Hawaiian Mixed Plate

I was lucky enough to have just taken a trip to Hawaii, where I discovered a delicious new meal — new to me, anyway. It's called a mixed plate (or plate lunch) and it's very popular in Hawaii. 

At first glance, it seems a bit odd: white rice, macaroni salad and an Asian meat entrée. In my case, I chose chicken teriyaki, but you can order it with a variety of entrées such as Kalua pig & cabbage (my husband had this one), Korean short ribs, seafood and even a hamburger patty with a fried egg on top. 

How did this dish come to be one of the staples of Hawaiian cuisine? Well, I'm glad you asked…

A quick visit to Wikipedia taught me all about the history of this dish, which I found to be quite fascinating. Back in the 1880s, Hawaii was in great need of workers for their sugar and fruit plantations and laborers were brought in from all over the world: China, Japan, Portugal and the Philippines, to name a few. For lunch, the workers would bring leftovers from the previous night's dinner and share with each other. Eventually, mixed plates began to pop up on lunch trucks and even in restaurants. Macaroni salad was added later — I can't seem to find any history on when or why, but believe it or not, it really tastes good with rice and chicken teriyaki. If you want to make one for yourself, a bit of online research taught me that the macaroni salad must be made with Best Foods®/Hellmann’s® Real Mayonnaise. I guess that's good for us — Best Foods®/Hellmann’s® is one of GH's clients!

So if you find yourself lucky enough to be eating lunch in Hawaii, I highly recommend the mixed plate. Or next time you have some Chinese food take-out and leftovers from a picnic, make one for yourself!

Heather Skomba

Photo credit: http://mmm-yoso.typepad.com/mmmyoso/plate_lunch/page/2/