Hawaii has a number of traditional foods.
With such a wide range of influences, Hawaiian cuisine is very diverse. It includes a lot of fish dishes, due to the island's relationship to the sea, and highlights ingredients and methods borrowed from Western visitors, and Asian and Polynesian neighbors. The cuisine relies largely on a number of excellent local ingredients, including nuts, fruit and salt. Add this to my Recipe Box.
Poi
Poi is a thick soup made from mashing cooked taro, or kalo in Hawaiian, a plant with a long, important history on the islands. Water is added during the process to give poi the desired consistency (it should ideally have a paste-like texture). Poi is a cuisine staple for native Hawaiians, who through varying "creation stories," believe that the taro plant, like the islands themselves, was among the founding ancestors of the Hawaiian people, says Hawaii Food Tours.
Lomi Salmon
Lomi salmon is commonly served as an accompaniment to poi, and both dishes are regularly found at Hawaiian luaus, or feasts. The dish is made from mixing salted salmon with crushed ice, tomatoes and scallions (green onions). The word lomi in Hawaiian means to massage -- the dish is prepared by gently mixing the ingredients together in a massaging motion.
Poke
Poke is essentially a raw fish salad, made most commonly with yellowfin tuna. The other ingredients are sesame oil, seaweed, soy sauce, onion and chili peppers. As some of the other constituent ingredients suggest, it is heavily influenced by Asian, particularly Japanese, cuisine. The fish is skinned, deboned and filleted, before being cubed and mixed with the other ingredients.
Kalua Pork
Kalua pork is a method of cooking a pig in an underground oven. The pig is roasted in the pit and covered with banana leaves to retain heat. The dish is traditionally the centrepiece of a Hawaiian luau. Once cooked, the pork is shredded and served with Hawaiian salt, a seasoning that mixes sea salt with Alaea, or volcanic red clay. The meat is tender, and the salt adds extra flavor.
Macadamia Nuts
Macadamia nuts are the third most planted crop in Hawaii, behind sugar and pineapples. The Hawaiian Kau variety has become very popular, as the plants are perfectly suited to the local climate. Macadamia nuts were first introduced to Hawaii in 1882, and they were so popular and successful that by 1918, according to The Nut Factory, there were 18,000 nut seedlings planted.
Pineapples
Hawaii is renowned for its pineapples. It is believed they were first introduced to the islands in 1813, but large scale production didn't begin until 1850, when James Dole set up a plantation on the island of Hawaii. Dole and his company would go on to have a lasting role in the history of Hawaiian pineapples. Hawaiian pineapples are best known for being added to pizzas and burgers.
Kona Coffee
Kona coffee is grown on the slopes of the Hualalai and Mauna Loa mountains, in what is known as the Kona coffee belt. This is the only region where Kona coffee may be grown, as nowhere else can replicate the unique conditions found there; the soil is rich, volcanic and full of minerals, and the shifting cloud patterns over the mountains provide the perfect amount of cover.
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