If you're standing at the counter of a plate-lunch joint and the menu has words you don't recognize, this is the glossary. Forty-one terms — alphabetical, with pronunciation, meaning, and a note on what the dish actually tastes like. Bookmark this page. Use it as your menu literacy cheat-sheet. By the third visit, you'll know it cold.
A
Ahi (AH-hee)
Yellowfin tuna. Sold fresh in poke shops, often raw, in cubes. Slightly meaty, lean, deeply umami when fresh.
Adobo (ah-DOH-boh)
Filipino-style stewed protein in soy + vinegar + garlic. Pork adobo + rice is a common Hawai`i lunch option, brought to the islands by Filipino plantation workers.
B
Bento
Japanese-style boxed lunch. Compartmentalized, often cold, designed for portability. Not the same as plate lunch — bento is colder, smaller portions, more varieties.
Butterfish
Salt-cured black cod, used inside lau lau bundles and in some lomi-style salads. Briny, fatty, intensely flavored. Tiny portions are correct.
C
Chicken Katsu (KAH-tsoo)
Japanese-style breaded fried chicken cutlet. Standard plate lunch protein. Crispy panko crust, served with tonkatsu sauce or katsu sauce on the side.
Coco Puff
Liliha Bakery specialty. Chocolate cream puff topped with chantilly cream. NOT cereal.
D
Da Kine (dah KINE)
Pidgin placeholder noun meaning 'that thing.' Used between locals when both know what's being referred to. ('Where da kine?' = 'Where's the thing?')
Dobash
A Hawai`i-specific chocolate cake recipe, rich, dark, dense. Often a malasada filling at Leonard's.
E
E komo mai (EH KOH-moh MY)
Hawaiian for 'welcome.' You'll see this on signs at restaurant doorways.
G
Garlic Chicken
Crispy fried chicken pieces tossed in soy-garlic glaze. Mitsu-Ken's signature. Best eaten hot, within 15 minutes.
Grindz (also: kau kau, kine)
Pidgin for 'food.' 'Ono grindz' = delicious food. 'Local grindz' = plate lunch / poke / musubi.
H
Haupia (how-PEE-ah)
Coconut-milk pudding, set with arrowroot, cut into squares. Mild, slightly sweet, served chilled. Standard dessert at Hawaiian-food restaurants.
Huli Huli
Rotisserie-style chicken, marinated in a soy-pineapple glaze. The roadside fundraiser version is the canonical experience.
I
Imu (EE-moo)
Underground oven. Hot rocks at the bottom, banana stalks + ti leaves layered above, then food, then a seal of dirt. Used for kalua pig + lau lau cooking.
Inamona (ee-nah-MOH-nah)
Roasted, salted kukui-nut paste. A traditional poke condiment, increasingly rare to find. Adds a smoky umami note.
K
Kalbi (KAHL-bee)
Korean-style BBQ short ribs, marinated in soy-sesame-sugar. Plantation-era Korean immigrant contribution to the plate lunch canon.
Kalua Pig (kah-LOO-ah)
Pork shoulder cooked in an imu (underground oven), then shredded, salted with Hawaiian sea salt. Smoky, fatty, deeply flavored.
Katsu (KAH-tsoo)
Japanese-style breaded cutlet. Chicken katsu and pork katsu are the standard plate-lunch versions.
Kūpuna (KOO-poo-nah)
Elders, ancestors. On Da Plate Lunch Index, the badge given to reviewers with a local-score ≥ 80.
L
Lau Lau (LAU LAU)
Pork (+ butterfish) wrapped in lū`au (taro) leaves, then ti leaves, steamed for 4-6 hours. The outer ti leaves are not edible; the inner lū`au leaves are.
Lilikoi (LEE-lee-koy)
Passion fruit. Common malasada filling, popular chiffon-pie flavor (Hamura Saimin's signature).
Loco Moco
Two scoops white rice + hamburger patty + fried egg + brown gravy. Invented in Hilo, 1949. The plate-lunch heavyweight.
Lomi Salmon (LOH-mee)
Salt-cured salmon mixed with tomato and onion. Massaged ('lomi' means to massage). Cold side dish on Hawaiian-food plates.
Lū`au (LOO-ow)
Two meanings. (1) The taro leaf, cooked, used in lau lau and as a side ('squid lū`au' = squid simmered in coconut milk + taro greens). (2) A Hawaiian feast. Tourists usually mean #2.
M
Mahi Mahi (MAH-hee MAH-hee)
Dolphin-fish (not dolphin). Firm, lean, often grilled or pan-seared. Tacos + sandwiches the common modern preparations.
Malasada (mah-lah-SAH-dah)
Portuguese-Hawaiian fried dough, sugar-rolled, served hot. Leonard's Bakery is the canonical maker.
Manapua (mah-nah-POO-ah)
Chinese-Hawaiian steamed pork bun. Soft white bun, sweet-savory char-siu filling. Standard at any okazu-ya.
Mochi (MOH-chee)
Japanese-Hawaiian sweet rice cake. Often a haupia or mochiko-chicken context.
Musubi (moo-SOO-bee)
Rice block. Spam musubi is the famous version; salmon and umeboshi versions also common.
O
Okazu-ya (oh-KAH-zoo-yah)
Japanese-Hawaiian shop selling 'side dishes' from a glass case. Choose-your-own format. Critically endangered.
Ono (OH-noh)
Two meanings. (1) Adjective: 'delicious.' (2) Noun: wahoo fish. Context disambiguates.
P
Pipikaula (pee-pee-KAH-oo-lah)
Hawaiian-style salted dried beef. Helena's signature. Most-mispronounced word on a Hawaiian menu.
Poi (POY)
Pounded cooked taro, made into a thick paste. Foundational Hawaiian carbohydrate. Slightly sour, deeply earthy. An acquired taste, worth acquiring.
Poke (poh-KAY)
Cubed raw fish (usually ahi) tossed with shoyu, sesame oil, salt, sometimes seaweed. Half-inch cubes are correct.
Pupu (POO-poo)
Appetizers. Yes, the bathroom-humor coincidence is noted by locals. Order without snickering.
S
Saimin (SIGH-min)
Hawai`i noodle soup. Light shrimp-kombu broth, wavy noodles, modest garnishes. Older than ramen here. Most spots also serve it.
Shoyu (SHOH-yoo)
Soy sauce. 'Shoyu chicken' = soy-glazed chicken.
Spam Musubi (SPAM moo-SOO-bee)
Block of rice + slice of pan-fried Spam + nori wrap. Invented in Hawai`i in the 1980s. The most-Googled local snack.
T
Teri (TEH-ree)
Short for teriyaki. 'Teri beef' = teriyaki-glazed beef slices.
Ti Leaves (TEE)
The wrapping leaves used to bundle lau lau and food in imu cooking. Not edible.
Two Scoop Rice
Two ice-cream-scooper portions of white rice. The plate lunch standard. NOT brown rice. NOT 'a side of rice.' Two scoops.
Save this page. Reference it any time a menu confuses you. Anything we missed, email [email protected] — we'll add it.