Hawaii’s contemporary cuisine is indelibly influenced by its small-town plantation past. From Kau Kau to Cuisine: An Island Cookbook, Then and Now is a unique culinary guide to that connection between old and new. In this lavish, hardcover collection of 60 recipes, time-proven local dishes are paired with new creations inspired by the same flavors and ingredients.
Food historian Arnold Hiura provides the fascinating backstory of Hawaii’s culinary journey from roots in tight-knit communities to how—and what—Islanders eat today. Hiura points out, for instance, that common foods once consumed out of necessity, such as offal cuts or native plants, have once again become popular. The buzzwords of modern cuisine—sustainable, homegrown, foraged—are in fact age-old practices; many old-timers never stopped sourcing, cooking and eating their foods in these ways. Continue Reading →
