This year at the Punahou Carnival my husband and I were sophomore co chairs of the Hawaiian Plate. We along with 7 other co chairs, and many volunteers helped produce and sell approximately 4700 plates of Hawaiian food over two days.
The plate consisted of a Lau Lau , Lomi Lomi Salmon (a condiment made of salted salmon,tomato, green and white onion), poi (Steamed mashed taro), white rice, haupia (coconut pudding), sweet potatoes, and pineapple spears.
Here is a little bit of what it took to pull this off.
We actually put about three hours worth of prep the night before. We chopped the tomatoes and onions, and washed the potatoes.
The many volunteers chopping onions.
Okinawan Sweet Potatoes scrubbed and ready to steam.
The next morning we started about three hours before serving.
We mixed and portioned the lomi lomi salmon.
We mixed and portioned the poi.
We sliced the steamed potatoes, steamed the Lau Lau (purchased from an outside vendor), cooked the rice and portioned the pineapple (purchased already sliced).
Rice was kept warm in coolers.
Then we were ready to serve.
Steaming hot Lau Lau.
Customers lined up out of and all the way around the building at times throughout the day.
The final product.
A good time was had by all even though it was a lot of hard work, there was a big sense of ohana (family) as we enjoyed the fetes of our labor and great Hawaiian music.
