The roots of Hawaiian cuisine are based on seafood, seaweed and the crops the first Polynesian settlers brought over by canoe — known as “canoe crops.” Indigenous Global Chefs Collective stresses the importance of respecting the sanctity of native foods. Read our report on the Aloha state’s culinary scene that also includes Hawaiian-style barbecue beef ribs, pork belly and starchy poi.
Waikiki Beach and the Diamond Head volcano in Honolulu
It’s Friday night in downtown Honolulu. I’m at Capitol Modern, formerly known as the Hawaii State Art Museum. Outside, vendors are selling food and crafts and there’s hula dancing in the Sculpture Garden under string lights. This scene is one of the monthly First Friday events — a celebration of local art, food and music held across Honolulu’s Chinatown district. I walk past a man selling poke bowls and kalua pig nachos, and head instead to the Nui Kealoha table for lau lau — an ancient Hawaiian dish made by wrapping pork, fish and taro leaves in ti leaves, then steaming it. Traditionally, lau lau was prepared in an underground oven, but these days it’s cooked in a steamer pot on the stove. Nui Kealoha is the museum’s in-house catering company, owned by Kealoha Domingo, a Native Hawaiian chef who’s traveled around the world sharing authentic Hawaiian dishes.
“I’ve fallen into the role of representing Indigenous food from the Hawaii perspective,” Kealoha says. “It’s not really the way I was brought up. You know, local style is just be humble and do what you do. But I also realized that if I don’t step up to the plate, some other people could and they may not be telling the story that I feel is accurate.”
The roots of Hawaiian cuisine is the story Kealoha is referring to. It’s one based on seafood, seaweed and the crops the first Polynesian settlers brought over by canoe — known as “canoe crops” in Hawaii. Kealoha’s menus center around examples such as taro, breadfruit, sweet potato and coconut. He is a founding member of the Indigenous Global Chefs Collective, and stresses the importance of respecting the sanctity of each other’s native foods, even if you dislike the taste. An example in Hawaii is poi, which is made by pounding taro — a crop, grown in places like Kalalau Valley, that Hawaiians hold in the highest regard and consider an ancestor. Many visitors try poi for the first time at a hotel luau (a Hawaiian themed feast and cultural show) and are turned off by its gooey texture, but it’s a staple food on the island.
Poi, which is made by pounding taro
Kealoha explains that poi is traditionally served in a large communal bowl. Everyone shares it, scooping it up with two fingers, and thinks positive thoughts, which they believe transfers through the food. He reminds people to be open-minded when trying it for the first time. “That’s one of the keystone pieces of our food culture,” he says.
Back inside the museum’s lobby, one of Kealoha’s employees scoops cups of kava out of a communal bowl. The sacred drink is made by mixing a root of the same name with water. In the Pacific islands it’s consumed by groups discussing important matters, at ceremonies and for pleasure. It has a calming, grounding effect and is thought to be a remedy for various ailments.
Hawaiian pork belly
HAWAIIAN VS. HAWAII LOCAL
To understand how Hawaiian food evolved, visit Helena’s Hawaiian Food in the working-class neighborhood of Kalihi. Opened by Helen Chock in 1946, this award-winning restaurant was originally located amid farmland a half mile from its current location. The area has changed since then: the old Helena’s is now a Ford dealership, and the farmland has been replaced by a freeway. The current iteration, which opened in 2000, shares a street with two Mexican restaurants, an auto body shop and a mini mart.
The menu hasn’t changed much since it opened. In addition to Native Hawaiian foods like poi, kalua pig, lau lau and squid lu’au, you can also order Hawaii local cuisine — the Hawaiian food that evolved after the arrival of Captain James Cook. He introduced onions; following him, the British and U.S. whalers, merchants and captains introduced salt fish, cattle and tomatoes, and the immigrant laborers who came to work the sugar and pineapple plantations in 1852 (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino and Portuguese) all brought new ingredients, too, including rice and shoyu. This is how you get dishes like lomi salmon and chicken long rice — dishes invented during the plantation era.
