Although I am originally from the US, I did not get to experience Hawaiian food in my native California. The state of California is known to have various types of food from all across the US and the world, yet I had difficulty finding Hawaiian food around my area. My first so-called "Hawaiian meal" was not even on purpose either; my friend and I could not find a good eatery in a certain area in Kamakura, Japan so we decided to try the first place we saw, which happened to be a Hawaiian cafe. Now mind you, Japanese people are known to have a certain affinity for Hawaii. I am not sure why, but maybe it is the beaches, the sunny weather, or the tropical feel overall that lures them to the "islands in the sun." Their love for Hawaii is probably similar to my love for Okinawa, a Japanese island that I feel is pretty much like Japan's Hawaii (this is simply from what I have perceived, nothing else). My former professor at my university here in Japan even stated that his Japanese wife always nagged him to take her to Hawaii for vacation, though he said he was putting that off for now.

If I had to count my first Hawaiian-related food, it would be a malasada that I had from a malasada booth in Aoyama, Tokyo. Malasadas are Portuguese fried dough that are rounded and coated in granulated sugar; generally a doughnut without a hole in the center. When Portuguese immigrants brought these to Hawaii, it became a popular item with the Hawaiian people. Now, malasadas have become a Hawaiian food incorporated into the local food culture.

In terms of an actual full meal, I had my first taste of Hawaii (or Hawaiian-Japanese fusion) at a placed called Cafe Hula Hawaii in Kamakura, Kanagawa. The cafe is joined with a gift shop that sells a good assortment of Hawaiian-related items straight from the islands. It also sells Hawaiian snacks and even that salty, yet delicious meat concoction known as Spam. In the main area of the cafe, Hawaiian products and decorations adorn the walls and the shelves. There is even a TV on the wall that airs Hawaiian dance programs. When I saw an item on the menu called a "loco moco," I wanted to try it because the picture showed a fried egg and a hamburger patty drenched in brown gravy. On the other hand, the chili plate won me over because I had not had chili since leaving the US and was of course curious to see how the cafe would make it. The chili plate came with chili, rice, a fried egg, and a potato-egg salad mix; literally, everything tasted like how I saw it on my plate. The potato-egg salad mix tasted like potato-egg salad, the fried egg a regular fried egg, and the contents of the chili could be picked out just from staring at it: tomato sauce, chickpea, kidney beans, cut-up mini sausages, and pepper/seasoning. The chili was tasty, yet far from any "chili" I have ever had. It had more of a seasoned-tomato-soup taste to it than the hickory-smoked-slow-cooked chili taste that I knew and loved.

Would I come back again? Well, most likely not. The food is not terrible, but it is not enough to leave me wanting more. My friend got the loco moco and she said the gravy was too plain tasting and did not bring out the flavor of the dish overall. I plan on looking for another Hawaiian eatery that can give my taste buds a better kick- one that will leave me wanting another visit for sure.

More information on the Cafe Hula Hawaii website:
http://www.hulahawaii.co.jp/cafe/index.html

Eat Well,
T.W.