Have you ever heard of poi? Have you tried poi? If you have, did you like it?
I LOVE poi!
Poi is a staple of the traditional Hawaiian diet. Poi is made from mashing up the root of the taro plant. Poi is a very nutritious food. For more on the specifics of poi, check out this link and this link.
I can't remember the first time I tried poi, but it was probably soon after I moved to Hawaii. I'm not sure why, but the first few times I ate poi, it reminded me of the baby food plums I used to love to eat when I was little. I have never met anyone else that compares poi to baby food plums so it is probably just a strange comparison I make. I have heard of people comparing poi to paste though. I don't understand this comparison at all. Poi is delicious and this is coming from a very picky eater. I think people that think eating poi is like eating paste go into it with a certain attitude and have never really given poi a chance.
I love my poi sour and I definitely don't put sugar in my poi. When I first started eating poi, I preferred to eat it combined with lomi lomi salmon or chicken but now I am just as happy to eat it all by itself. There is a Hawaiian Food stand in the Ala Moana Shopping Center food court. I sometimes stop by and order a little bowl of poi. The ladies are always amazed that this haole girl will just order a bowl of poi all by itself.
Taro brand poi is my favorite brand of poi. You can buy poi at any grocery store. This is a photo of a few bags of poi on the grocery store.
If you look closely, you will see that this bag of poi has a green tie.
The colored ties correspond with the delivery dates on the chart posted by the poi. The color of the tie will tell you how old the poi. I usually like to buy my poi two or three days old. The older the poi, the more sour it will be.
You will find these instructions on the back of the bag of poi:
Mixing Instructions for a 16 oz. bag of poi:
1. Add 8 ounces or 1 cup of water to bag.
2. Knead the poi to loosen from the bag.
3. Pour into a bowl and stir until smooth.
To prevent poi from crusting, float 1/4 inch of water on the surface. Refrigerate mixed poi to retain freshness or leave at room temperature to age poi to desired tartness.
As you can see, I didn't do the best with getting all of the lumps out of my bowl of poi, but that was ok with me. I ate half of this bowl of poi as part of my dinner one night and finished up the poi the following night. Yummy!!
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Blogging note: I am really behind on catching up on everyone's blogs. A lot has been going on at work and I have been exhausted at night. I came home tonight and saw that I now have 92 unread posts on google reader to catch up on! Thank goodness I have a three day weekend. Will catch up with everyone soon :)
