Hawaii is a Pacific melting pot whose island culture has been molded and shaped by centuries of immigration and native Hawaiian traditions.
One of the greatest expressions of Hawaii’s astonishing diversity is the islands’ cuisine, which draws inspiration from the people who immigrated here over the past two centuries — Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Puerto Rican, Portuguese and many others. Over time, Hawaii’s diverse communities have evolved homespun amalgams of favorite dishes handed down from generation to generation, creating a foodie nirvana.
Many of Hawaii’s immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries were workers for the sugar cane and pineapple plantations that once dominated the Hawaiian economy. Communal meals were served in the multi-ethnic work camps as plantation workers needed nutritious, hearty meals portioned to keep them going all day long.
Food trucks are a favorite food stop for locals and visitors alike in Hawaii. (Ben Davidson Photography)
Fast-forward a century to today. These popular dishes are still found all over the islands, at hole-in-the wall cafes, food trucks and even the islands’ best restaurants, which have elevated comfort food into epicurean creations.
Take, for example, the ubiquitous plate lunch, typically a scoop or two of rice, macaroni salad and a main protein such as teriyaki beef or fried chicken. The Hawaiian plate lunch is hearty, savory and amply portioned — or “ono-licious” as the Hawaiians say. Ditto for loco moco, a comforting combination of rice, a hamburger patty and gravy, topped with a fried egg.
Plantation-era snack foods include Japanese-influenced musubi — or rice rolls wrapped in dried seaweed and topped with chicken or Spam. The iconic canned meat product, popular among plantation workers due to its affordability and long shelf life, has become a staple in Hawaiian cuisine.
Hawaii bakeries offer malasadas — Portuguese fried doughnuts dusted with sugar and filled with guava and lilikoi or passion fruit — and manapua. Those steamed buns, which originated from the Chinese char siu bao, brought to the islands by Chinese laborers working on the sugar plantations during the 19th century. These buns are a larger — and sometimes sweeter — version than the traditional version and are filled with kalua pork, curry chicken, sweet potato, bean paste or hot dog. (The name is believed to come from the Hawaiian phrase “mea ʻono puaʻa,” which translates roughly to “delicious pork thing.”)
Roadside food trucks offer pasteles, a meat pie, flavored with the Caribbean achiote spice, lined with grated green bananas and stuffed with stewed pork and olives. Sometimes pasteles are deconstructed and served as a stew in plate lunches, a truly only-in-Hawaii treat.
“Top Chef” alum Sheldon Simeon and his wife, Janice, inside their Tin Roof eatery in Kahului, Maui. (MiekoHorikoshi/Tin Roof)
Hawaii-island-born chef Sheldon Simeon — of “Top Chef” fame — has two restaurants on Maui offering plantation-inspired food. At Tin Roof in Kahului, you can order takeout boxes of delicious mochiko chicken — double fried chicken thighs marinated overnight in ginger sake shoyu, covered in a sweet rice batter and topped with housemade su-miso gochujang aioli and mochi crunch — and roasted and deep-fried pork belly, topped off with tomato and
onion lomi and served with a side of chili vinegar, cabbage banchan and rice, noodles or kale salad. (Tip: Order these dishes “animal style” for special sauces.)
Lines at Tin Roof in Kahului start forming early for chef Sheldon Simeon’s mochiko chicken, chicken thighs marinated in ginger sake shoyu, then covered in sweet mochiko batter and fried twice. (Tin Roof)
Simeon’s Tiffany’s, a casual restaurant in Wailuku, offers numerous dishes harkening back to the plantation era, including saimin with roast pork belly, wonton, egg, kamaboko (fish cake) and choy sum. Saimin, a noodle soup inspired by Japanese ramen, typically includes a broth made from pork or chicken bones, noodles and a variety of toppings such as green onions, seaweed and kamaboko.
Hawaii’s luaus are a great way to dive deep into the islands’ Polynesian and plantation-inspired cuisine. On a recent visit to one of Maui’s oldest luaus, the Myths of Maui, we took in a mesmerizing show combining storytelling, song and dance on the shores of West Maui while savoring kalua slow-roasted pig, teriyaki chicken, lomi lomi salmon, mahi-mahi, molokai sweet potatoes, poi, upcountry greens and tropical desserts such as coconut haupia.
At fine-dining restaurants like Maui’s Kō in the Fairmont Kea Lani, the menu celebrates Hawaiian plantation-era cuisine, much of it based on old family recipes passed down to the chef and members of the kitchen staff. Fresh ingredients are sourced from some 16 island farms, plus local fishermen and ranchers. On my recent visit, Ko’s menu featured Molokai purple sweet potatoes, sea asparagus, hearts of palm — even upcountry blueberries.
Sheldon Simeon’s Kahului restaurant, Tin Roof, is well-known for the garlic shrimp served with rice and topped with fried garlic and dailybanchan, such as pickled onions. (Tin Roof)
Ko’s founder, the acclaimed chef Tylun Pang, who died in 2022, once said, “We believe the cultures of the island are what we are made of, and we wanted to showcase them. We grew up with this food, and it is so much more comfortable to cook when you grew up with the food. It’s a sharing of our (Hawaiian) culture.”
That comfort level shows in the specialty dishes I sampled, including sugarcane skewers of scallops and local prawns; ginger-hoisin barbecue pork chop; ono pulehu chicken marinated in ginger, soy and sugarcane; and chap chae, a Korean stir-fry with yam noodles, Kula onions, mushrooms and other vegetables served with grilled marinated pork skewers and shrimp.
The breezy interior of Ko (the name means “sugar” in native Hawaiian) also reflects the sugarcane fields. A “rain” of beaded curtains overhead, a floor patterned after plots of sugarcane, a bar that emulates the flow of irrigation water, fabric patterns incorporating delicate sugarcane flowers and tile that looks like sugarcane bark all pay homage to Maui’s plantation-era history, which, though now long-gone, continues to inspire tasty culinary
creations that define Hawaiian regional cuisine.
Portuguese Malasadas are filled with cream, haupia, guava or lilikoi custard. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
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If You Go
Tin Roof: Open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday at 360 Papa Place, Suite 116,
Kahului, Maui; tinroofmaui.com.
Tiffany’s: Open from 4 to 10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday at 1424 Lower Main St., Wailuku, Maui; tiffanysmaui.com.
Myths of Maui: Tickets $115-$185. Reserved seatings at 5:30 and 5:45 p.m. daily at the Royal Lahaina Resort, 2780 Kekaa Drive in Lahaina, Maui; mythsofmaui.com.
Ko: Open from 5 to 8:30 p.m. daily, plus Sunday brunch, at 4100 Wailea Alanui Drive, Maui; korestaurant.com.
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