Hawaii

Tonight we are going to a Luau organized by Dung's company! A Luau is a Hawaiian feast featuring food such as Poi (a Polynesian staple food made from the corm of the taro plant by mashing the cooked corm until it is a highly viscous fluid), kalua pig (is a traditional Hawaiian cooking method that utilizes underground oven), poke (is a raw fish salad ), lomi salmon, opihi (sea snails), haupia (is a traditional coconut milk-based Hawaiian dessert). At a Luau there are always some sort of entertainment show , such as Hawaiian music and hula (is a dance form accompanied by chant). Among people from Hawaii, the concepts of "luau" and "party" are often blended and so there are graduation luaus, wedding luaus, and birthday luaus, basically any occasions are good for a Luau.

By 5:30 PM there was already a huge line to get in ...

Fortunately, because we are part of Dung's party which is about 150 people, they gave us priority so we just walk in without having to wait in line.

Rows and rows of tables to accommodate 600 guests. It was a bit surprise that the hotel is organizing such a big Luau. Usually, a Luau is about from 100 to 200 people so this is a commercialized event for the Hilton. At $110 a person they bring in $66,000 per evening for a 3 to 4 hours dinner/show. This show is a cashing cow for the resort.

Looking for a table to seat.

Hoa caught these two guys bringing out the Kalua Pig!

Close look at the Kaulua pig... There was only 1 big for the whole event. I was a bit perplex how they are going to fit a crowd of 600 people with only 1 pig...

These 2 guys were pretty nice! They posed for photos with pleasure.

Our table was pretty close to the buffet table and I glance over and saw this guy pulling apart the meat from the Kalua pig....

In this picture you see how the meat was shredded.

I walked over and ask him how could only 1 pig feed 600 people so he told me that they roast only 1 pig for display. They roast lots of pork shoulder in the oven, shred the meat and they just add it on top of the Kalua pig.