Hawaiian luau
menus usually include mainlanders' favorites.
Hawaiian foods that mainlanders tend to enjoy populate the menus of Hawaii's top luaus and restaurants. They include authentic Hawaiian ( before Western contact) and contemporary Hawaiian or local foods, which are fusions of foods from Hawaii's predominant cultures--Hawaiian, Asian, Portuguese, mainland U.S. and Western European. You can also make traditional Hawaiian food at home. In recipes that call for hard-to-find Hawaiian ingredients, substitute a mainland counterpart, such as Walla Walla sweet onions for Maui onions and sea salt or kosher salt for Hawaiian salt. Add this to my Recipe Box.
Main Entrees
The star attraction of a Hawaiian luau is the kalua pig. Mainlanders can take a cue from locals who create a reasonable facsimile of this tasty shredded pork in their kitchens using a crock pot and liquid smoke instead of an imu (underground oven). Other mainlander favorites include huli chicken, teriyaki chicken, coconut shrimp, Hawaiian barbecue short-ribs, fish with mango sauce and macademia nut-crusted mahi mahi.
Side Dishes
Chicken long rice is found at most of Hawaii's top luaus. On the mainland, it has been cooked by Sam Choy and Emeril Lagasse on "Good Morning America." Sweet potatoes (baked or steamed, not canned) and lomi salmon are other luau staples that, unlike poi, mainlanders gravitate to. Mainlanders also enjoy Hawaiianized American dishes; for example, Germaine's, a popular luau on Oahu, serves pineapple cole slaw.
Desserts
Taking a cue from Hawaii's top restaurants, include a traditional American recipe or two with a Hawaiian twist, such as Duke's hula pie and Sam Choy's Waiawa pineapple cheesecake, on your dessert menu.
Popular Hawaiian luau desserts include coconut cake, cakes with Hawaiian fruit fillings and that old classic---pineapple upside down cake. Perhaps less popular with mainlanders is the authentic Hawaiian dessert haupia, a firm coconut pudding made with coconut cream (canned or from grated coconut) and cornstarch.
Appetizers
In Hawaii, locals buy pupu (appetizer) platters at supermarkets for their parties or, like mainlanders, prepare their own. Poke (pronounced "pokey"), made with cubed raw fish and seasonings, such as ginger, soy sauce and onions, is a traditional pupu that sushi-loving mainlanders often enjoy. American-Hawaiian style pupus include coconut shrimp, sweet potato chips and cream cheese and crab wontons.
Snacks
Hawaiian snacks also enjoyed on the mainland include macadamia chocolate chip cookies, lilikoi (passion fruit) shortbread cookies, arare (a Japanese rice cracker mixture and mainstay of Hawaii's snacking habit) and tropical fruits such as mango, papaya, banana, coconut and, of course, pineapple.
Beverages
No Hawaiian foods for mainlanders list would be complete without the Mai Tai. Other Hawaiian style beverages popular on the mainland include passion/orange/guava juice, Hawaiian punch and Kona blend coffee.
Tags: Hawaiian luau, authentic Hawaiian, coconut shrimp, from Hawaii, Hawaii luaus, Hawaiian foods, include coconut