Pickle loves lau lau!

It's one of my very favorite foods. Pork & luau leaf & Hawaiian salt. That's it! Don't mess with my lau lau by adding coconut milk or butterfish. No need! Peanut had been hearing about lau lau for years, but didn't get to try it until we came back home here. Of course, it had to be "made", Peanut wanted the full experience. Aunty let us come over and we had a small-scale lau lau workshop. I hadn't made lau lau since my ho`olaule`a in the 70's. It was fun & delicious.

I'll buy lau lau from select vendors like: a former co-worker who has a ex-caterer for a Daddy. I even buy from the man in Waimanalo who sells "hot" lau lau on the weekends. I do not care for the lau lau at any major Hawaiian restaurant....it's the butterfish that kills it for me. As you can imagine, I don't get enough lau lau.

So Peanut, having one lau lau demo, starts making little batches. A bag of luau leaves from Times....few pounds of fresh pork...I gotta say, the taste was perfect. (Peanut makes a mean squid luau too, just so you know).

Recently, instead of making a bunch of little ones & steaming them forever, Peanut made a big lau lau and roasted it in the toaster oven! Just enough water in the pan to keep it moist. It was amazing. I shared it with Monkey (my sister). I ate a pound of poi with it I couldn't stop.

Thank you Peanut, for loving & respecting Hawaiian food as much as you do.