Chef Makoa
Chicken Hekka (Hawaiʻi Local Plantation-Style Chicken Sukiyaki)
Hawaiʻi Local chicken hekka, the plantation-camp cousin of Japanese sukiyaki, with tender chicken, long rice, shiitake, bamboo shoots, and sweet shoyu gravy for rice.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Local-Style Kalbi Short Ribs (Hawaiʻi Plate-Lunch Grill)
Created by
Sweet shoyu-sesame kalbi from Hawaiʻi's Local plate-lunch table, Korean camp cooking carried into the drive-in plate with hot rice, mac salad, and enough for one more.
Main Dishes
Polynesian, Hawaiian
BBQ
Potluck
Celebration
20 min
Active Time
10 min cook•4 hr 30 min total
Yield6 servings
The plate lunch is kinship too, just from a different doorway. Back home in Hawaiʻi, not the old imu line and not the papa kuʻi ʻai board, but the sugar-camp stove, the lunch wagon, the drive-in counter, the rice cooker talking in the corner. Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Korean, Filipino, Puerto Rican hands all put something on that plate, and no blame the plate for being humble.
This kalbi belongs to Hawaiʻi's Local table, with Korean hands at the center. Kalbi is not an ancestral Hawaiian dish, and I no pretend it is. It came through Korean families and workers, through camp cooking and home kitchens, and Hawaiʻi took it into the plate lunch: flanken-cut short ribs, shoyu, sugar, sesame, garlic, ginger, grilled hot and eaten with rice and mac salad. That's the island named proper: Hawaiʻi Local, Korean-Hawaiian by the hand that carried it.
Across the Triangle, the cousins have their own everyday meats beside the deep foods: Tongan lū sipi, Sāmoan sapasui and pisupo with rice, Māori boil-ups, Hawaiian kālua puaʻa from the imu when the day is ceremonial. Same ocean, different histories on the table. One ocean, one canoe, one root still holds us, and the Local plate tells the other half of the story, the plantation half, the everybody-working-and-feeding-each-other half.
So cook it easy. Get the ribs cut thin, marinate them long enough to listen, then fire them hot and don't walk away. The sugar wants to go glossy and brown, the fat wants to crisp at the bone, and the rice is waiting. That's real food, yeah. Enough for one more.
Korean immigration to Hawaiʻi began in 1903, when the first large group of Korean laborers arrived to work the sugar plantations, bringing foodways that later became part of Hawaiʻi's Local cooking. Kalbi on a plate lunch is a post-contact, plantation-era food, not pre-contact deep food, but it sits honestly beside poi, kālua puaʻa, poke, and laulau in the way Hawaiʻi eats now. The standard plate-lunch form, two scoops rice, one scoop macaroni salad, and one protein, grew from laborers' mixed lunch tins and drive-in counters, a creole table built by many hands.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
flanken-cut beef short ribs
Quantity
3 pounds
about 1/3 inch thick
shoyu
Quantity
1 cup
preferably Aloha shoyu or another Hawaiian-style soy sauce
packed brown sugar
Quantity
1/2 cup
mirin
Quantity
1/4 cup
rice vinegar
Quantity
2 tablespoons
sesame oil
Quantity
2 tablespoons
garlic cloves
Quantity
6
grated or finely minced
fresh ginger
Quantity
1 tablespoon
grated
Asian pear or apple
Quantity
1 small Asian pear or 1/2 apple
grated
green onions
Quantity
4
thinly sliced, plus more for finishing
toasted sesame seeds
Quantity
1 tablespoon
plus more for finishing
black pepper
Quantity
1 teaspoon
cooked white rice
Quantity
for serving
macaroni salad
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| flanken-cut beef short ribsabout 1/3 inch thick | 3 pounds |
| shoyupreferably Aloha shoyu or another Hawaiian-style soy sauce | 1 cup |
| packed brown sugar | 1/2 cup |
| mirin | 1/4 cup |
| rice vinegar | 2 tablespoons |
| sesame oil | 2 tablespoons |
| garlic clovesgrated or finely minced | 6 |
| fresh gingergrated | 1 tablespoon |
| Asian pear or applegrated | 1 small Asian pear or 1/2 apple |
| green onionsthinly sliced, plus more for finishing | 4 |
| toasted sesame seedsplus more for finishing | 1 tablespoon |
| black pepper | 1 teaspoon |
| cooked white rice | for serving |
| macaroni salad | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Charcoal or gas grill, or a heavy cast-iron grill pan
- •Wide nonreactive marinating dish or 1-gallon zip-top bag
- •Long tongs for turning over high heat
Instructions
- 1
Rinse the ribs
Run the flanken-cut ribs under cold water and rub away any little bone dust from the saw. Pat them very dry. That drying matters, because wet beef fights the grill and you want the edges to catch fast.
- 2
Mix the marinade
In a wide bowl, stir the shoyu, brown sugar, mirin, rice vinegar, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, grated pear, green onion, sesame seeds, and black pepper until the sugar loosens into the shoyu. Taste it. It should be salty first, sweet right behind it, with garlic and sesame hanging on your fingers.
- 3
Marinate the beef
Lay the ribs into the marinade and turn each piece so the meat is coated from edge to edge. Cover and chill at least 4 hours, or overnight if you can. The pear helps tenderize, the shoyu seasons deep, and the sugar gives you that lacquered brown edge on the fire.
Do not marinate longer than 24 hours. The fruit and salt will make the meat soft in the wrong way. - 4
Heat the grill
Set a charcoal or gas grill for high direct heat. Oil the grates well. This is quick cooking, Local plate-lunch style, not the imu or the umu, and no need make it precious. Hot fire, close watch, good food.
- 5
Grill hard
Lift the ribs from the marinade and let the excess drip off. Grill 2 to 4 minutes per side, turning when the edges go dark and glossy and the fat begins to crisp. Watch the sugar, yeah? It should char in spots, not burn bitter.
- 6
Rest and plate
Move the ribs to a tray and let them rest 5 minutes so the juices settle back into the meat. Scatter with green onion and sesame seeds. Serve with two scoops white rice and one scoop macaroni salad, the plate-lunch spine, no sides to negotiate.
Chef Tips
- •Ask the butcher for flanken-cut short ribs, cut across the bone about one-third inch thick. Too thick and they chew tough; too thin and the sugar burns before the beef has time to brown.
- •Pear in the marinade is Korean wisdom doing real work. Asian pear is best, apple works, and a small splash of pineapple juice can stand in, but don't overdo it or the meat turns mushy.
- •No grill? Use a ripping-hot cast-iron grill pan or broiler. Open a window, line the pan well, and keep the ribs close to the heat so they char before they dry out.
- •Serve it plate-lunch style if you're feeding locals: two scoops rice, one scoop mac salad, kalbi on top or alongside. That's not lesser food. That's how the island eats.
Advance Preparation
- •Mix the marinade up to 2 days ahead and keep it covered in the fridge.
- •Marinate the ribs 4 to 12 hours for the best texture. Overnight is good, but stop before 24 hours.
- •Cooked kalbi reheats best wrapped in foil in a low oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or chopped into fried rice the next day with no waste.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 520g)
Calories
1125 calories
Total Fat
61 g
Saturated Fat
18 g
Trans Fat
2 g
Unsaturated Fat
36 g
Cholesterol
115 mg
Sodium
2290 mg
Total Carbohydrates
101 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
31 g
Protein
43 g
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