I first came across the word “kaukau” in a note that the Hawaiian Princess Ka‘iulani wrote to Robert Louis Stevenson more than a century ago. The Scottish novelist and his family had arrived in Honolulu in the afternoon of January 24, 1889, and the beautiful princess dropped them a short note, inviting them to her family’s estate and adding that “Papa promises good Scotch kaukau….” Arnold Hiura’s new book, titled Kau Kau: Cuisine & Culture in the Hawaiian Islands, explains the origins of this word and a lot more.