Hawaiian Cuisine - by food author Howard Hillman

Hawaiian Cuisine

American

An insightful guide
to Hawaiian cuisine
for diners and travelers

by an established authority

Why
Hawaiian Cuisine
is special

Hawaiian Cuisine is one of the best and oldest examples of fusion cuisine. Polynesian, Asian, European and mainland American culinary heritages have profoundly influenced it.

The four branches
Hawaiian Cuisine has four distinct culinary personalities:

Traditional Polynesian

Modern Luau

Local

Regional

Traditional Polynesian

This is the cooking style most people associate with Hawaiian Cuisine. The seafaring Polynesians first landed on uninhabited Hawaii about 700 A.D., bringing their plants, pigs and cooking techniques. Their most celebrated contribution was the luau, a communal feast that included these famous dishes:

Kalua Pig
The whole animal is slow-cooked in an imu (an underground pit oven).

Poi
Mashed cook taro root. Used as the starch staple.

Lau Lau Foods
Foods wrapped in Ti leaves and steamed in the imu.

Lomi Salmon
Seasoned diced raw fish.

Haupia
Coconut cream pudding-like dessert.

Modern Luau

The Luaus orchestrated today are popular with residents and (especially) tourists. They serve the above-mentioned Polynesian Luau dishes. However, the cooks use many shortcuts. And, the events are more commercial than communal. But like in the old days, they can be fun.

Local

Chinese, Europeans, Filipinos, Japanese, Koreans, mainland Americans, and Pacific Islanders settled in droves in Hawaii beginning in the mid-19th century. Although some held fast to their culinary traditions, many merged aspects of their cooking styles to create multi-culture Hawaiian Cuisine dishes. The three best known are:

Plate Lunch
One or more entrees of various ethnic backgrounds are plated with the accompanying compulsory two mounds of rice and one of macaroni salad. This everyday specialty is extremely popular among locals.

Spam Musubi
A fried slice of canned meat sits sushi style over molded rice secured by seaweed.

Poke
Raw seafood mixture seasoned with seaweed.

Regional

Hawaiian Regional Cuisine, as it is called, was founded in the early 1990s by a dozen accomplished local chefs. They were obviously influenced by the California Cuisine movement because the Hawaiian Regional Cuisine approach includes using fresh local ingredients, creatively combining foods, and presenting dishes attractively.

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