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Tiki Talk with Ben Willis — What Is a Luau, Really? · Mega Rock On Demand

• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's Friday afternoon, and that means it's time we light the torches once again for Tiki Talk on Mega Rock.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's Ben Willis with you.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: When you think about a luout in the context of Tiki, what do you picture?
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe grass skirts and ukuleleys and some barbecue and hot dogs on the grill, and uh lots and lots of drinks, and you know, torches going up in the moonlight and that sort of thing.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: But really, that is mostly a mainland Americanized version of a very old school party to be had.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: It goes all the way back, in fact, to ancient Pacific Polynesian traditions and the foods that they would have eaten, and one of their staple foods is, of course, the taro plant.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: And almost the entire plant can be eaten, but especially the roots can be mashed into kind of a almost a mashed potato, if you will.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Dishes incorporating taro came to be known as luau in many cases and in many cultures around the Pacific, and in particular, a stew, which would be made with possibly any variant of meat, but also then adding taro to the stew, so you could have pork luau, chicken luau, later on beef luau.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because although it was very common to have a pit earthen oven and you'd roast a whole pig Kahlua style or a bunch of chickens kaloo style with the hot rocks wrapped in leaves and baked in the earth for several, several hours, that takes a lot of work.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: But what are you going to do on your daily basis?
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: You'd make a simple stew.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now, how did it become associated with a party is the other question.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: That goes back to 1819, where before that point, all aspects of life in Hawaii in the islands were governed by the kapu or the tabu system, in which men and women ate separately and ate different foods.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: They were not allowed in some cases to eat the same food.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: However, in 1819, King Kamehameha II broke the kapu by sitting down and sharing a meal with his female relatives and members of his court.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: He sent out messengers to the rest of the island saying, Kapu has fallen, we are now in an era of free eating, was what he referred it to as.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so they all were able to share in the luau.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Later on, as tourism kind of became a thing in the late 19th century, large feasts in general became associated with luau, much as you would say you would have barbecue at a barbecue, you of course had luau meat at a luau.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: They're kind of one and the same.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: And we really have the godfather of Tiki himself, Don Beach, to thank for the wide popularization of the concept of the Luau stateside.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because after, of course, he had established Don the Beachcomber in America in the States, he then went over to Hawaii due to some legal troubles in the States, and re-established his restaurant there, and became absolutely famous among tourists for his lavish luaus at his establishment in Hawaii as well.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: So that through the 40s and 50s, all this concept of we're gonna have a good time and what is the best possible time to be had, you look to Don Beach and his Hawaiian luau.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't get much better than that.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: But what are you gonna have to drink at your luau?
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe a luau coconut.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is gonna take a little preparation.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: First, you're gonna have to find one whole young coconut, and these are the ones that you see in the grocery store with the white shell and usually some kind of net around them.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna take a meat cleaver or a large carving knife, chop or shave away the white husk from the top of the coconut until you get down to the top of the shell.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Then you're gonna take the bottom spur, the inside corner of your knife or your cleaver, chop a little hole into the top of the coconut, and then either using your cleaver or a large spoon of some kind, crack open the top so you get access to the coconut water inside.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Drain this out, we're gonna need this for later in just a moment.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Into a cocktail shaker with your ice, we're going to add two ounces of our freshly drained coconut water, one half ounce of fresh lime juice, one half ounce of unsweetened pineapple juice, one full ounce of simple syrup, one ounce of canned coconut milk, and for our spirits, we're going to take one full ounce of light Puerto Rican rum and one ounce of gold Puerto Rican rum.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Shake everything with your ice in the shaker, pour unstrained back into the coconut! Garnish with a large straw and a long-handled sturdy spoon for scraping out the soft jelly-like coconut meat, which will be even more delicious after soaking in rum and lime.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, until we meet on another island out there somewhere, this is Ben Willis saying Aloha! On Tiki Talk, we're going to leave you with a fantastic tune this week.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: You might remember their 1960 hit Apache, but I highly suggest you dig into the catalog of The Shadows.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Straight from the UK in the mid century, it's Con Tiki on Tiki Talk on Mega Rod.