Robert "Uncle Boogie" Bonner checks on his lu'au oxtail stew
Photos by Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Robert "Uncle Boogie" Bonner checks on his lu'au oxtail stew
Photos by Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
It's when he caught his biggest fish, a 285-pound ahi by net - Father's Day 1985.
It's when he and Nanakuli hunter Hiram Kamana had a "blowout" with huli huli pig, 300 laulau, Kaena Point lobster, raw Kona crab and raw aholehole from offshore Makua, and invited family and friends - Father's Day last year.
It's when he adopted his dog Brownie, once leader of a pack of wild dogs that roamed Makua valley - also Father's Day a year ago.
Bonner takes pork strips from his smokehouse as Brownie angles for a treat.
It's when he may no longer be at Makua, his home on and off for three decades, because the announced day of eviction from Makua is June 15 - one day before Father's Day this year.
But, 24 days before Eviction Day, life continues at Makua as it has for perhaps years for Boogie Bonner.
"The wind comes straight down the valley," he says, as he slaps a pack of Kool cigarettes onto the heel of his left hand, "and when it hits that big ridge, it intensifies (in strength)."
Bonner's a handsome man, tallish, muscular, well-tanned, with sort of half-closed bedroom eyes. He pads around unself-consciously in shorts, bare chested, with a black baseball cap on backward and wraparound shades. Brownie sniffs after Bonner - not too closely, but never far away.
"He's a good watch dog," Bonner says quietly, matter of factly, "but he doesn't bite."
This day, a Thursday, is the startup of weekend meat-smoking operations. He and several friends sell kiawe-smoked pork butt to friends, who use it for weekend pupu. Thus, the culinary heartbeat of Bonner's cul de sac just beyond the "Public Access to Beach" sign at Makua Beach is a three-sided smokehouse made of corrugated tin roofing.
Bonner is unhooking 40 to 50 pounds of just-smoked strips. They hang by large, unbent paper clips from the smokehouse, which smokes odorously a comfortable ways from his beachfront cottage. He loads the strips onto two cardboard box trays, for cooling, then for packaging into 1-1/2- to 2-pound bags at $10 each.
Bonner relaxes in his "living room." He lights his home with a lantern and goes to bed early to save fuel.
That done, he serves up bowls of steaming lu'au oxtail stew for visitors along with rice, dried fish and canned juice. Sundown is dinner time and passersby gravitate toward Uncle Boogie's beachfront abode for a bowl of stew or a strip of smoked meat.
"I eat dinner about this time. I try to eat by sundown because it doesn't taste as good in the dark anyway," Bonner says as he hunkers down at a table on his oceanview lanai. Two recycled brown Naugahyde automobile seats flank the table. The sun skips in and out of thick clouds on the horizon. Rays dapple the green valley behind with a halo of dusk light.
"It's the best damned smoked meat I ever ate," says Ed Suka, a friend stopping in from Waianae. "I can eat a whole package at one time," Suka adds sheepishly.
The stew is slightly salty and makes the rice taste better and the juice sluice down quickly. The smoked strips - studded with red chile pepper seeds - are tender and succulent, with a mild smoked ham flavor.
"She ono, too," Bonner says matter of factly. "Finger lickin', yeah."
Bonner hangs pork strips over a fire from unbent paper clips."What I was trying to do was get as many fruits and vegetables as I could," he recalls, "so we can eat off the land. But I gave away most of my plants to nieces and nephews and my girlfriend when the eviction papers came down."
(Gov. Ben) "Cayetano, he gotta do what he gotta do, (it's) politics," says Bonner, the homespun political analyst conversing as at countless sundown rap sessions. "He's not going to get re-elected. He just got elected at the wrong time."
Bonner thinks former Gov. John Waihee was a little, maybe a lot, more sly in beach-resident diplomacy. "Waihee, when he wanted to get re-elected, he took all the people off the beach at Kahe Point and along the roadside. He put them all here (at Makua)."
Does Bonner need anything?
