Author of `Kau Kau` book on cuisine of Hawai`i speaks in SF`s

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AUG. 19 - 25, 2010
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Arnold Hiura pays tribute
to cuisine of Hawai‘i
• Nichi Bei weekly •
AUG. 19 - 25, 2010
Food
Author of ‘Kau Kau’ book on cuisine of Hawai‘i speaks in SF’s Japantown
By VIVIEN KIM THORP
Nichi Bei Weekly
Contributor
On Aug. 8, more than 150 people gathered at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of
Northern California (JCCCNC)
in San Francisco’s Japantown to
hear Arnold Hiura, author of “Kau
Kau: Cuisine and Culture in the
Hawaiian Islands,” give a lecture
on Hawai‘i’s food. Part cookbook,
part coffee table and history book,
“Kau Kau,” released by Honolulubased Watermark Publishing earlier this year, includes more than
70 recipes interspersed throughout
a colorful exploration of Hawai‘i’s
culinary history.
More than a cookbook
“Kau kau,” the traditional all-purpose pidgin word for island food,
is thought to be a pidgin take on
the Chinese word for food, “chow
chow.” It’s an appropriate name for
a book on Hawai‘i’s food, itself a
hybrid of many influences. Hiura’s
take on the topic covers a vast territory of food and food history, from
the definition of andagi, “a round,
cake-like Okinawan doughnut,” to
the backstory of Zippy’s, a restaurant chain in Hawai‘i with a loyal
following. His book looks at not
only what the people of Hawai‘i eat
but why they eat it as well.
Recipes for classic dishes such
as laulau (Polynesian pork), lechon
kawali (Filipino pork) and Hiura’s
mother’s sushi su (sushi rice seasoning) pepper pages filled with
photos and illustrations of early
Polynesians, plantation life, sampan fishing, farmers markets, and,
of course, plenty of food. There is
an “Ethnic Potluck Primer” with
100 definitions to help one navigate
Hawai‘i’s food lexicon and myriad
captions with tidbits about the
Hawai‘i of yesterday and today.
The rest of the book follows a
mostly chronological path. It begins with what Polynesian sea voyagers brought in their boats — taro
root, sugarcane, bananas, breadfruit, pigs; moves through the contributions of sailors, missionaries,
plantation workers, soldiers and
the tourist trade; and closes with
the recent regional food revolution,
featuring modern organic farming
outfits, ecological entrepreneurs
and celebrity chefs.
Along the way, Hiura explains
the tradition of omiyage, delves into
the murky origin of the plate lunch
and expounds on the legend of loco
moco. He traces Hawai‘i’s love for
salty foods to European sailors, who
brought well-preserved meats to the
isles long before the arrival of Spam
during World War II. And he heralds
the mealtime traditions of plantation
workers, which included sharing
home-cooked foods from a variety
of ethnic kitchens. The latter, he
asserts, led to a “process of natural
selection” whereby dishes, such
as Japanese teriyaki, Korean kalbi
and Filipino chicken adobo, gained
“popularity across ethnic lines” to
become part of what is viewed as
local food in Hawai‘i today.
The man behind the food
Hiura, a Honolulu-based media
consultant and editor, was born and
raised in Papaikou, a plantation town
five miles north of Hilo on the Big
LOCAL KINE GRINDS — Hiura (above left) demonstrates how lunch
was eaten on plantations with his personal kau kau or bento tin, a.k.a.,
lunch box. Along with his personal kau kau tin, Hiura brought examples
of canned foods (above right) beloved in Hawai‘i. Esther Ishiaki (right,
with husband Richard) says she was drawn to Hiura’s lecture because
her great grandfather, who hailed from Southern China, had worked
on a Hawaiian sugar plantation. She and her husband bought multiple
copies of the book as gifts.
photos by Vivien Kim Thorp/Nichi Bei Weekly
Island. He was inspired to write the
book because the topic of food and
culture seemed to come up again
and again in his circle. “Friends kept
telling me, ‘You ought to write this
stuff down’,” he said.
Writing the sections about the
plantation food culture came easiest to Hiura. “That is the part that
was closest to me, the part I was
most confident in,” he said. “I lived
it more than any other part.” However, writing about the contemporary culinary scene in Hawai‘i, was
more challenging. “In the beginning, I felt disconnected,” he said.
