Cooking Our First Lu

So, I know we have talked a bit about the Tongan tradition of lu on Sundays, but Ryan and I had not yet seen the whole process of that from start to finish.  This week, our language instructor got a bunch of moms in the village together to teach us how to do the whole process. It usually takes a Tongan family about 2 hours to prep their lu. Total time for 4 palangis + 6 Tongans helping: 3 hours 30 minutes. I had NO IDEA how involved the process was.

First, we dug our umu hole and prepared the fire.

Then, we had to crack the coconuts and shave the meat of the fruit out to prepare the coconut cream sauce called lo'loi.

After shaving the coconuts, we used the inside hull to squeeze the milk out of the shavings.  It was amazing to see the milk just pour out of the shavings.  No canned or bottled milk here!

After that, we chopped the lu leaves off the tree and prepared to make the packets with meat, vegetables, and the lo'loi.

Once the lu was ready to go into the umu, it was time to make the vailesi. This is called Tongan ice cream. It is fresh papaya with lo'loi. It is baked in the umu and comes out tasting like fresh cobbler. Oh yeah... this is the size of papayas in Tonga! I thought it was a watermelon!

And of course... no Tongan meal is complete without root crop! This one is uffie... Ryan and I's favorite.

We load the oven up with everything.

The umu is covered with tin, then blankets, then buried in dirt to keep all the steam in.

And we sit by the hot oven in the heat waiting for our food. And that, my friends, is umu. P.S... most families do this EVERY SundayBEFORE church. Rockstars.