Eating ̳ Local ‘ : The Politics of Post-Statehood Hawaiian

In the last twenty years there has been an emergence of scholarship examining cookbooks as cultural texts that engage in a complex set of functions including the building of community (Bower 1997), communication of cultural and gender norms (Neuhaus 2003), preservation of a record of foods practices (Miller 1998), and the preservation of women‘s biographical record (Theophano 2002). This scholarship allows us to understand that cookbooks do significantly more than coordinate the production of food—cookbooks are also important everyday texts that reflect and reproduce the socio-political milieu in which the text is created. It is an understanding of cookbooks as texts of understated importance that under-girds my interest in cookbooks produced in and about Hawaiian culture and food in the post-World War II era. In this essay I will be looking at two cookbooks—Hawaiian Cuisine (1963) published by the Hawai‘i State Society, and The Hawaii Cookbook and Backyard Luau (1964) by Elizabeth Ahn Toupin—that were written by ―local‖ 1 Hawaiians about Hawaiian food, and published during the height of the U.S. ―luau-craze‖ of the 1960s. These cookbooks take up and amend the discourse of Hawaiian food made visible in popular, serialized texts of the era including the Betty Crocker and Better Homes and Gardens series. Perhaps what makes these books most interesting is that the key individuals involved in the production of the texts were, twenty years prior, grassroots activists involved in the democratic revolution of

Hawaiian politics.Tracing the evolution from grassroots activism to cookbook publishing allows for a reading of the cookbooks within a lineage of activism; reading against the idea that writing cookbooks is a comfortable bourgeois pastime indicative of a -selling out‖ of earlier political ideals, I will be looking at the ways that these two cookbooks continue the political work of the post-war/pre-statehood period (1945)(1946)(1947)(1948)(1949)(1950)(1951)(1952)(1953)(1954)(1955)(1956)(1957)(1958)(1959).Indeed, I will argue that these cookbooks can be understood by what Mary Louise Pratt describes as autoethnographic texts: -a text in which people undertake to describe themselves in ways that engage with representations others have made of them‖ (471).The two cookbooks I am reading here create complex representations that work, at least in part, to redress the mis-representations made by the dominant (read: mainland U.S., white) culture.

Hawaiian statehood and grassroots activism
Grassroots activism and the creation of an interracial democratic coalition were at the heart of the success of the Hawaiian Statehood movement.While the possibility of Hawaiian statehood had existed as an idea since the annexation of Hawai'i in 1898, it was a set of events and shifting cultural paradigms in the mid-twentieth century that most significantly contributed to the ultimate success of the much-contested Hawaiian statehood movement.The bombing of Pearl Harbor, the creation of the all-Japanese American 442 nd combat unit, and the contestation over Japanese-American citizenship after Pearl Harbor all contributed significantly to the political and cultural shifts that took place on the Islands during and after World War II. 2 It was grassroots activism and a newly-empowered non-white electorate that eventually led to the overthrow of the long-standing haole (or, white)-led Republican party domination of Hawai'i (Fuchs 1961).
In his 1967 biography Journey to Washington, longtime Hawaiian Senator Daniel K. Inouye describes a conversation with a fellow wounded Nisei veteran as they were recuperating immediately after the war's end.The friend expresses his disgruntlement with the racial hierarchy in Hawai'i and laments the fact that, despite their status as highly decorated veterans of the famed all-Japanese American 442 nd regiment, they were still systematically discriminated against on the basis of race.Using this conversation to demonstrate the growing intolerance of racial exclusion on the Islands and within the broader nation, Inouye quotes his friend as saying: We ought to have every single right that every single other American has! Man, we shed a lot of blood in this war.What was that all about?Was it all wasted?Dan, I'm not looking to put the blame on anybody.I don't even really care about all that stuff that happened before.What I'm interested in is tomorrow.I want my kid to have every break.I demand it ! (1967: 190) The above conversation highlights both a sense of heightened frustration and a glimmer of hope for the possibility of revolutionizing the Hawaiian political scene.The conversation between two wounded veterans articulates an argument for statehood and full political recognition by way of their wartime service.The fact that they -shed a lot of blood in this war,‖ according to Inouye, is a compelling reason for equality and belonging; the figure of the soldier works to ratify the previouslyquestioned patriotism of the Japanese American.
