The History of Hawaii, Told in Plate Lunches

Hipster historian/author/NPR voice/Violet from The Incredibles Sarah Vowell has a new book, Unfamiliar Fishes, that hits bookstores March 22. The book explores the history of Hawaii, which Vowell previews in a trailer (since when do books have trailers?), filled with slides of Hawaiian plate lunches.

What's a plate lunch? "The plate lunch would be the national dish of Hawaii, if, in fact, Hawaii were still a nation," Vowell explains before describing the combo of two scoops of rice, macaroni salad, and South Pacific-style protein.

Watch and learn about the history of the 50th state via the most artistic state food in the country.

For starters, here's a haunting ode to the plate lunch by a pale multi-instrumentalist. Despite the six-minute song, he doesn't share any plate-lunch visuals until the end. And then it's more like a Styrofoam box lunch. Catchy, but disappointing.

Porn star Chanel Preston explains plate lunches. And it's not a euphemism.



A cockatoo frozen in 1999 sings the praises of plate lunch to the tune of "Mambo No. 5".



Drunks love the loco moco plate lunch! Loco moco is Polynesian for "slinger."