Plate lunch
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Plate Lunch (Hawaiian: pa mea 'ai) is a vaguely Pacific-Rim/American menu item that is part of local culture in Hawaii. While sometimes available in 'mini' form, the standard plate lunch consists of two scoops of white rice and a scoop of macaroni salad taken by an ice cream scooper, and a meat(s) entree. Various meat choices are typically available, and they include a wide range of Asian and American dishes, and maybe a dish coming as far as Puerto Rico or Portugal.
Popular meat entrees include, and not limited to:
American: Hamburger and Beef Stew
Chinese: Lemon Chicken and Char Siu Pork
Filipino: Chicken Adobo and Longanisa
Hawaiian: Lau lau and Kalua Pig
Japanese: Chicken Katsu and Beef Teriyaki
Korean: Kalbi short-ribs and Beef Jun
Portuguese, Hispanic/Latino, Miscellaneous: Pasteles, Chorizo, Curry
A Hawaiian plate lunch is the rough equivalent to a Southern American meat-and-threes plate, although the inclusion of pan-Asian components elevate it to something very exotic to most American palates. Still, it can feature things as prosaic and familiar as a loco moco or chili and beans. A plate lunch is a truly regional American dish -- so much so that plate lunch emporiums are cropping up with more frequency outside of Hawaii, most notably up and down the entire West Coast, and oddly enough, in Las Vegas, the number one tourist destination for people from Hawaii.
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[edit] External links
- The Plate Lunch Critique
- Southern California Plate Lunch Connection
- Origins of the plate lunch story from KHNL
- Politics of the Plate Lunch, 1997
- Hawaiian Plate Lunch
exhibition at the Japanese American National Museum