Inouye makes visible an important link between the experiences and frustrations of the Nisei soldier and the post-war statehood movement.And while the Nisei experience is central to understanding postwar Hawaiian politics (Japanese Americans comprised approximately 37% of Hawai'i's population in the period between 1940Hawai'i's population in the period between -1950)), it is nonetheless an admittedly narrow perspective to focus the discussion of the exigencies of statehood to the Japanese American experience. 3upplemental to understanding the success of the Nisei veterans' claim to full citizenship is an understanding of the Hawaiian Islands' long history of racial hierarchy.Included in this history is the colonization of native Hawaiian land by European explorers, the migration of Asian plantation labor, and the arrival of missionaries of European descent; these vectors converged to create a multi-racial society that was, for generations, ruled by the wealthy land-owning white elites.The haole ruling class, a privileged minority, was sustained by a colonial plantation system that relied on the systematic economic and political disempowerment of all people of color.As Ron Takaki recalls in A Different Mirror (1993), the nineteenth century plantation system in Hawai'i intentionally and carefully promoted importing laborers from various nations (and language groups) as a way of preventing labor strikes (252).The labor tyranny began to crumble in the 1920s and 30s when several successful unionization campaigns launched a direct assault against the hegemony of the ruling class.The successful unionization of Island labor contributed to the production of a post-war territory ripe with interest in political change.
Bolstered by the labor movement that had been gaining power in the last decades, the postwar period in Hawai'i saw a newly-empowered student movement at the University of Hawai'i.By 1948 Dan Inouye was a senior at the University, and he became a well-regarded student leader.While at the -U of H‖ he met Elizabeth Toupin, a graduate student in the Economics department who also took an active role in the political work that led to the re-emergence of the Democratic Party in Hawai'i.Toupin, a Hawaiian-born Korean-American woman, became the campaign manager for Allan Saunders.
Saunders, chair of the political science department, was a candidate for delegate for the Constitutional Convention of 1948-a critical part of the statehood movement.Both Toupin and Inouye were actively involved in campaigning for delegates for the convention.While the grassroots work came out of the academic community of the university, it extended to the streets (and doorsteps) of the greater Honolulu community.Elizabeth Toupin recalls this time: The scent of true democracy was everywhere and when I was appointed a graduate assistant at the University of Hawaii, I was part of the change […].There was a move (again) for Hawaiian statehood, in 1948 but this time it was different.Instead of waiting for the U.S. Congress to pass a bill extending statehood to Hawaii, [we] took the initiative and set up a Constitutional Convention to write a state constitution for Hawaii […] it was then to be submitted to U.S. Congress for acceptance.While I was a TA in economics department, I was close to the head of the political science department, Allan Saunders […] so when he mentioned an interest running for one of the delegate positions in the constitutional convention, I said -I'd like to be your campaign manager" […] and he thought it was great.My boss, the head of the Economics Dept., Dr. Harry Roberts decided also to run so we formed a Committee with Alan's TA Ralph Miwa and Dan Inouye.Dan was a senior and very active in the renewed Democratic party.It worked.(Toupin 2009, email) The campaign season of 1948-fraught with the Republican attack on the Democratic Party as Communist-led-produced a complex campaign in which the Democrats had to work diligently to establish credibility among island constituents.Toupin, Inouye, and their political colleagues were part of a vigorous and successful door-to-door campaign in Honolulu's 4 th district.
While it is far beyond the scope of this paper to recount the complexities of the subsequent decade of the Democratic party's rise to power and the long-waged battle for statehood, it is important to acknowledge that the above-mentioned roots of statehood were marked not by radicalism, but by a centrist argument for inclusion that led to the ultimate 1959 success of the statehood campaign.Inouye, Toupin and their co-collaborators were arguing for empowerment and recognition by way of the U.S. electoral political system.And Inouye's early and steady rise from Island politics to the rank of U.S. Senator demonstrates the very insider-nature of this claim.
