Hawaii - Jeff Campbell [38]
The local palate prefers hot rice or noodle mains to cold cuts and sliced bread. Thus another favorite is saimin, a soup of chewy Chinese egg noodles and Japanese broth, garnished with colorful toppings such as green onion, dried nori, kamaboko (steamed fish cake), egg roll and char siu (barbecued pork).
In a hurry, pick up a bentō (Japanese-style box lunch containing rice, meat or fish), and Japanese garnishes such as pickles, at deli counters and corner stores. And you can’t go home without trying a Big Island invention called loco moco, a bowl of rice, two eggs (typically fried over easy) and hamburger patty, topped with brown gravy and a dash of shōyu.
Consider yourself lucky if you snag an invitation to a pupu (appetizer) party at a local home. Go casual and expect an endless spread of grazing foods (forget the cheese and crackers), such as fried shrimp, edamame (boiled soybeans in the pod) and maki (rolled) sushi. A must-try is poke (pronounced ‘po-keh’), Hawaii’s soul food, a savory dish of bite-sized raw fish (typically ahi), seasoned with shōyu, sesame oil, green onion, sea salt, ogo (seaweed) and ‘inamona, a flavoring made of roasted and ground kukui (candlenut).
Nowadays kids veer toward mainstream candy and gum, but the traditional local treat is mouth-watering Chinese crack seed, preserved fruit (typically plum, cherry, mango or lemon) that, like Coca-Cola or curry, is impossible to describe. It can be sweet, sour, salty, or licorice-spicy. Sold prepackaged at grocers or by the pound at specialty shops, crack seed is mouthwatering and addictive.
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Lighten up your cookbook library with Hawai′i Cooks with SPAM: Local Recipes Featuring Our Favorite Canned Meat (Muriel Miura), filled with trivia, history and remarkably flattering glossy photographs.
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On a hot day, nothing can beat shave ice, a mound of ice, shaved as fine as powdery snow, packed into a cup and drenched with sweet syrups in eye-popping hues. Purists stick with only ice but, for added decadence, try sweet azuki-bean paste or ice cream underneath.
Finally, no list of local grinds is complete without a mention of Spam musubi, a local ‘delicacy’ comprising a rice ball topped with sautéed Spam and wrapped with sushi nori (dried seaweed). Locals of all stripes savor this only-in-Hawaii creation, which is somewhat akin to an easy, satisfying PB&J sandwich. Spam has been Hawaii’s comfort food since the plantation era, when canned meat was cheap and convenient for workers’ lunchboxes.
Native Hawaiian Food
Utterly memorable in rich, earthy flavors and native ingredients, Hawaiian food is like no other. Today several dishes are staples in the local diet, but they’re generally harder to find than other cuisines. The best venues for good, authentic Hawaiian food are plate-lunch shops, diners, fish markets and supermarket delis. Commercial luau buffets include all the notable dishes, but the quality can be mediocre or haole-fied (watered down for Caucasians).
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TOP PICKS – SHAVE ICE
Itsu’s Fishing Supplies (Hawai′i the Big Island; Click here)
Jo-Jo’s Anuenue Shave Ice & Treats (Kaua′i; Click here)
Tom’s Mini-Mart (Maui; Click here)
Waiola Bakery & Shave Ice II (O′ahu; Click here)
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Is Chocolate the New COffee?
The world’s ‘chocolate-growing belt’ extends 20 degrees north and south of the equator. Today’s key producers are West Africa, Brazil, Ecuador, Malaysia and Indonesia, but the Hawaiian Islands, which fall at the belt’s northern edge, are inching their way into the industry. Cacao is among the specialty