> Randy Wong - Musician & Arts Educator <

Randy's Q & A corner...

Have a burning question? Or just plain bored? Contact me and I'll respond!

Answers to:

Can you teach me how to make your "famous" 13 Hour Kalua Pig?

Aloha, everybody!

Believe it or not (and I'm totally flattered by this, btw), I have been asked on numerous times to teach my "famous" (or is it infamous?) 13 hour method of making kalua pig. So, I've finally decided to put together a short tutorial on how to go about making it. This method is tried-and-true; I've used it to serve over 500 pounds of kalua pig in the last 3 years. I think this tutorial should be pretty easy to follow, but in case you have any questions, please drop me an email at randywong@randywong.net!

Ingredients for Randy's Famous 13 Hour Kalua Pig:

1. Pork butt, pork shoulder, or some other piece of pork with fat on it*

2. Water

3. Hawaiian-style "rock" salt or coarse Kosher salt

4. Liquid/hickory smoke flavor concentrate

5. A big deeeep roasting pan (two if you can)

6. An oven

How much pork should you buy to make kalua pig?

First, you need to know approximately how many people you are expecting, what type of event you are cooking/catering for, and what the context is of the kalua pig with the other menu items. Generally, a good rule of thumb is that the average person will eat anywhere from 1/4lb. of kalua pig, if it is served in conjunction with other items, such as a buffet line (i.e.: rice, poi, chicken long rice, laulau, curry stew, etc.). However, if the kalua pig is one of the only dishes (i.e., a dinner party with kalua pig/rice and vegetarian curry stew), people will be more apt to eat 1/3lb. - 1/2lb., or more if they are really hungry or homesick. Then, take into consideration that most cuts of pork have bones that are relatively heavy. If you are catering a large-ish event (100+ people), then you can opt towards having about 1/4lb. per person; not everyone will eat the kalua pig. For small gatherings (~30 people), I will usually buy about 15lbs., because I like to have extra to save for later.

I will now describe each step in making my 13-hour kalua pig.

The Trays

You need to get realllly deep trays. This is to collect the juices and steam the pork. You need to double the pans so that there is enough support to hold the pork (it'll be really heavy).

The Pork

This is the raw pork. Notice the big slabs of fat on top. This is what you want, if you want juicy kalua pig. We'll remove most of the fat later (after cooking) but for now, keep it on.

The Flavoring

Coarse Kosher salt is a good substitute for Hawaiian-style "rock" salt. It comes in a big box like the one pictured here. Liquid smoke concentrate usually comes in smallish bottles like the one at right. (Sorry for the blurriness picture).

Prepare & Season the Pork

Place pork in pan, with fat on top. Lightly sprinkle the Kosher salt over the pork and around the sides of the pan. Empty one capful (or less) of hickory smoke flavoring onto top of pork and around sides. Be careful; the smoke concentrate is very strong; a little goes a looong way!

Cover the Pork with Water

Cover the pork with water. Notice how the pork is mostly submerged; however there is at least one inch of space between water surface and top of pan. When you pour the water into the pan, pour some on the top of the pork to make it moist. You can add a little extra salt around the the pork if you want. The water and salt will steam the pork.

Prepare Pork for Cooking

Cover the pans tightly with foil. It is crucial that the foil be wrapped as tightly as possible; this will ensure that the meat stays moist and won't dry out over the next thirteen hours. As tight as the foil has been wrapped, you still must be careful when loading the pans into the oven; these pans will be heavy with salty water, and cleaning up any spills will be a big mess.

Cook the Pork in the Oven

Preheat your oven to somewhere between 175-200 degrees Farenheit:

I know it sounds like a really low temperature, but trust me. You wanted the 13 hour method, didn't you? ...

Place the pork in the oven, and say "a hui hou" (until we meet again). Bon Voyage, dear pork, see you in 13 hours.

THIRTEEN HOURS LATER...

Take the pork out of the oven. It will be swimming in its own juices. Using two forks, wrestle free a chunk of pork and place it on the cutting board.

Start shredding the pork into threads as thin/small as you can, again using your two forks. If for some reason you encounter a tough section (typically whiteish in color), you will need to use extra caution and be sure to shred it as finely as possible. However, you likely won't encounter any tough sections (unless the cut of pork is bad), due to the 13 hour duration of cooking. In my experience, the meat should be so tender that it literally falls of the bone and apart from itself. The color of the juiciest meat will typically be dark brown with a reddish tinge. You can leave some fat with the shredded meat, but remove all of the larger pieces, along with any bones or tendons. I collect these in a bowl to toss out later. The shredded meat should be placed back in the pan with the original juices. You can remove some of the juices, but the pork should essentially be saturated with its juices. Give it a taste, and decide if you want to add just a touch more salt. Extra hickory flavoring should never be added because the taste of the concentrate won't blend well with the already-steamed pork.

