Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 10, Number 7, 1 July 1993 — Plate lunch challenge [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Plate lunch challenge

Food specialists compete to offer healthiest, most delicious alternative to standard plate luneh fare.

by Patrick Johnston Only minutes before the first of the Kamehameha Day parade bands rounded the corner into Kapi'olani Park, the Great Hawaiian Plate Luneh Challenge crowned a new ehampion. The winner, Tip Davis, farmer and owner of plate luneh operation Broke the Mouth in Hilo, beat out

last year's ehampion, 'Aiea Taro Patch, with an ingenious combination of familiar sounding foods, all with a healthy twist. Davis' menu included a meatless manapua, taro, and a Hawaiian salad with macadamia nut dressing. "We use names that locals will be familiar with," says Davis. "But we fill them with different, healthier, ingredients."

Instead of meat Davis used taro, sweet potato, and small amounts of salmon for his manapua. His salad had six different types of greens, all grown locally on the Big Island, and all generally more nutritious than regular iceberg lettuce. His dressing was oil-ffee. The great Hawaiian Plate Luneh Challenge was initiated three years ago by the Office of Hawaiian Health and the O'ahu Native Hawaiian Health Council to encourage people in the food industry to design and create tasty and affordable native Hawaiian meals following U.S. dietary guidelines. Contestants submit recipes, complete with nutritional information, to the Office of Hawaiian Heahh. On the day of the contest, participants bring their meals and a group of judges spend an hour tasting the lunches and studying the nutritional data. This year's winner received a $100 dollar cash prize donated by OHA. Davis was the overall winner in a competition that included awards for most traditional, and most delicious plate lunches. Kahuku Hospital, with a menu of squid lūa'u, "pau hana" stew, limu relish, and poi, won "most delicious," and Moloka'i General Hospital won "most traditional." "The hospital is interested in promoting a healthy, culturally sensitive Hawaiian diet," said Judy Correa, director of nurses at Kahuku Hospital. Compared to a regular hamburger plate luneh, the Kahuku Hospital entry had a fraction of the fat, half the calories and eholesterol and more of all recommended vitamins (see table on this page). The Moloka'i General Hospital menu included ehieken laulau, raw fish with limu, poi, taro, sweet potato, lomi tomato, steamed lū'au leaves, and fresh fruit salad. "We focus on a therapeutic diet keeping low sugar and sodium

levels," said hospital dietary supervisor Dagmar Duffy-Right. "We've used the diet to improve the health of the kūpuna at our hospital." 'Aiea Taro Patch received speeial mention for being at the ehallenge two years running and for consistently producing tasty and nutritious lunches. Restaurant owner Bea Kealoha explained, "I really want to use foods that are natural to the islands and introduce them to other people. It

shows that Hawaiian food does not have to be heavy and fat to be 'ono." Organizers would like to see the event expended with the hope that these types of recipes will become familiar to plate luneh operators who will try to incorporate them into their menus. "It's really easy to get products like these and use them in your menu," said Davis. "I think there is going to be a lot of interest in lunches like this in the future."

The plate luneh: an exercise in overindulgence

The plate luneh is so mueh a part of Hawaiian culinary landscape that probably few ever stop to consider that the whole concept is virtually unheard of in the rest of the country and a rare bird globally. The tradition began during the World War H when fleets of iuneh wagons would feed iunches to workers engaged in wartime work projects. The meais were modeied after the Japanese bento, or box luneh.

but eame hot with a home-cooked feel. Since the war, the plate iuneh tradition has expanded steadily and the introduction of fast food has not stunted its growth. In recent years, while sales of fast food have leveled off, plate lunches have continued to increase in popularity. Now neon replaces many of the cardboard signs that onee advertised these food outlets and some shops even offer va!et parking. Despite improvements in image, the plate luneh still remains a nutritional no man's land, high in fat and calories, and iow in essentiai vitamins and nutrients. Styrofoam plates are loaded down with scoops of rice, macaroni salad, gravy and fatty pieces of meat, and there's not mueh ieft over for novelties like vegetables. Health professionals warn that food like this is a primary factor in the deciining heakh of many native Hawaiians.

Plate Luneh Comparison

Reguiar plate Menu Hamburger Brown gravy 2 scoops rice Macaroni salad Nutrients Calories 938 Protein 38 gm Fat 37 gm Carbohydrates 114 gm Cholesterol 1 18 mg Iron 8 mg % of recommended daily allowances Vitamin C 4% VitaminBl 43% Niaein 72% Vitamin A 8%

Kahuku Hospital plate Menu Squid Lū'au Pau Hana Stew Limu Relish Poi Nutrients Calories 586 Protein 42 gm Fat 5 gm Carbohydrates 105 gm Cholesterol 65 gm Iron 14 mg % of recommended daily aflowances Vitamin C 213% Vitamin B 1 143% VitaminB2 50% Niaein 80% Vitamjn A 1 00%

Great Hawaiian Plate Luneh participants and organizers.

The Winner: "Broke the Mouth."