As we’ve talked about often on this site, food is an essential part of travel. A culture’s roots are usually tied to food. Major life milestones are typically celebrated and marked by the sharing of food. Therefore, each culture has foods that are iconic within it. For example, you don’t go to Spain and not try tapas. You don’t go to Italy and not try pizza or at least one pasta dish. Hawaii is no different. There are iconic Hawaiian foods that can enhance your travel experience.
Keeping in mind, of course, that the cuisine of the Hawaiian Islands has become over time, international cuisine. It is most often the blending of the cultures that made this place home. Today, iconic Hawaiian foods are a rainbow quilt of flavors and ingredients from Japan, China, the Philippines, Korea, and Portugal.
Menu items that are just a given here include: shoyu chicken, chicken katsu, kalbi beef, loco moco, shave ice, and more. I have a long way to go on my journey to experience the full rainbow of iconic Hawaiian foods, but here’s some of what I’ve sampled so far.
Iconic Hawaiian Foods: Shoyu Chicken on Every Menu
It took some getting used to, but the most common way to eat chicken here is dark meat thighs. It’s not my preference, but even so, there is no denying that this dish is yummy. Many people feel that this cut of meat is juicier, more flavorful, and holds up to grilling (a common cooking method in the islands) better. It is also less expensive. That’s important because Hawaiian grocery stores are EXPENSIVE. So, if you’re gearing up to try some iconic Hawaiian foods, prepare yourself for dark meat. If that’s already your preference, then you’ll be in culinary heaven.
Typically, the sauce is comprised of brown sugar, ginger, garlic, green onions, and of course, shoyu. Shoyu is Japanese-style soy sauce.
Fun Fact: Soy sauce (of any type) is such a common ingredient here that most people buy their soy sauce in half-gallon jugs.
The dish is slow cooked and considered a true comfort food. Hawaiians love their carbs, so shoyu chicken is almost always served “lunch plate” style, which means with white rice and mac salad. Macaroni salad itself is iconic in Hawaii and I’m here for it! Some versions are like a mix of potato salad and macaroni salad together.
Where Did I Find Shoyu Chicken?
Café 100 in Hilo is as hometown as it gets. It is legendary for countless menu items. They are, in fact, one of the places that claims to have invented Loco Moco. We’ll come back to this in another article. They serve all the iconic Hawaiian foods that are familiar comfort foods for residents here. What you need to know right now is that on a warm fall day, I approached the outdoor window and ordered my shoyu chicken. I was nostalgic already because the walk-up window & outside-only picnic table “dining room” was exactly like the Dairy Queen that we frequented when I was a kid. In my opinion, this is the only true way to experience a Dairy Queen.
My combo lunch plate arrived carrying shoyu chicken, chicken katsu, one fried shrimp, a few mini-sausages, and of course, white rice and mac salad (which was more potato than macaroni and not my favorite version). The chicken katsu, which is also on every Hawaiian restaurant menu, was good too. This also, probably falls into the iconic Hawaiian foods category. Everything was flavorful and moist. Will you feel like you need to eat salad for every meal the next day? Yes, probably. But, it’s worth it.
I’ve also included a picture of a combo plate at Kuhio Grill that my husband and I shared. It includes their versions of chicken katsu, kalbi beef and fried rice instead of white rice.
Shave Ice: The Most Iconic Hawaiian Food?
Truthfully, I don’t know that anyone could select the most famous Hawaiian food. There are simply too many nummy and celebrated options, but shave ice is definitely up there in the top five.
The temperature is in the 80’s year-round in Hawaii, so a frozen treat to cool you down is essential. The most important thing to understand is that a shave ice and an icee/snow cone are NOT the same thing. For a shave ice, the ice is shaved impossibly, papery thin, so it isn’t grainy like an icee/snow cone. In Hilo, there are several places to choose from. Kula Shave Ice makes organic syrups for their desserts from organically grown & locally-sourced fruits. Yes, this makes their desserts more expensive, but they are yummy!
I skated away on fruity, frozen dreams as I spooned my way through my Kula Rainbow bowl, which was blueberry, strawberry, and mango syrups over my mound of ice, which also had a small scoop of vanilla ice cream hidden underneath.
For the record, they also operate with a walk-up window and picnic tables like a legit frozen dessert place should.
Soft-Shell Crab
OK, so I’m cheating a bit here. I doubt that soft-shell crab is the first thing anyone thinks of when they think Hawaiian cuisine. It is probably more closely associated with Maryland. However, Hawaiians know their seafood, so when I saw it on the lunch menu at Hilo Bay Café, I was all in!
As a bonus, this restaurant has a massive balcony that overlooks Hilo Bay. We made reservations so we wouldn’t miss out on the chance for an outdoor lunch, and we were so glad we did. The view was a bit misty that afternoon thanks to Hilo’s legendary rain showers, but it was a relaxing sojourn.
Our server helped me select a cocktail to accompany my soft-shell crab sandwich and jicama-lilikoi slaw. The sweet, fresh, light and crunchy slaw was the perfect accompaniment to my warm and wonderful crab and its creamy drizzle with a kick. Bringing things back to our original theme, lilikoi is often known by its other name, passion fruit. It is another celebrated ingredient in Hawaii and appears on menus in a myriad of ways.
Bonus Dish: Naporitan
While Naporitan isn’t ubiquitous on Hawaiian menus like shoyu chicken is, a colleague of my husband’s said we just had to learn to make it. Yes, she said we should make it ourselves. The gauntlet had been thrown down, so we accepted the challenge. As I said, Hawaiian cuisine is a true mélange of many cultures, including Japanese.
Not gonna lie, when my husband said, “My coworker said we need to try a spaghetti dish with ketchup,” I said, “gross!” Pasta is far and away my favorite food, so I was offended at the suggestion. However, once I did some research, I discovered there is more to it than that.
Not only is it not as gross as “spaghetti and ketchup” sounds, but it is also a much more complex and delicious flavor profile that got a bad rap from me. I’ve now made it more than once and genuinely enjoy it. The story goes that after World War II ingredients in Japan were sometimes limited and a hotel chef was trying to create a noodle dish (which is a staple in the Asian diet) that would also appeal to American palates. American shelf-stable condiments and military rations were plentiful, so. . .
How to Make Weird into Wonderful
The sauce is made with ketchup, butter, soy sauce and tonkatsu sauce (which is the brown sauce you dip your chicken katsu in). Try to get Bulldog brand tonkatsu sauce, if you can. Occasionally, you’ll see people add Worcestershire sauce too. You are supposed to use Japanese sausage, though I confess that the pictures below of my dish show Chinese sausage because I couldn’t find Japanese sausage. I have also made this dish with Portuguese sausage, which is plentiful in Hawaii and that’s better than the Chinese sausage. Basically, you sauté peppers and onions with your pasta and sauce. It’s a one-pot meal and it’s awesome. So, hurry, run down to your local Asian market and get your stuff. Once you’ve made this dish, post a comment on this blog. I can’t wait to hear how you all fare!
The phrase “iconic Hawaiian foods” may bring to mind seafood, pineapple, loco moco, and poi (for a good laugh check out my review of poi here), but it is so much more than that. The salad bowl of cultures that comprises Hawaiian cuisine is seafood and pork, and fruits and veggies you’ve never heard of, in combinations you’ve never imagined would go together. It is also ancient culture, pride of history, ohana (family) and love of ᾱina (earth-mother/land). . . and you can taste tradition in every mouthful.
Stay tuned for part 2 of my adventures in iconic Hawaiian foods. Remember, to click on the add below (or any add on this site) to book your beautiful Marriott hotel for your holiday travels.
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