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The traditional Hawaiian feast now known as the luau dates back hundreds of years. Before the reign the Hawaiian King Kamehameha II, men and women in Hawaii were not allowed to eat together. After abolishing this law in 1819, he held a symbolic feast with women invited. At this feast, King Kamehameha served a traditional dish involving chicken wrapped in Taro leaves and baked in coconut milk. This dish, known as ‘Luau,’ gave this feast its name.

Rather than simply a party, luaus were held in recognition of important events, from notable visitors to a coming of age celebration. During the first luau dinners, diners sat on the ground and ate food placed on leaves and woven mats. Traditional foods for these early luaus included roast pig and mashed taro root (a staple of the Hawaiian diet), both of which are still served at many luaus today. In these days, women in Hawaii were forbidden from eating certain foods, considered delicacies. King Kamehameha II was sure to incorporate these into his symbolic feast. All of these foods were eaten with the fingers; no utensils were used.

While it was certainly a festive occasion, these luaus were only held for certain events, not solely for entertainment value. These luaus were a very specific type of celebration; they were not just any Hawaiian party. Luaus, both then and now, have always been large feasts. In fact, King Kamehameha II often invited hundreds of guests; sometimes, guests ate in several shifts because there was not enough room for everyone.

Today, luau parties are held all over the islands, both for tourists and for celebratory reasons. Guests at luaus receive a lei, a necklace of woven flowers, as a symbol of welcoming. Though many visitors to Hawaii visit large commercial luaus, they are still held throughout the island for more symbolic occasions.

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Commercial luau parties held just for tourists are held weekly at the most popular hotels in Hawaii. These professional luaus are not only feasts, but also entertaining displays. Often visitors at a luau will see thrilling fire dances, which are actually Samoan rather than Hawaiian in origin, in addition to traditional Hawaiian hula dancers. If you are visiting Hawaii on vacation, be sure to visit a luau, not only for its delicious food but also for the entertainment. Often, crafts and souvenirs are sold in addition to more traditional foods and entertainment. Many tourist-centered luaus offer the opportunity for guests to learn a simple hula dance from traditional dancers.

Today’s luau parties are actually a fusion of cultures, including Asian, Polynesian, and Hawaiian influences in addition to mainland dishes served with tropical flair. Today, teriyaki sauce is a staple flavor in luau foods, giving each dish a sweet yet savory flavor. You may even see teriyaki sauce marinated Spam, a canned meat that is quite popular in Hawaii, in addition to more traditional Hawaiian dishes like poi and Kalua Pork. Luau parties were quite popular during the 1960s, so some luaus incorporate cocktail foods from this era, even macaroni salad, or cocktail weenies in teriyaki sauce. Today’s luau parties may simply be Hawaiian themed, and range drastically in their adherence to traditional luau foods and customs.

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In Hawaii, leis made of beautiful tropical flowers are given as a gift on many occasions; visitors often receive one of these wreaths upon their arrival in Hawaii. The lei is most often made of Plumeria blooms, which are pink or white and very delicate.

Another flower often used for lei wreaths is the lehua blossom. Known for bright flowers and soft, needle-like pedals, this species is the official flower of the Big Island. This flowering tree is considered by native Hawaiians to be sacred to Pele, the volcano goddess, and to the goddess of hula, Laka.

A well-known flower that has made its way into countless tattoos and other representations of Hawaiian culture, and is thought to best represent ‘aloha’ and all things Hawaii, is the yellow hibiscus. Known to native Hawaiians as the pua aloalo, this has been considered Hawaii’s official flower since the 1920s.

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Hibiscus flowers are very large, and are often found both in leis and decorating the side of a fruity tropical drink. This plant also has many other traditional uses, ranging from teas and jams to herbal remedies for dandruff, nausea, and wound dressing. When placed behind the ear of a woman, this flower indicates whether she is available for a relationship. Giving a hibiscus as a gift means “seize the day,” since the blooms only last a day or so.

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The hibiscus is also found in white, purple, pink, and red, and is very fragrant. There are over 200 distinct varieties of this flowering plant. Though only seven are native Hawaii, you are likely to see dozens of other varieties on Hawaii; these have been imported from other tropical climates around the world.

Each island also has its own official flower. On some islands, their official bloom is quite plentiful, and you are likely to see it while on vacation. In others, the flower variety is quite rare or even endangered, and you would be lucky to see it without a visit to a botanical garden.

