Wacky food items in Hawaii
October 11, 2004 3:25 PM   Subscribe

"The sardines swim upstream through a river of tomatoes and hot, dangerous chilis." Cardhouse takes us on a tour of the wacky things you'll find in a hawaiian grocery store.
posted by mathowie (15 comments total)
 
wacky haoles and their internets.
posted by Hackworth at 3:55 PM on October 11, 2004


Gotta love Cardhouse.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 3:58 PM on October 11, 2004


now not only am I trapped at work, I'm starving! smooth move, ex-lax.
posted by mcsweetie at 3:59 PM on October 11, 2004


"Baked in Hawaii since 1921?" I'm surprised those cookies aren't little wafers of carbon. :::rimshot:::
posted by Johnny Assay at 4:40 PM on October 11, 2004


It looks like they mostly went to tourist friendly stores for their photo essay because, frankly, they didn't even touch the tip of the iceberg as far as our local food products go. I mean, if they'd just made it to a crack seed store...

That being said, I've lived and eaten in dozens of cities and, hands down, food in Hawaii is the best. Seriously. No question. Best food in the whole entire world and I'll fight anyone who says different.
posted by Joey Michaels at 5:02 PM on October 11, 2004


This one made me laugh out loud:

This is the only ice cream in the history of the universe that has a comb-over.

And all of this reminded me of this place called NewProductWorks in Michigan - which used to be called the New Product Showcase & Learning Center and used to be in Ithaca, NY.

I visited it for journalistic reasons awhile ago when it was still in Ithaca, and the "showcase" part was like Limbo's supermarket. Check out some of their Favorite Failures. And do scroll down to read about Gerber's Singles, a mercifully short-lived line of strained foods for adults. Finally there's a chicken madeira you can eat through a straw!
posted by gompa at 5:06 PM on October 11, 2004


"Crumpets? Hawaii? Crumpets?" (I was floored by this non sequitur).
posted by naxosaxur at 6:30 PM on October 11, 2004


coco-nuts
posted by tss at 6:37 PM on October 11, 2004


"My cookies are more macho than I am."

They are!
posted by jeremy at 7:04 PM on October 11, 2004


I spent a little over a month in Hawaii and got addicted to guava, pineapple and a fruit I forgot the name of that looks very odd. This coming from somebody who's ordinarily a carnivore. I do remember that spam was ubiquitous though!
posted by substrate at 7:12 PM on October 11, 2004


If you haven't tried li hing mui, you ain't tried sh*t. Go ahead. Order some. And then post us some pictures of your face while you try it for the first time.

Seriously, though, as someone who lived there for four years, this is funny, but it's also juvenile, just because it totally misses Joey M's point. Actually, his point is only half-right, because not only does Hawaii have some of the best food in the whole damn world, but when you're eating it, you're living in F**ING PARADISE!!!

I've lived in Paris and NYC, and I love to cook and eat, so I'm not kidding--till you've tried ahi poke, fresh opakaka right off the grill, a heaping paniolo breakfast from King's Bakery, or a loco moko from the truck at Sandy's, you just don't know what you're missing. So yes...ha ha ha...there are a lot of "naif" product designers making cartons in Hawaii. But you know what? All the same cultural characteristics that contribute to the wacky packaging--like cultural diversity, and an insulation from mainstream branded culture--make for some great food. Chow down on some spam musubi (grilled spam on a rice patty, wrapped in seaweed), and then tell me Hawaii doesn't know food.
posted by LairBob at 7:25 PM on October 11, 2004


I love you LairBob and I want to have your Spam musubi eating children. If only I had a uterus.
posted by Joey Michaels at 7:50 PM on October 11, 2004


Ho, brah...I so flattered.
posted by LairBob at 7:52 PM on October 11, 2004


OK, that packaging is pretty funny, but I guarantee you I could find stuff just as entertaining in a grocery store in New Jersey. And the food in Hawaii (like pretty much everything else in Hawaii) is excellent.
posted by Songdog at 10:08 AM on October 12, 2004


Eh. "Let's make funny comments about someone else's food/books/music/whatever".

That's so 1998.
posted by paddbear at 1:14 PM on October 12, 2004


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