Preserving Hawaiian Culture: How To Build The Traditional Hawaiian Imu

Preserving Hawaiian Culture: How To Build The Traditional Hawaiian Imu. On June 4th 2016 Habilitat Hawaii presents the largest family luau in the state of Hawaii at Kualoha Ranch.
Preparing to feed 2000 people takes a lot of work. Habilitat participants created a giant underground oven traditionally known as an Imu. A full ton of pork was placed in the ground and cooked overnight to prepare for the huge event.
The entire traditional process was done by Habilitat participants in an effort to perpetuate Hawaiian Culture. Caputured here, from start to completion, this traditional cooking method has been used for thousands of years by Polynesians for various celebrations.
Habilitat is a 501c3 non profit located in Kaneohe Hawaii. "Build Better People, Not Better Prisons." America's Foremost Addiction Treatment Center. We get results when all else fails.
www.habilitat.com
/ habilitat
Music used with permission from Mark Nelson at mark-o.com

[@jeffmeyer3195]

Been on the Big Island for almost two years and my new favorite meal is this kind of pork with rice and cabbage and hawaiian chili pepper water...da best!!

[@lizardhierophant8293]

Good god! Could you imagine doing this without any technology? Big up to your ancestors!

[@flex2of4]

Maybe because we do it every week still, it seems much simpler. Same basic principles as our Hawaiian people, but much easier. At the end of the day, both the UMU and the IMU produce great food. CheeeeHooo!

[@conz8089]

Braah! I made some imu's in my day.. but braddahs you guys must be holding some kind of record cuz that is one BIG friggen IMU. Cheeehu🤘

[@Tera4m]

Nothing like the taste of scorched Earth. Much love from Aotearoa

[@fionaokeefe1906]

Terra Form you mean New Zealand🇳🇿

[@cesstaplin8249]

No Fiona he ment AOTEAROA..

[@Allaaanu]

Glad to be born and raised Hawaii🤙🏼

[@ArmandoDy]

From Oahu, and I live in Texas now, and even I think that is ONE BIG IMU. L.M.A.O. I did one with Mesquite wood over here, and it is NOT the same. I use pineapple juice and brown sugar, and some shoyu on it. MAHALO.

[@donnabotelho2195]

Give them credit for all the hard work they do for kalua pig🤙🏽🌺😎

[@bdumlao817]

Imu Style Kalua pig is always the best. Taste is awesome. Keep the roots alive. Cheeehooo! 🤙🏼

[@islandfantasy5931]

Back in 2005 I when help my cousin make imu for hotel luau. We used a backhoe to dig a 30 foot long imu. It was 6 feet wide and 3 feet deep. Pig, goat, lamb, Turkey, lau lau, kulolo, sweet potatoes, ulu and beef. Idk the exact pounds of meat we put inside the imu. The hotel had 2 chilled 40 foot shipping containers full of meat. It was a 3 day process. Not including gathering banana stomp/leaf, pohaku and t leaf.

[@cfonz21]

Me ke aloha pumehana..Kamakakoa!! Aloha Aina, oka aina, Aloha piha!

[@dakahulaz59]

Hawaiian... awesome job! One ting wit da plate when you guys chop chop, if da buggah broke das trouble fo da meat, glass inside or cut and bleed da hand...make stainless paddles or use empty corn can. Mahalo for da vid!!!

[@magicmakerify]

Da Kahulaz i agree. Theres a kitchen tool u can use i forgot the name.

[@hawaiiboy2826]

Agree too the plate is for the Filipino lechon small not this big kine operation

[@matthewreese6464]

Great video. Such a huge operation!

[@braddahangel]

Dat one unko who knows everything! LoL 💙🤙🏽cheee

[@peggyannparkes1863]

Just like I remember it. Delicious!!!

[@islandfantasy5931]

The plate is used to brake down the kalua pig. I'm sure there's a utensil that can give the same results but that's his style. Everyone has a different technique. I prefer to not chop up the meat into small chunks with a cleaver. I love to leave it stringy. My family when we make Imu we use forks and thongs to shred the meat. When ever we used a whole pig we never had a problem with blood. Maybe the butcher didn't let the blood drain long enough.

[@mamoochie7392]

absolutely massive mate

[@13ou812]

thank you for posting,got blessed

[@HighLow_Milo]

Looks delicious!

[@vkirisome4701]

Before the white man brought wire and air blowers what did the Hawaiian actually used?

[@tumeke4328]

I'm thinking they would of put the food in hand made baskets and used banana leaf to fan the fire

[@bronsonmohika1988]

What else can u use besides banana leafs to cover?

[@davidlewis3072]

making an emu and cooking the food - the true spirit of Laulima....

[@nathanlam9884]

That's one thing we dont like using wires it makes the meat have a funny taste and I wouldn't trust it cause it has chemicals that slowly release into the food! They need to do it the traditional way not the modern way.

[@ahoosifoou4211]

yup

[@biggrthnablak1682]

Contamination gets burnt off before they use it

[@hawaiianstorm]

You need to burn the chicken wire first before using it like drum smokers... they are galvanized with zinc which it's toxic and creates that funny taste... just burn the wires on the Imu before you use them to burn the zinc off of new wire and to also sterilize previously used wires.

[@alrod7ify]

Sup from new Jersey! What part of pig you guys using?? Pork shoulders(pernil) and pork butt?? Looks kool as hell .one day I want to make this.

