There is nothing more Hawaiian than poi. Sure, we live in a time when fast food restaurants, expensive dining and processed foods can either make you fat, sick or deprived. But nothing to a Hawaiian will make him or her feel more Hawaiian than sitting at a table with ohana sharing a huge bowl of poi. Utensils are normally optional. Nowadays with homophobic aunties and cousins you might get your own bowl, spoon included. Heck, at luaus they'll give it to you in a Styrofoam cup. And in recent years the cups are getting smaller. Well, the delicacy is normally combined with a number of other Hawaiian cuisines to give it more unique flavor. For example, poi and lomi salmon (chopped tomatoes and salmon), poi and dried aku (fish), poi and opae (dried shrimp), poi and beef stew, poi and pig, poi and sardines, poi and hot dogs, just to name a few. Some Hawaiians prefer their poi with a little more favor so they might do some interesting things to it like letting it ferment. They let fungus grow on its surface like mold grows on bread. Not to the point of hideous blackness but a film of white fuzz none the least. This gives the poi a sour, fermented taste, kind of like beer. This seems to be real popular with the older generations when their taste buds start going. Despite it tasting like paste to the whites and who-knows-what for the blacks and every other race on the earth, poi is one of the healthiest foods on the planet. And now I’m not sure when this started but somehow sugar got in the mix. Sugar with poi? That’s right all you sugar-in-the-poi eaters you know who you are… what can I say…stay Hawaiian man!!!
2 comments:
I'm sorry. I've lived here in Hawaii all my life and I still don't like poi. If forced to eat it, like when I was a kid, throwing in my lomi or eating it with a stick of dried aku made the poi almost enjoyable.
Well, I was born and raised in Europe, France, Germany, England...But the first time I bought some poi I ate the whole bag! With some soy sauce mixed in it I did not know better... To this day I love poi It saved me from starvation when I had cancer and could not swallow anything else and today I am still here on Ôahu eating poi and loving it !
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