page_title: Native cuisine of Hawaii
section_title: Ingredients
hierarchical_section_title: Native cuisine of Hawaii / Ingredients
caption_attribution_description: Pandanus tectorius fruit
context_page_description: Native Hawaiian cuisine is based on the traditional Hawaiian foods that predate contact with Europeans and immigration from East and Southeast Asia. The earliest Polynesian seafarers are believed to have arrived on the Hawaiian Islands in 300–500 AD. Few edible plants were indigenous to Hawaiʻi aside from a few ferns and fruits that grew at higher elevations. Various food-producing plants were introduced to the island by migrating Polynesian peoples.
  Botanists and archaeologists believe that these voyagers introduced anywhere from 27 to more than 30 plants to the islands, mainly for food. The most important of them was taro. For centuries, taro—and the poi made from it—was the main staple of the Hawaiian diet, and it is still much loved. ʻUala and yams were also planted. The Marquesans, the first settlers from Polynesia, brought ʻulu and the Tahitians later introduced the baking banana. Settlers from Polynesia also brought coconuts and sugarcane. ʻAwa is also a traditional food among Hawaiians. Breadfruit, sweet potato, kava, and heʻe are associated with the four major Hawaiian gods: Kāne, Kū, Lono and Kanaloa.
  Fish, shellfish, and limu are abundant in Hawai’i.
context_section_description: Tī (Cordyline fruticosa) is a Polynesian plant harvested when mature for its sweet starchy rhizomes. They were eaten as food or as medicine, and the leaves were used to thatch the roofs of houses and to wrap and store food. Leaves were also used to make items of clothing, including skirts worn in dance performances. The Hawaiian hula skirt is a dense skirt with an opaque layer of at least 50 green leaves and the bottom (top of the leaves) shaved flat. Māʻuluʻulu).
  Taro
  Sweet potato
  Purple yam
  Breadfruit
  Hawaiian salt, including sea salt and mineral salt colored pink by particles of volcanic red clay. It is used to season dishes such as kalua, poke, and pipikaula (Hawaiian jerky)
  Cyanea angustifolia, wrapped in ti (kī) leaves, cooked in an ʻimu and eaten in times of food scarcity by early Hawaiians.
  Hala, the fruit of Pandanus tectorius
  Two kinds of opihi (limpets)
  Kukui (candlenut)
caption: Hala, the fruit of the Pandanus tectorius tree
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