Island food to warm the winter
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(L) A family meal of Lau Lau pork, tempura shrimp and lumpia musubi, and Saimin, photo . (R) Exterior of Anytime Hawaiian, photo by JP Cordero.
(L) A family meal of Lau Lau pork, tempura shrimp and lumpia musubi, and Saimin, photo . (R) Exterior of Anytime Hawaiian, photo by JP Cordero.
I find it very easy to imagine the beginnings of Hawaiian cuisine. It doesn’t start in ancient Polynesia, because except for poi almost nothing in modern Hawaiian cuisine is eaten according to that tradition. Rather, it begins in the late 1800s when laborers in cane fields sat down for lunch, and somebody curiously asked, “Hey, what do you have there? May I try some?” Tastes are exchanged, the workers go home and integrate those ideas into their cooking, and after a few cycles of this a new cuisine emerges.