiday the following year.

At a hukilau, the Hawaiian beach gathering celebrated in a famous song, what does the whole crowd do?

Haul in a fishing net: huki means 'pull', and family and friends lined the beach to drag a long seine ashore; a church fundraiser in Lāʻie later turned the custom into a visitor attraction.

The island of Niʻihau is famous for lei made from what?

Tiny shells that wash up on Niʻihau's beaches are strung into lei so prized that a single intricate strand can sell for thousands of dollars, and a 2004 Hawaii law protects the name from fakes.

Which ukulele-playing Hawaiian king was nicknamed the Merrie Monarch and brought hula back to court?

Kalākaua made hula, which a royal decree had barred from public performance in 1830, a showpiece of his 1883 coronation and his 50th-birthday jubilee; Hilo's Merrie Monarch Festival honors him.

In Hawaiian, the word 'ukulele' roughly translates as what?

'Jumping flea' is the literal meaning (ʻuku, flea; lele, to jump). Why is less sure: perhaps for the player's fingers leaping over the strings, or as the nickname of a small, lively officer who played it.

The ukulele evolved from instruments brought to Hawaii around 1880 by immigrants from which country?

Portugal: workers from Madeira landed in Honolulu in 1879 with a small guitar called the machete, and within a decade local makers had reshaped it into the ukulele.

The three men credited as the first ukulele makers, who landed in Honolulu in 1879, shared which trade?

Cabinet making gave the three newcomers the skills to build instruments; two weeks after they landed, a Honolulu paper reported them delighting people with nightly street concerts.

Which wood is traditionally preferred for a Hawaiian-made ukulele?

Koa, a tree found only in Hawaii, is the classic ukulele wood; Hawaiians once carved its trunks into canoes and surfboards, and its name also means 'brave' or 'warrior'.

Modern hula danced to guitar and ukulele, as opposed to ancient hula kahiko, is called what?

ʻAuana means 'to wander' or 'drift': the style drifted away from chant-and-drum kahiko as hula took on Western melody, guitar and ukulele in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Hula students in training were traditionally placed under the protection of which goddess?

Laka, goddess of hula and of the forest, watched over students through their secluded training; every hālau kept a small altar to her, where dancers left their lei as offerings.

The loose muʻumuʻu dress descends from gowns brought to Hawaii in the 1820s by which newcomers?

Missionaries introduced the high-necked holokū, patterned on their own Mother Hubbard gowns; the muʻumuʻu, whose name means 'cut off', began as the yokeless slip worn beneath it.

Mainland Casual Friday is often traced to which Hawaiian office custom, begun in 1966?

Aloha Friday let island office workers swap suits for aloha shirts once a week; to tone down the loud prints for business wear, one Honolulu shirtmaker sewed the fabric inside out.

A popular folk etymology splits aloha into alo, meaning 'presence', and hā, meaning what?

Hā means 'breath', giving the folk gloss 'the presence of breath'; linguists instead trace aloha to a Proto-Polynesian word meaning 'love, pity or compassion'.

In Disney's Lilo & Stitch (2002), on which Hawaiian island does Stitch crash-land?

Kauaʻi is where Stitch's stolen ship comes down; the film's backgrounds were painted in watercolor, a technique Disney had largely dropped by the mid-1940s, to recall the look of Dumbo.

In Blue Hawaii (1961), Elvis's Chad Gates dodges the family fruit business to take what job?

Tour guide is the job Chad takes, at the agency where his girlfriend works, instead of joining the family fruit company; Angela Lansbury played his mother though she was barely nine years his senior.

Hawaiian pizza was invented in the 1960s in which country?

Canada: Sam Panopoulos first served it in 1962 at his Satellite Restaurant in Chatham, Ontario, and named it after the brand on the cans of fruit he used.

Which member of the Hawaiian royal family wrote the farewell song "Aloha ʻOe"?

Liliʻuokalani began the song after a horseback visit to a ranch at Maunawili, where a farewell embrace she witnessed set her humming the tune on the ride back to Honolulu.

A traditional luau was eaten sitting on the floor over mats woven from what?

Hala leaves, from the pandanus tree, are plaited into lauhala mats; guests sat on them along a leafy centerpiece and ate everything by hand, with no utensils.

Fermented and distilled ti roots yield which traditional Hawaiian liquor?

ʻŌkolehao means 'iron bottom': the first stills, set up in the 1790s, were round iron try-pots off sailing ships, whose shape reminded Hawaiians of a backside.

A woman wearing a plumeria over her right ear is, by modern Polynesian custom, signaling what?

A flower over the right ear says she is available; over the left, taken. The plumeria itself is a newcomer: the tree comes from tropical America and reached the Pacific islands only in the 1800s.

Despite its name, the luau stew called squid lūʻau is traditionally made with which sea creature?

Octopus is called squid in Hawaii, hence the name; the stew simmers it with leafy greens that must be cooked through, because raw they sting the mouth and throat.

Which 1966 hit became Waikiki showman Don Ho's signature song?

Tiny Bubbles opened and closed Ho's shows for decades, yet his producer had to lean on him to record it, when he was worn out from singing all night.

What is mixed into paʻiʻai, the stiff paste of freshly pounded taro, to turn it into poi?

Water is all it takes: cooked taro is pounded on a board into the hard, undiluted paste, and more is worked in just before eating until it flows the way the eater likes.

Haupia, the coconut pudding of the luau, was originally thickened with what starch before cornstarch became common?

Polynesian arrowroot, called pia, was the original thickener; the plant was once grown in Hawaii for its starchy tubers, and the cornstarch that replaced it gives a firmer, more gelatin-like set.

In Lei Day pageantry, which island is symbolised by the yellow ʻilima lei?

Oʻahu has claimed the yellow ʻilima as its flower since 1923; the delicate blossoms last only a day, and a lei of them was once reserved for high chiefs.

On Honolulu's old 'Boat Days', lei sellers, hula dancers and a band greeted arriving liners beside which waterfront landmark?

Aloha Tower, opened in 1926, stood over the pier where the liners docked; after the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor it was painted in camouflage.