-The word pupu comes from
eating pupu shells that you would go and forage
on the shorelines of Hawaii. ♪♪ So you would eat that pupu
shell, kind of eat from it. Eventually, it kind of
translated into things that you could fit into a shell
or a small little bite to eat. ♪♪ Hello. Hi, everyone.
Sheldon Simeon here, chef/owner of
Tin Roof Restaurant and author of
Cook Real Hawaii. We are going to be talking
about pupus today. Those small little bites
that you see at parties, family gatherings or at the Chinese restaurant
down the street. But we're going to dive
deep into it and what it means
for pupus in Hawaii. So, we're going to be doing
three different recipes today. The first one we're going to be
talking about is pipikaula. So pipikaula translates --
pipi, cattle, beef or cow. Kaula means rope. Being that it's flank steak, you can see the way
the grain is going. We're going to pull that off,
and that's going to resemble kaula -- rope. Now, the Hawaiians,
they brought with them as they traveled across
the Pacific Ocean. These different types of fruits,
vegetables. cattle didn't come
till later on, when Captain George Vancouver gifted King Kamehameha
a few heads of cow. So Kamehameha first called on the Spanish cowboys from Mexico. They came over 40 years later
to teach the Hawaiians how to herd up these cattle. With that, they brought
their culture from Mexico. The pipikaula was actually
started by salting up the beef. ♪♪ Then these cowboys would tie it
onto their saddles, and as they're rounding up
the different herds, by the time they got into
the mountain -- to the mountains, it would be
dried, and then fill them up for the rest of the drive. So as the years have gone by, the Hawaiian cuisine
kind of evolved with whatever immigrants
that came to Hawaii, one of them being nioi,
the Hawaiian chili, introduced by
Spanish horticulturist Don Francisco de Marin. Very similar to Thai
Bird Chilis -- hot as hell, a little bit spicier
than a habanero, a ton of flavor, and brought
spice to the Hawaiian cuisine. We're going to make a sauce
that I call kudish, which is a Portuguese term
of, like, "ay caramba" or like, "Wow."
Kudish -- Hawaiian chilies. Boom. We've got some salt,
some sugar, and then some vinegar. Put this in the blender.
Get it all mixed together. ♪♪ Pop the top. What you have is this beautiful
Hawaiian chili pepper paste. I'm going to take
some soy sauce, pour that over the beef. ♪♪ Add a ton more salt. ♪♪ Smear our Hawaiian chili
on top of it. Now imagine strips of these
riding up alongside your horse. The Hawaiians would
put this in the sun or drying it in a covered box. We'll get this on a rack,
put it in the oven, and mimic the warmness
of the Hawaiian Sun. So I'm going to pull
the pipikaula out. It's been going for
a few hours now, slowly drying,
concentrating those flavors as if they're out
on the Hawaiian range. The reason why we use flank
steak is because of the grain. We pull it apart and it starts to resemble
rope, like this. In the Simeon household,
we're known for heavy pupus. You come into my party,
you come into my house for dinner, there is going to be
a spread of food, whether it's poke, there might
be some boiled peanuts in there, kamaboko dips, all of that. Pipikaula is not
typically something that you would see
in a big spread like that. The paniolos needed a way
to preserve their meat, so this is more like a snack. Also in the category of pupus, just think of these Hawaiians
on the range, you know. They needed something
to keep them going, to keep them rounding up
this cattle, and this was a perfect way
to keep them fueled up. In this one recipe, you see the different moments
in time of Hawaii and the ingredients
that was introduced. It all starts to come together
in the food of Hawaii. Onto another pupu. Now this recipe, sakura boshi, is rooted in
the Japanese culture -- dried fish that is a hint of
salty, sweet, and chewy. Here we have a beautiful
piece of ahi tuna. We're going to make
the marinade first. Japanese had two moments
of immigration to Hawaii. One, the most prominent,
Japanese people came to work
on the sugarcane plantations. Another form of immigration
from Japan and influence to Hawaii
was Japanese fishermen. They brought these delicious,
delicious recipes, and sakura boshi was a
different way to preserve fish. I take a little bit of
ginger -- that's going
to perfume everything and be the base
and aroma of this dish. ♪♪ Then we're going to take
some equal parts of shoyu -- It's amazing -- in Hawaii,
everyone calls it shoyu. That is the Japanese influence. I don't even know
it was soy sauce until the later years
of my life. I'm going to take
a little bit of cola -- again, the same,
equal amounts of it. So the use of cola, that's just
one of those mottos in Hawaii, is you use what get,
as they would say -- use what is in front of you. We're going to slice up our ahi. Now, pupus can come
in two forms, heavy or light. There's nothing better than
when you're invited to a party and on the invitation, the words
"heavy pupus" is on there. You know you're in
for a feast. ♪♪ Now, one of
the main attractions where pupus is showcased
the most is at your son's or your daughter's
first birthday party. Back in the day,
it was something of a miracle, almost, to have your child
live to his first years, and it was something
that was celebrated. Case in point,
my son's birthday party. We had a pupu spread
of 17 different choices. We cooked for a whole week
straight. We live for that. One of the highest things
that I take to heart and I adore the most is
when I get asked to cook for someone's
first birthday party. And then we'll put that
into our marinade. Going to lomi that together,
massage, lomi omo. One of the ways
that it's traditionally done, it's usually in a dehydrator
or out in the sun. We're going to just keep it nice
and simple and put it right
into this dehydrator. So now that our sakura boshi
has been drying in the electric Hawaiian sun,
we are going to pull them out. We're going to add a touch
of honey over the top of them, just to glaze it all like this. You just want to have
that balance between that saltiness
and the sweet. And that's what's amazing
about Hawaii cultures -- it naturally comes together.
