Haohaka Musubis [Grilled]

The sound of rocks clinging against one another, The smell of smoke starts to be seen from a distance, and a fire is lit. Spam is turned over one by one as it appears there's both a dusting of seasonings and a sheen of a glaze. The fire grows hotter and the meat begins to be chopped with more salt added for a deeper flavor to contrast the rice. This sort of aroma is familiar of family gatherings and is at its most basic the smell of the flame. It is as ancient as it is modern a cooking method ever. To describe such a dish is to have a chunk of meat that is also easy to bite into, the most excellent savory rice, and a person with big hand serving it to make sure portions don't miss.

The Musubi maker can add things to enhance the flavor such as caramelized onions, crunchy grilled green onion, mayonnaise. There's something addictive about it that eating one is simply not enough, so two is what many desire. It tastes like the farm, it tastes like home, it tastes like friends getting together on Sunday. There are some who see it as the king of musubis as it knows its way with fire like a canoe navigator works its way with the Stars. The haohaka grilled meat Musubi is one that lives in the countryside. There are people who used to live on the farms who had to move different places but they take their recipes with them. To find the origins of such a Mississippi, it's to look back at the recipes of grilled meats from those who loaded cows onto boats for export. 

It isn't so easy to get a hold of because it's with the farmers and the ranchers, the paniolo family ties of the past. The ranch was able to make some of the best calves that were fatty and well fed, so much so that the quality of beef would be desired elsewhere for a much higher price. It's a taste of the beef from Hawaii. Ranches has a distinct taste on each island and it is a magical process of life that the ranchers get to see right before their eyes. The recipes might be very old, but eating things like the prime rib, short rib, rin eye, and chuck steak just to name a few where some of the desired cuts that would be cut thin. The skills to cut meat would come from being raised with butchery throughout a lifetime. As something special, but something necessary to help the family eat.

Either working on a ranch, or feeding families with old recipes, it has to do with following traditions. Having a passion of the food, respect for the animal, and treating the meat correctly is about seeing what's beautiful about the ingredient. Being on an island, many of these traditions overlapped and those who can cut an entire animal on four legs can do the same to many animals of the sea. The difference is that when the meat is hanging by hooks and is being cut to portion out what is going to be used, the fish is placed on its side being cut into sections horizontally instead of vertically. It's all about understanding the bones, the old bones of the species, and their ancestors.

When people had a relationship with their butcher, they were able to have many cuts and with that many dishes. When that relationship moved from farm to supermarket, that relationship was not as common. And as the butcher has disappeared from sight, so has that relationship. In the case of the community around grilled meats the selection has become more rare, as people have used them less. This has made certain meats or most meats way more expensive and less desirable meat experimented with more, because of the limits of one people can afford. And it still has to feed the whole family and be on a plate for them to eat.

The things that draw people to this sort of taste. It's the flavor of the charcoal that taste of the old world. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that they could eat it everyday if they could. When they see the food that is being grilled they know what they have come for a juicy smoky something or another. However, it is not easy to find places that do this and when people want it they usually have to make it themselves. But the power that it has over Americans because of their taste for grilled meats makes it ever more attractive. And they would have it no other way, but to stick a juicy, tasty, salty, Smoky Musubi in their mouth. Even if they are afraid of things like spam, they will try it just for the sensation that they know will be coming for them, when it is grilled, when it is well seasoned, when it is served.

Even though that this sort of thing comes from families that long ago came from ranches, when those of younger blood try to fill the void of the old-time recipes, they get pushed back. Each place around Hawaii has its own culture around Musubi, so if someone really likes something for whatever reason, they are left in a place to defend it. A sauteed spam is authentic and that a grilled spam is not, but to the family that is filling that void it is authentic to them. One of the flavors that are part of making things full again is the importance of the rice. 

