Plate lunch facts for kids
The plate lunch (called pā mea ʻai in Hawaiian) is a super popular meal in Hawaii. It's a bit like a "meat and three" meal you might find in the Southern U.S., but with a special Hawaiian twist. This meal gets its unique flavor from the many pan-Asian foods that have influenced Hawaiian cooking. It also has roots in the Japanese bento box.
A standard plate lunch usually comes with two scoops of white rice, a scoop of creamy macaroni salad, and one main dish, called an entrée. If you get a plate lunch with more than one main dish, it's often called a mixed plate.
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The Story of the Plate Lunch
The exact beginning of the Hawaiian plate lunch isn't perfectly clear. However, many believe it started from the Japanese bento box. Bento boxes were easy to carry and eat on the go, and the plate lunch continues this tradition.
This meal became popular in Hawaii around the 1880s. At that time, many workers were needed for the fruit and sugar farms on the islands. People came from all over the world to work, including China, Japan, Portugal, and the Philippines.
These workers needed meals that were easy to pack and filling. They often brought leftover rice with things like canned meat, teriyaki, or cold meat. They didn't usually have sandwiches or many vegetables. Later, macaroni salad was added to the plates. It was a hit with everyone and tasted great with the main dishes. Some places even added kimchi, a traditional Korean side dish.
From Farms to Restaurants
After the big farms closed down, plate lunches started being sold from lunch wagons. These wagons served construction workers and other people doing daily jobs. Soon, small local restaurants and special plate lunch places began to open up.
Eventually, these popular meals made their way to the U.S. mainland. For example, the L&L Drive-Inn chain started in California in 1999. Its founder, Eddie Flores, changed the name to "L&L Hawaiian Barbecue." He knew that the word "Hawaiian" would make people curious and want to try the food.
Popular Main Dishes
The main dishes in plate lunches show a lot of Asian influence. Here are some of the most popular ones:
Japanese-Inspired Dishes
- Chicken katsu: This is boneless chicken that's fried until crispy. It's coated in Japanese bread crumbs before cooking.
- Beef teriyaki (or "teri beef"): Slices of beef cooked in a sweet and savory teriyaki sauce.
Common side dishes that come with plate lunches often include fried noodles like chow mein, chow fun, or saimin noodles.
Hawaiian Favorites
- Kālua puaʻa (roast pork): Pork that's slow-cooked until it's super tender and smoky.
- Laulau: Meat (often pork) or fish wrapped in a taro leaf and steamed.
Some traditional Hawaiian side dishes are lomi-lomi salmon (a fresh salmon salad) and haupia (a yummy coconut dessert).
Korean and Other Asian Dishes
- Kalbi: Grilled beef short ribs, often marinated in a sweet and savory sauce.
- Meat jun: Thin slices of beef dipped in egg batter and fried.
Korean side dishes might include taegu, which is shredded codfish, and kongnamul muchim, which are seasoned soybean sprouts.
Other Asian influences include:
- Okinawan shoyu pork (pork cooked in soy sauce).
- Chinese-style char siu pork (sweet and savory roasted pork).
- Filipino chicken adobo (chicken cooked in vinegar and soy sauce) and longanisa (a type of sausage).
American-Style Dishes
- Linguiça: A tasty traditional Portuguese sausage.
- Hamburger steak: A ground beef patty covered in brown gravy, served over rice. If you add a sunny side up egg on top, it becomes a famous Loco moco!
Images for kids
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Traditional Hawaiian plate lunch. Clockwise, from bottom left: two scoops of white rice, ahi poke, lomi-lomi salmon, haupia dessert, kālua puaʻa (roast pork), and pork laulau.
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A shrimp plate lunch
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Kālua pork combo plate lunch from a Hawaiian BBQ restaurant in Mountain View, California
