Plantation eating habits provide model for today’s dining tables

There was no Spam for Spam’s sake for those growing up in a sugar plantation town, said writer Arnold Hiura, speaking from firsthand experience of small-kid time in the 1950s and ’60s on the Big Island. In other words, no such thing as Spam musubi.

For plantation families, Spam was used — as were all meats — to add flavor and a bit of heft to a large pot of head cabbage or big bunch of string beans, fresh from the garden. One can of Spam was stretched to become a stir-fry meal that could feed an entire family of eight or even 10, common in those days.

“It was not so unhealthy eaten that way. That generation worked hard and lived long,” said Hiura, a food historian who returned to his hometown of Papaikou about 10 years ago, after decades in Honolulu. A 10th-anniversary edition of his award-winning “Kau Kau: Cuisine & Culture in the Hawaiian Islands” ($32.95, Watermark Publishing) was released last year.

Why the look back now? It turns out that this pandemic time of economic strife, when people are returning to the kitchen out of necessity, is the perfect opportunity to revisit the cooking style of the plantation era, when stretching a food dollar was the order of the day.

“One of the things that drove me to do the ‘Kau Kau’ book was that I saw a lot of interpretations of what local food is, how it came to be with the foods of different ethnicities. But nobody talked about the economics of it, the practicality of foods that were shelf-stable,” he said, noting that in the early plantation days there was no refrigeration. “Plantation stores had mostly canned goods. Some had a freezer chest (of meats) not much bigger than an ice-cream freezer. But the shelves were filled with dry goods and canned goods.”

Most families grew or gathered their own vegetables, he said.

“It struck me, too, when I saw bags of food going out to (Big Island) seniors during the pandemic — I saw dry cereal, Spam, Vienna sausage, powdered milk — it looked like somebody went shopping at a plantation store.

“In times of dire food scenarios, we go back to canned goods.”

WHILE HIURA was growing up in the Big Island sugar town, Dan Nakasone was doing the same in Wahiawa, where pineapple reigned supreme. Nakasone said it was common for Wahiawa youth to learn the value of a dollar by toiling in the pineapple fields as a summer hire. “By 15, you worked,” he said.

The Nakasone family menu also centered on plantation-style dishes.

“Proteins were hardly ever at the center of the plate,” he said. “Everything was stretched, whether fresh or canned. When you got fresh pork, you ate pork tofu or pork with eggplant. You could get two dinners and one lunch out of those meals.

“One of my favorites was canned tuna with long beans and shoyu. It’s still a regular in this house,” he said. “When we cook, we revert to the dishes our parents made.”

For Nakasone, old values die hard. For more than 35 years, he has grown his own food in a tidy, vibrant backyard garden, the better to fill his pans with pork eggplant and beef tomato. Today, he’s part of the trendy pack. Thanks to the sustainability movement, what’s old is new again: Practices such as gardening and foraging are on the upswing, a good trend for the pandemic economy.

BUT PLANTATION-ERA food practices delved beyond mere sustenance to shape local culture. That can in part be credited to social values established by immigrant workers who literally shared their meals in the cane and pineapple fields.

Those meals were packed in lunchboxes of the day, stacked metal tins referred to as kau kau tins. One tin would hold rice; the other, main and side dishes. During mealtime, workers would sit in a circle in the field and put their tins of mains and sides in the center for all to partake.

From those social graces sprung a culture where sharing became key to staying well-fed — and a local palate open to a wide range of cuisines.

“When a crop matured all at once, you would pickle it, and more often than not, share it. Then when someone else’s crop matured, they would give you,” Hiura said. “Fishermen traded with hunters. It was that kind of society.

“The economy that drove what we ate back then is true now,” he said. “Eating what you can when you can — that reflects how people survived in the olden days. And they could make not only a decent meal out of what they had, but a good meal.”

HOW TO EAT PLANTATION FOOD

Listening to Arnold Hiura discuss his small-kid time meals is like listening to good poetry. It is at once tangible and intimate — and it makes you ono for a bowl of chop steak or chicken hekka.

In those humble but tasty family meals, he said, “meat was more for the aji (taste). As a kid, you eat all the vegetables first and save the chicken or steak for the last bite. It’s the best part. So you’ve got to be kind of strategic.

“All these dishes were wisely developed. The little bit of shoyu sauce at the bottom of the pan of hekka or stir-fry — you drizzle some on your rice to flavor the rice.”

In other words, nothing was wasted, and everything tasted good.

“Though some recipes call for brown gravy, my mom’s minute steak was fine without it,” Dan Nakasone said. “But I loved it with ketchup, and it was a favorite dish that she packed in my kau kau tin when I worked in the pineapple fields.” He continues to eat this dish alongside lots of vegetables.

MOM’S MINUTE STEAK

Courtesy Dan Nakasone

1. 2 pounds teriyaki meat or other thinly sliced meat
2. 2 teaspoons garlic salt
3. 1 teaspoon black pepper
4. 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
5. 2 tablespoons canola oil, divided

Pound meat on both sides with a mallet to tenderize. Mix garlic salt and pepper with flour; use to coat meat.

Pour 1 tablespoon oil into 12-inch nonstick pan over medium heat. Fry half of meat, about 3 minutes on each side until lightly browned. Add remaining oil and fry remaining meat. Serves 6.

Approximate nutritional information, per serving: 300 calories, 12 g fat, no saturated fat or fiber, 40 mg cholesterol, 1,300 mg sodium, 28 g carbohydrate, 14 g sugar, 18 g protein.

BEEF TOMATO

Adapted from “Kau Kau: Cuisine & Culture in the Hawaiian Islands”

• 1 pound beef (sirloin, round, etc.), thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons oil, divided
• 1/2 onion, cut in wedges
• 2 stalks celery, sliced diagonally
• 3 to 4 green peppers, cut in wedges
• 3 to 4 tomatoes, cut in wedges
• 1 green onion, cut into 2-inch lengths
• >> Marinade:
• 2 teaspoons shoyu
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon wine
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1-inch piece ginger, crushed
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• >> Gravy:
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon shoyu
• 1 tablespoon ketchup
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

In large bowl, mix marinade ingredients. Add beef and marinate 30 minutes.

In separate bowl, mix gravy ingredients; set aside.

In wok or deep frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon oil. Stir-fry onion, celery and green pepper until almost cooked. Add tomatoes and cook 1 minute. Remove vegetables to a bowl.

In same pan, add remaining oil and cook beef, with marinade, until medium rare. Remove garlic and ginger. Return vegetables to pan with green onions and gravy; bring to a boil, then remove from heat. Serves 4 to 6.

Approximate nutritional information, per serving (based on 4 servings): 430 calories, 25 g fat, 5 g saturated fat, 85 mg cholesterol, 400 mg sodium, 25 g carbohydrate, 6 g fiber, 15 g sugar, 29 g protein.