Our family just returned from vacation in Maui, where we enjoyed snorkeling alongside of Honu (sea turtles), a variety of field trips and a familiar item from home- California rice.
Walk into a Long’s Drugs and you immediately see stacks of Diamond G and Hinode Rice. Big bags too, not the two-pounders I often see in my local Safeway.
One of our favorite dining places is Kimo’s in Lahaina. I took two runs at the Broke da Mouth lunch plate, which featured a generous portion of Hinode rice.
A short walk along the beach from our condo led us to the Gazebo Restaurant for a half order of fried rice. Featuring Portuguese sausage, egg, veggies and Fukesake brand rice, this behemoth of a dish kept me fed for three glorious meals.
We had a terrific day trip to the island of Lanai. After the ferry ride and some time on the beach I had a powerful hunger. We fixed that problem in grand style with this Teriyaki chicken plate complete with Homai rice at the Blue Ginger Café.
It turns out that rice figures prominently in California-Hawaii trade. Ryan Malm, Manager of Consumer Products for Farmers’ Rice Cooperative was kind enough to provide background. As Ryan explains it, with the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 we agreed to remove import duties on sugarcane from Hawaii and in turn they gave us Pearl Harbor, as well as duty-free access to their rice market. Until that time Hawaii, along with many of their Japanese immigrants, grew quite a lot of their own rice in abandoned taro fields. The Japanese influence can also be credited with why the local Hawaiians favor Calrose/sticky rice versus other varieties that may have been available at the time.
Ryan describes Hawaii as a unique California rice market. In general, most of the mills in California sell a high percentage of their business to ethnic distributors in private label bags. However, grocery stores in Hawaii have always had such high demand that they’ve been able to purchase full containers of rice directly from the mill for years. Because of this, it’s one of the few markets where California Rice mills can sell and focus on promoting their own in-house brands. It doesn’t compare to the large volume of rice shipped to places like Japan and South Korea, but it’s a high rice consuming market per capita.
It was great to see this little bit of home on so many menus during our vacation. If we’re lucky, perhaps our family will head to more exotic locations where California rice enjoys widespread popularity!
Jim Morris is Communications Manager for the California Rice Commission. Jim has worked in communications for more than 20 years. When he’s not on the job, he enjoys his family, faith, football, outrageous monster stories and running marathon
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