Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1893-09-02
LEARNING 10 EAT pol.
Acquiring n Taste for tho National Dainty
OF the Sandwich Islands.

OF the Sandwich Islands,
At your first meal says letter from
Hawaii you inquire hungrily for poi,
and there is brought you u little
wooden bowl or calabash containing n
queer-loolIing grayish sticky compound
resembling paper hangers paste. You
regard it askance, and ask for u spoon,
but are told it is to be eaten with the
| fingers.
"Why, no one could take that stuff
up in their tingers" you gasp.
80, yes, just see" and into com
panion calabash your instructor dips
two fingers, and with twirl, only ac-
quired by long practice, withdraws
them loaded with the compound, which
is at once transferred to his mouth and
swallowed, his couutenanco assuming
meantime an expression of beatifed
epicureanism. You do not know what
expression may have taken its abode
upon your visage, but you know your
principal sensation is one of simon
pure horror.
Now, you try it." says Epicurus.
Tentatively you thrust one finger into
the mess and gather up a minute dose
it toward your mouth your nose takes
cognizance of a sour smell that har-
monizes perfectly with the appearance
of the poi. You close your eyes, and,
mentally breathing forth a devout
ejaculation, open your mouth and suck
the poi from your tingerc. BY a sublime
effort of will you keep your lips closed
over the mouthful, while your compan-
ion looks on interestedly, evidently eX-
pecting to hear your palate scream with
delight. Meanwhile your imagination
is working with lightning speed. The
poi is cold and clammy. The poi tastes
like stale yeast; it stings your tongue,
and an unutterable disgust possesses
your soul. You are sure you are goiNg
to choke, though you know you dare
not, and you tiguratively take yourself
by the throat and force yourself to
swallow the compound. You can trace
its progress through the eSophagus by
the mortified shudder that organ gives
as the mouthful passes along it; you
can hear the Will in your stomach
shrek as the frog-lille lump makes its
appearance among b en-, and you think
you are going to die tnen and there.
Don you like it?" your hear some one
say. You struggle back to conscious
ness and murmur your fear that you
are not educated to such high point
of taste.
so, never mind" is the consoling
reply. You'll be so fond of it in a day
or two You can't keep house without it. ''
You know better than that, but you
IL Il.
But if you would leave the islands
with a conscience untainted by poi you
must hold to your resolution to alb.
stain from tasting the stuff again. This
will be difficult to do. You will see all
your acquaintances dipping into their
calabashes and hear them eXpa!iatinq
on the delights of poi, and you begin
to aspire to taste again. You think
about it by day and by night, and al
last you venture. You take another
step along the downward pathway
As the poet has so touchingly described
you first endure. then pity, then EN-
brace" the calabash.
Poi is dish that must long remain
peculiar to the Hawaiian islands-al
ways, in fact, unless some means are
| 1DiIb ~ GU lbI VI IoNA ing lilO ~ llltJ ~
will stand export. Poi is made from
taro, a root resembling the turnip. Il
grows in the water, with large, hand
some, green leaf, and it is almost
tasteless. There is also an UPLAND
taro cultivated in the mountains by
the natives which has a more de
cided taste, and which, as | Learned
to my cost on tasting it raw, bites the
throat like horseradish. The low tarC
is the chief vegetable in the island. anC
in early days constituted the native.
principal crop. When cooked it as
sumes a mottled gray and white ap
pearance very like the lava rock tina
abounds every where in the islands. Th
process of manufacturing the poi
quite lengthy one. A great hole i
dug in the ground, and into this tn
taro roots are placed around piles o
hot stones. The earth is then heape,
over the place and the taro left t
steam. When the taro is thorough,
cooked, which operation often take
several hours, the roots are dug on
again, peeled, and put into huge ston
, receptacle, in which they are pounde
to pulp. This work is performed b
the men. 1t is an arduous task, an
on a hot day (and nearly all days ar
hot on the islands) the pounding of pc
5 is Il scene over which it is desirable t
/ draw u veil. The poi FOUNDER not onl
S earns his bread by the sweat of hi
$ brow, but mixes it as well'largely wit
that fluid.
+ The ''poi of commerce" is now mad
r by machinery. The natives, how
e ever, still make their own. Whe
the mass is thoroughly beaten an
J. smooth it is mixed with water to tn
}. proper consistency, about like goo
e thick paste, strained through coars
y cloth, and set away for two or thre
days, until it begins to ferment, whe
it is ready to be eaten. 1t then taste
r little like buttermill, and is very NJ
q tritious and wholesome. The native
: eat it by the gallon. Give the averag
Il | potiva a biu NOT nf moi half a dove