I’ve understood the concept of cultural appropriation but have never fully felt the effects of it until lately. Recently, I’ve been hyper-aware of items labeled “Hawaiian”. As many of you know, I am part Native Hawaiian on my dad’s side. I feel very connected to this part of my heritage and family. Although I was born in Hawai’i, my family moved to the mainland (Portland, Oregon) where my mom was born and grew up when I was young. I’ve always felt I’m “not Hawaiian enough” whenever I visited family or told people I am Hawaiian — because I look white and talk white. But that is a different blog post, and to be fair, I am hapa (half) Irish on my mom’s side.

Every time I see something “Hawaiian”, or labeled as such, I’m excited to find out more or try the product. I feel very strongly about supporting small businesses, especially local, woman owned or native Hawaiian owned.

There’s a grocery store near me that I love shopping at because the produce and prepared foods section are particularly good. I’m always looking for good fast snacks I can eat for lunch as I usually have breakfast and dinner planned out — but lunch often falls through the cracks. While perusing the prepared foods section, I came across “Hawaiian Macaroni Salad”. Now if you know anything about Hawaiian plate lunches, you know that mac salad is a MUST, and it’s simply made with mayo, macaroni noodles, carrot shreds and seasonings. Some people add in hardboiled eggs or potatoes, but those ingredients are hotly debated. Anyway, I was excited to have some mac salad in a small portion.

When I got home and dug into the salad, to my dismay — there were pineapple chunks IN. THE. MAC. SALAD. Ewwwwwww. As much as Hawaiians love mayo, I have never known anyone to put it on fruit. Mayo on fruit is something I’ve only seen mid-westerners do and I am definitely not a fan. Needless to say, I couldn’t eat the salad.

This got me thinking about all of the products labeled “Hawaiian” using that descriptor as a way to sell more products. A few months back I saw at Costco my favorite brand of chips Late July had a new flavor “Hawaiian Habañero”, according the the website: “Get ready for the perfect balance of sweet and tangy pineapple flavor with a kick of spicy habanero for the ultimate tropical heat experience of our new Late July Hawaiian Habanero.”

I do love me some spice (I make my own hot sauce), so I decided to try this new chip flavor. To tell you that I was underwhelmed would give it more credit than it’s worth. I found the flavor weirdly sweet and not really spicy. It was another “Hawaiian” disappointment.

I’ve never personally felt the impact of cultural appropriation until I tried these products. I understand that because of “Hawaiian” pizza — the only thing about the pizza being “Hawaiian” is the pineapple, that now everything with pineapple can be called or associated as “Hawaiian”. It would be like saying everything with a potato is “Irish”.

There is so much beauty in the flavors and multi-cultural food landscape that makes up Hawai’i, that narrowing it down to one fruit (not even an indigenous fruit) takes away from the actual things that make something “Hawaiian”.

If you’re looking for great products made in Hawai’i by Hawaiians, take a look at Mana Up, Hawai’i Made, Etsy, or Instagram for inspiration.