The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1893-09-02
LEARNING TO EAT POI.
Acquiring n Taste for the National DaiBt
Of the Sandwich Islands.


Acquiring Taste for the National Daipt,
OF the Sandwich Islands.
At your first meal, says letter from
Hawaii you inquire hungrily for poi,
and there is brought you little
wooden bowl or calabash containing a
queef-looking grayish sticky compound
resembling paper-hanger's paste. You
regard 1t askance, and ask for a spoon,
but are told it is to be eaten with the
fingers.
why, no one could take that stuff
up in their fngers!' you gasp.
80, yes, just see," and into com,
panion calabash your instructor dips
two fingers, and with a twirl. only ac.
quired by long practice, withdraws
them loaded with the compound, which
Is at once transferred to his mouth and
swallowed, his countenance assuming
meantime an expression of beatified
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 int
the mess and gather up minute dose
of the delectable Wand. AS you raise
1T toward your mouth your nose takes
cognizance of a sour smell that har.
monies perfectly with the appearances
of the poi. You close your eyes, and
mentally breathing forth u devout
ejaculation, open your mouth and suck
the poi from your fingers. BY 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 fguratively 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
r can hear the Will in your stomach
shrek as the frog-lille lump makes it.
! appearance among hem, and you thinl
!. you are going to die then and there
. "Don'tyou like it?" your hear some one
say. You struggle back to conscious
: ness and murmur your fear that yor
are not educated to such high point
. of taste.
= 30, never mind" is the consoline
}. reply. you'll be so fond of it in day
' or two you can keep house without it. >
l. You know better than that, but Vol
: offer no contradiction to the assertion
!. . But if you would leave the island.
. with conscience untainted by poi yor
n must hold to your resolution to alb
l. stain from tasting the stuff again. Thi.
!. will be difficult to do. You will see al
/. your acquaintances dipping into theil
/ calabashes and hear them expatiatine
!. on the delights of poi, and you begir
q to aspire to taste again. You thinl
t about it by day and by night, and a
o last you venture. You take another
r step along the downward pathway
i: AS the poet has so touchingly described
Il "You first endure, then pity, then EN-
$ brace" the calabash.
o Poi is dish that must long remai1
- = peculiar to the Hawaiian islands-al
le ways, in fact, unless some means ar
'r contrived for preserving taro so that i
70 will stand export. Poi is made from
"a taro, root resembling the turnip. /
N grows in the water, with large, hand
4. some, green leaf, and it is almos
q tasteless. There is also an uplant
y. taro cultivated in the mountains b,
d the natives which has a more de
cided taste, and which, as l Learned
). to my cost on tasting it raw, bites th,
!. throat like horseradish. The low tar,
IT is the chief vegetable in the island, ant
10 in early days constituted the native.
n n principal crop. When cooked it as
1' sumes a notified gray and white ap
l. pearance very like the lava rock tina
10 abounds every where in the islands. Th,
10 process of manufacturing the poi i
70 quite lengthy one. A great hole i
" dug in the ground, and into this tn
N taro roots are placed around piles O
= not stones. The earth is then heape,
- over the place and the taro left t,
10 steam. When the taro is thoroughly
20 cooked, which operation often take.
several hours, the roots are dug ou
d, again, peeled, and put into huge ston
b receptacle, in which they are pounde,
q to a pulp. This work is performed b.
>. the men. 1t is an arduous task, an,
I'd On a hot day land nearly all days ar
hot on the islands) the pounding of pc
ID is a scene over which it is desira BILE t.
TX lraw veil. The poi FOUNDER not onl
ID ID earns his bread by the sweat of hi
Of brow. but mixes it as we'll largely wit,
" that fluid.
% The ''poi of commerce" is now mad
~ ~ by machinery. The natives, how
1e ever. still make their own. Whe
r. the mass is thoroughly beaten an
IN smooth it is mixed with water to tn
ID ID proper consistency, about like goo
thick paste, strained through a coars
I'd cloth, and set away for two or thre
10 days, until it begins to ferment, whe
os Us 1t is ready to be eaten. 1t then taste
" little like buttermilk, and is very nj
h, tritious and wholesome. The native
81. eat it by the gallon. Give the ayerag
- native a big pot of poi, half doze
al raw fish, and bottle of gin, and yo
II. may have the kingdom and the rest G
ID the earth as we'll. He will squat upo
"a "a the ground, break the head off one G
no the fish, take bite from it's raw side
i'd pack it in a mouthful of poi, and was
y, the whole down with swallow of cir
" and repeat the process until all hav
ed disappeared.