A Hawaii Story (for the Inauguration) Part I
In November, thanks to Les Dames d’Escoffier, I had the chance to fulfill a dream and go back to Hawaii. We lived lived there from 1987 to 1997. I went to the islands grudgingly, terrified that my academic career would end in a place where, judging by what one heard in the mainland US, the chief pastimes were dancing the hula in grass skirts, eating flaming pupu platters, and drinking mai tais. I left a decade having made some of the most best friends of my life and having learned more than I could ever have imagined.
As my husband drove me to the airport, he said “Please check out my Zippy’s.” And so my first free moment I steered my rental car off to ‘his’ Zippy’s about a mile from downtown Honolulu at the intersection of Nuuanu and King.
In the years we were in Hawaii my night-owl husband would hop on his scooter sometime between midnight and two in the morning and swoop down through the perfumed air to eat a bowl of chili and read the newspaper in Zippy’s. It was usually busy: students hanging out, high school students after parties, grand Hawaiian dames back from a luau in long white muumuus and golden leis, cleaning ladies who’d finished the shift downtown.
Zippy’s is to Hawaii as Denny’s is to the mainland US. It’s in the low to mid price range, it sells hamburgers and cokes, it welcomes families. It’s not for tourists. They are only just opening restaurants on the other islands and most of those on Oahu where Honolulu is situated are away from the tourist enclave, Waikiki.
But there are differences. It’s a pleasant place to be. The decor is eclectic–a few classical columns, a bit of Dutch-style flower painting over the arches–but you can sit in air-conditioned comfort inside or hang out at the tables by the take out window in the warm scented Hawaii air. ‘My’ Zippy’s was the one that I went to at 6 in the morning for a quick breakfast outside overlooking a peaceful lagoon before getting to snorkeling as the fish woke up.
And then there’s the menu. This is not high dining, it’s not intended to be. But when I was there you could order a Zip Pac with fried Spam if that was what you wanted. Òr lots of other island favorites. Apart from the chili some of the most popular are saimin, beef stew and beef curry. Here’s the current take out menu. All this makes Zippy’s one of the most popular restaurants on the island of Oahu, one that no teenager could survive without.
My favorites were the soups. A big bowl of clear Asian oxtail soup with the pieces of oxtail floating around and cilantro and rice on the side. Or Okinawan pig’s feet soup, still not something you find on every coffee shop/diner menu.
But then Zippy’s was founded in the mid 1960s by two Okinawan brothers, Francis and Charles Higa. I don’t know for sure, but I’d bet their parents, or certainly their grandparents had worked on the plantations and that someone in the family had arrived in the late nineteenth century as an indentured worker. Okinawans have both a very interesting cuisine and a long history of difficult relations with their powerful neighbors, the Chinese and the Japanese. But that is for another story.
This story is that the Higa brothers made good. In 1959 Hawaii became a state of the United States of America. And those who had come as indentured laborers, many of the already entrepreneurs, founded businesses at even greater rates. And they wanted and created their own food, Local Food it’s called, which is what Zippy’s still serves. In 1976 McDonald’s arrived. To make a go of it, the local entrepreneur in defiance of corporate policy had to adapt the menu to Local tastes. He added saimin, fruit punch, Portuguese sausage, and, of course, rice.
And so I drove through that light rain that blesses Hawaii, past the glorious Academy of Art with its sweeping roofs and fine Asian collection, past the governor’s mansion, turned right and then left, and there was Zippy’s. I had no time to eat. But reassuringly there it was and full of people.
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And my blog for the day. Many readers of my blog already know Art and Mystery of Food by Australian microbiologist and investigator extraordinaire, Adam Balic. He doesn’t post often but when he does it is never a LPU (least publishable unit as scientists call little snippety articles). Check out his recent post on haggis.
Nice story, Rachel.
Adam’s blog is incredible.
But I still think the best thing I’ve ever seen is that photo he once posted of a threatening lobster.
Thanks Rachel for the kind comments. I have managed to fracture and elbow, so my typing has not been up to speed in the last week.
I’ve got a couple of other “History of X dish” in the pipeline, then I will try to produce something more worthy, alone the lines that traditional British cooking was invented sometime during the 19th century, along with the middle class.
Hi Rachel – As an ex-pat Kama’aina I loved this post. It does capture the sense, and a bit of the soul, of what makes up what we call, “local gindz”. And even though the prices at Zippy’s has sky-rocketed, and (I’ve been told) quality has gone down….. there are still days I wish for a bowl of Chili and rice, or a Zip Pac, Fried Chicken, and on and on…… And that chili, from what I can figure, it’s Cincinnati style, isn’t it? Now how did that happen.