10 more foods that make America great

Hawaiian plate lunch
You have not known the wonders of starch until you've had a Hawaiian plate lunch.

L & L Hawaiian Barbecue Hawaiian plate lunch is popular not only in Hawaii, but also on the mainland. The dish includes two hearty pieces of Hawaiian barbecued hamburger, topped with eggs and smothered with brown gravy.

A plate lunch's entrée, such as it is, can be almost anything: fish, lau lau (pork and fish wrapped in taro leaves), teriyaki, even — in the true Hawaiian spirit — Spam.  The constants are the sides — two scoops of rice and a scoop of macaroni salad. Travel as far afield as New York, where plate-lunch joints have finally made an appearance, and the two-and-one formula remains true.

Its origins remain clouded, though by one telling the mix of generally Asian foods that make up the typical plate-lunch menu might hearken back to the islands' earlier days from the multicultural lunch breaks in the fields at cane plantations. Certainly the starchy composition would resonate with people who had more appetite than money, and needed energy for a long day's work.

Plate-lunch restaurants and stands haven't been refined much through the years. It's unrepentently street food, though a plate lunch's simple composition is surely a major factor in it having become a cherished tradition. Ask a Hawaiian on the mainland what they miss, and this is likely to top the list.  How fortunate the rest of us are that they're willing to share.