- [Danielle] Hawaii is the most Asian part of America by a wide margin.

And what that means to us at "Lucky Chow" is that everywhere you look, you'll find Asian and Pacific foods and flavors.

Some people come here to surf or sun tan, but we come here to eat.

From farm to fishing boat, to table, Hawaiian cuisine has been shaped by waves of Asian immigrants who came for jobs at sugar cane and pineapple plantations and melded the dishes they brought from home with Hawaiian ingredients and traditions.

We've come back to the islands to meet with the latest generation of growers, fishermen, and chefs who are shaping Hawaii's ever-evolving fusion of flavors.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (calming music) You may think of Hawaii as a paradise for surfers and sunbathers, but its rich soil means it's also the perfect place to grow fruit.

At Kahuku Farms an orchard on the north shore of Oahu, the fourth generation owners, Kylie Matsuda and Judah Lum, are bringing modern agricultural methods to the cultivation of nourishing native fruits like mangoes, papayas, and passion fruit.

And they serve what they grow at their new farm cafe.

I stopped by Kahuku to take a walk through the orchards and pick and taste tropical fruits fresh from the tree.

- Growing up my parents kept us off of the farm, very active in other type of activities because farming is so risky.

So they really wanted us to go out and do our own thing.

And when I decided in college that I wanted to come back and work for the family business, they told me, "No, we sent you to college.

You go out and you do something different.

Farming is just too risky."

So it was my sister, my husband, and I that stepped up as the fourth generation to diversify our family business.

So that's when we created the Farm Cafe, at Kahuku Farms, which is a true farm-to-table experience where we actually brought the tables to the farm.

- This is actually an old plantation village and it was only growing sugar cane until 1971.

So this is the Hawaiian Açaí palm, and it looks like a lot of other palms out there.

So a lot of people be like, "I think I have this growing at home?"

They start off as a spiky stem that produces little blossoms, that will be pollinated by bees.

The green fruit will eventually change color to what you see an older one here where we'll get this purple color.

Passion fruit or lilikoi is the Hawaiian word for it, grows on a vine and it's actually the only fruit on the entire farm that we wait till it falls off until we harvest it.

You'll notice that it's got a great force field surrounding it and we'll pick it up, we'll wash it, we'll cut it open, which needs to be done by hand.

So you need to have some skill.

And then what you see on the inside is the pulp and the seeds.

- [Danielle] It's really sour, right?

- [Kylie] Very tart.

- [Judah] They say it's very tart.

- It's so tangy, but it doesn't feel sour.

- It's a punch.

I like to say it's a punch of freshness.

- It's a bit of sweetness that enters your tongue initially.

- There's some sugar in there.

- Yeah.

And then I love the crunch.

- The crunch and the seeds actually are loaded with antioxidants.

So another real fun fact is that passion fruit or lilikoi is known to have serotonin, so it's known to make people happy.

- I always think of mangoes as being ready when they're just really soft to the touch and almost like a peach.

- Exactly.

- That's not the case with these?

- Well, with these we're harvesting green.

As soon as the sugars have developed, you'll see, the way I was taught is to look at a mango.

As the fruit matures, the sugars will develop and the size will start to, some will be small forever but they will start to plump up.

They'll have a shoulder look right next to the stem.

This is a fruit that's got great shoulders on it.

- [Danielle] Ooh.

- [Kylie] Yeah.

- You see this?

That's a shoulder.

- Yes, I can see what you mean now by shoulders.

- Right?

This one also has color indication.

- [Danielle] That was so simple, it just fell off.

- [Judah] That's another indication.

- [Kylie] It's ready.

(cheerful music) - [Judah] So this is actually a baby banana tree right there.

- [Danielle] Ah.

- [Judah] With great access to water and of this beautiful ultraviolet ray we get out here in Kahuku, bananas can grow very quickly.

And this was actually what it looked like right before it started opening.

This was a petal, the first petal that opened up.