Once statehood was achieved in 1959, Dan Inouye quickly moved from territory politician to U.S. Representative (1959Representative ( -1963) ) to U.S. Senator (1963-present).For Inouye and all individuals involved in the process of statehood, as well as for the territory-cum-state itself, it became necessary to make the transition from the politics of the statehood movement to -state politics.‖The transition was made at a time of a significant mainland fascination with the culture and climate of the Hawaiian Islands.While the representation of Hawai'i-as-exotic must be understood within a context of white hegemony and the exoticization of the non-white other, it is also a phenomenon that worked to promote a booming tourist economy.The role of tourism in post-statehood Hawai'i worked to diversify the Hawaiian economy beyond sugar and pineapple production, and tourism also helped circulate an understanding of the culture and peoples of Hawai'i on the U.S. mainland.During this period both Daniel Inouye and Elizabeth Toupin became involved in the writing and promotion of cookbooks about Hawaiian food; these texts contribute significantly to the education of non-islanders about the racial and ethnic identities of the people of Hawai'i.

Mainland luaus: the dominant representation
In order to better understand the contribution made by Hawaiian Cuisine and Hawaii Cookbook, it is important to provide an illustration of the popular, serialized texts against which I will read the two locallyproduced books.By the 1960s it was common for cookbooks to have a section dedicated to the Hawaiian luau.-Luau‖ became synonymous for -Hawaiian food‖ and was, in fact, almost the exclusive mode in which the food of Hawai'i was represented during the period. 4 The luau presented in Betty Crocker's New Outdoor Cookbook is representative of the many luaus offered in Cold War cookbooks.The popularity of the luau is evident in the ubiquity of -backyard luaus‖ as practiced across the nation: By the late fifties nearly every middle-class American suburban home with a patio had become a site of unsophisticated luaus; and to the average (non-gourmet) housewife, -Polynesian Cooking‖ had become little more than a synonym for dumping chunks of pineapple, banana, and maraschino cherries on otherwise humdrum food.(Stern 1988: 56) The -tiki fad‖ 5 had hit the mainland with fury, and access to information on how to throw a luau in your own suburban backyard was widely available in a range of often cheap, poorly-edited, often serialized cookbooks.
Betty Crocker's Outdoor Cookbook was published in 1967 by the General Mills Corporation.The cookbook begins the way all Betty Crocker's texts do-with a note from -Betty‖. 6In her welcome note, Betty writes that there is nothing quite like the -change-of-pace pleasure of cooking and eating outdoors‖ (4).The Outdoor Cookbook's luau offering is found in a chapter entitled -Patio Parties -with a Cross- 4 The luau is a Hawaiian feast and special occasion.To generalize it as representative of all Hawaiian food is clearly a mis-representation. 5While tiki refers specifically to wooden carvings of human figures common in Polynesian culture, in mid-twentieth century U.S. vernacular the term became a way to generally connote Polynesian-ness (e.g.tiki torches, tiki lounge, etc.). 6Betty Crocker is a fictionalized masthead adopted by General Mills to sell flour in the 1920s.The introductory note from Betty is a tradition that began with the publication of the earliest Betty Crocker recipes and cookbooks in the 1940s.
country Flair‖ with an explanation that parties that choose a regional, American theme are particularly fun (1967: 100).To add to this, the setting for the luau is explained: What about treating your guests to the Hawaiian Luau?Have the man of the hour wear his splashiest sportshirt and say -Aloha‖ to each guest with a paper lei.Perhaps you'll even ask all of the women to wear muumuu-style dresses.(1967: 100) Despite the apparent enthusiasm for taking up a Hawaiian theme, the luau suggested here has a very basic, stripped-down presentation.The luau features the minimalist title -Hawaiian luau‖ indicating, perhaps, what Jane and Michael Stern refer to as the tiredness of the luau by the end of the 1960s (56).The recipes offered in this simple luau include: 'Pig' Roasted on the Turnspit, Teriyaki Steak, Sweet Potatoes with Coconut, Chinese Peas, Tahitian Salad, and Aloha Baked Pineapple (110).The lack of explanation about how these diverse recipes would come to rest on the same -luau‖ table implies that the reader is familiar with or receptive to the idea of -Hawaiian‖ as a vague amalgam of -oriental‖ culture.
The photograph accompanying this luau is a two-page wide close-up image of a buffet table.On the table is a faux luau pig, a salad in an enormous clam shell, decorated drinks, and a lot of foliage.The pig is an important component of this feast as it is a self-conscious parodying of a more genuine luau pig.Instead of a traditional luau pig (which would be roasted in an underground Imu for several days) this -pig‖ is a ham with raisin eyes and carrot ears.The photograph also includes small statues, bamboo, coconut and wicker, which, taken together, become signifiers of native -Hawaiian‖ culture and tradition.These objects within the photographs enact this signification by calling on a vague sense of the primitive and the unusual.
