Hapa J's Puts You In an Aloha State of Mind

Best plate lunch around. Photo by Edwin Goei A scoop of rice. Macaroni salad. Fried chicken. Disassemble a typical Hawaiian plate lunch to its components and you’re left with things that, by themselves, aren’t very special. But put them together...

What is it about the Hawaiian plate lunch portion size? For a place with an entire industry based on relaxing on the beach or poolside in nothing but your skivvies, they sure stack the odds against you with the giganto-servings on their plate...

Gross oversimplification alert: On this side of the Pacific, there are exactly three types of Hawaiian restaurants. First, you have the lunch-plate purveyors. Think L&L and its brethren at which Styrofoam containers groan under heavy loads of...

We Mainlanders like to stereotype Hawaiians as obsessed with heavy meals such as plate lunches or loco moco, but the true religion is poke. A distant relative of Tahitian poisson cru and ika mata of the Cook Islands, poke is as indigenous to the...

It was 3:30 p.m. on a Sunday. The young owner of Poke Etc. had just barely finished his lunch. But his break was short-lived. As new customers came through the door, he chirped, “First time here? Have you tried poke before? Let me give you some...