Aloha ‘āina

During the plantation era of Hawai'i's history, workers brought to the fields their leftovers from home for lunch. The vast majority of these workers were initially from China then Japan, Okinawa, Philippines, Korean. Their "brown bag lunch" was in the form of a Bento Box . If you think Bento Boxes are a thing of the past you only need to search Amazon to find modern versions still in use today. A typical Bento Box contains rice, pickled or cooked vegetables and a protein such as fish or meat. Traditional Bentos had two or three layers of containers stacked high separating the various food types. This made it easy to pass around as the workers shared their food with one another. As the world modernized and less people brought lunch to work, the plate lunch was created by food wagons and establishments supplying lunch plates to field workers similar in fashion to the Bento box. In Hawaii the common understanding of a plate lunch is two scoops of

The term "Hawaiian Food" can be confusing, or intriguing depending on how you look at it. We conducted an informal poll to see what type of food the public thinks of as Hawaiian. The largest comment was pineapple, second was Kabobs. Having a personal relationship with Hawaiian food I found this insight interesting because neither Kabobs nor pineapple are native to the Hawaiian Islands. It's worth mentioning coconuts are another food item not indigenous to the islands. Kabobs, more accurately Shish Kabab, originate in the Middle East. Pineapples were originally from Paraguay and were brought to Hawaii in 1813 by Don Francisco de Paulka y Marin, a Spanish advisor to King Kamehameha. Not even the famous Hawaiian Pizza is from Hawaii. It was invented by a Canadian Pizza maker in Ontario, Canada.   I would classify Hawaiian cuisine into four categories, Commercial, Modern, Traditional and Historical. These are not official classifications, but make a good way to ex