What is a Hawaiian plate lunch?

A go-to meal for Hawaiians that’s both cheap and filling, it’s served at roadside stands, drive-ins, and hole-in-the-wall restaurants all over the state; think of it like a multicultural, island-influenced version of traditional Southern meat-and-three plates. It can include many different types of proteins but they are always flanked by mayonnaise-based macaroni salad and two scoops of white rice, making the Hawaiian plate lunch a serious carb-loading event.