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Show nage your Elder Keith Reed Allred From Spring City Describes Hawaii (Continued from last week) This js a beautiful land. II is summer the year around with the temperature never varying, more than twenty-five degrees. The low being about 00 degrees and the high around 85. Thit ideal climate with plenty ol rain cause plenty of growth and vegetation so there is dense junpje. The trees aren't too high, usually not over 30 feet. The grass, trees, and shrubs arc green the year around. As would be expected there art many beautiful flowers. The orchids, hibiscus, plumerias gardenias, anthuriums, and the poinsettas, are the ones in most abundance. The most famous of these is the orchid. There art thousands of varieties of orchids orch-ids varying from the small Vanda to the Honohono, Bamboo, Bam-boo, and finally the Giant Orchid. Or-chid. Many people grow a garden gar-den of orchids in their back yard. They sell them commercially, commer-cially, most of them being flown to markets in the States. Don'! get the idea that the giant orchids or-chids grow wild here in Hawaii. Ha-waii. Of course you hear that orchids grow wild here but that only in making leis. One thing I am disappointed in is the fact that there aren't many birds here among all the trees and flowers. I expected io see the trees full of birds all the time but only a few birds are seen here and they aren't o: tlumost beautiful in the world. There are a number of English sparrows, cardinals, minor birds Chinese thrush, and a few other varieties. Each year there is a pheasant season for the hunt ers, so you don't have to worr about missing out on that spon when you take your vacation over here. On the island of Moloka1 there are some deer for those who like that sport. Over here there are plenty of wild boar and mountain sheep to hunt. This is a great sport for ths men. They train dogs to help them in the hunting of the wild As I have mentioned the old Hawaiian food is quite differenl from the food of today. However How-ever the Hawaiian people still eat the food of their ancestors especially on special occasions The day I arrived in Hilo I hac' mv first Hawaiian meal. It con- sistcd of a bowl of poi, a piece ' of raw fish, a piece of dried ash and for dessert some things tiiat looked like grasshoppers only they had some long antennae. anten-nae. I was told to eat all 1 1 wanted because there was I plenty. I wondered if I would I be able to eat all that food bir j as I was hungry 1 decided tc try. I put my finger in the po as instructed, then pulled it oul and licked it. Boy! what ai awful taste. I thought for sur that someone had placed thci. wallpaper paste there for me U eat. After that I beg;;n to os; my appetite. One of the E)C.r told me I should chew a pirri of meat until I had some saiiv in my mouth then shift tin meat to the side of my mouth put in some poi, mix it with th saliva and swallow withou' chewing it. I decided to tr again so did as I had been told Some of the poi went down btr not all so I decided to get thr rest of it down by eating one of those things that looked like a grasshopper, which I have later found to be called Opi. Thai would have been all right but I didn't enjoy the feeling of the legs and antennae going down my throat. Well, that about finished fin-ished my first Hawaiian meal. Anyone coming to the islands shouldn't miss out on a Hawaiian Ha-waiian Luau. This is a big dinner or feast, as we know it. a l.nau is in order whenever a -hild reaches his first birthday, marriage, on certain other Dirthdays or wedding annivers-iries, annivers-iries, and at the death of a person. per-son. On any of these occasions you would be able to taste the real Hawaiian food. Severa small dishes are set at each place. Each person is served a bowl of poi, and dishes containing contain-ing such food as Kalua pig (pip. cooked in the ground over hoi rocks) or Imo Laulau (this contains con-tains pork, fish, and other meal cooked over the red hot rocks sweet potatoes, Lomilomi bal-mon bal-mon (salt salmon), opi, (grasshoppers, (grass-hoppers, almost anyway, they live in fresh water and are fishlike creatures), Opihi (small animals living on the rocks along the beach. They have a shell covering or protecting their back), Limo, (sea weed), chick; en and long rice, Haupia ano Kulala (Hawaiian puddings, the first being made from coconul iuiee and sugar and cooked un- U U thicken!; the Kulolo being made from coconut juice, grated too, sugar or honey, then cooked on the Imo until done). As ol i'L nmP new foods have been added to the Hawaiian Luau J wouldn't say they were old Hawaiian Ha-waiian dishes, because they are soda pop and cake. Don't worry too much about not getting al vou want to eat because you can have as many helpings as yov desire While you eat there if usually some sort of entertainment entertain-ment going on, either a Hawaiian Hawai-ian orchestra playing, someonr singing, or some of the Hawaiian girls dancing the hula. These Luaus are very expensive to make. As you have probably noticed the food is Practically all meat. As many as 500-1000 people may be invited to such an occasion and the Hawaiian people are noted as great eaters (continued next week) |