“When we talk about the old days,
we couldn’t afford things. We did
the best with what we had. But now
we talk about having the best.” It
required a different mindset about
food to research this section, which
highlights fusion cuisine and celebrity chefs, such as Sam Choy
and Alan Wong. “It took talking to
younger people and leading regional chefs for me to make the connection and to be persuaded that this
was an important connection, a part
of the evolution,” he said.
Although he resists the “foodie”
label — “I’m more interested in
the history and culture,” he said
— Hiura has certainly become an
expert on Hawai‘i’s cuisine. He
spent three years researching and
writing “Kau Kau,” interviewing
farmers, chefs and restaurateurs,
and hunting through archives for
stories, photos and recipes.
Prior to the book, he curated
“From Bento to Mixed Plate,” an
exhibit on food in Hawai‘i which
opened at the Bishop Museum in
Honolulu in 1998 and traveled to
the Japanese American National
Museum in Los Angeles and the
Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Hiura has also taught
English and American Studies at
the University of Hawai‘i and Punahou School and served as editor
for the Hawaii Herald, a Japanese
American newspaper in Honolulu,
for nine years.
A popular lecture
Daryl Higashi, a board member of
the Hawai‘i Chamber of Commerce
of Northern California, introduced
Nichi Bei Weekly | AUG. 19 - 25, 2010
Hiura at the San Francisco event. “If
you love food, and you love Hawai‘i,
then you will love this book,” he said.
“It captures the essence of growing
up — small kid time.”
During the lecture, Hiura’s wife,
who helped find many of the archival photos used in the book, operated a projector and slideshow. As
he spoke of childhood, his grandmother and the history of Hawai‘i’s
food, images of huli huli chicken,
Spam musubi and the KCC Farmers Market were illuminated on the
screen. Food item after food item
induced nods, interjections and
moans from the crowd. And references to buying treats from the Hilo
Candy Company, picking mountain
apples, and dipping green mangos
in homemade “bug juice” (shoyu,
vinegar, and chili pepper), were not
lost on the audience, many who had
island ties.
Hiura also spoke of many current
culinary trends, which, he argued,
could be found in earlier incarnations
on the islands. The food cart sensation, so popular on the mainland, has
long been a beloved 50th state tradition in the form of lunch wagons.
And the move toward regional, sustainable agriculture was something
that the first Polynesian settlers practiced daily out of necessity.
Hiura wound up the lecture sharing memories of his grandmother,
who would give the best food to
her family, before eating leftovers
herself. He also used koge rice — a
Japanese treat of crispy burned rice
from the bottom of the cooking
pot — as a reminder that the best
food is not always the fanciest or
most expensive. “Sometimes in the
pursuit of good food we sometimes
forget the good in food,” Hiura
said. “We forget the values. Somewhere in the value system is food
as what it speaks to in our character
and to who we are.”
After the lecture, Hiura answered
questions, signed copies of the
book and posed for pictures. The
three-stop California tour, which
included signings in San Jose, San
Francisco and Los Angeles, brought
out more people than Hiura and his
wife had expected. “We were just
hoping a few dozen people might
show up,” he said. “But people really seem to connect to the story
and the topic. Everyone has some
association with food.” Hiura also
gave credit for the turnout to an
Aug. 3 article in the San Francisco
Chronicle (“Arnold Hiura’s ‘Kau
Kau’ covers Hawaiian chow” by
Patricia Yollin).
Copies of “Kau Kau” sold out before the lecture began, and many attendees ordered books to be shipped
later and picked up at the JCCCNC.
Arlene Dreschsler, a 68-year-old retired nurse originally from Kahili,
Hawai‘i, and her husband Robert,
bought four cookbooks to give away
as Christmas presents. Dreschsler,
who lives in San Francisco, said
“Kau Kau’s” references to malasadas, plate lunches and shave ices
made her nostalgic for the islands.
“It brings back all those memories,” said Dreschsler, who posed
for a photo with Hiura after having her books signed. Les Young,
a Honolulu native who has lived in
San Francisco for 40 years, shared
Dreschsler’s sentiments. “Though
I am 65, the foods I loved as a kid
still remain the same. Local Hawaiian food hasn’t changed,” he said.
“That’s what I love.”
Hiura’s next endeavor is co-authoring a cookbook with celebrity chef Alan Wong who has two
restaurants in Honolulu — Alan
Wong’s and The Pineapple Room,
which both showcase contemporary
interpretations of Hawai‘i’s many
ethnic flavors. The book is expected
to come out at the end of the year.
To order copies of “Kau Kau”
from Watermark Publishing, visit
www.bookshawaii.net or call (866)
900-BOOK. Watermark is based in
Honolulu.