Hawaii is a wonderful ethnic blend of many cultures. Over the past few decades, a unique style of cooking called "Pacific Rim" cuisine has developed. It takes the best from Asia, America and Europe, blending ingredients in exciting new ways. If you're looking for very innovative (and often high-end) cuisine, you won't be disappointed.At the other end of the scale, there's Spam. More Spam is eaten in Hawaii than in any other state. One of the most popular preparations is the Spam musubi. Two pieces of spam are fried. Sticky white rice are placed between them (imagine a sandwich with spam as the bread and rice as the filling). The resulting sandwich is wrapped in a small piece of nori (seaweed). My description doesn't do it justice. It's pretty yummy.
Another island institution is the Plate Lunch. The plate lunch consists of two scoops of rice, one scoop of macaroni salad, and a meat-item such as Beef Stew, Hamburger Steak, Chicken Kastu (fried), or Grilled Ahi. Originally these foods were served from lunch wagons. Now you can find them everywhere.
Here are some great recipes compiled by Art Pollard (pollarda@hawaii.edu). More information can be found at http://www.hawaii.edu/recipes/.