Not SO Local Hawaiian food

 What is Hawaiian food? it's not exactly local or indigenous. Think of it as an amalgam of various cuisines from far away Europe, Polynesia and Asia. It makes for interesting and delicious flavors.

Bon Appetit contributor and new one to the New York Times Food section, Elyse Inamine wrote about Hawaiian food in yesterday's section. Hawaiian food ia marriage of different cuisines from around the world. It first started between the Tenth and Twelth centuries  when Polynesians settled on the unihabited Hawaiian Islands.They brought taro, sugar cane and pigs, recognizable in today's cuisine. They created such isand standards as poke made with reef fish and kalua pig roasted un an underground oven. Yet the arrival of  British and American colonizers  dismantled the Hawaiian kingdom, supressed its 'c ulture and eventually attracted an influx of immigrants to work on plantations. The term locall is releatively recent , coming from a trial in which a white woman, Thalia Massie, a white woman living in Manoa, a Honolulu suburb falsely accused five mixed and mostly Asian men of rape.It started as a term of abuse but eventually was embraced by the locals. Now it also refers to the dishes which have a long hisoty of being fusion.

Yet what is Hawaiian cuisine? Islanders will tell you it's family recipes that have been passed down for generations. every family has their own versionTrue Hawaiian recipes are hard to come by. Nurse practioner and food blogger Relle Lum is trying to find them. As she states when the foreigners came everything Hawaiian was banned, even the hula. It's important to keep up whatever tradition that are left. She showcases such classics as squid luau with  stewed taro leaves as well as mochiko chicken which is a  blend of Japanese karaage and Southern fried chicken. There is also musubi  which is basically Spam sus    hi, with the meat placed on a bed of rice and wrapped in nori or black seaweed. Cooks on the island see a fusion of all the cuisines. At Tiffany's a popular restaurant, chef Sheldon Simeon has playful takes on local food. He infuses traditionaloxtail soup with the flavor of pho,, adding cinnamon , clove and burned ginger to teh broth. His fried chicken is steamed then fried , then sprinkled with  apowder flavored like sinigang  the sour Filipino pork stew. Other influences are Spanish , Filipino Korean and Japanese. So long asi t's ono, or delicious.

Hawaiian cuisine is everything. It's a historic , multi cultural mix.It's a palyful take on foods but also a devotion to all t hings Hawaiian.