I like Hawaiian food for many reasons. It is a meld of many types of cuisines: Polynesian, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, American, Portuguese, and more–many of which I like to cook. Hawaiian food also has retro and vintage flair. Tiki first become in style in the mid-century, possible because American soldiers brought stories back about Polynesia and the South Pacific when they returned home after WWII and the commercial airline industry made travel more accessible. The bright colored (and often over-the-top) Hawaiian prints and rum drinks make tiki fun, and the tropical climate, flowers, and warm waters are something to long for. And it makes me reminisce about relaxation, a slow-paced small town life, and vacations (particularly the vacation that my parents surprised my sister and I with as a Christmas present years ago and the vacation that William and I took in Hawaii about a year ago). Kalua literally means “to cook in an underground oven” in Hawaiian (wiki). It is a traditional Hawaiian cooking method which uses an imu, a type of underground oven made from a dirt pit which is …