Rachel Laudan

Cover Thanksgiving Luau

After my post on the invention of the tourist luau, Henry Voigt (who has a wonderful collection of menus that was written up in Gastronomica) sent me scans of this luau menu and asked for some background.

The story behind it is so poignant, it has had me gripped all day.  I’m simply going to tell it here without commentary and without placing it in a more general history of the luau.  I’ll leave that for another post.

On July 7th 1898 President McKinley signed a resolution ordering that Hawaii, then an independent kingdom, be annexed as a territory of the United States.  The news arrived in Hawaii a week later, to the delight of the annexationists (mainly Americans) and the despair of the native Hawaiians.

On August 12th, the transfer of power took place. In Honolulu American troops marched to Iolani Palace (the Hawaiian name). The resolution was read. The Hawaii anthem “Hawaii Ponoi” was played for the last time as the anthem of an independent nation and  the Hawaiian flag was lowered.  The Stars and Stripes was raised and “The Star Spangled Banner” played.

The Pacific Commercial Advertizer reported. “To the Hawaiian  born it was pathetic. As the last strain of Hawaii Ponoi trembled out of hearing, the wind suddenly held itself back.  The Hawaiian flag as it left the truck dropped and folded, and descended lifeless.  The American flag climbed slowly on its halyards, and just as it reached the truck, the trade wind breaking from its airy leash, caught it in its arms, and rolled it out to its full measure.”

The First New York Volunteers had arrived in Honolulu being cheered on by the American public that gathered at railroad stations all the way from New York to San Francisco where they had embarked for the islands and their post in the shadow of Diamond Head at one end of Waikiki beach.

Private Booth wrote home “The natives are a funny lot, half negro half malay they are intelligent and honest.”

I suppose NY Volunteers were then sent to the Big Island (Hawaii) for R & R.  There  C.C. Kennedy and Laura Kennedy invited the officers and men to a Thanksgiving luau at Waiakea Plantation, one of the big sugar plantations on the windward side of the island.  They thought it sufficiently important to have this menu printed.

C.C. Kennedy was the manager, with a reputation for being  charitable, kindly and strict with the workers (mainly Portuguese and Japanese at this stage).  Managers were the powerful and wealthy on that part of the island, so distant from Honolulu. His wife Laura Kennedy was parks commissioner, and used her own money to convert the old Hawaiian fish ponds in Hilo into Lili’uokalani Park.

The men at least must have looked forward to the luau because as Private Booth reported earlier from Honolulu.

We are not allowed much liberty so when we do get our we generally look for some fun or some one that can give us a feed as our food has been something fierce since we have been here. We steal all we can but but the Colonel has gotten on to our racket and has put mounted guards on all the roads leading from camp.

Luau Menu

Here’s what they had at the plantation.  The menu is in Hawaiian on the left, in English on the right and it consisted of

Fish from the fish ponds

Pig wrapped in Ti leaves

Sweet potatoes

Breadfruit

Beef

Kukui nut (this would have been ground with salt to make a relish)

Rolls

Turkey

Poi

Kulolo (translated as Hawaiian pudding, coconut milk and taro mixed to a solid paste, very good)

Fruits

Soda Water

Lemonade

As I said, it’s so poignant to think of those New York boys sitting in one of the most remote spots on earth, Hilo, Hawaii, eating a Thanksgving luau of largely Hawaiian foods in the wake of the annexation of the islands.