Brand new & ancient

A culinary revolution is taking place across the Pacific as local restaurateurs go back to their pre-colonial roots, thanks largely to efforts that began in Hawaii more than 50 years ago.

- DAVID COHEN

In the back of beyond, on a blazing Pacific morning, a local chef-turnedfood custodian encourages a Kiwi visitor to get up close and personal with culinary Polynesia. We are standing next to one of the spring-fed taro ponds at Kako'o 'Õiwi, in He'eia, an indigenous farming project 40 minutes out of Honolulu, on the Hawaiian island of O'ahu.

The operation supplies a growing number of local restaurants and retailers with indigenous staples, including this super-healthy root vegetable, all green and red in the nutrient-rich waters as dark as jade.

"You might want to take your shoes off and roll up your trousers first," murmurs Kealoha Domingo, a burly caterer who doubles as a local guide, as we survey the patch.

Visitors are encouraged to dip their toes into the water and yank out a few weeds while Domingo continues offering a fast and passionate history of what used to be O'ahu's biggest taro-producing operation.

For more than 1000 years, taro - or kalo, as the locals have it was a star local crop. Food for the gods, they called it. But for much of this past cruel and crooked century, its culinary star waned.

Today, along with breadfruit, sweet potatoes and banana, and the more familiar chicken and reef fish, it is staging a comeback. Inhabitants of all cultural hues in America's 50th state are rediscovering the Pasifika food style. So has the local office of Hawaiian Tourism, which is as likely these days to arrange such a visit as to try for an evening out with George Clooney at the Outrigger Canoe Club overlooking the azure seas, bikini-clad swimmers and creaking palms of Waikiki.

Domingo, a native Hawaiian, is happy to be playing his part in the revival. A chef first, he came to native-style cooking after trying his hand at a number of other indigenous pursuits, dabbling in the Hawaiian martial art of lua, even a little hula.