“With all the big flavors we have in Hawaii, it’s a good moment to fill your palate and get a balanced bite,” Simeon explains of mac salad’s presence on the plate. Today it graces menus across the islands, from food trucks to fast-casual places, local diners and modern contemporary places. The meal (which still consists of barbecued meat, steamed white rice, mac salad, and perhaps some greens) represents almost every ethnic group in Hawaii on one platter. By the 1930s, street vendors in pushcarts started selling plate lunches along Honolulu’s waterfront, cementing mac salad’s place in Hawaii’s culture. Mac salad neutralized these salty, sweet, sauce-heavy proteins, adding extra calories at little additional cost and rounding out the meal. As sustenance to fuel their grueling work in the fields, these migrant laborers brought metal kau kau (food) tins packed with leftover white rice and meat dishes that originated in their homelands-staples like teriyaki beef or chicken katsu (Japan), kalbi or meat jeon (Korea), shoyu chicken (China), and beef stew or kalua pork (Hawaii).
“One is the influence coming through European chefs in Waikiki hotels the other is from plantation managers who were also of European stock but who had local, usually Asian, housekeepers and chefs and gardeners.” People adapted the dish to suit their pantries and budgets, boiling dry elbow macaroni because the noodles were cheap and imperishable (unlike potatoes) and mixing it with heaps of mayonnaise because it was easy to whisk together at home.Įventually mac salad became a staple of the plate lunch: an affordable meal that first emerged on plantation fields around the 1900s. But according to Arnold Hiura, the author of Kau Kau: Cuisine & Culture in the Hawaiian Islands, the dish has a few possible origins. With its European-leaning ingredients-namely, pasta and mayonnaise-mac salad is an unlikely dish for Hawaiians to rally around. Zippy’s, Hawaii’s favorite diner, makes 46,000 pounds of it every month. He’s talking about Hawaiian mac salad: a clumpy and creamy dish that resembles a Midwestern mush yet remains beloved by locals. “There’s nothing indigenous or rooted to the land of Hawaii,” Maui chef Sheldon Simeon tells me. Just keep in mind that they are sweeter, so you may need a little extra acid (vinegar) to balance the flavors.It’s a creamy, mutable, cost-effective way to round out a classic plate lunch of salty meats and fluffy white rice.
If you have cherry tomatoes on hand though, feel free to use them. Can I Use Cherry Tomatoes?ĭefinitely! I opted to not use cherry tomatoes because regular tomatoes are more affordable. It removes a lot of the pungent and astringent elements, leaving you with a much more pleasant and mild onion flavor. Regardless of which onion you use, I recommend cutting the onion thinly and soaking it in cold water for 20 minutes before adding it to the salad. Red onions are used here for their color and because they have a relatively mild flavor. Can I Use White or Yellow Onions Instead of Red Onions?
If you use a regular salad cucumber, I’d recommend peeling the tough skin off and using a spoon to scoop out the seeds before chopping it. The skin is much less tough, the flesh is less bitter, and the seeds are practically nonexistent.
I like to use English cucumbers (also called hothouse cucumbers and seedless cucumbers).
If you want to keep this salad plant based, vegan, or dairy free, but want to add in a creamy ingredient, I’d recommend adding in diced avocado or a sprinkling of toasted pine nuts. It adds a creamy layer that really balances out the acid from the vinegar really well. I love adding a bit of crumbled feta, small mozzarella balls (bocconcini), goat cheese, or grilled halloumi to this salad. If you have any stale bread laying around, try turning this into a delicious Panzanella salad! Best Cheese for Cucumber Tomato Salad Some delicious additions that I love including depending on what I have in my fridge are avocado and cheese. I prefer parsley in this recipe, but that can be substituted with other soft herbs like fresh dill or basil (or even a combination of the three). You could also omit the vinegar and squeeze some fresh lemon juice over it just before serving. The red wine vinegar can be easily substituted with either a splash or two of balsamic vinegar or apple cider vinegar. This simple salad is very versatile, and I definitely encourage you to make it your own! This … Optional Substitutions and Additions