A Full Plate

Fresh Local Cuisine. Photo courtesy HVCB Image Library HTJ

With Hawaii’s multi-cultural make-up, you can find a wealth of delicious specialties from around the globe, especially Asia and the Pacific Basin. There are beloved mom and pop stores, holes-in-the-wall and roadside lunch wagons, not to mention fine-dining restaurants offering a wide selection of creative dishes inspired by the cuisines of our immigrants, and using fresh local ingredients.

Some local favorites you’ll want to try:

The Plate Lunch is as much a part of Hawaii as poi and pineapple. Usually served in heaping helpings of your selection of meat, macaroni or tossed salad and “two scoops rice,” it doesn’t get any more local-style than this. Available all over the Big Island, including Tex’s Drive-In (Honokaa), Kona Mixed Plate (Kona), or Kay’s Kitchen (Kona).

Poke ( po-kay ) is another Island favorite. Bite-size chunks of fresh raw fish seasoned with anything from shoyu and garlic to seaweed and chiles, it is a staple at local parties. The Aloha Festival’s annual Poke Contest is held every year on the Big Island. Look for poke at the fish counter of most grocery stores, and feel free to ask for a taste. Buy it where the locals go: KTA Supermarket (Kona, Hilo and Waimea).

Some other widely available local favorites: mochi, a Japanese sweet made from glutinous rice stuffed with anything from sweetened azuki beans to ice cream (Two Ladies Kitchen, Hilo), saimin, Japanese soup (Nori’s, Hilo); pork chops, (Manago Hotel, Captain Cook); musubi, Japanese rice ball flavored with some savory meat or fish (Matsuyama Food Mart, Kailua-Kona); loco moco, a fried egg over rice, topped with a hamburger patty and gravy (Cafe 100, where it was invented, Hilo); ice shave, called “shave ice” on the other islands, and a “snow cone” in the Mainland U.S. (Itsu’s, Hilo, Anuenue Ice Cream, Kawaihae)