Hawaiian cuisine

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Local
and regional
Hawaiian cuisines

Local Hawaiian cuisine

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 cuisine

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.