(cheerful music) So I wanted to stop here to introduce you to our Laie Gold variety of papaya.

- [Danielle] Ah.

- Now these are not trees, even though everybody says that's a papaya tree.

It's tall, it looks like a tree, but it has a hollow stem.

And so it's actually a plant.

We're waiting for these plants to start to produce flowers.

Now the flowers will always appear at the top of the plant, right where the new leaves are growing.

So these are actually brand new flower buds.

- [Danielle] Oh my god, those are future papayas?

- [Judah] Those are future papayas.

- [Danielle] So delicate.

I cannot believe that.

- So the varietal that we're growing here is very unique in the sense that it responds amazing to hot sunlight.

It transforms that sunlight into sugar.

- Best papaya I've ever had.

- [Judah] You can see we're eating it before it's all yellow.

- The cycle of a papaya.

- [Judah] Yep.

It's a plant and it just continues to flower as long as it's happy.

- Cacao is a tree that can only grow around 20 degrees north or south of the equator.

This makes Hawaii the only state in America- - Really?

- That can geographically grow it.

- The cacao tree is very unique in the sense that it's one of the only trees that produces blossoms right off the side of the trunk.

- [Danielle] Fascinating.

- Now, the only insect that will create, that will do the pollination is called a midge.

This is what we call a cherelle.

This is something that is formed right after the tiny midge does the pollination of the blossom.

And this is a tiny cacao fruit.

We crack the pod open.

Have you ever tasted?

- [Danielle] I have never.

- [Judah] Please.

- [Danielle] Mm.

- [Judah] That sugar is actually what activates our fermentation.

That is the cacao nib.

And in order to turn that nib into candy after fermentation, we air dry it, it then goes to the factory room where it gets roasted.

And then that leftover piece is the world's highest form antioxidant.

- People love to eat it in salads.

They put it in smoothies as toppings and in baking.

- [Danielle] And this is the world's- - [Kylie] Purest form of chocolate.

- It's a place that we hope people will come to find their happiness.

It's a place that people could come to reconnect to nature, to enjoy some quiet, some cool fresh air and then reestablish a connection with their, hopefully themself.

- After apprenticing with Chef Allen Wong, the pioneer of Hawaii Regional Cuisine, the husband and wife team Wade and Michelle Ueoka are leading the next wave of chefs, offering a diversely Asian-inspired take on the local ingredients and flavors that they grew up with.

Owners of the top-rated Honolulu restaurant, MW.

They also design menus for Hawaiian Airlines, and they draw inspiration for their creative take on the cuisine of Hawaii from their own travels.

How would you describe MW as a restaurant?

- The food that we cook here is telling the story of where we came from and who our mentors were.

So when we worked with Chef Alan, it was about Hawaii Regional Cuisine and sharing that story about the local producers, the farmers, the ranchers, the businesses of Hawaii and the cultures of Hawaii.

- When you come to MW, that's kind of what we try to, taking those things that we grew up eating and changing it and elevating it a little bit and making it a little contemporary.

- Folks are chasing French, and chasing Italian and something where you may never have been there, never worked in that kind of restaurant.

But what's wrong with being proud of who you are and your culture, where you came from and doing that, putting it on the plate.

- This is a arancini, inside you have a unagi and butterfish.

- [Danielle] and then it's top with a little bit?

- It's topped with a little wasabi koji mayo, and kabayaki sauce, and katsuo.

(upbeat music) - We kind of take sometimes the places where we've traveled and how it's also influenced us as well.

When we used to work with Chef Alan, he would take us to different trips where, and expose us to different places and bring those memories back and then create dishes with that.

And I think that's the one thing too, that we love working with Hawaiian Airlines, is that by traveling, he just came back from Korea and so he comes back with the things that influenced him there and he shares it with the kitchen here and then creates different dishes in our style.

What makes me happy the most with cooking and creating desserts for people is to see the smile on their face and to share the story about what makes Hawaii so special.

