Cara Hiyakumoto is a University senior from Honolulu. Contrary to what some people may think, she did not leave her grass hut four years ago when setting sail for Oregon in her canoe.
“A lot of people in the mainland think different things about people in Hawaii,” said Hiyakumoto, who is co-director of the University’s Hawaii Club. “We want to educate people about who we are.”
Tonight, the Hawaii Club will host Taste of Hawaii, an event dedicated to breaking stereotypes with a wide variety of Hawaii’s local food.
“We’re not all about roasting pigs over a fire and poi with everything. Hawaii’s food is from all different cultures. Hawaii is really a big melting pot of the world,” said Hawaii Club Co-Director Jake Chang, a senior Japanese major from the island of Hawaii, also known as the Big Island.
Taste of Hawaii will feature Chinese fried rice; Portuguese bean soup and malasada, which is comparable to a sugar doughnut; pajean, a popular Korean pancake; haupia, a coconut dessert from Hawaii; chicken katsu, Japanese-style fried chicken; and SPAM musubi.
“It’s like a SPAM sushi,” said University junior Tiffany Koc, a Hawaii Club member from the island of Oahu. “In Hawaii, we really like SPAM.”
Noho’s Hawaiian Cafe, located on East 11th Avenue and High Street, will also provide shoyu chicken, which is made with soy sauce and ginger; roast kalua pig; and Portuguese sausage.
“Food is a big part of our culture,” Koc said. “It’s a lot about food, and getting together and hanging out.”
Taste of Hawaii, which is co-sponsored by the Multicultural Center, will also have a projector showing the Ducks football game against the University of Arizona, as well as booths with surprise activities from each of the Hawaii Club’s 10 ethnic committees: American, Chamorro, Chinese, Hawaiian, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Okinawan, Portuguese and Samoan.
Chang joined the Hawaii Club his freshman year for the sense of familiarity, though he said the club is open to everyone, regardless of whether they’re from Hawaii.
“It’s like your family when you’re away from home,” he said. “Within the club, you can kind of feel that warmth and aloha from back home.”
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That aloha flavor
Daily Emerald
November 14, 2007
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