Pork (sometimes butterfish or chicken) wrapped in taro leaves and ti leaves, steamed for hours until the leaves are tender and the meat falls apart. Earthy, salty, the canonical luau small plate.

Laulau is pre-contact Hawaiian. The traditional dish wrapped pork, salt, and sometimes butterfish in luau (kalo) leaves, then in ti leaves, and steamed it in the imu underground oven alongside the kalua pig. The luau leaves cook into a spinach-like wrap and the wrap absorbs the smoke. Highway Inn Kakaako and Helena's Hawaiian Food both run canonical laulau plates with butterfish and pork. Modern home cooks steam them in a stove-top pot rather than the imu; the result is similar though missing the smoke notes.

Where to eat Laulau in Honolulu

2 editor picks for Laulau in Honolulu, ranked by editorial score. All Honolulu signature dishes · Laulau across every city.

  • Helena's Hawaiian Food

    Order Pipikaula short ribs, butterfish collar and a side of poi.

    Helena's Hawaiian Food on North School Street has served traditional Hawaiian plates in Kalihi Honolulu since 1946, now run by the founder's grandson Craig.

    DetailsDirections

  • Highway Inn Kakaako

    Order The kalua pork combo with laulau and poi.

    Highway Inn Kakaako is the 2013 Honolulu outpost of the Toguchi family's 1947 Waipahu original, serving the same kalua pork, laulau and combo plates inside.

    DetailsDirections

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Make it at home

Serves 44 hrIntermediate

Ingredients

  • 600g boneless pork shoulder, cut into 4 equal portions
  • 200g butterfish (or substitute with black cod), cut into 4 pieces
  • 16 large luau (taro) leaves, washed (or substitute with collard greens)
  • 8 large ti leaves (or substitute with banana leaves)
  • 2 tablespoons Hawaiian alaea sea salt
  • 240ml water

Method

  1. Trim the central stem of each luau leaf with a paring knife. The stem holds calcium oxalate that irritates the throat raw; you must steam-cook it.
  2. Salt the pork portions on all sides. Place one piece of pork and one piece of butterfish on a pile of 4 luau leaves.
  3. Wrap the luau leaves around the meat into a tight parcel. Then wrap two ti leaves around the parcel and tie with a knot at the top, or with kitchen string.
  4. Stand the four parcels upright in a deep steamer or a heavy pot fitted with a steaming rack. Pour 240ml water into the bottom.
  5. Cover and steam at a low boil for 4 hours. The leaves should be dark green and the meat fall-apart tender; check water level halfway and top up.
  6. Lift each parcel onto a plate. Untie the ti leaves at the table; eat the steamed luau leaves with the meat like a wrap. Serve with rice and lomi salmon.

Editor tip. Do not eat raw luau or taro leaves under any circumstances; the calcium oxalate crystals burn the throat. You must cook at least 60 minutes. Frozen taro leaves from a Hawaiian or Filipino grocery work if fresh is unavailable.

Common allergens: Fish.