Aloha Mixed Plate

In the early days of the sugar plantations, lunch was a simple affair. Plantation workers gathered in the fields for their mid-day meal. The Japanese laborers would bring teriyaki beef with rice and pickled vegetables. Seated next to them might be their Filipino neighbors with the traditional dish adobo or perhaps a pork or chicken stew. The Koreans had their kalbi or marinated ribs and the Chinese a rice noodle and vegetable dish called chow fun. Hawaiians were known for their kalua pig, roasted in an underground oven called an imu. It wasn’t long before they began to share their foods with one another and the “mixed plate” was born.