VEGETABLES.
| Papaias. | Cabbage. | Taro. |
Sweet Potatoes.
FRUIT.
| Bananas. | Oranges. | Guavas. |
| Mangoes. | Apples. | Hawaiian Tea. |
Kono Coffee.
LIQUOR.
Ookulian (pronounced O-ku-le-on).
Hawaiian Pipe of Friendship.
Among the Kanakas, the food eaten for breakfast, luncheon, and dinner is about the same, and consists chiefly of the native dish called “POI,” which is eaten whenever they (the Kanakas) are hungry.
“POI” is made from a root called “Taro,” and in shape and size resembles a raw beet, it has a dark skin, and the vegetable itself has a variety of colors—pink, gray, purple, and white.
The “Taro” is cooked in the ground, after the manner of a “New England clam-bake;” after obtaining the softness of a cooked potato it is peeled, and beaten with a large stone or iron, made for that purpose, into a pulp. It is then mixed with water until it forms the thickness of paste (and which makes very good paste, as it is often used for sticking bills, etc., when a theatrical company arrives), and after standing for a few days, to allow it to ferment, it is ready to be eaten.
The “Poi” is always eaten out of a “Calabash” (a large gourd about the size of a pumpkin), the natives always eating with their fingers, this being done by sticking the two fore-fingers into the “Calabash,” giving it one or two twists, and dexterously turning it around in front of their faces, until it looks like a ball of “taffy on a stick” (no pun intended).
“Taro” is sometimes cooked and eaten like potatoes and is considered very wholesome food.
The next important dish is “Raw Fish,” which are caught along the coast and eagerly eaten by the natives. Fish is also cooked in the ground, and is served on large leaves about the size of palm-leaves, called “Ti” leaves. Raw meat, raw liver, and a fragrant sea-weed form delicate side-dishes.
Coffee, within the last few years, has to a great extent been drunk as a beverage, but not so much as the Hawaiian tea, which tastes and smells like medicine.
Vegetables are also eaten, but sparingly, comprising sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, cabbages, etc.
Fruit, the product of the Islands, is very much eaten and relished, such as guavas, mangoes, bananas, mountain-apples, oranges, etc.
The Hawaiians when eating always sit on mats. All eat out of the same calabash. After eating, it is the custom to pass the pipe of friendship, which is a small pipe made from shark’s teeth.