Motor Matt's Close Call; or, The Snare of Don Carlos
Page 21
POI THEIR STAFF OF LIFE.
What bread is to the American or European poi is to the nativeHawaiian. No meal is complete without it, and for the great majority ofthe natives it forms the principal article of diet.
Poi is made from a tuberous root about the size of a large sweetpotato. It is first baked and afterward pounded up with water until asmooth paste is obtained, much resembling a wheat flour paste, exceptthat the color is a pale pink or purple.
This paste is allowed to ferment slightly and is then ready for use.Formerly each family prepared its own poi, the work being done by themen, as in fact were most other cooking operations. Poi factories, inwhich machinery grinds and mixes the material, have largely supplantedthe old method.
Many of the white residents of the islands eat poi to almost theextent of the natives, but the taste is largely acquired and strangersseldom care for it. Poi has a high food value, and since it formed theprincipal food of the old Hawaiians some persons credit it with thesplendid physical development of the race.
Poi was always eaten from wooden bowls or calabashes and was conveyedto the mouth by the fingers, one, two or three being employed accordingto the consistency of the food, which fact establishes a designationof one, two or three finger poi. White poi eaters now usually employ afork or spoon in lieu of fingers, although it is still common even inthe highest families to give native dinners or "luaus" at which knivesand forks are taboo and fingers only used.
There is as much etiquette among the Hawaiians in eating with thefingers as with modern table implements, and the graceful motion bywhich a portion of poi is twisted up on the fingers and transferred tothe mouth would not shock the sensibilities of the most refined. Aninvitation to a real luau at which poi, baked pig, fish baked in leavesand cocoanut in various forms were the chief features of the menu is anexperience which every visitor to Hawaii sincerely covets.