[@angien3839]

wow I never seen an umu that huge, were you guys feeding a whole island.....

[@prankster671]

angie ngatamariki ... imu...umu is Tongan/Samoan

[@Take12save1]

My high school has a bigger pit then this one... it only feeds my town

[@omggiiirl2077]

@@prankster671 no we understand, we use umu in certain parts of the Island group.

[@Tera4m]

In NZ, we use hangi baskets

[@jacobeksor6088]

I’m Montagnards indigenous I went to Mexico I saw they did the same way like this some time I saw pies of dirt on the meat .

[@reasonrally6658]

GREAT JOB..GREAT VIDEO BOYS CHEE HOO!! ALOHA!! :)

[@zeahmanaia757]

You people make something so easy look so complicated...lol come to fiji tonga or samoa will show you how it done....by utilising whats around u....

[@cerberus2654]

👏👏👏🙄

[@KANAKA_4LIFE]

They teaching at the same time das y.....all your guys comments is killin me. Everybody get their own way of doing the imu... always get characters with stupid comments on KZbin.

[@franheta6260]

No eat the poaka straight away, chilling in the fridge when it's best eaten fresh off the stones.... I'm guessing the stones to meat ratio didn't equate to it looking slightly under done and slicing the meat with a plate? I'm not criticizing.

[@biggrthnablak1682]

Shuttup women

[@MariaGonzalez-no9te]

Mahalo 🤙🌺

[@magicmakerify]

In marshallese we call it Umuum

[@dereckkami8200]

I cant even get my friends to help me with the dishes...

[@ASIDBOB]

Did you forget the Hawaiian salt ?

[@AlexRides808]

Chickens in the coop wondering if their time is up.

[@jasonvieira222]

Looks like came out winnahs!

[@SomeUrbanNinja]

Where did the meat go? was it some kind of fund raiser?

[@HabilitatHawaii]

SomeUrbanNinja this whole effort was for Habilitat’s annual Luau, Auction and Benefit Concert, a fundraiser for the island’s largest addiction treatment center.

[@tamarakennedy4976]

Dont use ceramic or porcelin or stoneware plates or you will chip pieces off into da meat.

[@yeboscrebo4451]

Seems like theres gotta be an easier way

[@mr.dontcare6934]

Not one Hawaiian in site lol!!!

[@KANAKA_4LIFE]

Gotta open you maka's....🤦‍♂️

[@michaelbauers8800]

What is purpose to wet burlap?

[@HabilitatHawaii]

Steam!

[@HighLow_Milo]

HabilitatHawaii do you use salt water or fresh water for the burlap?

[@siredward2146]

All the men was watching to learn how to wrap the pork in wire then the picture changes and the women are doing it, typical.

[@johndon2049]

This the blind leading the blind. These guys don't know what they are doing.

[@yuphengvue5503]

I thought it is pronounce umu not emu or imu

[@aaron6901]

Imu=Hawaiian Umu=samoan/tongan Both is the same. Underground oven

[@gequitz]

Hope none of that food went to waste

[@thuggyboots3602]

Samoans make the best umu crispy and tender’ this is like steamed grey meat 🤮

[@inutskedyafada]

Been eating it this way for over 30 years and ive never had steamed grey meat🤷‍♂️ you must have bad luck.

[@KANAKA_4LIFE]

Ahhhhhh c'mon! Grow up

[@MrRooXs]

Kiaora

[@RoachCuh]

2 thousand pounds of pork, natin 2 krazy lol. Buggah look ono, broke da mouth!

[@sutanjordan8974]

Maaan I’m hungry..

[@kiszmyass9638]

No kidding right?! I watched this and suddenly got really hungry, lol.

[@ioramomack]

The hawaiian way take pretty long lol i can see the difference now. Just to save you kanaakz time. Burn the wood first then put the rocks on top.

[@badtiger7471]

That’s a lot of Pork

[@zeahmanaia757]

Yeah sure they had gloves and shovels bk then lol...

[@shanedownes7249]

Falling off the bone

[@AE-ix2iz]

No disrespect but I’m not buying the opening statement. I don’t believe imu was ever this big and labor-intensive. I believe it’s an excuse because most families these days aren’t capable or proficient in making their own imu. Huge imu is the result of modernization

[@kiszmyass9638]

Luckily no one cares what you buy or don't buy.

[@AE-ix2iz]

Kisz Myass lol and that’s why you replied because it matters! You can live in your little bubble and pretend to know the culture but there are people who live and breath this stuff. We speeding the truth

[@kiszmyass9638]

@@AE-ix2iz uh... I *live* in Hawaii, am Hawaiian and have learned the culture all my fucking life. Way to assume shit, nimrod. A'ole 'olelo 'oe ina 'oe a'ole maopopo, ha'a haole.

[@lrein077]

Aloha 53A17 E. In ancient times, prior to westerners arrival to Hawaiʻi, men did all the cooking. The process was very labor intensive. In fact an eating system known as ʻAikapu prohibited women in partaking of the activity and eating food that were reserved for kāne (men).This should give you a basis to begin your research about the imu or umu (Sāmoa). We lived on a farm and begin the process from raising a piglet to the point of preparing an adult pig for the imu. Aloha from Nānākuli, Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi.

[@____________3321]

Huge imu is the result of a huge gathering lol not modernization. Idk about your tribe but this is actually quite common through out the Pacific ocean

[@MB-EATS]

EWWWW. YUCK. PIGS EAT PIG