Oct 18
Poke has traveled an extraordinary distance from the fishing communities of Hawaiʻi to supermarket counters, restaurants, and customizable bowl shops around the world. Today, the word may bring to mind cubes of ahi arranged over rice with avocado, cucumber, spicy mayonnaise, and an assortment of toppings, but the roots of poke are much simpler—and distinctly …
Oct 18
Ask someone what “Hawaiian food” means and you may hear wildly different answers. One person pictures poi, laulau, kālua pork, limu, and fresh fish. Another immediately thinks of Spam musubi, loco moco, macaroni salad, chicken katsu, garlic shrimp, or a plate lunch covered in teriyaki sauce. Someone who has never been to Hawaiʻi may picture …
Oct 18
Choosing a Hawaiian island can be surprisingly difficult. Photographs make the islands look interchangeable: palm trees, blue water, mountains, beaches, waterfalls, sunsets. Once you actually start planning, however, the differences become obvious. A week on Oʻahu feels very different from a week on Kauaʻi. Hawaiʻi Island requires a completely different travel strategy from compact Lānaʻi. …
Oct 14
Tender, juicy pork seasoned simply with Hawaiian sea salt and a touch of smoke is the heart of kālua pork. Traditionally, kālua pig is cooked slowly in an imu, a Hawaiian underground oven heated with hot stones. The result is deeply tender pork that can be pulled into fine shreds and served alongside poi, lomi …
Oct 07
A mound of hot white rice topped with a juicy hamburger patty, rich brown gravy, and a fried egg may sound simple, but together those four ingredients create one of Hawaiʻi’s best-loved comfort foods: loco moco. Born in Hilo on Hawaiʻi Island in the late 1940s, loco moco is a distinctly local creation rather than …
Sep 30
Juicy chicken wrapped in a light, shatteringly crisp panko crust makes chicken katsu one of the most satisfying fried cutlets you can make at home. Serve it Japanese-style with shredded cabbage and tonkatsu sauce, or turn it into a Hawaiʻi-style plate lunch with steamed white rice, macaroni salad, and plenty of katsu sauce. Chicken katsu …
Sep 23
A steaming bowl of curly noodles in a light, savory broth topped with green onions, kamaboko, char siu, egg, or slices of Spam is one of Hawaiʻi’s great comfort foods. This is saimin, a noodle soup born in Hawaiʻi’s plantation era from the meeting of several immigrant food traditions. Saimin isn’t ramen, pho, or simply …
Sep 16
Tender pork and salty butterfish wrapped in layers of soft lūʻau leaves and steamed slowly until everything becomes rich, savory, and almost meltingly tender—that is the heart of Hawaiian lau lau. Unlike many dishes that are casually labeled “Hawaiian” because they contain pineapple or teriyaki sauce, lau lau is rooted in Hawaiian food tradition. Its …
Sep 02
Plump shrimp coated with loads of golden garlic, melted butter, and a touch of spice make North Shore garlic shrimp one of Oʻahu’s most recognizable roadside foods. Served shell-on with hot white rice and a wedge of lemon, it’s messy, intensely garlicky, and exactly the kind of food you’ll want to eat with your hands. …
Aug 19
The Polynesian Cultural Center is one of Oʻahu’s largest visitor attractions, but calling it simply a “luau” misses most of what happens there. Spread across a landscaped property in Lāʻie on Oʻahu’s North Shore, the Center presents six island areas representing Hawaiʻi, Samoa, Aotearoa New Zealand, Fiji, Tahiti, and Tonga. Throughout the afternoon, cultural presenters …
