Lilikoi Bars (Hawaiʻi Local Passion Fruit Shortbread Bars)

The table in Hawaiʻi has two hands on it. One reaches back to the loʻi, the kalo, the ʻulu, the fish, the imu, deep food that came in the canoe. The other hand reaches into the bakery case, the school potluck, the cookie tin on the Formica table, all the food our immigrant families brought and the islands made Local. These lilikoi bars belong to that second hand, Hawaiʻi Local, not Kanaka Maoli ceremony, and still plenty loved.

Lilikoi, passion fruit, climbs fences and backyards all over the islands, dropping wrinkled yellow fruit that looks tired to somebody who doesn't know. No throw that one out. That's the good one. The skin wrinkles when the perfume and tartness are ready, and that sharp juice cuts through butter and sugar the way a good auntie cuts through too much talking. Straight to the point.

This bar is cousin to the lemon bar from the American bake-sale table, but Hawaiʻi made it answer to our yard. Same with the malasada from Portuguese hands, andagi from Okinawan hands, gau from Chinese hands, hopia from Filipino hands, mochi from Japanese hands. None of that is the food of the loʻi, and no need pretend. It is still the way Hawaiʻi eats now: potluck pan, paper napkin, one piece in your hand, one more wrapped for somebody who couldn't make it.