In keeping with the norm, the Betty Crocker New Outdoor Cookbook's luau is short and sweet.It is aimed at fulfilling Betty Crocker's -change-of-pace pleasure‖ while simultaneously promising ease and foods that are not-too-unusual. 7The popular cookbooks against which I am reading Hawaiian Cuisine and The Hawai'i Cookbook and Backyard Luau evacuate detail and historical specificity from their texts while presenting the luau as both simple and exotic.It is the specificity of the treatment of cultural identity that makes The Hawaii Cookbook and Backyard Luau remarkable.Both books are careful to explain, in some detail, the history of the people of the Hawaiian Islands while also providing a range of recipes-far beyond the chow mien and faux luau pig-available in most cookbooks of the era.

Hawaiian Cuisine: the Statehood Society cookbook
Once he had achieved a position in national politics, first as Congressman and then Senator, Dan Inouye found himself at the helm of many vigorous PR campaigns to promote Hawai'i and Hawaiian tourism.Inouye chaired the committee that authorized the 1963 publication of Hawaiian Cuisine, a cookbook dedicated to the multi-ethnic food of the Islands.
The cover of Hawaiian Cuisine lists the ethnic groups included in the book: -Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Portuguese, Korean and Cosmopolitan‖ (I will discuss the function of the ambiguous category of -Cosmopolitan‖ below).The preface to the cookbook reminds the reader that Hawai'i is a racially diverse state: Hawaii, our 50 th State, is known as the -Melting Pot of the Pacific‖ consisting of many nationalities who brought with them their traditions and cultures.The recipes collected and compiled in this edition are derived from menus typical of racial groups in Hawaii.This book is presented to those who are away from Hawaii so that they may bring into their homes the dishes that are loved by all.
The ambiguous dedication to -those who are away from Hawaii‖ signifies a diaspora of Hawaiian-born peoples who have moved to the mainland and elsewhere; at the same time, -those who are away‖ also interpolates those who visit (or would like to visit) Hawai'i as tourists.
On the page following the preface is found a foreword that acts as a more personalized welcome from the Senators and Congressmen, including brand new Senator Daniel K. Inouye.The foreword, as the voice of the politicians, explains that the appeal of such a text is the spirit of Aloha: -If there is any dominant characteristic of the people of Hawaii it is the spirit of ALOHA.A part of this spirit is the enjoyment of the foods prepared by the various races living in the 50 th State‖ (4).Hawai'i is constructed as a welcoming state-available and accessible to the reader.The preface and foreword clearly introduce Hawai'i within a context of multi-racial and multi-cultural blending, and yet the book itself is set up in a way that very carefully maintains the border and boundaries between these ethnic groups.The ambiguously named -Cosmopolitan‖ section is the only chapter of the book in which various ethnic foods meet and mingle.Indeed, it seems as though this section of the book reflects not only multi-ethnic eating, but also the inter-racial families that had become a significant part of the state's demographic by the mid twentieth century. 8he recipe section of Hawaiian Cuisine begins with the Hawaiian chapter, and the chapter is prefaced with a photograph of a woman wearing a lei and bearing a very large platter of fruit; on the opposing page is a black and white drawing of several shirtless men in an outrigger canoe.Before we are provided with any actual recipes, we are presented with a six-page article entitled -So You Want to Give a Luau‖.Notably, this title is a statement, not a question.While this article title is remarkably similar to many of the luau sections found in mainland cookbooks, the information provided within is very different-and much more detailed-than what is found in texts such as the Better Homes and Gardens luau discussed earlier.This article includes information on how to dress -Hawaiian style,‖ how to make a muumuu, how to slice a pineapple, and even instructions for building an Imu (underground oven for pig roasting) in your own backyard.The article concludes with an example of a typical luau menu.Following the menu is an explanation that it is -appropriate‖ to substitute dishes from other sections of the cookbook in the luau menu, -[l]ong rice with chicken (in the Japanese section) is another dish popular at luaus.Coconut cake or coconut ice cream desserts are perfectly acceptable at any luau‖ (1969: 14).
