Lei it on

Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), May 26, 2004 by TERESA J. FARNEY Photos by KRISTY ANN MANN THE GAZETTE

Looking for a way to make a Memorial Day meal memorable? John Davila has a suggestion: Throw a Hawaiian barbecue.

Think tiki torches. Tiki mugs filled with Blue Hawaiians. Banana leaf-lined platters filled with rice, pork and tropical fruits. And flowers everywhere.

We're talking about an out-andout, full-blown luau.

No surprise that Davila would make these suggestions. He recently relocated to Colorado Springs from the north shore of Hawaii to become executive chef at Le Baron Hotel's reinvented restaurant, Riley's.

When he took the position at Riley's, he immediately went to work on the menu, adding recipes featuring his Pacific Rim and Nuevo Latino flair.

But he doesn't want to keep luau cuisine confined to the restaurant, which is why he's so keen on the idea of a Hawaiian- themed bash for Memorial Day.

"A party like this is sort of a throwback to the '50s," he said. "It's hip. Very cool. Part of the surf culture."

And on the islands, it's for serious party animals.

"In Hawaii, parties like these will go all day," he said. "They might start at around 1 p.m. and last well into the night. Everyone gets involved with the food preparation."

The centerpiece for a luau feast in Hawaii would be steamy kalua (baked) pig. In old times, it was a religious ceremony designed to gain favor with and honor the gods. Rituals governed food preparation, prayers marked the stages of the feast, and protocol determined who ate what. Women were not allowed to take part and were not even allowed to eat pork, bananas, coconuts and some kinds of fish.

Fast forward to more modern times. Pork is the featured dish for Davila's menu, and women are welcome to partake.

His pork dish, however, is a more home-cook friendly dish than the traditional kalua pig, which required digging a pit to hold a whole gutted animal. The pig's belly was filled with hot rocks. The pig was wrapped in banana leaves, placed in the pit, topped with more hot rocks and buried to stew for hours until the meat literally would fall off the bones.

Davila's recipe calls for braising a pork butt with cabbage.

"It's a slow roast so the meat will be very tender, similar to the kalua pig," he said.

Another staple of the luau table is rice.

"I like to use Calrose brand, and cook it so it gets sticky," Davila said. "You can find it at Asian stores."

Another dish he would serve at a luau meal is lau-lau (pronounced like "cow-cow," except with an L instead of a C). It's a dish of banana leaves wrapped around fish, chicken or pork and topped with vegetables that might include bean sprouts, mushrooms and sweet onions. The whole thing can be steamed on the stove top, in the oven or on the grill.

"Since we're already having pork, I'd suggest using chicken breast for this dish," Davila said. "Be sure to pound it until it's very thin, so the meat will get done."

Raw fish is a given at any Hawaiian meal. The traditional salad is called poke (pronounced "Pokey," like Gumby's red pal), which is made of raw fish.

"You can get very good

sushi-grade ahi (tuna) at local grocery stores," he said, "but it must be handled carefully and used the day you buy it."

There would be a poultry

dish, too.

"A must-have dish is huli

huli (pronounced "who-lee wholee") chicken," he said. "Huli

huli means round and round.

It's like the rotisserie chicken we buy here. In Hawaii, they

are barbecued on huge grills that hold rows and rows of skewered chicken. It's street food. They are thought to be the best hangover relief."

He uses the same barbecue sauce for grilled pork ribs.

For dessert, you have to have haupia (how-pee-ah). It's basically coconut pudding, but it's stiff enough to hold in your hand. Davila sometimes goes one step further and dips squares of the pudding-like substance in melted chocolate and refrigerates them again.

"It's similar to American truffles," he said. "The center is milk, sweet and creamy."

So while other families on your block are tossing dogs and burgers on the grill, your yard -- with Davila's menu -- can be filled with the aroma of the islands.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0271 or tfarney@gazette.com ON THE LUAU MENU

Salad

- Poke* (poke-ee): A raw fish salad

Entrees

Kalua-style pork*: A braised pork butt with cabbage

Huli Huli* (who-lee who-lee): Like rotisserie chicken (sauce recipe only)

Lau-Lau* (rhymes with cow-cow): A dish of banana leaves wrapped around fish, chicken or pork and topped with vegetables, then steamed

Hawaiian barbecued pork ribs* (sauce recipe only)

Side dish

- Steamed rice or a rice noodle dish

Dessert

Haupia* (how-pee-ah): A coconut pudding

Drinks

Blue Hawaiian*

Mai-Tai

*Recipes provided for these dishes

LAU-LAU

Yield: 8 servings

2 pounds fresh bok choy or Swiss chard

1/2 pound lean salt pork, trimmed of rind and cut into 1/4-inch dice

1/2 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch cubes