Press Release:
Award-winning author Arnold Hiura will present a special “talk story” and book-signing program at Native Books/Na Mea Hawaii at Ward Warehouse on Sunday, August 29, 3-5PM.
Hiura’s presentation will feature stories and excerpts from his book, Kau Kau: Cuisine and Culture in the Hawaiian Islands, which examines the Islands’ rich food culture and traces the evolution of Hawaii’s mixed plate. The event is free and open to the public; books will be available for purchase at the signing.
In Kau Kau (the traditional all-purpose pidgin word for Island food), Hiura explores the history and heritage of food in Hawaii with little known culinary tidbits, interviews with chefs and farmers, more than 70 recipes ranging from local plantation classics to Hawaii Regional Cuisine, and a treasury of rare photos and illustrations. From early Polynesian settlers to today’s celebrity regional chefs, Kau Kau follows those who have shaped Island society with their food and folkways: sailors and missionaries, immigrant plantation workers, the military in wartime, modern entrepreneurs, and others, while exploring the always fascinating relationship between food and culture. Kau Kau was awarded the Hawai’i Book Publishers Association annual Ka Palapala Po’okela Award for Excellence, the top award, in the cookbook category.
Arnold Hiura is an independent writer, editor and media consultant based in Honolulu. His company, MBFT Media, provides communications and creative services to Hawaii companies and community organizations. He previously served as editor of the Hawaii Herald and curator for the Japanese American National Museum’s Hawaii Project, “From Bento to Mixed Plate.” He was born and raised in the sugar plantation town of Papaikou, about five miles north of Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii. Hiura has just returned from a West Coast book tour where he presented Kau Kau to eager audiences hungry for a taste of Hawaii.
Kau Kau: Cuisine and Culture in the Hawaiian Islands is regularly retail priced at $32.95 (ISBN 978-0-9796769-3-2) and is available at bookstores, other retail outlets and online booksellers, or direct from the publisher at www.bookshawaii.net.
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