luau

After spending all yesterday prepping, I arrived at the Elks Club at 11am to an empty kitchen. Upon my second trip to the car to unload some groceries, Joe had come into the kitchen and was worried about dessert. His Haupia (coconut pudding), which he made the day before and put in the fridge had failed to set. We scrambled immediately to create another one. After that, we put the Pork Lau Lau (pork roasted in banana leaves) that we made yesterday in the oven and put the Chicken Long Rice (chicken with cellophane noodles) on the stove to reheat. Joe scrubbed and cut the sweet potatoes then placed them in the ovens to roast. I set out to make more wontons to add to the ones I made yesterday. We took the salmon out of the fridge, scaled them, filleted them and put them in the miso marinade.

As we neared appetizer time, I started to cut pineapples. I quartered each pineapple whole. I then cut a "U" into the wedge, cutting most of the meat out. I then cut each wedge of the pineapple meat into slices and placed then back in their respective "skins." I then alternately shifted each slice to the left or right, resulting in the design you see here.



After dealing with the pineapples, I proceeded to start on appetizers just as the first guests started to arrive. Two platters of wontons and maui onion rings were placed out (pictured). Joe made a simple dip for the onion rings using mayonnaise and ketchup. Joe also started to cut up the haupia and placing them onto plates for the dessert. Joe put me to the task of cutting up the mango to top our haupia. As more people showed-up, we finished the appetizer platters and cooked all the wontons and rings for service. After appetizers, there was some hula dancing to kill some time until dinner.
As we got closer to service, the salmon was trayed and placed in a preheated ovens to cook. The rest of the food, which were on warming trays, were placed in serving pans to place out on the service line(like the Chicken Long Rice on the left). After the salmon finished cooking, we placed them under the salmanders to color the tops and then moved them to service pans to place on the line. The servers got their instructions from Joe and I started to clean the kitchen a bit for the dessert stage. I was called out for a bow before dessert was served.

Back in the kitchen and onto dessert. The haupia (pictured), which was plated onto service plates with a square of banana leaf, were pulled out of the fridge. They were topped with chopped mango and some toasted coconut. The desserts were then taken out to the luau by the server on trays.

As the luau started to wind down, I went out to mingle a bit and meet the guests. I hung out for a bit with Joe's daughter and her friend. They had redubbed me "puffer fish" because of my puffy cheeks. As everything went back to the kitchen to be cleaned, Joe relieved me of my duties and gifted me some leftovers. He even gave me some of the marinated salmon that hadn't made it to the oven to take home.

As I packed up my stuff to head home, I was tired. But it was that good kind of tired. It's the kind of tired that I seem to get from a job well done in the kitchen. Kitchen work always gives a high and adrenaline rush that keeps me up for a while even with my aching bones. I should do this more often. Cooking can be stressful but it always makes me happy.

Aloha everyone!