Food and Hawaiian Tourism

As destinations look to make themselves different and more appealing to visitors, one way could be to accentuate the local cuisine. Different foods, and how you cook ingredients that many people would be wary of but see in their local shops, is popular on the huge range of cookery shows that we see. Look at he cookery and food sections in any bookseller and there will be a huge range to flick through.
Hawaii is known from countless TV and films as being sunny with palm trees, fantastic surf and a unique welcome from the locals. I also remember the strong, sweet aroma from the frangipani when I landed there at some horrible time in the middle of the night as I changed planes. Now they are offering something different.
Twice a day starting from Saturday week, the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC) they will be providing cookery demonstrations in Polynesian cuisine. Thousand year old recipes reflecting traditional Polynesian cookery will be demonstrated as well as modern twists on old themes. But it won’t all come from a flash TV studio complete with lights to show food at its best, helpers galore and kitchens that would put a three star Michelin restaurant to shame. Once a day it will come from an island village so it will be as authentic as possible (meaning almost anybody should be able to cook it) and once in the evening from the Pacific marketplace where the PCC is based.
Most Britons won’t have come across the PCC. It depicts the backgrounds of seven island cultures in Polynesia, all slightly different revealing that what we might think as one Polynesia is in fact very diverse which is as you might expect given that Polynesia covers 15 million square miles of the South Pacific. I am not even gong to try and follow TV pundits and calculate how many football pitches that equates to. The PCC is non-profit and uses its monies, after running costs for supporting students from the south Pacific in education. For more information see www. Polynesia.com.