Hangi guide has some Maori steaming

Rachel Taniwha
Hawke's Bay Maori representatives doubt a step-by-step guide funded by the Government on how to prepare and cook a hangi hygienically will catch on with Maori food enthusiasts.
The 24-page full-colour booklet tells how to buy, store and prepare hangi food, pit preparation, heating the hangi stones, serving the food and what to do with leftovers.
It was launched in Auckland this week by Food Safety Minister Annette King, after revelations that New Zealand had the highest rate of food poisoning in the developed world, costing the country about $55 million a year through days off work, medical treatment and related costs.
Hawke's Bay Maori health advocate Matthew Bennett said from a health point of view he understood why the guide, a joint venture between Auckland Regional Public Health Services and the New Zealand Food Safety Authority, had been developed.
"But there was something unique about the flavour of traditional hangi food, provided by Maori earth mother Papatuanuku, that too much sanitation could destroy," he said.
"There's been a lot of areas where things haven't been as hygienic as they possibly could have been. I don't see it as picking on Maori culture at all but fitting into the regulations that the food industry has, especially in terms of any efforts to commercialise."
Mike Tamaki from Tamaki Tours said the hangi booklet was "a huge waste of time and money, and next thing the Government would be bringing out a booklet on Five Easy Steps On How To Be A Maori".
"This sounds to me like a really good comedy line for a Billy T James show. What part of a hangi is wrong or unhealthy that they have to come up with a book on it?" Although the booklet had been developed in consultation with Maori elders, Mr Tamaki doubted whether it would be used.
"I don't care what elder approved it. How many people out there who have been in the practice of doing a hangi for years are now going to read a guide book on how to do it put out by the Government? "They're telling us how to suck eggs."
Mr Bennett said the book was a good idea, but was sad to see it produced as he would have preferred information passed down in the traditional way, rather than through Government departments. He said there were many different ways of preparing a hangi.
Piki Mulligan, wife of Matahiwi Marae kaumatua Tom Mulligan, said there were modern ways of preparing a hangi that were hygienic, "but it's not a proper hangi". She said marae cooks prepared hangi in the traditional underground method and were always hygienic. They helped teach cooking students from Eastern Institute of Technology and school groups how to prepare hangi so had to be hygienic.
She did however check how other hangi was cooked and prepared before eating it.
"We always make ours and we always think ours is hygienic. We don't want to eat unhygienic food.
"We are particular about eating other people's hangi, and like to know it's hygienic."
She said the Government booklet could be a method of trying to capitalise on Maori traditional food and culture for commercial gain.