Saimin, noodles and soups with whatever is left stretches ingredients, especially in the case of Hawaii will feed many through its warmth and flavor. The soup is great for rainy days that are a bit colder in the winter or force yourself to drink a cold glass of water with ice from the heat of the bowl. The noodles will bring energy to the person with its slight chew and filling toppings that make sure the person eats well for the hard times ahead.
The recipe for Saimin started in the plantations, then moved to the snack like bowls as small take out, and lastly as a full meal in the popular form of straight soup. It further developed in its types with maui’s development of making a dipping soup and a thicker soup variation that evolved in several towns of oahu. With the basis of the types of saimin having its stage set the question of the contrasting flavors to mark significant differences in Saimin have never left the primary ideas of dried shrimp, dried shiitake, dried clams, dried bonito, and dried kombu, which were one part of the several parts of the recipe being the Dashi. The next stage being the Broth which in saimin is the bones of chicken and pork. The last stage would be the Seasonings which usually is ginger, salt and ajinomoto. Each saimin has its own characteristics based on its combination of broth, dashi, and seasoning that brings many a taste of home. The recipes came from family recipes that are passed down from word of mouth, since many people never wrote down the recipes. As many recipes it is almost without saying that the only recipes they wrote down were from the Television or the Newspaper, while all the other recipes were from experimenting in the kitchen. In Hawaii people always find any reason to talk story, meet up, chill around and have their things to talk about, and recipes were one of those things that could be apart of the overall arsenal of options to say if the topic came up. And in most cases the talk of recipes themselves wouldn’t come up unless it was brought to a family potluck and it was a hit and probably spread to other family members by word of mouth as a story. As many people name things as variations get more defined and contrasting recipes come out the typical bowl found at most restaurants is called Alaea Saimin if it follows the original recipe. From the Saimin Restaurants there are types of Alaea Saimin that has different dashis. The Alaea Saimins that are most known is the typical every day Shrimp Dashi that is all over the market. Then there is Shiros Saimin Havens Alaea Saimin that is based on a Clam Dashi that is supported by bonito and kelp. There are other variations of Alaea Saimin like a Beef Dashi in Wahiawa rumored to be from Shiges and a Mushroom Dashi that stories lead to the secret ingredient of Forty Niners in Aiea. The dashi is important to have a unique umami that makes for a deep flavor that is not heavy. The broth isn’t always so popular of a topic as many people who worked on their own Saimin had taken a particular interest in the salty and savory dashi. However, one particular restaurant called Violet's Grill that had an interest with the bones and made their own broth based on the recipe of Oxtail Soup that used the oxtail bones to make a unique broth. Families would use whatever bones they had from the plantation era, since people couldn’t be especially picky on which meats or bones they would recieve. But as far as documentation Violet’s Grill in a sense counts as one of the markers of Saimin that still serve a different bone broth from other commercial competitors. Left overs like bones that families would use other than chicken bones and pork bones would be beef bones, turkey bones, salmon bones, aku bones, clams, and shrimps. The seasoning is different based on the recipes of Saimin. While the broth is its base, the dashi adds depth of flavor, and the important seasonings bring an even more flavorful experience to the already strong broth and dashi that blends together well. Seasonings might give slight variations to the Saimin to expand the possibilities. But in the case of Saimin the strongest flavor comes from the mixture of Dashi and then the bones and lastly the seasonings to top off the flavor as the little push forward to making a unique tasting soup. The most popular ways to season outside of the typical sea salt and ajinomoto is the additions of: sweet shoyu, crushed sesame seeds, and crushed garlic (Garlic flavor), crushed garlic, crushed scallions and kochujang (Kimchi flavor), and the most popular being shoyu, crushed ginger, and dried mustard (Mustard flavor) that uses condiments at the restaurant. There are many ways to easily add seasonings to saimin either at home or at the restaurant. This makes it so people can season things to serve or season a bowl of saimin as they like to make it a great comfort food. These days there are creations popping up from those willing to expose their recipes from their family cooking stories. There is a shrimp saimin that has popped up from an area in the north shore that deals with shrimp farming and uses the heads of the shrimps, another saimin recipe has popped up near oahu’s chinatown that uses the leftovers of butchery that sells ducks pigs and chickens, and an oxtail saimin recipe that is near palama. Families thought Saimin was delicious and many people knew how to make the broth, minus the noodles, which they would buy at the supermarket. Even buying Saimin sometimes wasn’t a consideration with each family just doing their own thing and making Saimin to their liking. Some people would experiment with flavors and the recipes would never leave their house. Sometimes it was because it was a family secret, some didn’t want to gamble on having their recipe not fly in the expensive business market which is ugly in Hawaii due to real estate. So it's not really a surprise that most people's flavorings on Saimin vanished with their creators, considering most people never measured, or even kept their recipes. Disappearing recipes were pushed further as expenses just grew and grew with the tourism market having out of state people purchase housing they weren't living in and brought up costs. But, what was the main shot that put away all the recipes was instant make S&S Saimin packets in the frozen section. It wasn’t because S&S made one food to rule them all, but people needed time to work and couldn't afford to experiment with their food, people started to put away their recipes and leave them at home for a more convenient way of food. Many people had two jobs and needed to make a living, so instead of flavor the priorities were more for survival purposes of their family being the main priority. Years later people ask the question of where did all the flavors go from the past. Stories that uncle Jon made a mean Kimchi Saimin or grandma Betsy had a really good Oxtail Saimin, but as many people looked the stories just stayed stories with no recipes. With everyone pursuing their goals without the idea of looking for local food from their aunty or uncle or grandparents. And the reason why is many generations grew up with local food, so it was nothing new or exciting, so other ethnic foods or national foods was always of greater interest or the newest restaurant that was unlikely to feature local fair. While those in the know can make many of these recipes from their cooking experience there was no place for those who were just starting out for a Saimin apprenticeships. Many recipes in Hawaii were traditionally secret ways of the soup. Many who tried to figure out the stock used existing recipes and tweaked to get a the traditional taste and then blended with different flavors that were not so traditional to replicate old flavors that were tasted from, but not given the recipe. There is no perfect written down recipe for many of the saimins in stories, but many people have made their own through dedication of recreating what once was. This made finding the old ways as hard as finding a trade secret and tracking down even the originators of saimin variations into a difficult to near impossible task. It wouldn’t be until Saimin restaurants became scarce that anyone took notice that these recipes might be of some importance and that maybe, just maybe, grampa and grandmas recipes might be worth keeping on a written card. This sense of urgency was only made from Hawaii food being put on the map from local chefs like: Ed Kenney’s show Family Ingredients to show the family connection, Mark Noguchi under Pili group to show the people connection, and Sheldon Simeon with the Eater to show people the national connection of Hawaii's food demand. It had people asking questions on where did Hawaii’s food heritage go and ask people what they can call their own food locally, what they can call their own food ethnically, and their own food nationally.Demands of Saimin never really went away, why? Because many families who went off to the mainland craved what they ate at home. Many of the same families wondered if it would continue and wondered if there was variations to take back. When people on the mainland would ask if there were variations of Saimin it would be the typical answer that each place had their own flavors going on, but instant make saimin was a shrimp flavor and the main option to bring to the mainland. While locally the saimin joints vanished and brought attention on the island there were always islanders on the mainland that had a part of their past that was connected to the comfort food of Saimin.
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