Lau lau (LAU LAU, rhymes with 'cow cow') is one of three dishes that locals will use to test whether you actually know Hawaiian food. The other two are kalua pig and poi. Get lau lau right and you've passed. Mispronounce it ('low low,' 'lay lay'), order it wrong, or — worst — say you 'don't like it,' and the test is failed before the conversation can recover.
Here is what lau lau actually is, why it matters, and how to eat it correctly.
What's In It
A standard lau lau bundle contains:
- Pork (usually shoulder, sometimes butt) — fatty, salted, cubed
- Salted butterfish (or salmon, less commonly) — adds umami + salinity
- Lū`au leaves (cooked taro greens) — wrap directly around the meat, edible
- Ti leaves — the outer wrapper, NOT edible, used like parchment
- Sometimes chicken in place of pork (chicken lau lau)
The bundle is tied with a ti-leaf strip, then steamed for 4-6 hours. The lū`au leaves absorb the pork fat and salt-fish brine. The pork breaks down into a near-spreadable consistency. The flavor is briny, fatty, earthy, deeply savory — there's no Western equivalent. The closest analog is a slow-cooked Italian braccioli, but the taro leaves and the salt-fish bring it somewhere else entirely.
The History
Lau lau is one of the oldest documented Hawaiian dishes, pre-dating European contact (1778) by at least several hundred years. The original version used pork, taro greens, and a single ti-leaf wrap; the salt-fish addition came later, after Hawaiians began trading with whaling ships for cured salmon and butterfish. The dish was originally cooked in the imu (underground oven), the same one used for kalua pig — lau lau bundles would sit on top of the pig and cook in the steam. Modern lau lau is mostly steamed in stovetop pots or commercial steamers, which is fine but tastes subtly different from the imu version.
Why It Matters
Lau lau represents the Hawaiian principle of pa`a (a contained, bound thing). The bundle holds the meal together. You unwrap it at the table. The inside is its own little universe of pork fat and taro and salt and steam. Every piece of the technique — the ti leaf as a non-edible wrapper, the taro greens as both wrapper and ingredient, the salt-fish as a flavor anchor — is a 200+ year-old solution to the problem of cooking meat well in an island setting without refrigeration.
When you eat lau lau, you are eating one of the oldest continuously-cooked dishes in the Pacific. That history is on the plate. Tourists who shrug at lau lau because it's 'too salty' or 'too fatty' are missing the point — the salt and the fat are the point.
How To Eat It
Lau lau comes wrapped. Steam-tied with a ti-leaf strip. The presentation is the dish — don't ask for it pre-opened. Unwrap it at the table.
- Untie the ti-leaf strip. Set it aside.
- Unfold the outer ti leaves. These are NOT edible. They're the parchment.
- What's inside: cooked lū`au leaves wrapped around pork + fish. ALL OF THIS is edible.
- Pull a fork through. The pork should fall apart. The taro greens are spinach-like.
- Eat with poi or rice on the side. The pork drippings season the starch.
- DO NOT add soy sauce. The salt is already in the dish.
How To Tell A Good Lau Lau
- Color: dark olive-green outer leaves, deep brown pork inside. If the pork is gray, it was overcooked.
- Smell: should smell faintly smoky + briny. If it smells fishy-bad, the butterfish has turned.
- Texture: pork should be fork-tender, leaves should be wilted but still distinct (not mush).
- Saltiness: should be aggressive. If it's bland, they cheated on the butterfish.
- Weight: a good lau lau is heavier than you expect. Light = under-stuffed.
Where To Eat Real Lau Lau On O`ahu
Most plate-lunch joints sell a 'lau lau plate' but the lau lau itself was cooked off-site or trucked in. To eat the real version — house-made, ti-leaf wrapped, full of pork fat and intention — your list is short.
Eat one of these. Order the combination plate. Get the lau lau plus the kalua, plus the lomi salmon, plus the poi, plus the haupia. That's the canon. That's the test. Pass it.