The Food of Paradise: Exploring Hawaii's Culinary Heritage (Kolowalu Books) [ILLUSTRATED] (Hardcover)

by Rachel Laudan (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Hawaii has perhaps the most culturally diverse population on earth. The story of how the Polynesians, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Korean, Filipinos, Okinawans, Puerto Ricans, various Southeast Asian peoples, and Caucasians (known as haoles) brought together their culinary traditions on these islands makes fascinating reading. Laudan concentrates on local food rather than the world-class glamour of the Hawaiian regional cuisine cooked up by famous island chefs Amy Ferguson Ota and Roy Yamaguchi. She presents the polyglot world of the plate lunch, Spam, mochi, seaweed, shaved ice, sushi, and all the other dishes that Hawaiians really eat every day. Primarily a living and lively culinary history, this book does include recipes for the most commonplace Hawaiian dishes. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
"The best book of its kind available. . . . Never pedantic, always entertaining. . . . Here is a book to savor."

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: University of Hawaii Press; illustrated edition edition (September 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0824817087
• ISBN-13: 978-0824817084
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 8.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,640,606 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well Researched, Good Resource, January 18, 2001

By	"ajaks" (Federal Way, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Food of Paradise: Exploring Hawaii's Culinary Heritage (Kolowalu Books) (Paperback)

It seems this book was born out of Laudan's attempt to categorize and make sense out of the foods in Hawaii. I was raised in Hawaii and grew up surrounded by the foods that Laudan presents in her book. Many of the local cookbooks put together and sold by Hawaii's churches, schools, and communities give you recipes from local home kitchens; nothing too fancy and usually no description of the dish, because it is assumed you know what the ingredients are and how they are used.

More than a cookbook, Laudan has written well-researched histories of how various local foods have developed throughout the islands before each main and sub sections (The Plate Lunch, The Matter of Mochi, Sorting Out Sushi to name a few). And, she includes a brief explaination of the dish before each recipe.

I bought this book hoping to shed some light on "crack seed" and how to make it. Unfortunately, it appears that she was able to get only the more well known recipes due to the fact that the main ingredient (oriental flowering apricot) is not widely available.

This book is a good resource, if not for the recipes, then for the history of Hawaii's local food for both non-Hawaii and island cooks. One caveat: a recipe found in a cookbook is no more than a base on which to add/subtract/change ingredients as you see fit. There is no such thing as "The Recipe" for teriyaki sauce - recipes vary from home to home and island to island.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting to read, not the best recipes, August 11, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Food of Paradise: Exploring Hawaii's Culinary Heritage (Kolowalu Books) (Paperback)

Reading this book brought memories of a childhood partially spent in Hawaii flooding back. Rachel Laudan definitely seems to cover a the broad array of unique goodies that can be found in Hawaii; for instance, Hawaii is the ONLY place to truly appreciate shaved ice and the potential myriad of delicious flavors. Unfortunately, however, the recipes don't quite live up to expectation. I can remember one of my earliest memories in Hawaii -- I had made friends w/ another little girl at the beach and her family invited me to share in their cooked-at-the-beach lunch of steamed rice and teriyaki beef. It was sooo good and not something that my mom cooked for ME at the beach! I've been looking to re-create that taste and memory for a while and Rachel Laudan's teriyaki recipe falls far, far short. Her butter mochi recipe is also very heavy and greasy for my tastes (and I love mochi). Nevertheless, it's a fascinating account of Hawaiian cooking. I just wish the recipes were excellent, too.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An outstanding historical perspective on Hawai`i's foods., December 29, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Food of Paradise: Exploring Hawaii's Culinary Heritage (Kolowalu Books) (Paperback)

Read this book before or after you visit Hawai`i, and you'll increase your appreciation of the people, the place and the food. As one born and raised here and of mixed ancestry, I treasure this book. The only significant group the author missed is the Puerto Ricans, and consequently some of the Afro-Carribean influences in our cuisine.