Dads Birthday Party

Some of you may have seen the recent stories of my fishing trip to New Zealand. Well this is what it was all about. You see, we had about 100 people coming to Williams Dad's birthday party and we needed to feed them. So the that's exactly what the fish we caught was for. Above you see William and his brother Mike standing over our catch. Most of this fish will be smoked for the event.




Here's dad, the birthday boy. And even he does not get off scot-free. We are relegated to peeling potatoes! Everyone has to earn their keep. A party for 100 people ain't easy.



Now this is cool. We're preparing what in Maori is called a "Hangi". We are essentially cooking food using heated rocks in a covered pit. Kinda like you might see at a Hawaiian Luau.



Here we are getting the wood ready, which will be fired up at 4am in the morning.





When the wood is mostly all burnt up, everything is taken out, including the rocks. The ashes and embers have to be removed so it does not catch on fire again. Then the hot rocks are placed back into the pit.



A pig is cut up into chunks and put it into baskets. The head was halved and placed between the baskets uncovered. Gross huh, but remember, when it's done and cooked, it's gonna be great.





The pig, plus baskets of vegetables are all stacked and racked on top the hot rocks.



Wet sacks were placed on top, everything was then covered with a big tarp and dirt was thrown on top. This is really nothing but a big steam oven.





The meat and veggies from out of the Hangi.



The food was awesome. In addition to the pig, we had chicken, smoked fish, and Curry Goat. Taro, Banana w/Arrow Root, cabbage and all sort of other cool foods you don't get every day back at home. I love the variety of flavors and textures.



The celebration was fantastic. What a wonderful family. The party was steeped in Maori tradition. I'm not sure exactly if the dancers were professional or semi-professional, but they were in fact just friends of the family. William went to school with the leader of this group. To have this kind of dancing at your birthday party was something very special, a wonderful way to celebrate a proud national heritage. I felt honored to have been part of it.



Click on the image above to view beautiful Maori dancing.



Above is a rare picture for sure. William shamed me into going up by having them announce my name, "Ed from American come on up and dance". With great reluctance, I did. When all was said and done, it wasn't so bad after all.



The birthday boy even enjoyed a toast with our very own Billbob.


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