b'EARTH OVENPachamanca CurantoEarth-oven cooking begins with a fireHangiin a pit where stones are heated until theyre red-hot. Food is sealed in leaves PHOTOS: BRENT SIMPSON/CC BY-SA 2.0 (HANGI), & MADHSEASON/CC0 (CURANTO)/ WIKIMEDIA COMMONS or baskets and then buried in the pit to steam and smoke for several hours. The method is ancient and practised by many cultures across the globe for memorable communal feasts, and the result is uniformly similarsmoky, tender, and flavourful.In Mexico, barbacoa involves slow-cooking meat in underground pits lined with agave leaves. For New Zealands celebratory hangi feast, Maori communities lower baskets of meat, fish, and vegetables onto heated stones and cover them with wet fabric and earth to trap the heat. In the Peruvian Andes,before being unearthed for a hearty the ancient tradition of pachamanca iscommunal feast shared with family as much a ceremonial practice as it isand friends. Cooking in the traditional a celebratory cooking tradition. Layersunderground oven or imu is an essential of meat (often beef or pork), potatoes,part of every Hawaiian luau (feast).corn, and huacatay (a wild mint) andPork (whole or select cuts), taro, and other herbs are buried in the heated pitsweet potato are wrapped in ti leaves and covered with banana leaves and soil.and then covered with banana stumps, After several hours of slow cooking, aleaves, and burlap. This is left to cook ritual offering is made to Mother Earthon hot lava rocks underground for many before the food is served to people. Inhours, resulting in the most succulent Chile, curanto has its roots in the Chilokalua pork. Island of Patagonia. Seafood, meat, andWherever found, an earth-oven feast is SIDE CREDITpotatoes are layered over hot stones in amore than just a delicious mealits a pit, sealed with maqui or nalca leaves andgathering, a ritual, and a celebrationsoil, and slowly steamed underground Kaluapork of community. TRUE VOYAGES \x1a49'