There are only three and a half pages of actual recipes in the Hawaiian section, and all are geared towards throwing a luau for 8-10 guests.The recipes all begin with the ingredients list and are followed by a brief paragraph, all of which are purely instructional.The one exception to this is the Lomi Lomi Salmon recipe, which begins with the following sentence: -This Hawaiian fish salad is described by natives as ONO (delicious)‖ ( 16).The description implies that the reader is not familiar with Hawaiian language and needs explanation of native words; simultaneously, the use of narrative voice and the third person leads us to understand that the writer speaks for, but is not, -native‖, creating an important textual distance from the indigenous population of the Islands.
The Chinese chapter begins with a drawing of a scroll with a Chinese ideograph-the translation provided below reads threateningly, -[e]at, don't talk!‖ (19).The subsequent page includes a five paragraph overview of Chinese cooking in Hawai'i, explaining that all Hawaiian hostesses have a favorite Chinese dish they like to cook for -an old friend, whose cultivated palate appreciates something different‖ (1969: 20).This observation is then followed by the history of Chinese migration to the Islands beginning in the early 1800s.This introduction explains that -[e]ventually the offspring of these (plantation) laborers, because of their aggressiveness and intelligence fortified with the American education they acquired, became the merchants, laundry owners, restaurateurs, professional men and financial leaders of Hawaii‖ (1969: 20).While no background information (let alone reference to their intelligence) is provided about the history of native Hawaiians on the islands, the Hawaiian Cuisine cookbook finds it important and necessary to locate the Chinese within a history of migration and labor.
The Chinese recipes, as with many of the recipes throughout all sections of this cookbook, are presented with two titles.The Chinese name of the dish is accompanied with a parenthetical translation and/or explanation.For instance, the Chinese recipe for -Guy Choy Yuke‖ is described as -Chinese Mustard Greens with Beef‖ (1969: 29).The use of the parenthetical is far less extensive here than in the sections that follow, and seems to be limited to the English translation of Chinese words.The food offered in the Chinese section is expansive and includes 24 recipes for a variety of dishes ranging from almond cookies to pickled pigs feet.Despite the earlier contextualization of Chinese food as -something different‖ there is also a textual implication that Chinese food is (already) highly popular and familiar, and therefore, good to serve on -days when a haole guest comes from the mainland‖ (1969: 20). 9o further elaborate on Hawaiian Cuisine's theme of distinctiveness-yet cross-cultural culinary sharing-the Japanese chapter begins with a narrative of a -likely scene‖ in which a Native Hawaiian plantation worker takes interest in Sato-san's lunch.The conversation between Sato-san and Kalani begins with a suspicious curiosity and ends with Kalani asking to try Sato-san's nori.Subsequent to the dialog between Kalani and Sato-san is a contextualization of this as a formative scene: This must have been the scene repeated many times during the early years of the Japanese in Hawaii.Sampling a bit of Japanese food started as simply as thiscuriosity aroused, satisfied, and the non-Japanese grew to love the various Japanese dishes.In the intervening years the Japanese themselves also learned to sample, eat and love the foods of the other peoples.(1969: 32) This moment of imagined culinary sharing is an important re-telling of the history of Hawaiian food and, in effect, the larger history of Hawai'i.Within this narrative it is implied that the introduction of Japanese food to the Hawaiian was a pivotal event that led to the creation of contemporary -Hawaiian Cuisine,‖ and, furthermore, that glimpsing this historical transaction is key to understanding Hawaiian history and food.However, this fictional portrayal of a nascent moment of culinary sharing creates a representation of cross-cultural food sharing while simultaneously privileging the Japanese contribution to this blended cuisine, reflecting a broader (and not un-problematic) cultural shift.

The Hawaii Cookbook and Backyard Luau
A year after the publication of Hawaiian Cuisine Elizabeth Ahn Toupin wrote a slim cookbook-Restaurant of the 5 Volcanos Cook Book-as a companion to the highly popular restaurant of the Hawaiian Pavilion at the 1964 New York World Fair.10Later, inspired by the success of the first volume, Toupin re-published an extended version of the text in 1967 as The Hawaii Cookbook and Backyard Luau.This text is a 216-page response to what Toupin describes as the insatiable popularity of Hawaiian food during the period.The introduction is written by popular author James Michener who explains -just as the islands are a tasty blend of many different peoples, so Island cooking is a blend of many different cuisines.This book tells you how to achieve that culinary balance‖ (10).Michener-as a white Quaker from Pennsylvania-is clearly acting as an intermediary between Toupin (as a Hawai'i-born, Korean American) and the potential white, mainland readers.His introduction, as do all introductions, works to authorize and validate the text; during this period, Michener is himself seen as an -expert‖ on the islands because of both his works of fiction (Tales of the South Pacific and Hawaii) but also because of his work on the international-political scene in postwar Japan (Voice of Asia).
