Honolulu

Honolulu's dining record begins with the plantation era, when laborers from Japan, China, Portugal, Korea, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines shared lunch tins; the plate lunch — two scoops rice, macaroni salad, a meat entrée — descends from that exchange and remains the city's default working meal. Saimin, a local noodle soup with no exact overseas parallel, emerged from the same plantation kitchens, as did the enduring habit of reading a menu as a list of borrowings.

Beverage history is similarly layered: Honolulu Brewing & Malting Company produced Primo, marketed as Hawaii's first locally brewed lager, from the turn of the twentieth century, while Kona coffee from Hawaii Island supplied the archipelago's one substantial estate crop for drinking. Waikiki became a proving ground for tiki after Donn Beach relocated from California in the 1940s, and the Mai Tai, invented at Trader Vic's in Oakland, was installed at the Royal Hawaiian in 1953.

The decisive modern shift came in 1991, when a group of chefs including Roy Yamaguchi, Alan Wong, Sam Choy, and Peter Merriman formed Hawaii Regional Cuisine, committing island restaurants to local farmers, ranchers, and fishermen rather than imported provisions.