Because I wanna share a little piece of Hawaii with everyone that comes to this restaurant because I feel like, the happier the guests is, the happier I am.

- Way back when Hawaii Regional Cuisine was born, the most important thing was it was a break from the past.

Hawaii served continental food on continental menus.

It was not only a break from the past, but now chefs were using local ingredients, and things like furikake, and nori, and mochi, and kimchi are now coming onto the mainstream restaurant menu.

These were only at home, found only at home or in the employee cafeteria, and now they've become mainstream.

And so it changed the way Hawaii is forever.

- You always had mochi in the house for good luck.

And so, of course in January my mom would try to use the mochi.

And so she would cube it up, soak it in water, and then deep fry it.

And that was also one of my favorite things growing up where it was, usually it was just soya in sugar.

So it's kind of the inspiration of this dish where you have grated mochi to cross the fish.

So we take blocks of mochi, grade it, mix in some furikake, and we use it as a crust for the fish.

This one it's a miso butterfish.

We wanted to do a little different take.

So we did a Korean influence on it.

So it's actually a Korean miso that we use versus Japanese misos, it's just more common around.

And then we serve with a taegu salad.

Taegu is the dried pollock or cod, it's usually flavored with honey, sesame.

And that's actually what we use for the glaze.

- I get inspired by the people around me.

I get inspired by the farmers.

So when they have something new or they want to, they come and we talk about what they have.

It's like, okay, how can I put this on the dessert menu?

So a lot of it is featuring them.

- Well, my favorite dessert of all time is probably just shaved ice.

So tell me about your version of shaved ice here.

- With the shaved ice here we do a panna cotta on the bottom.

We do a lemongrass panna cotta with kaffir lime leaves.

We top it off with the haupia tapioca, which is basically a play off of the Filipino dessert halo-halo.

And then we add mango content and the fresh mango.

And I try to use a different mango in each layer so they can taste the different mangoes that we have.

And then we do a mango sorbet, and then we just do a shaved mango right on top.

With the crème brûlée, we do the tapioca on the bottom.

I grew up eating Haribo gummy bears.

I love them.

So we make like a lilikoi gummy bear.

And then we put pineapple, mango, papaya or dragon fruit, depending what the season is, to give that nice vibrant, fresh fruit flavor.

And then we do a lilikoi sorbet in the middle, and then we top it off with a lilikoi custard.

And then we burn it.

And then, so when you eat it, every bite that you get is different.

- When you share your knowledge and your experiences and your training and you teach somebody else and you mentor other people like you are now, you're giving of yourself and that's part of the law of spirit.

(upbeat music) - Fishing has always been a mainstay of Hawaiian life.

And these days the Honolulu Fishing Agency runs the only fish auction in America.

Modeled after Tokyo's famous Tsukiji fish market.

Brooks Takenaka, the agency's general manager, gave me an early morning tour of the auction floor, which is probably the chilliest place in Hawaii.

This is incredible.

Look at this.

- The primary species, target species are the bigeye tunas.

All right.

And we do about 10 million pounds a year of bigeye tuna.

95% are the bigeye tuna, 25% are the yellowfin.

And this year, in particular, I'd say maybe 60, 65% of this broadbill swordfish caught by America's fleet comes from this fleet here in Hawaii.

That's how significant it is.

- [Danielle] That is a lot.

- And we consume most of it.

So these are the bigeye tuna.

And what we do is a tail cut and we also cut a wedge out.

With their experienced eye, they can pretty much determine the value of the fish.

The buyers are gonna jump on that.

That's gonna set the tone for the morning in terms of the pricing.

- [Danielle] Are they looking for fat?

I mean, guess it depends on the individual buyer, right?

- Well, as Chef Paul Puno once told me a long time ago, Fat is where the flavor is.

And so same thing with the fish.

- Ah.

- Fat is where it's at.

That's why they say aburah, the fatty bluefin, yeah.

(inspirational music) Well, my grandfather was a fisherman.

