Hā
A pakini full of hā from the preparation for
the East Maui Taro Festival at the end of April. Hā is the name for the
stalk of the kalo (what we think of as the "stem" but it is technically a
petiole). The skin is stripped off (a process that can make the fingers raw and
dark colored), and then the hā is steamed or boiled like lū'au (kalo
leaf). It keeps better than lū'au, so it is good to cook and then bag and
freeze. In this case, we broke them up into small pieces and added them to
laulau, where they provide a nice extra texture and flavor along with the meats
wrapped inside the lū'au leaves and ti leaves. Interesting to note that the
original Kalo and the progenitor of Kanaka Maoli is Hāloa, which in simple
terms mean long hā. Hā also means breath and the number four, and has
several other meanings
as
well.
Posted: Thu - June 7, 2007 at 07:51 AM