Hawaiian Eggs

The working mans egg dish is a “Rolled Omelet” that is based on Tamagoyaki with dishes the specialize in it as well as it being found regularly as a dish of Hawaii Okazuya establishments, they are used to flavor rice raw or even fried, but the world of Hawaii Eggs are something that is a taste of the island. During the plantation times most cultures had the last night leftovers for breakfast and Hawaii Fried Rice would grow to have so many variations that would involve the use of eggs and a variety of rices that would go with it. People would cook these eggs in a special way because eggs were expensive at the Plantation General Store, so they would be in fried rice dishes. Eggs were essential to adding color to a dish after frying it up in a wok where many people would learn to do the whole process of hydration, steaming, and frying all in a wok in the rural areas of Hawaii that made it a sort of specialty if someone could make an assortment of fried rice. Eggs would be juicy with a subtle saltiness in the delicate flavor as it used either seafood or seaweed based powders, powdered broth, salt, or dashi to further flavor the eggs as a choice by the cook to make a specialty egg for all sorts of dishes, but especially Hawaii Rolled Omelet and Dashi Scrambled Eggs.

The color of the egg is determined usually by the color of the chicken, Brown chickens tend to lay brown eggs, and white chickens. Eggs are available in Hawaii in a range of sizes that used to depend on the breed of the chicken as there were different kinds. There were dishes that people remember using certain sizes of eggs for that they felt made it taste better: Huamoa Bowl (aka Hawaii Tama Bowl) use to use M-size eggs, Okazuya that offered Rolled Omelet favored L-size eggs, and Plate Lunch shops would really want the XL-size eggs for Loco Moco or even Bakers that would make confectionaries. The sizes have to do with Egg Packing House with the Egg Packing Machine that uses a suction device to grab on to the eggs and then the it goes to the Egg Washer where water goes over the eggs and then a Egg Crack Detector uses little tappers to see the sound differences to detect a broken egg. The Eggs then go through an egg infrared detection machine to find blood spots to get rid of those eggs that are automatically packed by machine by its particular size category. 

A Hawaiian family in Aiea would access the Kalauao Spring to make Pūnāwai Eggs (fresh water) that would be used for Eggs Benedict. The importance was the water was flavored with its own unique and delicate profile that would penetrate the eggs in either a soft-boiled or hard-boiled process that would not need any seasoning as the water's unique flavor gently goes across the tongue. The rice would be steamed with spring water sources or tap water that still had a particular flavor like Manoa Valley in the early 90s. As people left the plantations they would have more access to meats and eggs as they became more affordable and would eat soft boiled eggs on rice inspired by Japan’s Dish that was eaten for many years in Hawaii called tamago kake gohan (TKG). The variety of TKG Eggs would become popular as the egg producer OK Poultry in Waimanalo made it easy to eat raw-eggs without worry as they were able to make the flavor of a Japanese Egg in Hawaii when it was temporarily bought from a Japanese company, but the Kaneshiro Ohana got back their family business after the post-pandemic.