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Nearly 400 turkeys occupy
Kailua High's steaming imu
as school volunteers combine
Thanksgiving and Hawaiiana
Todd Hendricks has made a Thanksgiving tradition out of putting a smoky twist on turkey. Now, he's got hundreds hooked.
For nearly a decade, residents have been signing up to reserve a space for their turkey in Hendricks' imu, dug out near the rear of Kailua High School's campus. At $10 a turkey or food tray, the proceeds go to Kailua school clubs or programs.
This Thanksgiving, Hendricks took on his largest order yet at nearly 400 turkeys.
The birds were smoked overnight in a 10-foot-by-20-foot cooking pit, tended by Hendricks and about 20 former students and friends. The large imu required hundreds of rocks collected from local stream beds and nearly an entire kiawe tree.
Soccer player Allison Sheppard, below right, handed Sandra Rasay a turkey to add to the growing gaggle of poultry dropped off to be smoked at the popular fund-raiser for the athletic department.
And the cooking is hardly any easier.
The imu was lit at noon, and by 6 p.m. had just become hot enough to cook the meat. Wire fencing was laid out on the pit's hot rocks and used as racks. Wet burlap and tarpaulins were layered over the foil-covered turkey trays to keep in heat.
For hours yesterday, Kailua High School senior Koa Lyu circled the imu barefoot with a long pipe and a watchful eye. Every few feet, he poked at red-hot stones or dislodged a brick of kiawe wood in hopes of getting the fire hotter. His only protective gear: gardener's gloves.
"I just want to make sure the fire's prepped and ready," he said, adding that this is his fourth imu fund-raiser with Hendricks. "The main challenge is building it (the imu) and tending to the fire."
Despite the difficulty of imu cooking, many come back year after year to help Hendricks. Several are former students who wanted to learn more about the imu as part of their lessons on native Hawaiian and Polynesian history.
"A lot of people don't know how to do this," said Lyu, who has built his own imu for family get-togethers after learning the process from Hendricks' fund-raisers.
Kailua High School senior Koa Lyu checked the draw from a 55-gallon drum "chimney" atop an imu for yesterday's fund-raiser. The ladder at right held a thermometer measuring heat from the imu to determine building specifications for a cover being planned for the pit.
The couple said they moved from Kaneohe to Kailua last year and were dreading the thought of cooking their turkey in an oven at home.
"We missed imu turkey so much," Carol McSheehy said. "We just have to have an imu."
The fund-raiser has grown in popularity -- mostly by word of mouth -- since Hendricks started. His first imu held 50 turkeys. Last year, he cooked 350.
Kiara Inere-Ishii, of Waimanalo, said the annual event has meant she's never had to cook her own turkey. "I don't cook," she said, with a laugh. On top of turkey, Inere-Ishii put two hams in the imu.
Others also wanted more than turkey roasted. Some put potatoes in their trays, others pork.
Further up the line, Jenny Chow had three trays of Kalua pig. She said she'd freeze two, and put one on her Thanksgiving table. "Imu is still the best," she said.
Residents were to pick up their turkeys this morning at the school, after about 10 hours of cooking. Last night, the line to drop them off snaked into a nearby parking lot.
But few seemed to mind the wait.
"It's no work at home," said Kailua resident Patrick Rinkler, who first had imu-cooked turkey last year, "and it tastes really good."