Helen’s grandson Craig Katsuyoshi took over after she died. He recommends first time visitors order Menu D, which includes kalua pig, lomi salmon, lu’au squid and Helena’s signature pipikaula short ribs, advising them to “split the rice and order a taster of poi.” The meal that arrives at your table takes you on a journey through thousands of years in Hawaii.
Hawaiian-style barbecue beef ribs
The story of pipikaula — “pipi,” means cow; “kaula” means string — dates back to the introduction of cattle in Hawaii. Paniolos (Hawaiian cowboys trained by their Mexican counterparts) preserved beef by hanging the raw meat to dry. Helena’s marinates choice beef short ribs in a shoyu based marinade before hanging them to dry, so they can get a nice char when grilled. The result is juicy, salty, smoky meat that pulls away from the bone with just enough bite. Raw slivered onion is served alongside with a dish of Hawaiian alaea salt. Craig suggests pressing a slice of onion into the salt and eating it in between bites of pipikaula and rice. It’s also common for local customers to season dishes with house made chili pepper water — a Hawaii condiment made with chilies, water and salt. A classic combination is to place either kalua pork or lau lau in a bowl next to a scoop of poi and top it with lomi salmon and chili pepper water. The warm smoky, salty meat, paired with starchy poi, chilled lomi salmon — for acidity — and chili pepper water for spice, results in a well-balanced, perfectly seasoned dish. Watching Craig work behind the counter with his wife and kids reminds me that food and family is at the heart of Hawaiian cuisine, both traditional and local-style.
Pohole, a dish of okra, yamaimo, sweet onion, nori and shiso
MODERN HAWAII CUISINE
In the early 1990s, Hawaii’s cuisine began to evolve again. Twelve classically trained chefs began Hawaii’s farm-to-table movement, coining it Hawaii Regional Cuisine (HRC), in a bid to support local farmers during a time when resorts and high-end restaurants focused on European cuisines and only used imported ingredients. The new style focused more on the flavors of Asia and the Pacific, using high-quality ingredients grown, raised and caught in Hawaii.
Today, in Honolulu, the chef best known for taking local cuisine to the next level is arguably Ed Kenney. Opened in 2015, Kenney’s restaurant, Mud Hen Water, breathed new life into both Hawaiian and Hawaii local cuisine, pushing past HRC to introduce a more modern yet rustic way of cooking that still held all three preceding cuisines in high regard.
Every dish tells a story, giving diners a sense of place. For example, hand-cut pasta is paired with a ragu made from wild axis deer — an invasive species on Maui, Moloka’i and Lana’i. For Kenney’s fried breadfruit — one of the original canoe crops — he pairs chili pepper water aioli, which combines a Hawaii local condiment (chili pepper water) with a classic French sauce that was often used in HRC (aioli). Or take the roast pork belly dish, made from ingredients you could find in a Hawaiian plate lunch — slow-cooked pork, cabbage and poi. Instead of Hawaiian kalua pig, Kenney’s preparation is closer to Chinese roast pork; the cabbage is braised with bacon — an ingredient originally from Ireland — and the poi is turned into a French vinaigrette.
“Mud Hen Water” translates as “Wai‘alae” in Hawaiian — a combination of “wai” (water) and “alae” (a mud hen). “Wai‘alae” is also the name of the street the restaurant is located on, where, legend has it, there was once a freshwater spring where the “alae” gathered. Over the past few years, Kenney closed two of his other restaurants: Kaimuki Superette, next door, and Town (his first), across the street. This freed up space for like-minded food entrepreneurs — a fishmonger, butcher and two pastry chefs — creating, together with Mud Hen Water, what Kenney calls “Kaimuki Town Square”: a local food hub where you can buy freshly caught fish, meat, pastries and vegan donuts, as well as sit down to a meal.
These days, you can find cuisines from around the world represented in Honolulu. It’s become one of the country’s top culinary destinations, reaching far beyond Hawaiian cuisine — but always with a nod to the past.
Writer: Sarah Buchard