Anytime that people are having a meal with rice it has to be made, so there are countless times people in Hawaii have made rice. There is freshly steamed rice and then there is rice that is made with liquid that has been seasoned. It's well as with the leftovers of making use of a whole animal and that's about respecting it, the bones, little bits of meat that still taste good, they get put into a liquid. Even rice that has been using a flavored liquid is really valuable as it makes people question more parts of the dish as well as a curiosity to learn more about the animal. Water, salt, fat, bones, seasoning mixed together, cooked for a bit with effort. A battle of History is a battle of survival, thus the Battle of a dish of making it better and doing more with it and having it be seen is also a matter of survival.

A grandfather feeds grandchildren and their grandchildren continue as it is their particular family's tradition from their part of Hawaii. When this is done there are dishes that naturally make their way into other people's hands as it is natural, when the animals eat well so do the people. The pigs have all that is needed to make a sausage, a luncheon meat, or more. The idea of mixed meats is something more modern, but it continues to feed the families that take care of the animals. And in that way, the animal and the soul connect over the respect over the dish. 

Appreciating the dish has a lot to do with being okay that others have it, being able to let go, allowing them to taste it and then share it. When people are together it is celebrating the dish, They're celebrating the animal as well. There is not one without the other, both eating and celebrating, both happen at the same time. Part of that is also treating. The whole animal is something to be respected where there isn't a lesser meat or a more expensive meat, but to understand that there is just meat.

This isn't even just an idea of respecting the meat, because if things went vegetarian it's about using the vegetable… sort of a use everything philosophy that makes it so that nothing goes to waste and everything is respected at the same time. Respecting a vegetable is no different as using the green portions of the carrot top is as important as the orange flesh. As the world uses more ingredients, there is many more things to explore and many more things to look at. By taking a closer look at it and learning about an ingredient is about respecting it. 

For some people it would just be a musubi. But to those who look at the power of the flame and the the tool of the grill to instill the taste of charcoal with a animal that has given itself to be eaten. It is much more than just that. So when understanding the way things are cooked it has to have a balance of the fat and a balance of the meat. When people start to use oils that allow for the long hours of cooking of a flame or the fat that is on the meat that slowly goes into the flame and back into the meat, it is full of flavor. As people continue to respect, cook, and practice their own family's traditions of grilling things and understanding what they are grilling the style can only become better then it was yesterday.

While it might not be something that's always seen, those who are gathering in the night time with a hibachi will definitely see it. The Grilled musubi begins in people's garages, and some of the best places are hole in the walls, but if you're lucky, the monopula man might have some too. When you take a look at when people eat it, the food really is a social food, a people's food. It can be easy to say that it is a foreigner's best friend, but all sorts of people come to eat it and it isn't exclusive to anyone.

It only takes a grill, a place to slice the meat, a place for the smoke to go, and a hungry appetite. Oftentimes it isn't a place that you can just drive to and have access to a grilled musubi at any times, but sometimes you just have to have the luck to encounter one. Then there's the way most people can get it is by going to either a friend or a store and getting a nice cut of meat and knowing how to work it, shape it, and make a sauce from its fats.

When there's someone who works the hibachi girl it can be a chance for them to stand out, but for some they use it as a chant to get away. Grilled musubi can be as social or unsocial as someone wanted to be as long as they are the one cooking it. When it goes to the world of the unsocial it is usually due to being deep into the art of grilling. It becomes a formal affair with having pride in cooking the meat, sprinkling the seasoning, and perfectly grinding. When people are cooking like this, it is a reflection of their years of doing it or their sheer passion that they instill into the dish.

While there is definitely an attraction to grilled mixed meats, the closer you get to the places the animals roam you will see a wider variety. The first time people have pork ribs that have been ground and shaped as they cook on the grill gives off a familiar smell. Keiko prefer it is described as a boneless rib and it is usually accompanied with some sort of teriyaki, sweet and sour, or savory spicy garlic sauce. At that point in the evening is when the musician has most likely finished eating and begins to play their ukulele singing with their family.