Saimin - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Saimin is a noodle soup

Noodle soup

Noodle soup refers to a variety of soups with noodles and other ingredients served in a light broth. Noodle soup is an East and Southeast Asian staple. Less well known, a form of fresh noodle is used in soup in certain parts of Europe , and in northern China; usually, it is served for breakfast...

dish unique to Hawaii

Hawaii

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

. Inspired by Japanese udon

Udon

is a type of thick wheat-flour noodle of Japanese cuisine.Udon is usually served hot as noodle soup in its simplest form as kake udon, in a mildly flavoured broth called kakejiru which is made of dashi, soy sauce , and mirin. It is usually topped with thinly chopped scallions...

, Chinese

Chinese cuisine

Chinese cuisine is any of several styles originating in the regions of China, some of which have become highly popular in other parts of the world – from Asia to the Americas, Australia, Western Europe and Southern Africa...

mein, and Filipino

Cuisine of the Philippines

Philippine cuisine consists of the food, preparation methods and eating customs found in the Philippines. The style of cooking and the food associated with it have evolved over several centuries from its Austronesian origins to a mixed cuisine with many Hispanic, Chinese, American, and other Asian...

pancit

Pancit

Pancit or pansit is the term for noodles in Filipino cuisine. Noodles were introduced into the Philippines by the Chinese and have since been adopted into local cuisine. The term pancit is derived from the Hokkien pian i sit which means "something conveniently cooked fast." Different kinds of...

, saimin was developed during Hawaii's plantation era

Territory of Hawaii

The Territory of Hawaii or Hawaii Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 7, 1898, until August 21, 1959, when its territory, with the exception of Johnston Atoll, was admitted to the Union as the fiftieth U.S. state, the State of Hawaii.The U.S...

. It is a soup

Soup

Soup is a generally warm food that is made by combining ingredients such as meat and vegetables with stock, juice, water, or another liquid. Hot soups are additionally characterized by boiling solid ingredients in liquids in a pot until the flavors are extracted, forming a broth.Traditionally,...

dish of soft wheat egg noodles served in hot dashi
Dashi
Dashi is a class of soup and cooking stock, considered fundamental to Japanese cooking. In 1980, Shizuo Tsuji wrote: "Many substitutes for dashi are possible, but without dashi, dishes are merely à la japonaise and lack the authentic flavor." Dashi forms the base for miso soup, clear broth, noodle...

garnished with green onions. Kamaboko
Kamaboko
is a type of cured surimi, a Japanese processed seafood product, in which various white fish are pureed, combined with additives such as MSG, formed into distinctive loaves, and then steamed until fully cooked and firm. The steamed loaves are then sliced and served unheated with various dipping...

, Char siu
Char siu
Char siu , otherwise known as barbecued meat in China or Chinese-flavored barbecued meat outside China, is a popular way to flavor and prepare pork in Cantonese cuisine. It is classified as a type of siu mei, Cantonese roasted meat...

, sliced Spam

Spam (food)

Spam is a canned precooked meat product made by the Hormel Foods Corporation, first introduced in 1937. The labeled ingredients in the classic variety of Spam are chopped pork shoulder meat, with ham meat added, salt, water, modified potato starch as a binder, and sodium nitrite as a preservative...

, linguiça
Linguiça
Linguiça is a form of Portuguese smoke cured pork sausage seasoned with garlic and paprika.Outside of Portugal, Azores and Brazil, linguiça is also popular in Goa , Southeastern Massachusetts, Massachusetts' North Shore, California, Rhode Island, Hawaii, and Okinawa, where it is often simply...

, and nori
Nori
is the Japanese name for various edible seaweed species of the red alga Porphyra including most notably P. yezoensis and P. tenera, sometimes called laver. Finished products are made by a shredding and rack-drying process that resembles papermaking...

may be added, among other additions.

Japanese pot stickers, called gyoza, as well as Chinese wonton
Wonton
Not to be confused with WantonA wonton is a type of dumpling commonly found in a number of Chinese cuisines.-Filling:...

, may be substituted for or added to the dish's noodles for special occasions. A pan-fried version, primarily inspired by Filipino pancit, is also popular, especially at carnivals, fairgrounds, and catered parties.

History

Saimin is a compound of two Chinese words : (pinyin

Pinyin

Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...

: xì, jyutping

Jyutping

Jyutping is a romanization system for Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong in 1993. Its formal name is The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanization Scheme...

: sai³), meaning thin, and (miàn, min⁶), meaning noodle. Saimin is recognized as a traditional state dish in Hawaii, taking into consideration the various historic and cultural significances of its creation. The dish is composed of elements taken from each of the original sugarcane

Sugarcane

Sugarcane refers to any of six to 37 species of tall perennial grasses of the genus Saccharum . Native to the warm temperate to tropical regions of South Asia, they have stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in sugar, and measure two to six metres tall...

and pineapple

Pineapple

Pineapple is the common name for a tropical plant and its edible fruit, which is actually a multiple fruit consisting of coalesced berries. It was given the name pineapple due to its resemblance to a pine cone. The pineapple is by far the most economically important plant in the Bromeliaceae...

plantation

Plantation

A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...

laborer ethnicities of the early 20th century: Chinese

Chinese American

Chinese Americans represent Americans of Chinese descent. Chinese Americans constitute one group of overseas Chinese and also a subgroup of East Asian Americans, which is further a subgroup of Asian Americans...

