ISLAND HISTORY: Historic vignettes of good food and good times on Kauai – Thegardenisland.com

Mercy Whitney, the wife of Kauai missionary Samuel Whitney, wrote the oldest record of a formal dinner on Kauai.

Her host was Prince George Kaumualii, the son of Kauais last king, who served the princely fare at Waimea on July 25, 1821.

The dinner consisted of fried fish, baked pork, salt beef and boiled chicken, onions, sweet potatoes and several varieties of fruit.

Another recipe that was recorded was for scotch cake, written in the late 1800s at Eliza Sinclairs Makaweli House, high in the hills above Pakala.

Its ingredients were flour, butter and white sugar, mixed, kneaded and baked to a golden brown.

Sinclairs grandson was Eric Knudsen, a rancher who hunted wild cattle in Kokee when few people went there.

After a hunt, Eric and his guests would meet at Halemanu, his summer home in Kokee, at the place where Hawaiian bird-catchers had camped long ago.

Lean beef ribs, laid on an iron grill over a bed of coals, served with red Hawaiian salt and poi, proved good eating after a day outdoors.

Hale Nani, the estate of another rancher, William Hyde Rice, was a grand place for visitors.

It was located in Lihue adjacent to what is now Rice Street between Waa Street and Kalena Street.

Its most famous guest, Queen Liliuokalani, stayed there in 1891, and was royally entertained by Rice and his wife, Mary.

On the day of the queens arrival, hundreds of children passed before her.

Later, scores of people brought gifts in her honor at a hookupu (ceremonial gift-giving), followed by a performance of the Royal Hawaiian Band.

A farewell luau in her honor was attended by 2,000 people at Kalapaki, Rices home on Nawiliwili Bay where the Royal Sonesta now stands.

Perhaps the greatest luau ever held on Kauai took place at the Keapana Valley mansion of sugar-planter Col. Z.S. Spalding in September 1912, on the day of his 75th birthday. Three thousand people came to celebrate, many of them arriving by plantation train. Sixty-two tables were laden with food and drink and a band played sweet melodies.

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ISLAND HISTORY: Historic vignettes of good food and good times on Kauai - Thegardenisland.com