After shredding, mix pork and juices by hand. This is also an excellent time to further refine the shreds, and to remove any pieces of fat, bone, or cartilege that you may have missed previously. If you are serving right away, you may want to quickly reheat the pork in the oven. If not, re-cover pans with foil and refridgerate or freeze. Reheat frozen pork at 350 degrees Farenheit for 15 minutes, and then dial temperature back down to 175-200 degrees. Refridgerated pork may be reheated directly at 175-200 degrees. Before serving re-heated pork, stir pan contents to even out mixture of pork and juices. If you plan to refridgerate pork and re-heat before serving, be sure to include an extra helping of juices - this will help keep the pork moist and fresh.

What IS 'exotica' - the genre of music that you say WAITIKI champions and performs?

For me, there can be no concrete definition of what exotica is, only a fairly clear
starting point of the genre, or at least in my own, humble opinion.

To me, exotica will always begin with the music of Martin Denny - his lush
orchestration, diverse use of birdcalls and sound effects, vamping bass lines/ostinati,
modal harmonies, and infusion of latin flavors (cha-cha-cha, merengue, bossa,
samba) with swinging melodies into polynesian-sounding drum grooves.

Sorry all, ya know i'm a huge fan of Mr. Denny.

But as for a "definition" of exotica ... for me, that's just a place to begin a
conversation - to what extent do all flavors of strange/unusual music share
characteristics with Denny's music, and/or with each other? What are some of these
commonalities, and how do they inform the relationship that the music we deem as
'exotica' has with non-exotic music forms? And ... to what extent can all types of
music be, in one way or another, labeled as 'exotic,' when compared with the existing
style/traditions/sounds from which they emerge?

What I'm suggesting is, (let's agree that Denny marks the beginning of 'exotica,' for the sake of this argument) is that a piece like Maurice Ravel's "Daphnis & Chloe Suite" could be considered to be a precursor Denny's music (i.e., Ravel's harmonic language, while easily explainable today as characteristic of French Impressionism, was pretty strange/unusual at the time of its debut); other pieces that spring to mind are Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" and Ravel's "Bolero".

What kind of music do you listen to? Any suggestions? I’ll listen to pretty much anything. Thanks.

This is a question I get a lot. Actually I think a lot of pro musicians get this a lot. Haha, and I still don’t know how to answer it.

Music listening, as you know, is a pretty personal choice. I can’t tell you for sure what I listen to, or even what I don’t listen to. It’s mostly a matter of what mood I’m in. Right now, I’m listening to Medeski, Martin, & Wood’s album “Uninvisible” … I like their sense of groove and the different feels that they can achieve. But I like all kinds of stuff. I’m really into Exotica, as you probably know, because of my exotic tiki band WAITIKI. What do I like about exotica? A couple of things, really. For example I’m really big on how the music is orchestrated; there are so many different layers, so much going on. And for a lot of tunes, there isn’t really any one tonality – a lot of it is either modal, or just there for tone color. Which to me is similar in concept to the Impressionist stuff by Debussy, Ravel, Faure, etc. Or even Richard Strauss or Wagner for that matter – it’s all about conveying a certain mood. There’s a lot of freedom there, it gives soloists a chance to really blow and do what they want to do. Also it makes a lot of emphasis for the bass player and the drums, they’re really setting the groove. Plus the music of exotica is often pretty dramatic and cheesy, like orchestral stuff can be, and it’s great fun to play.

Other stuff I really did, like pretty much anybody else my age, is hip-hop/rap/r&b/soul, etc. You know, turn-on-the-radio kine stuffs. And all styles of Hawaiian – slack key (like my dad plays), Jawaiian, reggae, traditional, contemporary, you know, the whole shebang.

