Traditional Hawaiian Foods to Try Once

Many traditional Hawaiian dishes usually come from Pacific Polynesian Islands, although now, since there is an expanse of demographics, they all add their own twist to the taste.

But, the true tastes of Hawaii remain untouched, with all its vibrant deliciousness served up altogether. Sample all of them if you can, at least once in your lifetime.

1) Poi

Poi, also known as Popoi, is a traditional staple in the Polynesian diet. It is generally made from starchy vegetables, like breadfruit, plantain or taro root.

It is either steamed or baked and then pounded into a thick paste, by mashing cooked starch on a wooden pounding board with a carved pestle made from calcite, basalt, wood or coral.

Water is added to the mixture while it’s being pounded to make a sticky pudding- like consistency. Poi has an exquisite taste, with a starchy and subtle sour taste from the light fermentation during the process of preparation. 

2) Laulau

People use Taro root to make Poi, and they use the leaves to make Laulau. Wrap pork in layers of taro leaves and cook it in an underground hot rock oven for hours until it achieves a soft texture and smoky flavor.

Cooking tenderizes the meat and gives the leaves a spinach-like consistency.

Recently, people have made variations of this dish to include chicken and fish as well. Serve it alongside steamed rice along with other Hawaiian delicacies.

3) Kalua Pig

Famous for being another major part of Hawaiian dishes, Kalua Pig is similar to south- American pulled pork. However, it has a smoky wood flavor instead of a tangy barbeque sauce.

An underground oven called imu cooks it and covers it with tropical leaves to retain a smooth and rich smoky flavor.

They prepare the whole pig and lay it in a bed of leaves, covering it with more leaves, which range from coconut or palm fronds to ti leaves, banana leaves, and even grasses.

4) Poke

Did you ever taste Japanese sashimi? Poke is the Hawaiian version of sashimi in a different version. While sashimi has thinly sliced pieces of fish, Hawaiian poke has big hearty sized chunks of cubes.

There are many, many versions of poke- from limu poke to shoyu poke to spicy mayo poke and all of them use raw fish cubes but with different marinade combos.

People usually use Ahi/tuna as the most common fish in poke, but they can also include other fresh saltwater fishes.

To make a serving of shoyu poke (soy sauce), cut the raw fish into cubes and season it with good soy sauce, Hawaiian sea salt, sweet Maui onions, and some limu.

They serve heaps of poke on a bowl of rice, making the poke bowl one of the best inventions since.

5) Saimin

It is a version of Chinese egg- noodle soup, developed during the Islands’ plantation era.

Saimin is basically the generous combination of thin Chinese Chow mien with a Japanese dashi broth. Later on after the migrations, we kept adding more ingredients, making it the Saimin we know now.

Ingredients like green onions, kamaboko, kimchi, Portuguese sausage, spam slowly made their way into the bowl. 

6) Pasteles

This iconic dish was brought over by Puerto Rican immigrants in the 20th century. Pastele resembles the Mexican Tamale, but it uses grated green bananas mixed with plantains and yucca instead of corn masa.

The savory fillings of Pastele usually vary from chicken, pork, currant or seafood, wrapped in banana leaves and served on a bed of gandule rice- made of sofrito and pigeon peas.

This delicacy requires a lot of labor, and people generally serve it at potlucks, food festivals, or roadside stands.

7) Manapua

Manapua is the Hawaiian take on traditional Chinese bao, usually ordered either by the dozen or single.

The Chinese brought sweet Char-Siu pork and filled it in the fluffy white buns, either baking or steaming them.

There are many variations of fillings along with the Char- Siu, including ginger chicken, sweet potato, lup cheong, hot dog, pizza and shoyu chicken.

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