Although many people associate orchids with Hawaii, there are actually only three orchid species that are native to the islands. The rest have been imported. Other exotic flowers that can be seen around the islands include the heliconia, or bird of paradise, with a unique wax-like appearance. This is often cited as the most exotic-looking plant on the islands.

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Besides flowers, there are also many other unique plants seen in Hawaii. For example, fruit trees, including avocado, banana, mango, papaya, breadfruit, and macadamia, grow abundantly throughout the islands. Lychees, which are shaped like grapes with a hard coating, are a prized fruit; these trees grow wild throughout Hawaii. The Koa Tree, found at higher elevations, is found only in Hawaii. This hard wood is used for canoes, bowls, and furniture. If you look around the islands, you’ll surely be dazzled by the array of flowers, plants, and trees that you see.

That’s unfortunate, because there are a lot of delectable dishes unique to Hawaii, a blend of indigenous traditions and settler’s culture. Don’t head out for Indian or sushi until you’ve had a few meals that include these excellent Hawaiian dishes.

• Barbecue sticks: Pork is not the only meat in town! Hawaii is also home to a few large cattle ranches, found mostly on the Big Island. Beef, chicken and, yes, pork are marinated in teriyaki sauce and then spitted on sticks – the perfect treat for your inner carnivore!
• Donkey balls: Don’t worry, it’s just an Island way of poking fun at uptight mainlanders. Donkey balls are chocolate covered macadamia nuts, one of the best treats the Island has to offer. The company is proud of its name too. There are also dried and chocolate-covered strawberries and coffee beans for your sweet tooth.
• Ono: Why this fish doesn’t appear at more luaus is a mystery, although it may be because it disappears almost as soon as it is caught. There is simply no better-tasting fish out there; people have been known to consume it right on the dock or in the boat! It is best lightly seared, though maybe with a touch of teriyaki sauce for the doubters.
• Hawaiian corn: Considering the absence of ANY tasty vegetable at a tourist oriented luau, it can only be assumed that Hawaiian corn has been deemed too delicious for the masses. It’s simply the best corn to be found, anywhere.
• Fruits: Mango, papaya, guava, and ka’u oranges are all great fruits if you get tired of coconuts and bananas (although how one can get tired of plantains is beyond us). Ka’u may look nasty, but the general rule is that the uglier it looks, the better it tastes!

Well, the answer is, it depends. If you are unfamiliar with the state, have children and/or an inflexible schedule, and don’t make a lot of money, a visit to Hawaii may need to become a part of a ten year savings plan. However, if you are flexible and of middle income, there are a lot of ways you can make your Hawaiian vacation a lot less expensive than you might expect. Here’s a look at some of the things to consider as you plan.

Travel

Your biggest expense when going to Hawaii should be the travel. Plane tickets are exorbitant to say the least, and you really don’t get much bang for your buck either. You’re subject to layovers, and you may have to adjust your ideal travel scenario to the airline’s schedule and seating plan.

However, if you don’t need to book a specific time to leave on your vacation, you can get air travel for a tenth or less of normal Hawaiian airfare. Companies don’t like flying planes which have empty seats. They will generally have seat sales trying to fill these seats up as the departure date gets closer. The Internet makes it possible for anyone to take advantage of these great deals.

Destination

Hawaii is composed of eight main islands, although only three are really on the radar of the average tourist – Oahu, Maui and Hawaii (often referred to as the “Big Island”, so as not to confuse it with the state).  Of these three, the two most popular by far are Maui and Oahu. Oahu is the nerve center of the state and includes its most populous city, Honolulu. There are more people living in Honolulu than on the entire Big Island of Hawaii, despite that island being roughly three times the size of all of Oahu!

The population and popularity of Oahu for business types and Maui for college types means you can expect to pay steep prices for everything on these islands. A trip to Hawaii’s Big Island is much more reasonable, and there’s a lot more breathing room too. Of course, some might point out that Hawaii’s Big Island is the location of two active volcanoes and the center of some of the worst earthquakes and tsunamis in the history of the island chain, suggesting that that is why not as many people visit it.

Accommodations

Hotel prices give potential tourists nightmares. Even with an all-inclusive trip, these costs can really add up.