Music that I don’t listen to as often is classical stuff. I know, I know, I’m a classical musician, but what? It’s just that … after music school, it became really tough for me to get into that stuff. I mean, you’re listening to it, analyzing for harmonic structure, stylization, trying to identify certain players or conductors or orchestras … it’s really hard to just have a good time with it. Most of the time nowadays I choose to listen to historical recordings, because those tend to keep me interested. I like those 60s Russian recordings, and earlier German stuff. I also like to look for orchestral recordings that have bass solos (like Prokofiev “Lt. Kije Suite,” Mahler 1, Strauss’s Zarathustra – four part fugue, etc.) and see how those players sounded back then, and then try and trace those styles to modern players. For example, hearing a recording of Henry Portnoi play the Dvorak Quintet with the BSO Chamber Players of the time, and then trying to hear similarities between his playing and Todd’s, since Todd was one of Portnoi’s disciples.

Anyway, long story short: If it sounds good, it is, and you should listen to it!

Hi Randy. I was wondering what your thoughts are on applying to music schools. Do I apply for a school based on its overall program? Or do I go for a specific teacher? How do I know who I should study with? And is wanting to become a musician is a good thing? How did you become interested in music? I’m in 10th grade and really like playing in orchestra!

Hi, thanks for writing. It’s definitely good that you’re getting a head start on thinking about colleges, no matter what field you are planning on going into! I was about your age when I started thinking about becoming a professional musician myself. For me, the thing that got me all worked up about becoming a bassist was a summer I spent at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute in 1997. Before that, I was just a young guy who liked playing bass, and didn’t really think much of it. I don’t think I even knew that being an orchestral player is a full time job! But my experiences at camp that summer really changed the way I thought about being a bass player, and being a musician in general. There were so many kids there that were from big cities (like Boston, New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, L.A., etc.) who were already studying with big-name teachers from top-tier orchestras. These kids really knew their solo rep, in and out, and had major experience with chamber music and conductors and everything. They listened to classical music 24/7 and knew the different styles of orchestral playing – Chicago’s “brass sound,” etc. They knew the names and stats (instrument type & make, years in service, schooling) of most of the players in the Boston Symphony and in their hometown orchestra. I guess it was like meeting a lot of people who were into sports stats, except they were into orchestra.

Anyways, this intensity really started building up inside me and I knew then that I wanted to become an orchestral player. Luckily the teacher I was studying with that summer – Todd Seeber – really thought I had potential, and told me to keep working hard … and to come back the following summer. So I did. And after that second summer at BUTI, in 1998, Todd told me he thought I should consider a career in music, and that I should audition for one of the schools he taught at: Boston University and New England Conservatory of Music.

Basically, when I auditioned for schools, I was looking for programs that had considerable breadth, ones that could offer me whatever I needed. The schools I applied to for undergrad were NEC, Boston University, Boston Conservatory, Peabody Conservatory, Indiana University, Lawrence University, and University of Southern California. I had different reasons for applying to each: NEC & BU I auditioned at because I knew I wanted to study with Todd; Boston Conservatory was still in Boston, and two other people from the BSO taught there that I was interested in studying with – Larry Wolfe and Dennis Roy (and I had worked with Dennis at BUTI in 1998, and really did like working with him; he’s an amazing technician!); Peabody has some great players from Philly that teach there, and at the time, Hal Robinson was still teaching there; I liked Indiana because of the variety of players there, and plus because it was connected to a well-known university; at Lawrence, I liked David Stallsmith, who was an NEC alum and former student of Ed Barker and Henry Portnoi, I think … plus the school is bad-ass for liberal arts, and I totally would have gone there if it wasn’t for music; and USC was a family favorite, and I had some good friends from Idyllwild Summer Camp who went there for bass and liked it. But despite all these choices, I knew that I really did want to study with Todd Seeber, so I put most of my effort into applying to school there.

People go into music school for so many different reasons, not necessarily because they want careers as orchestral players, as I found out when I got to NEC. I think there’s a common perception that if you don’t want an orchestral career, especially as a bass player, that you can’t be taken seriously as a musician … and this is something that I’ve learned is definitely not true. I went to NEC because of Todd, because I knew others who had gone there and had great orchestral chops, and because Todd is a great orchestral player – well, an artist in general, but his orchestra stuff really shines like no one’s business. I think if you have the opportunity to get to know teachers really well before you audition, then you definitely have a better chance of getting into school, and also of having a fully rewarding experience once you’re there. Because the core of any performance degree is really the studio instruction, followed by ensemble coachings. Basically, performance undergrad is a chance to practice … you’re paying for practice time … which can be upsetting to some people (it was to me at first, I just wanted to take classes and soak in all that other information), but eventually you come to the realization that music school is just a time to do some self-learning, guided by a world-class mentor … and if you don’t come to this realization then mostly people end up dropping out of school and deciding that music isn’t for them.