Kon Tiki

In 1947, Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl set sail across the pacific in a hand-made raft to prove his hypothesis that the Polynesian islands could have been reached and thus settled by South Americans in pre-Columbian times, using only the kinds of stuff they had available at the time: wood, bamboo, and a whole lot of perseverance.

He made it.

This summer, Michael’s Daddy is attempting to prove that he can learn how to cook true Polynesian dishes using ingredients he can find in and around Portland, Oregon. Without making his family ill or desirous of a merciful end in the process.

Confession time (and by stating this publicly, I become committed to it): I have had this dream of opening a Polynesian-style restaurant for a number of years now, and I need to have a good base of Polynesian recipes to start from.

And by Polynesian recipes, I mean truly South Pacific Islands: Tahiti, Hawaii, Tonga, Samoa, the Cook islands, etc.

I don’t mean Chinese food. Don’t get me wrong: I love Chinese food, but it’s already well represented. And I’m also not talking about Caribbean dishes either; that’s in the Atlantic.

So what is Polynesian food? Good question. There’s not a lot of info on it out there, because it gets muddied by timelines and external influences, such as the Chinese food thing; the Pacific Rim is a big area and after a certain point in world history, things became available to the islands that weren’t available before. Such as Spam. I know Spam is a big thing in Hawaii now, but it didn’t use to be. And in every “Hawaiian” or “Tiki” restaurant I’ve ever been in, the menu has consisted mostly of Chinese food. Again, that’s fine, but it’s not what I’m looking for.

What would the Pacific Islanders have made, traditionally, before they were influenced by outsiders?

What did they have to work with? What were the native plants and animals they could use? And how did they prepare their dishes?

These are the questions I’m going to try to answer this summer, as each week I try out a new recipe, working with ingredients that would have been available to the islanders, and using techniques that are as close as possible to their methods.

Last night was my first real attempt: pork Lau Lau wrapped in Ti leaves, served with a coconut cream sauce and fruit salad.

I was able to find Ti leaves at a local Asian market. I got the coconuts there as well, in hopes they’d be better than the dry, nearly useless ones that are at the local grocery stores.

Preparing coconut cream isn’t hard, but it can get messy. I used a hatchet to knock off the pointy end (the one without the eyes) and pour out the water inside (there are uses for coconut water, but I’m not ready to explore that yet). Cracking open the shell and scraping out the coconut is a bit of a labor, as is peeling the skin off of the meat. I used a food processor to shred the coconut (short on time; didn’t have all day to pound on it with a mortar and pestle) and then put it in the center of a clean cloth over a bowl and poured warm milk on it, then wrapped the cloth up and squeezed out the cream. Takes some muscle. I sauteed some green onions, ginger and basil in a little canola oil, seasoned with salt, stirred in a small amount of corn starch and then added the coconut cream and let that simmer for a while.

The pork I’d prepared earlier, cutting the chops into little 1 inch cubes and marinating in a little lime juice, liquid smoke, salt and water. After searing the chunks on both sides, I wrapped them in the Ti leaves and set that in the oven at 275 degrees for five hours. The idea is that the meat cooks low and slow, with steam as the primary heat conductor to produce a moist, tender, delicious result.

The result was, in fact, neither moist nor tender. Though I’d wrapped the pork up nicely and covered the baking dish tightly with foil, the whole conglomeration ran out of steam (literally) somewhere between 3:00 and 4:00 PM. What we ended up gnawing on for dinner were brittle, charred pork rocks. Covered in coconut cream. And it was delicious. sort of. My family is so very kind to me, smiling and giving me praise while loudly crunching on meaty pumice.

They really enjoyed the pineapple and kiwi fruit salad though.

I haven’t given up on this recipe. I need to do this on a weekend, when I can be home to monitor it throughout the cooking process. And it should probably cook in a dutch oven with a good supply of moisture. Anyway, I’m going to keep at it until I get it right.

Next weekend I’m going to tackle fish. Stay tuned.