What Is Poi Anyway?
Fresh squeezed coconut juice Sour pineapple pudding A Jewish expression of disgust Nutritious food made by pounding taro Just in case you’re ever in the million dollar hot seat, here’s everything you need to know about Poi: Poi is made from the popular taro plant: the 14th most cultivated crop on earth. Known in scientific circles as Colocasia esculenta, taro is cultivated both in the dry uplands and in marshy land irrigated by streams. The planters of wetland taro built walls of earth reinforced with stone to enclose the taro patch, or lo`i . Although taro is eaten around the world, only Hawaiians make poi. Traditionally they cooked the starchy, potato-like taro root, or corm, for hours in an underground oven called an imu. Then they pounded the taro corms on large flat boards called Papa ku`i`ai, using heavy stone poi pounders called pohaku ku`i `ai. The taro was pounded into a smooth, sticky paste called pa`i`ai, then stored air tight in ti leaf bundles and banana sheaths for storag