My family, however, did not want me to be a fisherman, although I did fish, dive, and all of that when I was younger.

So I became a marine biologist.

- [Danielle] Oh.

- Yeah.

And then I worked for the federal government for a few years and then my uncle said, "Okay, why don't you come work for me and get a real job and work for a change?"

And so I got right back into the industry and the day I started, I realized I was at home.

- [Danielle] Yes.

- I truly enjoyed being a part of this.

Over time, it's been a matter of not just sharing our appreciation for these species and quality and all that, but showing the rest of the world that again, we love our fish, we respect it, the resource.

And then being brought up the way I was, you also have an appreciation for your crew and just the opportunity to be a part of this industry.

Very special.

- Yes.

- It really is.

- It really is.

(calming music) Near the auction, you'll find the Honolulu fishing fleet whose captains are out on the ocean most days well before dawn.

I took a walk along the pier with Eric Kingma, the Executive Director of the Hawaii Longline Association, founded as an advocate for fisherman in fisheries management.

I looked up to him literally, while he told me about the history and the reputation of Hawaii's fishery.

- [Eric] This is a few vessels out of the 145 vessel fleet that we have here in Hawaii.

- [Danielle] Wow.

- Hawaii Longline Fishery.

And it's the largest food producer in this state.

And it's not just low-quality, high-volume stuff.

It's the opposite.

It's high-quality, low-volume.

And that's what makes us really proud of this fishery that is Hawaii fish can be marketed anywhere in the world 'cause it has a really great reputation of very fresh, high quality and people love to eat it.

And really it exists because we're surrounded by water here in Hawaii.

We're the most isolated island, archipelago in the world.

And around us are beautiful ocean resources and healthy fish stocks.

And this fleet really started a hundred years ago, in 1917.

- [Danielle] At the Honolulu fish auction the early bird gets the tuna.

Fishermen start unloading well before 5:00 AM.

And the opening bell, which I got to ring, comes at the bright and early time of 5:45 AM.

(bell ringing) (mysterious music) - [Brooks] A key part of all of this.

We sell the fish, fishermen catch the fish, but we work together.

We work very close together.

It's important for us as an industry to do things in a responsible manner.

So sustainability being what it is, we're proud to say that we fish environmentally sustainably, but we're also socially responsible in terms of addressing the needs and the care of our crew members as well.

So we take pride in doing things the right way for the right reasons.

- [Danielle] Right.

- So again, I think it's important for us to be responsible and do things responsibly, so that our consumers and whoever buys from this market can do so with confidence.

That again, they're buying fish that's caught, and handled, and marketed the right way.

(upbeat music) - After spending the morning at the fish auction, I met up again with Chef Alan Wong, who was inspired by the catch of the day to share his version of a simple, classic, truly Hawaiian tuna poke that is elegant and refined and one of the best bites I had in Hawaii.

- So one of the biggest misunderstandings or misconceptions is that anything from Hawaii is Hawaiian.

So this is a Hawaiian dish.

The Hawaiians are its own ethnic people, so no different than the Tahitians, the Fijians, the Samoans, the Tongans.

And they have their history here in Hawaii, how they cooked.

One was they ate a lot of raw fish.

- Sure.

- You took what you wanted just for today, whether it's for you, your family, and your friends, or your neighbors.

And then tomorrow you go back again.

So poke was, literally means cut, cubed.

So there's this hatch, looks like cubes or diamonds.

You have to look at a poke as a raw fish salad.

And so people know what ceviche is, that has acid, the lime juice or some kind of acid.

This has no acid at all.

In old Hawaii, the ocean was like a refrigerator.

So this is center cut right here.

The belly would be here.

- [Danielle] Okay.

- [Eric] This is called a bloodline.

- Oh, yes.

- There was a lot of fat, you could see it gets real pink and fat here.

So maybe this is like one finger, two finger fat, three finger fat, more fingers, more fat, more expensive.

What I'm gonna do is cube the tuna, or the ahi, or the magoro.

