This is downtown St. Paul, Minnesota. The state Capitol building is in the background.

Malasadas are distinctive to the Hawaiian cuisine, but, interestingly enough, are not originally from Hawai’i (like many culinary traditions). Malasadas were introduced by Portuguese immigrants from São Miguel Island in the Azores in the 1800s, and quickly caught on with their doughnut exterior, and creamy interior. Malasada, or malassada in Portuguese, meaning “poorly cooked” because of the crispy outside and soft, doughy inside, is essentially a doughnut without the hole. The original Portuguese version did not have filling, but the Hawaiian culture quickly adapted it, filling it with creamy sweet, fruit-flavored fillings (influenced by French immigrants from Tahiti and France).

Today’s malasada is filled with delicious flavors, including coconut, mango, lilikoi (passion fruit), guava, and pineapple.

Kaena Wines is actually based in Los Olivos, California, north of Santa Barbara. The owner, Mikael Sigouin, is an O’ahu native who moved to California wine country. Kaena is a Rhône producer of red and white varietals.

Ceviche with Kona Kampachi, or Hawaiian Kampachi, a close relative to the Japanese hamachi, or yellowtail. Kona Kampachi, or Seriola rivoliana, is native to the Big Island. Commercial-use Kona Kampachi is farm-raised because wild fish tend to have a poisonous reef toxin and contain worms.

Another offering from Hawaiian cuisine is poke. Poke is raw fish marinated with onions, limu (or seaweed), green onion, soy sauce, and sesame oil. It typifies the Big Basket-concept of Hawaiian food today.

The soy sauce and sesame oil comes from the Chinese and Japanese immigrants, with the limu from the native Hawaiians. The fish is typically ahi tuna, although other types of seafood can be used. Octopus, or tako poke, is from the Japanese; bacalao poke comes from the Portuguese.

Hawaiian cuisine is a hodgepodge of cuisines and foods from the many immigrants to Hawai’i, which is already rich with food from the Hawaiian tradition.

Kālua pork originates from the Hawaiian cooked boar tradition of cooking a pig in an underground oven – imu – for hours.

Poi, which is mashed taro root, also originates from Hawaiian culture.

Lau lau, which means “leaf, leaf” in Hawaiian because of the different leaves used to cook the filling, is a very popular food in Hawai’i. Meat, usually pork, but can be chicken or fish, is wrapped in taro leaves. This is then wrapped further in ti leaves. It is then cooked, traditionally in an imu below banana leaves, but today is cooked or steamed on the stove. The ti leaves are very durable during cooking and allow for the meat to be cooked inside. The taro leaf is from the staple taro plant which is heavily used in Hawaiian cooking.

Lomi salmon (or lomi lomi salmon) comes from mixed heritage. Salmon is not indigenous to Hawai’i, and a common theory is that it was brought to the islands by Russian traders from Alaska, since lomi salmon is made with salted salmon, it has a long shelf life especially on long voyages from North America. Lomi means “rub” in Hawaiian, and lomi salmon is a process of “rubbing” tomatoes and other vegetables with the salted salmon and lime or lemon juice. It is normally served as a side dish.

Finally, rice originated from the Asian immigrants, mostly Japanese and Chinese immigrants. Rice is the omnipresent food staple in Hawaiian food today, similar to what the potato is for Midwestern cooking.

Shaved ice is extremely popular in Hawai’i. Originally, the concept of shaved ice comes from the Japanese immigrants from Okinawa, who sold the simple cold dish to Okinawan workers on the sugar plantations in the early 1900s. Ice shaving machines revolutionized the mass marketing of shaved ice to the broader Hawaiian audience, which includes millions of tourists. Different variations of ice shavers and ice block machines received patents, including U.S. Patent No. 1,700,819 to Bert Samuel in 1929 for “Ice shaving and cutting machine,” or U.S. Patent No. 2,515,923 to E. Hansen in 1950 for “Ice shaving machine.” After the machines were introduced to Hawai’i, shaved ice became a phenonmenon.

Today, shaved ice is served all over the state, and is popular with locals and tourists alike.

Ala Wai Canal forms the northern boundary of the Waikīkī district. Ala Wai Boulevard is the main roadway which runs the entire length of the canal.

Historically, the Waikīkī Beach district did not exist, except for a small tract of land which contained swamp lands resulting from the drainage of the freshwater Mānoa, Makiki, and Pālolo streams into the Pacific Ocean. This created an area of brackish water which later became good to grow rice during the time of the Kingdom of O’ahu. Once the Americans took control of Hawai’i, plans were made to create the canal in a process of land reclamation. The land was drained, creating several hundred square miles of land in what is now Waikīkī Beach in 1928. By doing so, the streams’ water could no longer flow freely into the ocean, creating the extra land space. The new canal’s water drained into the Kahanamoku Lagoon.

Waikīkī development began not too longer after the canal was built.

Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalaniana’ole was a royal prince in the House of Kalākaua, born 1871. He was the adoptive son of Queen Kapi’olani, the queen consort of King Kalākaua. After Kalākaua’s death in 1891, and the ascension of Queen Lili’uokalani to the throne, he was appointed to her royal cabinet and served until the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893.

Prince Kūhiō lived abroad in a self-imposed exile from 1899 to 1902, to protest the annexation of Hawai’i to the United States. Upon his return he was involved with the Home Rule Party, which represented Native Hawaiians and advocated for Hawaiian independence. He was elected as the Hawaiian delegate to Congress in 1903 as a Republican, until his death in 1922. He tirelessly advocated for Hawaiian independence throughout the rest of his life, but also introduced the Hawai’i Statehood Act in 1919 in Congress. Statehood took another 40 years to achieve. Prince Kūhiō’s birthday, March 26, is a state holiday in Hawaii.

Kūhiō Avenue is named in his honor.