January 30, 2026

Mark Twain wrote of Hawaii, “It’s the only supremely delightful place on Earth,” and travelers lucky enough to visit the spectacular Kona Coast will undoubtedly agree.

Kona is a tender port, which means that the ship does not dock at a pier but passengers take a “tender” (those small boats you see hanging on the side of cruise ships) that deliver about 90 passengers at a time to the shore. Tender ports are great ports just to explore because you are usually left right in the middle of town and can immediately engross yourself in the local culture.

Like one of my favorite commentators of all time, Anthony Bourdain, I decided to find out what the food of Kona could tell me about it’s people.

The Hawaiian staff of life is Poi made from cooked taro, pounded until smooth and thinned with water. The very first restaurant you see after walking off the pier is Da Poke Shack. The most traditional way to eat Poi is to get it to go with a variety of fish and eat it by the beach watching the waves crash against the shore. The thing I liked most was the honesty of the owners apologizing for the rising costs.

When you order a “shave ice” in Hawaii, you’ll get a snowball in a cone-shaped cup. The most popular flavor is rainbow, which is multi-flavored and leaves your tongue brightly colored. A more modern version is a scoop of vanilla ice cream or sweetened azuki beans added to the bottom and topped with creamy condensed milk. But the “traditionists” stick with the old fashioned style shaved ice smothered in the most sweet sugary syrup. Since I have eliminated sugar from my diet, I did not partake, but decided to investigate for the sake of this blog.

This is not a difficult recipe. You take shaved ice pore multiple flavors of syrup on it at the customers request. What amazed me was the size of these concoctions. The sample sizes on the counter went from baseball size to soccer size to basketball size. The most popular-Basketball Size!

And we can not forget Spam! The canned meat was originally introduced to the islands by American servicemen, and today, Hawaiians are the second-largest consumers of Spam in the world. A popular item on restaurant menus, Spam musubi is even served at sushi bars.

Do you know who the #1 consumer of Spam is in the world?

This answer I know a little bit about.

It’s South Korea.

South Koreans consume more Spam than any other country per capita, and it’s a very popular and culturally significant food there. Why? After the Korean War, food was scarce. U.S. military bases were suddenly everywhere, and canned foods like Spam came from U.S. army rations and base leftovers and surplus. For many Koreans, Spam wasn’t “junk food” – it was one of the few reliable sources of protein at the time.

A popular Korean dish Budae-jjigae turned survival food into culture. Budae-jjigae literally means “army base stew.” It mixes Spam, hot dogs, kimchi, Gochujand and ramen noodles. What started as a necessity became a beloved comfort food. Today it’s nostalgic, indulgent, and intentionally retro. Another reason spam is so popular is that spam plays really well with Korean flavors. It pairs with kimchi, eggs, ramen and stews. It is salty and savory, great with rice. And it crisps beautifully in a pan. It slides into Korean home cooking without feeling foreign.

For older generations it represents survival, rebuilding and resilience. For younger generations it’s comfort food, late night meals and nostalgia. It is so popular it is often gift-boxed and shows up in holiday gift sets.

To be clear not all Koreans like or eat spam. My wife, Chongae, being one of them!

Before we leave Hawaii let me tell you about the lei. The traditional Hawaiian welcome is to place a lei, a fragrant wreath of flowers, around a visitor’s neck. In ancient times, leis were reserved for royalty, but during WWII a local female entertainer gave a lei and a kiss to a handsome officer on a dare, proclaiming it the local custom-which it has been ever since. Aloha means both ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ in the Hawaiian language, and it is the sweetest word you’ll hear. When you leave, it is traditional to throw the flowers of your lei into the ocean. If the blooms wash back to shore, you are destined to return to this beloved island.

Aloha from Hawaii.

Thanks for traveling with us.