- And what is your take on it?

- [Eric] So the first thing is to season it with a little bit of kosher salt.

We just wanna let that sit.

Inamona which is a roasted kukui nut, I'm gonna add sambal, something with heat in it.

Sesame oil would do the trick.

- To give it that nutty flavor.

(calming music) - We're gonna add the Hanapepe salt or the salt from Kauai as a finisher.

And then this is a fresh seaweed from Hawaii, what we call limo or ogo.

- [Danielle] What do you want your cooking to reflect?

- Taking something old and giving it a modern refresh but always paying respect to what was.

- That is a stunning bite.

(upbeat music) Throughout our time in Hawaii, we were swept away by the aloha spirit and how people we had just met, treated us like family.

In this case, we were literally welcomed into their home for what else?

A potluck dinner.

We had the great fortune to join a food party at the Manoa valley house of the celebrated Chef Mark Noguchi, along with his chosen family of chefs, farmers, and friends.

The first thing on the menu was the awe-inspiring view of Honolulu down below.

But there was also a roast pig, an oxtail soup by Chef Jon Matsubara, a tofu and watercress salad from Reppun farms.

Some dim sum, some barbecue, some cold noodles topped with fish cake.

In other words, a perfect mix of family classics remixed island style.

Gooch, as his friends call him, is the off-duty chef presiding over the spread, making sure everyone is happy and well fed while whipping up several dishes on his own, including a roasted pork shoulder with his crazy good spice mix made from macadamia nuts and Hawaiian chili pepper.

- You know big descent, descent for themselves.

'Cause especially today, the wild boards have run unchecked.

So they're an invasive species.

- [Guest] These are my little favorite ends.

- [Gooch] What better way to get rid of an invasive species than to eat it?

So there you go.

- How often do you do this potluck?

- We have people, we have people here all the time.

- Like daily, weekly, monthly?

- [Guest] Daily.

- Fire.

- [Jon] It's a party house.

- [Danielle] Really?

- [Guest] It's a party house, yeah.

- A lot of locals get together like once a week with their families too.

Like Sundays usually.

- [Guest] Yes.

- [Jon] So there are like Sunday dinners.

- [Guest] Yes.

- [Jon] Like our family used to get together every Sunday and we used to go like Tamashiro show market, or people would bring things and that's how our siblings learned how to cook.

- [Gooch] Yep.

- So I would be cooking one thing, my sister would be cooking another thing, and my brother would be cooking another thing.

And then we all critique on what tastes good and what tastes better.

- [Danielle] Right.

- [Jon] But it brings everyone together.

We'd have beer, sake, wine, and just enjoy ourselves.

But that's my memories of Sunday dinner.

(cheerful music) - We have, this is Hiyashi Chuka, it's a cold noodle salad.

It's actually a dish that my mom.

this is lechon kawali Filipino crispy pork with pickled tomatoes and actually our daughters, and Amanda grew the tomatoes outside.

Some dim sum, shrimp chips, just smoked meat from Big Island, kimchi, poke.

This is the Reppun watercress tofu salad.

Eating the amount of meat that we do today is a very western concept.

Right.

But our ancestors had to do with little or less than none.

Yeah, exactly.

It flavors everything else.

We don't eat like this every day.

Like this is obviously a spread, but when we get together with friends and family this is how we eat.

Like everybody brings stuff.

- [Danielle] Potlucks, may be universal, but the food and the spirit at Gooch's house where distinctly Hawaiian, straight from the hands and hearts of people devoted to growing and cooking locally and sustainably with care and love.

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, 2,500 miles away from the mainland.

Hawaii is part of the United States and yet truly a place apart.

And its cuisine reflects the fact that it is an authentic melting pot.

It's a place where immigrants from every part of Asia have stirred their own traditions into the mix while adopting the island's laid-back style and pay it forward philosophy.

After you've experienced Hawaii, friends and family has a whole new meaning.

(cheerful music) (upbeat music)