Michener's introduction also explains his surprise at finding Hawaiian supermarkets stocked with everything a mainland store supplies as well as sections containing Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Portuguese, Hawaiian and Polynesian food.He is clearly awed by the diversity of foods offered in Hawaiian grocery stores, and seemingly charmed by the complexity of the food-consumption possibilities.Michener contextualizes the panoply of foods by briefly explaining the history of culinary blending as part of the food-history of the island, explaining that even Caucasian tables are commonly graced by Japanese and Chinese food.His final rhetorical move is to provide some background information on Toupin, and, in essence, to authorize her by noting that she was a) born in Hawai'i b) well educated (at Bennington college) c) experienced as a hostess in Washington D.C. where she worked for Senator Inouye, and finally, d) that -she has eaten in homes of every description in Hawaii‖ (1967: 10).

© Reproduced with kind permission of Elizabeth Ahn Toupin
Toupin follows Michener's introduction with a preface in which she explains that -‗Hawaiian cooking' can become a way of life for it opens the mind, and more important, the palate to different tastes, cooking techniques, to cultures and the people themselves‖ (1967: 13).However, Toupin does not stop with this brief gesture towards the practice of multi-cultural eating in Hawai'i, but proceeds to outline a history of immigration and colonization.She also describes the various foods brought by each of these immigrant groups adding: -local productspineapple, avocados, guavas, macademia nuts, bananas, passion fruitare incorporated into recipes‖ (1967: 17).It is important to note that this overview of the history of Hawai'i includes information about the decimation of the native Hawaiian population-introduced by the phrase -before the white man…‖-and furthermore makes specific mention of the history of intermarriage and Christianity as forces that impacted the culture of the Islands.She also provides specific details on the history of Asian migration, noting not only when and why migrants came to the Islands, but also making note of the regions from which the laborers came (1967: 15).This text is unique for these features, contributing a depth to the discussion of the history of Hawaiian food that contextualizes the cuisine in terms of (rather than in the absence of) the material history of colonization.
In contrast to Hawaiian Cuisine, Toupin's cookbook is organized by food events and geared towards entertaining.The chapters include -Hors d'oeuvres,‖ -Backyard Luau,‖ -Hawaiian Luau,‖ -Dinners with Menus,‖ and -Christmas in Hawaii.‖Occasion rather than racial/ethnic group coordinates the recipes found in each section.The -Backyard Luau‖ chapter includes a diverse range of recipes including -Guava Crisps,‖ -Hawaiian Namasu,‖ -Joan's Polynesian Ham Loaf,‖ and -Lichee Chicken Salad,‖ all suggested components of a backyard gathering (1967: 82-84).Recipes in this text also include parenthetical discussion of non-English words, although they are used by Toupin to explain rather than translate the dish and its ethnic origins.For instance, under a recipe for -Sushi‖ Toupin writes in parenthesis -Japanese Rice with Vinegar Sauce‖ (1967: 77).On other occasions she simply uses the parenthesis to provide an alternate name for this dish: e.g.-Sukiyaki‖ is also listed as -Hekka‖ but neither term is given added explanation.Toupin's use of the parenthetical offers to explain the recipes in a way that informs but does not simplify.Toupin is lauded-on the dust jacket text-for her thoroughness, where it is explained that -Mrs.Toupin not only tells us that Daikon is a long white radish sold in Oriental grocery stores, but goes on to explain what it is used for, and how, and its essential properties and flavor‖ (dustjacket).
The last two sections of Toupin's cookbook are a glossary of food terms and a comprehensive list of U.S.-based -Oriental‖ grocery stores where some of the more -unusual‖ food can be ordered by mail.Toupin's focus on entertaining is more explicit than in other cookbooks written by locals during this period.In some ways this feature makes the text more like Better Homes and Gardens and Betty Crocker cookbooks and their representation of Hawaiian-food-as-luau.However, there is a very different methodology at work; whereas the popular cookbooks are geared towards simple, easy luaus, Toupin's text interpellates a gourmand-reader interested in purchasing the right ingredients and making more-complex dishes that require longer preparation.
