I’ m at Capitol Modern, formerly known as the Hawaii State Art Museum. Outside, vendors are selling food and crafts and there’ s hula dancing in the Sculpture Garden under string lights.

This scene is one of the monthly First Friday events— a celebration of local art, food and music held across Honolulu’ s Chinatown district. I walk past a man selling poke bowls and kalua pig nachos, and head instead to the Nui Kealoha table for lau lau— an ancient Hawaiian dish made by wrapping pork, fish and taro leaves in ti leaves, then steaming it. Traditionally, lau lau was prepared in an underground oven, but these days it’ s cooked in a steamer pot on the stove. Nui Kealoha is the museum’ s inhouse catering company, owned by Kealoha Domingo, a Native Hawaiian chef who’ s traveled around the world sharing authentic Hawaiian dishes.

“ I’ ve fallen into the role of representing Indigenous food from the Hawaii perspective,” Kealoha says.“ It’ s not really the way I was brought up. You know, local style is just be humble and do what you do. But I also realized that if I don’ t step up to the plate, some other people could and they may not be telling the story that I feel is accurate.”

The roots of Hawaiian cuisine is the story Kealoha is referring to. It’ s one based on

seafood, seaweed and the crops the first Polynesian settlers brought over by canoe— known as‘ canoe crops’ in Hawaii. Kealoha’ s menus center around examples such as taro, breadfruit, sweet potato and coconut. He is a founding member of the Indigenous Global Chefs Collective, and stresses the importance of respecting the sanctity of each other’ s native foods, even if you dislike the taste. An example in Hawaii is poi, which is made by pounding taro— a crop, grown in places like Kalalau Valley, that Hawaiians hold in the highest regard and consider an ancestor. Many visitors try poi for the first time at a hotel luau( a Hawaiianthemed feast and cultural show) and are turned off by its gooey texture, but it’ s a staple food on the island.

Kealoha explains that poi is traditionally served in a large communal bowl. Everyone shares it, scooping it up with two fingers, and thinks positive thoughts, which they believe transfers through the food. He reminds people to be open-minded when trying it for the first time.“ That’ s one of the keystone pieces of our food culture,” he says.

Back inside the museum’ s lobby, one of Kealoha’ s employees scoops cups of kava out of a communal bowl. The sacred drink is made by mixing a root of the same name with water. In the Pacific islands it’ s

Clockwise from top: Waikiki Beach and the Diamond Head volcano in Honolulu; getting ready to surf at Halawa Park; Hawaiian poke bowl Previous pages, from left: Surfboards lined up at Waikiki Beach; poke bowl ingredients

images: Hawaii Tourism Authority( HTA); stockfood

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