HONILIMA

Imu

Throughout Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia, traditional underground ovens have been utilized to cook and steam food. The Hawaiians use an imu to steam whole pigs, breadfruit, bananas, sweet potatoes, taro, chicken, and fish. The imu is essentially an underground pressure cooker created by digging into the earth as compactly as possible with room for the rocks, leaves, fuel and food. Due to the amount of time and labor to prepare the imu this method of cooking is done primarily for large luaus.