FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Chewing on the foil in the imu

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor

Just as in hula when Kumu calls, you gotta dance, in life, when Auntie asks, you gotta answer.

And Auntie Lani Rivera — who began our telephone conversation by telling me the names of all my relatives with whom she went to school at St. Anthony on Maui — had a question: "Wanda! Why do people put foil in the imu?"

"Um, I think it's to keep the juices from leaking out, so it's not so messy," I said, suspecting that I was being set up.

Wrong answer.

That is, correct answer, but wrong practice.

For years now, Auntie Lani has been steaming like a freshly unwrapped laulau about the practice of enclosing imu foods in foil instead of placing the ti-wrapped packets directly into the earth oven so that the food can absorb the smoky flavors. "This thing really bothers me. It keeps coming back to me like a song," she said.

The refrain: No, no, no, no, no.

"The purpose of cooking food in the imu is so it can get the taste of the banana leaf, banana stumps, the rocks. That's what makes the 'ono," she said.

"If you put foil, you prevent the flavor from getting to the meat. In that case, why bother? You can get the same non-flavor by putting it in the oven," she said, all but hollering with the relief of getting this issue off her chest.

I was right there along with Auntie, testifyin'.

I don't like to eat any food that's been cooked directly in foil; you'll never convince me that there isn't a flavor transfer.

In "Native Plants in Old Hawai'i," E.S. Handy and E.G. Handy report that the traditional Hawaiian imu method was to dig a hole 18 inches or so deep, burn a hot fire, place the 'eho (imu rocks) inside, brush the wood and ash away from the rocks, then line the hot surface with vegetation (ti, banana, kukae pua'a grass, 'ilima ku kula or seaweed), place the ti-leaf wrapped food on top, then cover the whole with coarse mats of banana or ti leaf. Two to six hours later: mea 'ai!

Johnnie Kawano of Kane'ohe, who has been helping with lu'au most of his life, says foil is just a modern-day necessity, just as chicken wire and burlap have replaced grass mats — especially given the large and awkward bundles people put into the earth oven these days.

"All I gotta say: Try wrap one turkey with only ti leaf. No can. Even if you tie with string, takes forevah! You gotta wrestle 'em. What we do, we line a foil baking pan with foil wrap, put ti leaves on top, put the turkey, then wrap the whole thing up, maybe you add some more ti leaf on top before you seal the foil. It works fine; you get the flavah but the juice stay inside. Tell Auntie no stress."

Uh, no, Uncle, I think you should tell her.