Chef Makoa
Kālua Moa (Hawaiian Imu-Smoked Chicken)
Hawaiʻi's kālua moa is the smaller cousin to the whole imu pig: salted chicken wrapped in ti leaf, cooked low until the meat pulls soft, with enough juice for rice and poi.
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Chef Makoa
Kālua Puaʻa (Hawaiian Imu-Roasted Pork)
Hawaiʻi's kālua puaʻa, salted and wrapped in ti leaf, then cooked low and slow until it pulls apart glossy, smoky, and ready for the whole table.
Chef Makoa
Faʻi Umu (Sāmoan Green Bananas Cooked in the Umu)
Sāmoa's faʻi umu is the starch of the hot-stone oven: green bananas baked in their own skins until tender, peeled warm, and eaten with fresh peʻepeʻe.
Chef Makoa
Laulau (Hawaiian Pork and Salted Butterfish in Lūʻau Leaf)
Hawaiʻi's deep leaf bundle: pork and salted butterfish wrapped in lūʻau leaf, sealed in ti, and cooked slow until the taro leaf turns silky and the meat gives.
Chef Makoa
Umu Moa (Sāmoan Hot-Stone Whole Chicken)
Sāmoa's umu moa, whole chicken salted plain and cooked over hot stones stacked above ground, then brought home with banana leaf, tight wrapping, and patient oven heat.
Chef Makoa
ʻUmu Puaka (Tongan Earth-Oven Pig)
Tonga's Sunday pō pig, salted plain and laid over hot stones in the ʻumu until the meat goes soft, glossy, and ready for the whole kāinga.
Chef Makoa
Umukai (Cook Islands Earth-Oven Feast)
Pork, chicken, taro, rukau, kūmara and breadfruit laid in the Cook Islands umukai, sealed under leaf and earth until the meat pulls glossy and the canoe crops go sweet.
Chef Makoa
Ahimaʻa Puaʻa (Tahitian Earth-Oven Pork)
Tahitian puaʻa cooked in the spirit of the ahimaʻa, the earth oven of maʻa Tahiti, wrapped in banana leaf and held low and slow until the meat gives in two fingers.
Chef Makoa
Hāngī (Māori Pit-Oven Pork and Root Vegetables)
Aotearoa's Māori hāngī: pork, chicken, kūmara, potato, and pumpkin lowered over hot stones until the meat pulls soft and the roots drink in the earth-oven richness.
Chef Makoa
Umukai Ika me Mei (Marquesan Earth-Oven Fish and Breadfruit)
In the Marquesas, the hot-stone umukai feeds the table with reef fish, mei, the breadfruit kin, banana leaf, coconut, and the patient heat of the old oven.
Chef Makoa
Umu ʻUlu (Sāmoan Earth-Oven Whole Breadfruit)
Whole Sāmoan ʻulu cooked in the umu until the skin chars black and the flesh goes golden and soft. One ocean, one canoe, one root, brought home to the table.
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