You have these different flavors naturally fusing together --
salty, sweet, bitter, spicy. All of that, all into
one cuisine in the islands. Then we're going to take this, add a little bit of
sesame seeds. ♪♪ Salty, sweet ahi tuna candy. ♪♪ Last but not least, we are
going to do sardine pupu. It has one particular condiment,
though -- the spice of Hawaii --
chili pepper water. I've got some boiling water.
I'm going to add my Hawaiian salt. I'm going to cut up
my Hawaiian chilies. Every family, every chef
has their own way of making chili pepper water. This is very simple,
basic, classic way. A little bit of chili. Inside there, adding
a little bit of white vinegar. I love that I got to grow up
in a household that had different types
of chili pepper water. So my house was always, like,
the gathering spot, you know. Any type of, like, birthday
celebration or holidays or just beers
and pupus after work. Now you can imagine a table
of burly construction guys, some ranchers, you know,
some farmers, they would have their beer
in front of them and then a shot glass. But what they are doing
is actually taking shots of Hawaiian chili pepper water. I'm going to add some garlic. Go ahead and get them
right into the jar. Then I'm going to just top it
off with that salt water. That's going to be ready to use
as soon as that cools down. Of course, it's going to be
better after a day or two, or even the best after a week once everything
starts to break down. Moving on to one of my most
favorite things to eat in the world --
canned sardines. And I know a lot of you
have this in your culture. It's going to be sardines
and some onions, and I kid you not
just by technique alone, this thing is going to be ono. I'm going to take some onions -- get the sweetest kind
that you can find. You know, the culture
of tinned food in Hawaii came shortly after
World War II. When military rations became
a thing, that was in the normal life
of Hawaii. So I'm going to take this and slice it
as thin as possible. This is such a typical thing
that you would find in Hawaii -- the taking of canned goods
and adding a simple ingredient like onions or cabbage
to stretch it. And what I'm going to do
is put it into a bowl and I'm going to top that off
with some ice water. And what that's going to be
is like taking these onions to the spa, and it'll get all of
the negative feelings out of it because this dish is happy. These onions are happy.
They're meant to be sweet, like the love
that you find in your heart. And it's sitting in its ice bath
like that. We're going to top that off
onto our sardines. We're going to flavor this
with some garlic. Now, the word "pupu"
can be used loosely. Case in point, sardines pupu. It's just something that
I came up with that you needed something to eat
and have a snack, and then it became a hit. That idea of Hawaii,
of having things be so specific, you don't need it. You use what is in front of you. I'm going to put our garlic
in there. We're going to flavor this
with shoyu and vinegar. If you guessed it,
it is a form of adobo. That's how it goes. You start
to make these pupus, yes, it's not Hawaiian.
It might be Filipino. But I'm going to reach
for some gochugaru, which is Korean pepper flakes. Korean food in Hawaii --
another influence, another culture
that made Hawaii their home after their migration there because of
the sugarcane plantations. So I love using gochugaru
to flavor oils in, like, stir fries, and it's amazing
that I'm using Korean pepper that was always available
in a Filipino household. I'm just going to flavor
that a little bit of vinegar. ♪♪ Some shoyu. ♪♪ All right, sardines are done,
we're going to let that rest just for a second. I'm going to drain out our sweet
Kula Maui onions here. Take our sardines.
It's amazing, look -- something as simple
as sardines and onions have three different cultures
in it. It's all one cuisine.
It's Hawaii cuisine. I'm going to take some
of our onions. Take our chili pepper water and
add a little spice to it all. And why not kick things up
some lemon oil? Expand your mind of what pupus
can be, guys. Crab rangoons, take a back seat. So there you have it.
We went through some of my favorite pupus. I can't wait for you
guys to try. As you can see, pupus
is this range of deliciousness. If you start to tear away the layers
of the food of Hawaii, you see how it's
all been influenced by all these different cultures, all coming together, that makes
our food so special and so ono. Fish candy.
Does anybody got beer? No? Some beer. ♪♪ The oil that is flavored with... [ Laughing ] Sardine cologne, coming to
a shelf near you.
