Kau Kau -Cuisine & Culture in the Hawaiian Islands, 10th Anniversary Edition

The 10th anniversary edition of the award-winning food chronicle Kau Kau: Cuisine & Culture in the Hawaiian Islands includes new content exploring the evolution of food in Hawaii during the decade since the book was first published.

Kau kau: It’s the all-purpose pidgin word for food, probably derived from the Chinese “chow-chow”. On Hawaii’s sugar and pineap-ple plantations, kau kau came to encompass the amazing range of foods brought to the Islands by immigrant laborers from East and West: Japanese, Portuguese, Fili-pinos, Puerto Ricans, Koreans and others. On the plantations, lunch break was “kau kau time”, and the kau kau could be anything from adobo to chow fun, to tsukemono.

In Kau Kau: Cuisine & Culture in the Hawaiian Islands, author Arnold Hiura – a writer with roots in the plantation culture – explores the rich history and heritage of food in Hawaii, with little-known culinary tidbits, interviews with chefs and farmers, and a treasury of rare photos and illustrations.

Arnold Hiura is an independent writer, editor and author. He is the president and executive director of the Hawaii Japanese Center in Hilo, Hawaii Island and previously served as editor of the Hawaii Herald and curator for the Japanese American National Museum. He was born and raised in the sugar plantation of Papaikou, about five miles north of Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii, where he and his wife, Eloise, reside today.