, Filipino

Filipino American

Filipino Americans are Americans of Filipino ancestry. Filipino Americans, often shortened to "Fil-Ams", or "Pinoy",Filipinos in what is now the United States were first documented in the 16th century, with small settlements beginning in the 18th century...

, Japanese

Japanese American

are American people of Japanese heritage. Japanese Americans have historically been among the three largest Asian American communities, but in recent decades have become the sixth largest group at roughly 1,204,205, including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity...

, Korean

Korean American

Korean Americans are Americans of Korean descent, mostly from South Korea, with a small minority from North Korea...

, Hawaiian

Native Hawaiians

Native Hawaiians refers to the indigenous Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands or their descendants. Native Hawaiians trace their ancestry back to the original Polynesian settlers of Hawaii.According to the U.S...

, Portuguese

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

.

As plantation laborers returned from the fields communal meals were informally prepared. It is believed that in some occasions a Filipino family may have had extra green onions

Scallion

Scallions , are the edible plants of various Allium species, all of which are "onion-like", having hollow green leaves and lacking a fully developed root bulb.-Etymology:The words...

growing in their yard, the Portuguese some sausage, the Hawaiian a couple extra eggs, and the Korean some cabbage left over from making kimchi

Kimchi

Kimchi , also spelled gimchi, kimchee, or kim chee, is a traditional fermented Korean dish made of vegetables with varied seasonings. There are hundreds of varieties of kimchi made with a main vegetable ingredient such as napa cabbage, radish, green onions or cucumber. It is the most common...

. At this point they would all throw their ingredients into the pot and share. It may be through these communal meals that saimin was born.

Popularization

Saimin was first popularized as a fast food dish at Honolulu Stadium

Honolulu Stadium

Honolulu Stadium was a stadium located in the Moiliili district of Honolulu, Hawai'i, at the corner of King and Isenberg Streets. It was opened in 1926 and demolished in 1976. It was the primary sports venue in Hawai'i preceding Aloha Stadium. Famous athletes who competed in Honolulu Stadium...

. It is served at all sporting venues alongside hot dogs and hamburgers, at popular national fast food

Fast food

Fast food is the term given to food that can be prepared and served very quickly. While any meal with low preparation time can be considered to be fast food, typically the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store with preheated or precooked ingredients, and served to the customer in a...

chains, and restaurants throughout the islands. A healthy alternative to most school meals, several public schools offer saimin as a regular option for students.

Historic saimin establishments

Several saimin establishments including saimin noodle factories and restaurants have become local landmarks in Hawaii and have attracted out-of-state visitors who have ventured off the traditional tourist beaten paths. Many of these establishments have been officially designated by the State of Hawaii

Hawaii

as places of historic interest. Among such establishments are Likelike Drive Inn and Washington Saimin on Oahu, and Hamura's Saimin on Kauai.

McDonald's saimin

McDonald's

McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...

, an American fast-food giant based in Oak Brook, Illinois

Oak Brook, Illinois

Oak Brook is a village in DuPage and Cook Counties, in Illinois. The population was 8,702 at the 2000 census. A suburb of Chicago, it is the headquarters of McDonald's and Lions Clubs International.-History:...

, became aware of the saimin phenomenon in the islands in the late 1960s. Maurice J. Sullivan, legendary Hawaii entrepreneur

Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...

and owner of Foodland Super Market Limited

Foodland Hawaii

"Foodland" is the name of an American supermarket chain, headquartered in Honolulu, Hawaii. Foodland operates 31 stores throughout the state of Hawaii under the "Foodland," "Foodland Farms," and "Sack 'N Save" names. "Food, Family & Friends" is their current slogan...

, had purchased and opened the first McDonald's restaurant in Hawaii in 1968 at his flagship grocery store. He opened several more McDonald's franchises and for 12 straight months, McDonald's Hawaii became the highest grossing group of franchises in the world. Sullivan wanted to serve his favorite meal at his McDonald's restaurants, saimin, knowing all too well that his restaurants would boom with its introduction to the menu.

Sullivan invited executives from McDonald's corporation, including owner business tycoon Ray Kroc

Ray Kroc

Raymond Albert "Ray" Kroc was an American fast food businessman who joined McDonald's in 1954 and built it into the most successful fast food operation in the world. Kroc was included in Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century, and amassed a fortune during his lifetime...

, for dinner at two family-owned, "hole-in-the-wall" saimin stands in Honolulu. They ate at Washington Saimin and Boulevard Saimin. That night, Sullivan convinced Kroc to expand McDonald's menu for the first time in its corporate history to include a local "ethnic" food. Researchers worked extensively with Washington Saimin to develop a recipe for McDonald's Hawaii. Sullivan secured deals with a local saimin noodle factory, fishcake supplier and a Japanese company, Ajinomoto

Ajinomoto

Ajinomoto Co. Inc. , is a Japanese food and chemical corporation which produces seasonings, cooking oils, TV dinners, sweeteners, amino acids and pharmaceuticals...

, to manufacture a special soup base.

Saimin is today one of McDonald's Hawaii restaurant's most popular menu items. Later, Sullivan introduced the breakfast platters of Portuguese sausage, eggs and steamed white rice; Spam, eggs and rice; and a Breakfast deluxe, a combination of the two, to his menu, capitalizing on more local food phenomena.

Sources

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.