is a Hawaiian dish made with

taro Taro (; ''Colocasia esculenta'') is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, stems and Petiole (botany), petioles. Taro corms are a ...

and

coconut The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family (biology), family (Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, ...

. Considered a

pudding Pudding is a type of food which can either be a dessert served after the main meal or a Savoury (dish), savoury (salty or sweet, and spicy) dish, served as part of the main meal. In the United States, ''pudding'' means a sweet, milk-based des ...

, has a chewy and solid consistency like

fudge ''Fudge'' is a generic role-playing game system for use in freeform role-playing games. The name "''FUDGE''" was once an acronym for ''Freeform Universal Donated'' (later, ''Do-it-yourself'') ''Gaming Engine'' and, though the acronym has since b ...

or Southeast Asian ''

dodol ''Dodol'' is a sweet toffee-like sugar palm-based confection commonly found in Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Originating from the culinary traditions of Indonesia, it is also popular in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, the Philippi ...

'', with a flavor similar to

caramel Caramel ( or ) is a range of food ingredients made by heating sugars to high temperatures. It is used as a flavoring in puddings and desserts, as a filling in bonbons or candy bars, as a topping for ice cream and custard, and as a colorant ...

or Chinese . Because

is widely cultivated on the island of

Kauai Kauai (), anglicized as Kauai ( or ), is one of the main Hawaiian Islands. It has an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), making it the fourth-largest of the islands and the 21st-largest island in the United States. Kauai lies 73 m ...

, taro products such as is often associated with the island. It is a well-beloved dish well documented by many non-Hawaiians since the late 1800s, sometimes found during festive occasions like at .

Etymology

The Hawaiian word is a

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...

of the Eastern Polynesian term "''roro''" which describes "brains matter, bone marrow; spongy matter," which itself is derived from Nuclear Polynesian "''lolo''" which describes "coconut cream or oil", while "''kū''" is a qualitative and stative

prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Particularly in the study of languages, a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the word to which it is affixed. Prefixes, like other affixes, can b ...

Preparation

Traditional recipes call for wrapping a mixture of grated

and coconut cream in '' ti'' leaves and baking it in an '' imu'' (underground oven) for 6 to 8 hours. Modern recipes call for baking the mixture in a baking pan in an oven, or steaming in a pressure cooker.

Variations

(antiquated ) is another name associated with puddings made in a similar manner to . It also refers to the grated or pulverized raw ingredients—including

sweet potato The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant in the morning glory family, Convolvulaceae. Its sizeable, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a root vegetable, which is a staple food in parts of ...

breadfruit Breadfruit (''Artocarpus altilis'') is a species of flowering tree in the mulberry and jackfruit family ( Moraceae) believed to have been selectively bred in Polynesia from the breadnut ('' Artocarpus camansi''). Breadfruit was spread into ...

, yam, or

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

—that are mixed with coconut milk to make this dish. (or ) is a baked pudding made from the overripe fruits of

mixed with coconut milk. is a similar pudding made with sweet potato and coconut milk. However, the coconut milk is added after the sweet potatoes are cooked separately.

Today

While remains fairly popular, it is unclear why and fell out of favor in modern times. All these puddings, including and , were well-documented throughout the late 1800s to early 1900s, including by the famed author

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...

during his visits. A powdered mix using dehydrated taro powder is available for those who do not have access to fresh taro. is also found as a filling in , as an accompaniment to, and as a flavor for, ice cream.

References

External links