Hawaiian

If Hawaii has always felt a bit, well, out there, that’s because it is. The 50th state is nearly 2,500 miles from California (and less than 4,000 miles from Japan). But Hawaiian culture — and Hawaiian food in particular — is having something of a moment on the mainland.

Ask locals where to eat in Hawaii and sooner or later you’ll end up talking malasadas. Cakey and airy, yeasty and sweet, crisp and soft — they may just be the best donut ever. But beyond Portuguese bakeries, these donuts are relatively unknown outside of Hawaii. In the most basic terms, the malasada is a yeast donut, sans hole. The dough is distinguished from that of other yeast donuts by its egginess and also by the use of milk (often evaporated).

I don’t remember the first time I had dried plum. Maybe it was on a playground at my elementary school in Guam. Whenever it was, what I’ll never forget is how my fingers would be stained red after eating one, and how I could still taste traces of saltiness hours after nothing was left but the marble-sized pit. In Guam, these Chinese pickled and dried, sweetened plums are called “sweet and sours” because they are just that — sweet, sour, and a bit salty, too.