# Hawaiian words **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 3, 2004, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-words/238058 "2004-04-03T15:18:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-words/238058/1 "2004-04-03T15:18:26Z")
What are “ama-ama” and “lau-lau”? ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-words/238058/2 "2004-04-03T15:38:07Z")
'ama 'ama = mullet (one presumes the fish, not the goofy hair style) laulau = bundle or wrapper (lau = leaf) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-words/238058/3 "2004-04-03T16:20:49Z")
Thanks. So if the lau lau is the kau kau at the big luau, what’s in them? ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-words/238058/4 "2004-04-03T16:32:57Z")
And all these years I thought it was “umma umma.” Thanks. Oh we’re going, to a hukilau… ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-words/238058/5 "2004-04-03T19:44:23Z")
The hukilau! The first hula I ever learned! 😃 _All_ the ama ama come a’swimmin to me! ---
**Author:** ![EvilGhandi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@EvilGhandi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilGhandi)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-words/238058/6 "2004-04-03T20:29:43Z")
Lau lau is taro leaf, a small piece of fish, a lump of pork fat and pork rolled in a ti leaf and cooked for about a day in an imu. Kau kau= food Imu=cooking pit ---
**Author:** ![Roadwalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19b73/32.png) [@Roadwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roadwalker)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-words/238058/7 "2004-04-03T20:31:35Z")
Kau-kau is not actualy Hawaiian, IIRC it’s Chinese. Just like a lot of the culture, food and language, it was adopted into the local culture over the years as folks came in from around the Pacific and world. ---
**Author:** ![LolaBaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@LolaBaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaBaby)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-words/238058/8 "2004-04-03T20:36:17Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > Thanks. > > So if the lau lau is the kau kau at the big luau, what’s in them? It’s very delicious. It’s not always pork, though. Sometimes it’s chicken. The fish is usually butterfish. Wrapped in taro leaves (they are edible. They need to be prepared a certain way, however, or you’ll get poky things in your throat), then wrapped in the ti leaves and then steamed. I have some in my icebox right now. 😃 Ono! (yummy) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2004, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-words/238058/9 "2004-04-04T02:57:12Z")
> [@](#): > > Kau-kau is not actualy Hawaiian, IIRC it’s Chinese. I learned “kau kau” when I was a little kid, by watching _Lt. Robin Crusoe, USNR_. Since Disney would never lie, I thought it might be Polynesian. 😉 > [@](#): > > It’s very delicious. I’ll have to get over to Hawaii one of these days. Do a little diving, see my great-great uncle’s name on the _Arizona_ memorial, drink a mai tai under a banyan tree (something I remember my dad saying to someone when I was little), a little diving, a little kayaking… Oh, yeah – eat some Hawaiian food! (Mmmm. Rost pork!) ---
**Author:** ![Doobieous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Doobieous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doobieous)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2004, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-words/238058/10 "2004-04-04T23:42:06Z")
> [@LolaBaby](#): > > Wrapped in taro leaves (they are edible. They need to be prepared a certain way, however, or you’ll get poky things in your throat), then wrapped in the ti leaves and then steamed. Taro is also grown in the Philippines where in Tagalog it is called “gabi” (GAH-bee). You have to cook it long enough to render the irritating action of the calcium oxalate crystals harmless. These crystals act like little needles (and are called rhaphides) which pierce mucous membranes causing itching and burning. Taro is used mostly for desserts. The starch for meals is usually rice for Filipinos (Taro is good stuff, like potatoes, and the leaves are like spinach in consistency ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2004, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-words/238058/11 "2004-04-04T23:58:40Z")
_Honi kaua wiki wiki_🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2004, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-words/238058/12 "2004-04-10T14:57:52Z")
> [@](#): > > Honi kaua wiki wiki 🙂 Which means…? ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2004, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-words/238058/13 "2004-04-10T15:04:58Z")
> [@Jomo Mojo](#): > > _Honi kaua wiki wiki_🙂 Is that anything like "Oka doka what a setta knocka rocka sis boom bocas (hope I said it right)? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2004, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hawaiian-words/238058/14 "2004-04-10T16:22:57Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > Which means…? “Kiss me quick”…okay, I cheated and used Google…