The -balance‖ implored by Michener's introduction perhaps resists the well-worn metaphor of the -melting pot‖ and, instead, implies a recognition of distinct cultural groups with their own particular histories.Indeed, the historical specificity with which Toupin treats the history of migration that led to the twentieth century demographics of the Hawaiian Islands is a very compelling aspect of this text.The preface to Toupin's text begins with the earliest settlers (Tahitians and Polynesians, 300BC), and walks the reader through -discovery‖ by James Cook, the development of a plantation economy, and the migration of laborers from Asia and Portugal, and therefore makes an important intervention in the limited representations of Hawaiian food being created in 1960s cookbooks.

The work of autoethnography: the Cold War cookbook paradigm
The important work being done in these two cookbooks-work that articulates the cultural and migration histories of the ethnic groups of Hawai'i-redresses the slipshod representations made in mainland cookbooks where -Hawai'i ‖ is often represented as a vague amalgam of -oriental‖ culture.And it is in this way that these texts can be read in terms of what Mary Louise Pratt refers to as an autoethnography-texts that undertake to correct, through self-representation, the portrayals others have made.These cookbooks, written and promoted by people born in Hawai'i, carefully and painstakingly revise the evacuated understanding of Hawai'i and Hawaiian food constructed in other textual productions.
At the same time, the cookbooks are also working to make known a territory and its population which, in many ways, remained a foreign other to the mainland for many decades.Suspicion and distrust of Asia and the Pacific was a strong force in Cold War American culture.Amidst multiple wars in Asia (World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam), and during a period of intensified fear of the spread of communism and the threat of communist China, the work undertaken in these cookbooks offers an integrity and accuracy overlooked in other texts.
I would like to return to the fictional scene in which Kalani and Satosan enjoy nori together, thus inaugurating the cultural blending that is -Hawaiian food.‖As a cultural critic who works on cookbooks and food, I continue to be wary of arguments-such as that made in Donna Gabaccia's We Are What We Eat (2000)-that suggest the inherent transformative power of cross-cultural eating.This is to say that I am suspect of the generalized notion that eating food of another culture is inherently multi-cultural and politically transformative.There is something particularly American-and highly dangerous-about the desire to consume another culture.However, I think that, when considering the particularities of Hawai'i and the deep and complex ethnic and racial histories that converge in the space of the Islands, it is important to consider the role that food may have played in constructing the 50 th state.Within Hawaiian Cuisine and Hawaii Cookbook the history of multi-cultural eating takes on a nuanced and layered significance attentive to the racial, ethnic, and class factors attendant to this complex history.
In a recent email, Elizabeth Toupin described to me what she sees as the power of the Island's history of multi-ethnic eating as more than just the sharing of food.She explains: Food had always been part of the cultural and daily exchange between the various peoples of Hawaii [...] Remember, in their homelands, the Chinese were enemies of the Japanese, the Koreans the same, but thrown together in the plantation communities, they learned to like each other's food.A classic would be the much hated Portuguese lunas (supervisors who rode horses and carried whips in the plantations to keep the laborers in line), everyone loved their sweet bread and sausage, and thus, accepted them on a certain level outside their plantation roles.
Toupin is clearly not overlooking the real violence of racial hierarchy imparted by the European immigrants hired to supervise Asian settler and Native Hawaiian labor.Toupin's suggestion is that food worked as an arbiter of racial and class difference and, ultimately, laid the groundwork for acceptance -outside of their plantation roles.‖Albeit clichéd, the importance of food-sharing has deep significance to understanding the historical and cultural contexts of foodways in Hawai'i.
Reading Hawaiian Cuisine and Hawaii Cookbook as autoethnographic texts allows for an understanding of cookbook writing as a continuation of the grassroots activism and the claim to racial equality made by Inouye and Toupin in the 1940s.Through the delineation of specific food traditions (Hawaiian Cuisine) and the careful discussion of the history of immigration (The Hawaii Cookbook and Backyard Luau) these cookbooks make visible the cultural and social histories of Hawai'i previously rendered invisible by over-simplified mainland representations.In doing so these texts take up the claim for (state and individual subjects') full representation within the nation and make visible the specific material histories of the people of Hawai'i.While resisting the oversimplification in which many texts of the period indulge, these cookbooks simultaneously impose a new narrative-one no less challenged by the forces of hegemony, privilege and power-that revises the twentieth century understanding of -the 50 th State‖.