DAVINCIDOG
Jr. Member
- Jul 29, 2007
- 55
- 0
While I live in Hawaii for several years, I settled into traditional Polynesian life pretty well. I learned how to do traditional underground ovens from my close Fijian friends. Here are some photos of one of the gatherings at my house for a celebration. Typically the celebration and preparation would last two and a half days at the house.
Some of the guys would go spear fishing, while others went to the farms at the base of the Koolaus for starches and a wild boar (or a few pork butts if we were lazy LOL) would be gathered on the first day. That same day we would work late into the night prepping the food for the pit so we could get an early start in the morning of the event. We would start drinking traditional Kava/grog/ava during prepping and not stop until the event was over.
The day of the event we would get the fire going and using banana stalks as the water source (unlike seaweed here in New England) and use palm leave spines to keep the food off the hot rocks, and banana leaves and palm leaves for keeping in the steam...and new tradition includes burlap bags and cardboard to help seal in the steam before burying the oven.
We would put pork, taro, kasava, turkey, fish and such in the pits. Typical east coaster....I use to also add leg of lambs when I would do the event! LOL After cooking all day, and hanging out drinking kava, people would start coming in the early afternoon in preparation for opening the pit and having the celebration, which would go on all night until sometime the next day.
I included photos of the oven, the first one is me setting up the base for the kindling/logs/rocks and then progressing from there. The last photo is of my buddies hanging around my house drinking kava and singing traditional Fijian songs while the oven is cooking. Everyone was feeling pretty good by then, and by the time everyone arrived for the event (usually about 50-60 people or so) we would all be feeling no pain, and opening the pit and handling hot food with bare hands and feet was pretty common. LOL
I look forward to using my learned Lovo skills to do clambakes on the beach in the sand next season. Any Mainers know of a good beach that is usually quiet that I could do a pit? Clean up and burying the pit is a normal part....leave no trace behind.
Some of the guys would go spear fishing, while others went to the farms at the base of the Koolaus for starches and a wild boar (or a few pork butts if we were lazy LOL) would be gathered on the first day. That same day we would work late into the night prepping the food for the pit so we could get an early start in the morning of the event. We would start drinking traditional Kava/grog/ava during prepping and not stop until the event was over.
The day of the event we would get the fire going and using banana stalks as the water source (unlike seaweed here in New England) and use palm leave spines to keep the food off the hot rocks, and banana leaves and palm leaves for keeping in the steam...and new tradition includes burlap bags and cardboard to help seal in the steam before burying the oven.
We would put pork, taro, kasava, turkey, fish and such in the pits. Typical east coaster....I use to also add leg of lambs when I would do the event! LOL After cooking all day, and hanging out drinking kava, people would start coming in the early afternoon in preparation for opening the pit and having the celebration, which would go on all night until sometime the next day.
I included photos of the oven, the first one is me setting up the base for the kindling/logs/rocks and then progressing from there. The last photo is of my buddies hanging around my house drinking kava and singing traditional Fijian songs while the oven is cooking. Everyone was feeling pretty good by then, and by the time everyone arrived for the event (usually about 50-60 people or so) we would all be feeling no pain, and opening the pit and handling hot food with bare hands and feet was pretty common. LOL
I look forward to using my learned Lovo skills to do clambakes on the beach in the sand next season. Any Mainers know of a good beach that is usually quiet that I could do a pit? Clean up and burying the pit is a normal part....leave no trace behind.
RR
