Cuisine of Hawaii Islands for gourmets. Places for dinner - best restaurants

While being on holidays in Hawaii, be sure to try local cuisine. Don’t think that if the archipelago is a part of the United States, it has American food. Local cooks know how to cook dishes from almost all over the world, but most of them love and appreciate the traditional recipes of their homeland. For example, don’t pass by manapua. There is a similar dish in Asia but Hawaiian manapua differs with lush dough and round shape. These are rolls of rice flour with a variety of fillings – pork, sweet potatoes, sausage, seafood, chicken. They are often eaten on the go with soy sauce.

Spam musubi or Hawaiian sandwich is a nice dish for a quick snack. A piece of spam (it is usually fried tinned ham) is laid between the layers of cooked rice and wrapped around in seaweed nori. This dish is sprinkled with spicy herbs and sesame seeds. Loco moco is an original Hawaiian dish. There are many variations of it, but the traditional loco moco consists of white rice, topped with a hamburger patty, a fried egg, and brown gravy. The dish is usually poured with dark sweet and sour sauce.

Be sure to try Hawaiian huli-huli chicken. In general, it is chicken kebab marinated in huli-huli pineapple sauce. The sauce includes pineapple syrup, soy sauce, ketchup, finely chopped garlic and ginger. While cooking, it is regularly turned over. Saimin is a noodle soup is the main dish on local feasts. It has Japanese roots and usually made of soft wheat egg noodles served in hot dashi broth garnished with green onions. Chicken katsu is a Japanese dish which is also popular in Hawaii. Katsu is chicken slices, fried in breadcrumbs and served with rice. Copyright www.orangesmile.com

Macaroni salad is a nice choice for lunch. It is made of boiled pasta, eggs, potatoes, carrots, onion, vinegar and mayonnaise. Despite so many absolutely different ingredients, the dish is quite delicious. Hawaii is rich with fish dishes. There are several exotic fish on the archipelago. If you see «ahi» word in a menu of a restaurant, don’t confuse, this word refers to two species, the yellowfin tuna and the bigeye tuna. Ahi is often eaten raw. Mahi-mahi or common dolphinfish has a very interesting taste and it can be cooked differently- fried, boiled and baked. But locals think that the most delicious fish is wahoo fish. That’s not surprising, wahoo is translated as «delicious». The fish is usually grilled or baked.

Hawaiian desserts are extremely delicious. Don’t pass by chocolate coconut cake or banana lumpia which is a kind of a Japanese roll. A malasada is a Portuguese confection, once brought here by Portuguese immigrants. An excellent delicacy is a guava pie with passion fruit and lime. Poi Mochi is made of a local plant Taro and sweet rice mochi crust on the outside. Haupia is a flan-like dessert made with coconut milk and ground arrowroot. Don’t pass by local bread made of apple bananas with sour and sweet taste. A cheesecake with passion fruit also deserves your attention.

Santa Andagi is delicious deep-fried doughnuts. Shave ice or Hawaiian shave ice is an ice-based dessert made by shaving a block of ice. The ice is usually poured with syrup with the taste of tropical fruit, chocolate and vanilla. Every café serves various freshes and coffee. Locals also love tea. The most popular alcohol drinks are cocktails with the juice of exotic fruit, beer and wine.