After decades away from a lifestyle he loves, wordsmith Arnold Hiura finally returned home in 2012 to Papaikou, the town of his childhood on Hawaii island. It had been a long time coming.
Hiura, 63, left the island after high school and worked on Oahu in a variety of professions. He was a teacher at Punahou School and the University of Hawaii, a humanities specialist at the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, and a newspaper editor at the Hawaii Herald.
He’s also been a curator for the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, where he curated the exhibit "From Bento to Mixed Plate," which traveled throughout Hawaii and showed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. A Japanese-language version of the exhibit toured Japan.
More recently, Hiura has become known as a food historian, authoring the books "Kau Kau: Cuisine and Culture in the Hawaiian Islands" (2009, Watermark Publishing) and last year’s "From Kau Kau to Cuisine: An Island Cookbook, Then and Now" (2013, Watermark).
But his expertise on food and culture in Hawaii goes deeper than the research he did for the "Kau Kau" books. Papaikou was a plantation town when Hiura was a boy — he lived the stuff he wrote about.
So plantation cuisine is where his mind naturally gravitates in pondering a favorite dish. Hiura decided on one that reflects Big Island plantation food specifically: a warabi and sardine stir-fry.
"One of the reasons I thought about this dish is because warabi is readily available here. It grows wild along the river banks," he said, adding that he has easy access to some right beyond his yard.
Hiura says Big Isle folks are picky about their warabi, or fiddlehead fern shoots. They eat just the top 6 to 8 inches of the stalk, where the plant is tender rather than fibrous. The rest of us, however, might not want to discard so much of the precious fern.
The dish is simple. Warabi stalks are cut into bite-size pieces, stir-fried with sardines in a soy-sugar sauce and topped in the pan with an egg.
The dish represents classic plantation fare in that it’s budget-friendly and easily adapted. Warabi could be replaced by another vegetable; sardines, by any other protein.
"Plantation foods could be improvised or stretched," said Hiura. "You used what was available to make sure you had enough to feed everybody."
Accessibility was key to the food people ate.
"People would go to town just once a month, on payday, so there was a lack of access to stores," he said. "So if you hunted or raised pigs, you had fresh pork for a few days, then smoked or dried meat. That’s why Big Island people love smoked meat, which was mostly smoked wild boar. But if you were near Parker Ranch, your smoked meat was pipi kaula. Fishermen ate dried opelu and akule."
The other staple component to plantation food was canned goods because they were shelf-stable.
Hiura actually had a number of food-related books under his belt by the time he started the "Kau Kau" books. In 1995 he contributed to chef Sam Choy’s "Cooking From the Heart" (Mutual Publishing) and co-authored chef Russell Siu’s "On the Rise" (1996, Booklines Hawaii) with Siu and James Grant Benton. More recently, Hiura shared author duties with chef Alan Wong for "The Blue Tomato: The Inspirations Behind the Cuisine of Alan Wong" (2010, Watermark Publishing).
"I don’t consider myself a great chef or foodie of any experience. I got into writing about food because of the historical and culture aspects," he said. "When I’m with friends who share my upbringing and we talk about food — we’re of that age now where we talk about the ‘good old days’ — they end up saying, ‘Arnold, you’re the writer. Put it all down.’"
That he did, via the "Kau Kau" books.
Upon returning to Papaikou after half a lifetime in Honolulu, he found that old habits die hard in his hometown.
"When I lived on Oahu in town, there were literally dozens if not hundreds of options when you get hungry, from a cup of coffee to a snack to a full meal. There were supermarkets right around the corner.
"Here we eat at home more. There aren’t as many eateries and we’re five miles from Hilo. The lifestyle is not as much ‘buy’ as ‘cook.’ On Oahu when you want to get together, it’s ‘pick a restaurant.’ Here there are lots of potlucks and backyard parties. It’s different from a big-city environment," he said.
One event that’s a big deal on Hawaii island is the plantation reunion, which sometimes draws hundreds of people. Classic dishes of the era are prepared for attendees in large outdoor woks or in giant pots.
Like the rest of the state, Big Isle residents maintain a deep affection for Spam that was established during the plantation years. But their attachment to other canned meats is just as intense, Hiura says.
"When the Longs ad has Vienna sausage on sale, they stack the cases of sausage 5 feet tall in the center aisle. When you go back (days later), it’s all gone. It’s the same with Spam and sardines.
"Where you live affects what you eat. Part of getting back is being reacquainted with old dishes," he said. "Food is a powerful thing. It’s connected to who we are."
WARABI AND SARDINES
12 to 20 stalks warabi (depending on length; sold at Foodland markets on Oahu)
1 (3.5-ounce) can oil-packed sardines
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 egg
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 round onion, thinly sliced (optional)
Wash, clean and cut warabi. Use top 6 to 8 inches of stalk or more, depending on preference. Discard fibrous part of stalk. Parboil about 2 minutes. Rinse in cold water, drain and set aside.
In small bowl, mix shoyu and sugar; set aside.
In another bowl, beat egg; set aside.
Heat pan on medium or medium-high. Drain oil from sardines into pan and heat. Add sardines, warabi and onions if using, and stir-fry gently to avoid breaking up sardines.
Add soy sauce-sugar mixture to pan and gently stir. Pour beaten egg over top. Cover and allow to simmer about 5 minutes, until egg is cooked and warabi is tender and turns a dull, olive color. Serve with rice. Serves 2 to 3.
Approximate nutritional information, per serving (based on 3 servings and 15 warabi stalks, and not including salt to taste): 200 calories, 6 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 110 mg cholesterol, 800 mg sodium, 28 g carbohydrate, 6 g fiber, 10 g sugar, 12 g protein