Good thing we live in an age of real estate entrepreneurs. Plenty of mainlanders want to retire to Hawaii.  And they have bought up condos with that goal in mind. To pay off the mortgage, they rent out their real estate to visitors while they’re off island. Paying for a week in a condo is often ¾ or less of the price of staying in a hotel!

These are a few of the different ways you can save money when you are thinking about traveling to Hawaii. With a little bit of foresight and some flexibility, you can cut the costs of a tropical vacation in half!

Snorkel

It’s hard to believe the variety of sea life in the warm waters off of the sandy beaches until you get in yourself. Reef fish of all varieties swim around incredible coral formations. You’ll see puffer fish, pencil fish, rainbows and many more. You’ll also see turtles, anemones and, if you’re really lucky, a dolphin or two. Make sure you buy cheap snorkelling gear at a chain store, otherwise you might get taken for an extra buck or two.

Fish

Hawaii is the avid angler’s dream. There are no regulations in the waters of the Pacific off of the Big Island’s coast, and you can catch dozens of different fish. Barracuda, shark, and marlin are among the most exciting. If you do hook a big marlin though, make sure you cancel your plans for the next three days. It might take a whole day just to land it … and two more to recover!

Surf

It’s Hawaii and that, of course, means surfing. Banyans, Ke’ei, and Kahalu’s are three of the best spots. Here you are less likely to find any of the territorial surfers who can make hitting the waves in some of Hawaii’s best spots a real downer.

Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park

This is definitely a don’t-miss. We’ve touched on it lightly in another article and will go into more detail in a shorter one, but the most popular destination in the state can’t be left off of a “top things to do” list!

World Botanical Gardens

These botanical gardens are perfect for the person who loves natural flora and fauna.  They feature a long hiking trail through various cultivated gardens, containing hundreds of species of native and non native tropical plants. You’ll also see dozens of varieties of tropical birds and butterflies. It’s a good idea to have a bird guide book with you so you can match names to your photographs later!

Pacific Tsunami Museum

Dedicated to the two tsunamis which have ravaged the east coast of the Island in the last 100 years, this is a great place for those who love science and also like to feel a little rush of fear. It might be best to save this visit for the last days of your vacation!

Black Sand Beaches

These are common, cool, and even a little bit creepy. It’s hard to believe that anything that color could actually feel like sand, but it does!

Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park

If you wanted to escape a death sentence  a century ago, this is the place you would flee to. Today, it’s a historic monument off of one of the best snorkeling areas to be found on the Big Island.

All of those reasons for attending a luau are strong, but what most of us really picture at these gatherings are mounds of savory foods and thirst (and consciousness) quenching drinks.

The reality of today’s Hawaiian luau is that for many resorts and hotels, it presents a great way to make a lot of money without a lot of expense. One area that you might see expenses cut is the very area which attracts most people to luaus – the food. Before you pay the (often exorbitant) cost of attending a luau, check to see what’s on the menu. Here are some things you will want served.

Meat

You will have pork, that’s a guarantee. You need to make sure that the pig roast is done in such a way as to make the end product palatable. Specifically, make sure you see that teriyaki sauce has been added. Poriou, in her wisdom, has declared this sauce acceptable at Hawaiian religious feasts, recognizing that without it, roast pig just tastes like smoke.

Chicken is also usually on the menu. Chicken’s pretty good any way it’s prepared, but again, look for some variety. Some combination of everyone’s favorite white meat, teriyaki sauce (again!) and pineapple makes for a great topping on a dish of rice.

Did someone say shish kabobs? They better have, if you are paying $40 per person! Pork and chicken marinated in teriyaki between slices of vegetables and pineapple (again! Yay!) had better be on that list.

You would think that with the availability of fish, there would be more of it, and more varieties, served at a luau. However, aside from ahi tuna there aren’t many delectable offerings from the sea at a luau. If all there is on the menu is salmon, look somewhere else.

Fruits and Vegetables

If meat’s not your game, you want to pay SEVERE attention to the fruits and vegetables included at the luau before you pay. There are not too many of these, and what passes for traditional Hawaiian vegetables are unsatisfying, to say the least.

Don’t pay up if all you see as far as veggies are purple yams and poi. You won’t be able to fill up on either, we guarantee it.

Beverages

Okay, here is where a LOT of luaus will fool the unwary tourist. Alcohol is a big part of the traditional luau, and most will advertise an open bar. What they don’t tell you about is the lack of variety at that open bar.

