The Plate-Lunch Tradition in Kauai

To experience island history firsthand, step up to the counter at one of Hawaii's ubiquitous "plate lunch" eateries, and order a segmented Styrofoam plate piled with beef, chicken, two scoops of rice, macaroni salad, and maybe a pickled vegetable condiment. On the sugar plantations, Native Hawaiians and immigrant workers from many different countries ate together in the fields, sharing food from their "kaukau kits," the utilitarian version of the Japanese bento lunchbox. From this "melting pot" came the vibrant language of pidgin and its equivalent in food: the plate lunch.

Along roadsides, and at beaches and events, you will see food trucks, another excellent venue for sampling plate lunches. These portable restaurants are descendants of "lunch wagons" that began selling food to plantation workers in the 1930s. Try the deep-fried chicken katsu (rolled in Japanese panko bread crumbs and spices). The marinated beef teriyaki is another good choice, as is miso butterfish. The noodle soup, saimin, with its Japanese fish stock and Chinese red-tinted barbecue pork, is a distinctly local medley. Koreans have contributed spicy barbecue kalbi ribs, often served with chili-laden kimchi (pickled cabbage). Portuguese bean soup and tangy Filipino adobo stew are also favorites. The most popular Hawaiian contribution to the plate lunch is the laulau, a mix of meat and fish and young taro leaves, wrapped in more taro leaves and steamed.