The Imu

At around 10 AM on the morning of the day we had arranged to attend our first luau, I took these photos of the open imu (underground oven) and the steps involved in roasting a pig Hawaiian style. There was already a layer of red hot rocks on the bottom of the pit when I had arrived.

Wrapped snugly in chicken wire, the two cooks carefully lowered the butchered pig's carcass onto the bed of hot rocks. Immediately clouds of steam arose from the pit.

A layer of huge taro leaves was then placed upon the pig followed by what appeared to be blankets of heavy wet burlap.

Then the two cooks spread out what looked like a sheet of wet chamoise cloth over the taro leaf/burlap-covered pig, followed by several shovel loads of red dirt to cover the whole package. I didn't take any more photos after that but continued to watch them place a few large wooden boards over the top of the pit and finally a heat-reflecting metallic blanket on top of all that. My mouth already started watering for that imu-roasted pork I anticipated dining upon later that evening.