Sure, all you can drink Mai Tai cocktails and Budweiser might work for some, but let’s face it: when you’re in Hawaii, you want pina coladas. Most of the time, though, this quintessential tropical drink is left off the bar’s chart. Because this can be the main “hook” offered by a resort luau, make sure you ask what drinks are actually served before you pony up the cash!

First, while they were able to use the brands we were used to for some ingredients, for other ingredients they were not.  If you’ve done much cooking with spices, you probably know that they differ slightly from brand to brand.  Next time you are at the store, compare cinnamon or garlic powder from different brands.  You may notice that they have a slightly different shade or a different granular consistency.  Using a teaspoon of either in a recipe, you might not notice a difference in taste.  But when you multiply that by 30,000, the difference becomes exaggerated and you notice a BIG taste difference.

This meant we would have to alter our kitchen recipe slightly in order to get the taste to match our homemade recipe that all our friends and family have come to know and love.  So, we would enlist those same friends and family to help us test each batch that came back from the co-packer.

Hmmm, free teriyaki samples?  They were lining up at our door to become part of our taste testing team!

It did take quite a few modifications and, with each iteration, a taste testing with our friends.  The formula was tweaked a little bit each time, but we finally got it where we wanted it.  It was a product we would be proud to call Truly Hawaiian Teriyaki Sauce.

What’s more, it was a product my dad would be proud to serve his family and friends.  And that was important to us.

OK, so the formula was ready, we just needed an order to get started.  But how much would they order?  Would we start with our gallon size for the Meat and Seafood counter or our 12 oz retail bottle?  At our next meeting with The Fresh Market, that decision was made for us.

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We decided on Braswell’s Foods in Statesboro, GA.  They were the right size for us and could handle the smaller quantities we would need starting out.  When I say small quantities, I mean they would be making our sauce in 300 gallon batches.  That was a bit more than we were able to make in our kitchen!

Once we decided on Braswell’s we immediately begin the process of transferring our recipe that made about 30 ounces to their process that would make 300 gallons at a time.  So, just multiply each measurement, right?  Not so easy…

In my next post, we learn food math, and why multiplying a teaspoon by 30,000 just doesn’t work.

In fact, they agreed to co-brand the product.  We would enroll in their private label program, which generates many of The Fresh Market’s labeled products, but still carry our name on the bottle as well.  It is such a blessing to have this kind of exposure with such a prestigious store.  We are truly gracious for this great opportunity. (If you’re not familiar with The Fresh Market, I urge you to, at a minimum, visit their site and learn more about them.  Better yet, find a store near you and visit them for the total experience.)

And the news got even better.  As an added bonus from our cutting, we discovered that the Meat and Seafood department was interested in our sauce as their new teriyaki marinade.  This was a development we had not foreseen.  Basically, the butcher department superbly offers marinated meats, like chicken and steak, ready for purchase — for us it could mean chicken breasts and/ or kabobs. This meant we would need to produce the sauce in gallon-size containers in addition to our retail bottle.

So we had to start down a new path of learning how to produce and pack our sauce in gallon-size containers.  While we had toyed with the idea of somehow finding a kitchen and producing the sauce ourselves, it was becoming clear that it was time to find some help.  The next step was to begin looking for a “co-packer”, that is, someone who could take our recipe, mass produce it, and bottle and ship it to our new customer.

Let me tell you, that was quite a process….

Everyone began to sample, choosing their favorite foods.  There were lots of good questions and lots of good feedback.  Many commented on the smoky and sweet flavor of our sauce that makes it so unique.  We discussed other foods that it might be good on, including some I had never tried.  But then, that’s why these guys are highly successful “in the business”.  We also discussed other products we could produce as derivative products.  A glaze was one that really piqued our interest.  We had made a family “gravy” in the past by thickening the sauce with a rue, which works quite nicely on other food items that don’t allow the sauce to penetrate (so, more like a thicker sauce topping).

Another great idea was a low sodium version.  While our teriyaki sauce has no more sodium than any other soy sauce based product, it is, by its very nature, a little high in sodium for some that need to monitor their intake for medical reasons.

All in all, I’d say it went well.  We got some really great feedback and ideas and, most importantly, the top brass found no “show stopping” reasons not to proceed.  So on we went.

Next post:  we announce our deal and the grocery chain that would become the first home for Truly Hawaiian Teriyaki sauce.