Aloha Platter

This is great…everyone is thinking proactively about what the Obama presidency will bring.  In the latest installment, people are speculating about the Hawaiian Lunch Plate, although the article rightly states that it probably won’t get lots of coverage, “given Mr. Obama’s clear fixation with staying trim and healthy.”  Still, it would be awesome for Obama to bring recognition to this highly delicious cuisine.  Personally, whenever I go to Hawaii, this is the first thing I go for, even though there’s tons of more expensive and supposedly higher quality touristy food around.

This food is also a part of Asian American history:

The Hawaiian plate lunch traces its roots to the 1880s, when giant fruit and sugar companies controlled much of the local economy. Among other factors, the decimation of the local population by disease made the companies desperate for plantation workers, and they drew a labor pool from China, Japan, Portugal, the Philippines and other areas.

For workers who toiled under harsh conditions, lunchtime was a respite, with hearty portions of rice matched with whatever meat was left over from dinner the night before.

“The workers would take their bento in these little tins,” said Kaui Philpotts, the former food editor of The Honolulu Advertiser, who has written books about Hawaiian food.

“They didn’t eat sandwiches or things like that,” Ms. Philpotts said, “it was leftover rice and a lot of things like canned meat or teriyaki or cold meat or maybe scrambled eggs or pickles, and almost no salad or vegetable.”

This food is cheap, filling, and good.  If any of my readers haven’t had it, hit the yellow pages, find it, and try it out.

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