Traditional Hawaiian dishes: 10 recipes to make at home

Traditional Hawaiian dishes

A lot of raw fish, fruits and marinades: here is the typical Hawaiian cuisine, which recently became famous thanks to the popularity of poke, the traditional colorful bowl full of different ingredients and sauces. But there are other dishes to try to discover the cuisine of the island: here is our list.

Poke

Poke was created from different cultural influences such as the one from Polynesia, Japan, China and Korea: the result is a dish made with rice, marinated raw fish, plus other ingredients like vegetables, seaweed, seed and nuts, sauces or fruit. Served in a bowl, poke was invented by fishers to use upp all the seafood left - mainly tuna and octopus: the hawaiian name, in fact, means “diced”.

Saimin

Similar to the Japanese ramen, saimin is made with noodles in hot dashi – the typical Japanese broth – leek, pork, nori and other ingredients according to the local traditions.

Lomi Salmon

Raw fish is an essential part of hawaiian cuisine: one of the most common dishes is raw spicy salmon, paired with tomatoes, sweet onions from Maui and chili. The fish is marinated for a long time before being served: the term lomi means, in fact, “massage”.

Lau Lau

The term lau lau refers to any dish wrapped in taro leaves (a very common tuber in the islands), pressed and baked in the oven. Among the most famous rolls of this kind, there are lau lau pork – a traditional starter with with pork shoulder and vegetables – and lau lau squid.

Poi

Taro is also used to make poi, one of the most popular dishes of Hawaii: you just need to boil the taro, then serve it with any meat of your choice. The result is a sort of dense cream with a similar texture to yogurt.

Kalua pork

Again, a dish based on pork, in this case roasted and wrapped in banana leaves. It is cooked into Imu, a natural oven placed underground, for about 6/7 hours. In this way, the meat gets a pleasant smoky taste and the texture resembles the one of pulled pork.

Huli Huli chicken

Chicken in Hawaii is usually grilled with soy sauce, cane sugar, ginger and fresh fruit. Cooked in this way, the meat becomes quite sweet and tender. The name huli huli refers to the ancient custom of cooking the chicken on the spit and it literally means “spinning”.

Loco Moco

One of the most popular dishes among the surfers is loco moco, a recipe made with steamed rice, fried eggs and burger, enriched with gravy sauce. You can also find it with pork, ham or bacon, even in a spicy version.

Shave ice

Crushed ice coloured with syrups, served in a paper cone like an ice cream: here is shave ice, a recipe brought to Hawaii from the Japanese immigrants, who used to work in the sugar fields. There were always giant ice blocks to cool down the working tools, so the Japanese decided to use up all the leftover pieces of ice to make a sort of kakigori, the typical drink made with crushed ice.

Haupia

As for the dessert, Hawaiian cuisine can count on haupia, a sort of pudding made with coconut milk and cornstarch, diced and served on cordiline leaves.