"No, no, nothing."
Is Bonner happy?
"Happy," matter of factly, "I like where I'm at. The sooner you're happy, the sooner you'll be content," adds Bonner, Makua's latter-day Transcendentalist.
"I never thought I'd live out my days here, but I want to stay here, not bother anybody, just fish ... catch a big marlin by net," he says wistfully, dreaming out loud.
Meanwhile, Bonner admits he feels anxiety about the approaching day of eviction, and the community has moved Father's Day celebrations forward five days, to Kamehameha Day, June 11.
Also, there will be an open house June 7 to 9. Interested people are invited to body surf by Makua's famed "Pray for Sex" rock, spend the day, and bring sleeping bags and stay overnight.
"I'm thinking about having a concert," Bonner says - a last big Father's Day blowout before the unknown. And, lucky visitors may get to sample his kiawe-smoked fresh pork butt strips straight from the smokehouse.
Diamond Kepo'oku Kyle drags his nets to the ocean.These Makua recipes are tailored for a refrigerator-free lifestyle.
40 to 45 pounds of fresh pork buttPlace meat in a clean 48-quart cooler. Add spices to meat, mix and marinate 2 to 3 hours. (Taste-test the marinade by frying a small piece of meat after adding spices, then taste.)
(hunters use wild pig, wild beef or donkey), cut in strips 1-by-1-by-8- to 10 inches
Paprika to taste
Hawaiian salt to taste
Dried red chile pepper flakes to taste
If desired, use pork fat as fire starter to ignite the wood. Smoke meat over kiawe wood 3 to 3-1/2 hours, "just until it starts dripping." Best when eaten warm straight from the smokehouse. Or cool and store in plastic resealable bags.
3/4 trash bag full of lu'au leavesPeel and wash fresh luau leaves. Cook in a large caldron by batches, until all is cooked. Add oxtails, ginger and salt; simmer 3 to 3-1/2 hours.
Water
3 trays of oxtails
6- to 7-inch piece fresh ginger, sliced thin
Hawaiian salt to taste
Ahi, mahimahi, ono, omilo, papio or other fresh fish netted off "Pray for Sex" rock, MakuaCatch, clean and cut fish in long fillets, 1 inch wide or so. Sprinkle with salt or soak in salted water. Sun and wind dry 1 1/2 days (or 2 days for uani'i - stiff - dried fillets).
Hawaiian salt to taste
To serve, heat the dried fish in a frying pan; then stir-fry with vegetables. Or pulehu the dried fish; then cook with onions, tomatoes and water. Serve with poi or rice.
Any fresh raw meatPack sliced meat in layers of salt in bucket, starting with salt on the bottom. Seal bucket and store in a cool, dry place. Pour out bloody liquid from bucket daily until no liquid remains (3 or 4 days), resealing each time. Can be eaten after 3 or 4 days, or store for months.
(such as beef or pork or fish), cut in slabs or chunks
10 pounds Hawaiian salt
Bucket with airtight cover
To use, boil salt meat twice or more, discarding water after each boiling. Then, add to stews, soups and other dishes, such as stir-fried salt pork and cabbage.
Note: The territory of Hawaii transferred 6,600 acres in Makua valley to the U.S. Army in 1942-43, according to USARPAC spokesman Dick Devlin. The Army retains 4,200 acres for field training, while the state has the other 2,400 acres, he said. The state Department of Land and Natural Resources plans $450,000 in state park improvements at Makua, located beyond Makaha on the Waianae coast. Gov. Ben Cayetano announced June 15 as eviction day for 150 remaining residents of Makua Beach. A prior Makua eviction occurred in January 1983.
Also, the 32-minute video "Makua - To Heal the Nation" premieres this month on Oceanic TV Channel 22 at 9 p.m. Fridays and on Oceanic Channel 24 at 7 p.m. Tuesdays, through June. Na Maka O Ka 'Aina principals Puhipau and Joan Lander produced the video, which is available for $35 by calling 1-800-927-1811.