Believe it or not, this video topic has been sitting in my to-do list for over three years. Topics like this, while not popular, are why I like talking about Hawaii. 🤙
I don't know if this is a sponsored post or not lol but Zip Pacs are great for travel. That is what my parents take with them when they travel out of state.
They are good for travel. I usually never bother taking meals on the plane, but I know people like to do that. It was so much easier to bring food before the long TSA lines.
Always eating the Mac Salad first...two reasons, mayonnaise isn't healthy the longer it isn't refrigerated, and doesn't taste good warm. Just like a burger combo, eating French Fries first because fries don't taste good cold. When eating a ZipPac, I eat the Spam first also, but mainly because I want to make sure that I have it with the Furikake part of the Rice. And yes, I eat the Chicken last because I don't want to navigate around a bone. Lastly, at my workplace, there was a debate whether 'Bentos' are 'Plate Lunches'. Some even went as far as questioning whether the 'Mix Plate' was a true plate lunch also...that one was really reaching in my view. All in all, when living in California, this was one of the biggest things I missed about Hawaii...the PLATE LUNCH!
Interesting discussion on bentos and plate lunches. I'm sure that's an interesting debate to have. I think it depends on the presentation and the type of restaurant. If it's from a Japanese restaurant, then probably bento. If from anywhere else, plate lunch. 🤙
I love this kind of discussion! I definitely had a reaction when our friend said the Zip Pac was his favorite plate lunch. And the mention of a bento makes sense to me. I’d be willing to debate that a zip pac is a mix between a bento and a plate lunch, but Japanese food is so integrated into Hawaiian food, I don’t think it can be ONLY classified as something sold at a Japanese place. Foodland farm bentos are BOMB!
I live in Gardena CA aka Plate Lunch City. In a 1 mile radius of my house there are a 100 restaurants. Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Italian, Mexican and Hawaiian. They run the gamit of regular, dim sum, noodle, ayce, etc..
I hate it when just the tip of one of the fork prongs chips off and I spend a lot of time looking and digging for it in my food, or chew softly until I find it in my mouth ... 😂😂😂😂😂
Bento like container, spam, teri, fried chicken is an example of the island melting pot that Hawaii is. Food is central to any culture and Hawaii has an interesting mix for sure.
Watching you eat the ZipPac makes me soooo hungry. I miss it. LOL, my husband doesn't understand the love of the plate lunch. He really doesn't get when I say I need to eat my ZipPac in and orderly fashion. I'm a chicken first, followed by fish, then spam and teri beef last. I like to make sure there's lots of time having the teriyaki sauce coat the rice. I also have to save the rice with the furikake for last - because that is the best part of the rice. Only local people get it.
I love plate lunches, especially Zippy's. I'm not from Hawaii but they're something I find myself craving and it's almost always my first meal when I visit. So satisfying.
I like plate lunches too. I usually start craving one at least once a week. These days, however, I probably eat once or twice, minus our weekly Zippy's.
Bra , do you realize what you just did? now the next time i eat a zip pak I going over think the whole process ( big word, dere) of my lunch, lol now going take longer to finish. LOL. das alright very original subject( ana da big word, I'm on a roll) Aloha
This video came at an amazing time! Been talking about plate lunches recently! Being in Oregon the options are slim, but definitely going to have to make a trip to our favorite spot sooner rather then later 😂
@@HelloFromHawaii I don’t know how the L&L in Beaverton is, but there was one on 82nd and it definitely wasn’t the same. We got to Hawaiian Time because I love their mac salad and their Kalua Pork is ✨amazing✨ theres also a location in Oregon city, which is closer to us then Beaverton.
I don’t consider zip pac a plate lunch. Plate lunch should have Mac salad. Zip pac is a bento. Next video… give us your opinion on the tipping question at these fast food drive in take out places. Do you always tip?
Interesting opinion on plate lunch vs bento. I'm sure that could be a hotly debated topic around office lunchroom tables. Thanks for the video idea. I don't usually tip in take out, but always for dine-in.
It depends on the plate lunch and from where, I'd say. If its curry, beef stew, chili or anything really wet & saucy, it's best to enjoy it mixed with the rice. If it's meat with juices, enjoying the rice slathered with the juices gives it flavored. Meat with little/no juices, people can it whichever way they prefer. I don't need a one-to-one ratio of meat with rice, but it does stretch enjoying the meat with the starch. Main thing, is that we're lucky that we have plate lunches. When I was away, it was either a full menu entree or sandwiches, both get tiring, as it was not enough or too much. You suffered the rest of the day with your stomach growling or ready to be comatose.
You're killing me! I just got home from my doctor visit. After years of blood pressure meds, I finally will be eliminating one of two meds. Enjoy your youth before old age creeps up on you.
My go to at any place is the Hamburger Steak. If the Hamburger Steak is not up to par, I'd question the rest of the lineup. The order I eat the entrees change with the selection. What is important is that all components finish at the same time. So when my wife offers me a portion of her food as I finish..I pass because it would throw my proportions off. I know...stupid.
Interesting that you try to finish everything at the same time. I laughed at what you said about when your wife offers food. I guess she also has to give you some rice too.
It's an individual preference, especially if you grew up always eating rice. My wife & brother-in-law can easily eat cha-cha rice, or even the staple small kid sick food of hot rice, soy sauce, raw egg mixed up and eaten. The six months I spent on business training on the east coast was something that I knew I'd miss the rice, that I took along a small individual rice cooker, which finding rice was hard. Even the rice from the Chinese restaurants weren't like Hawaii rice. These days hot rice with furukaki is okay , with daiko, kimchee, or taegu.
Personally, I love Hawaii plate lunches! I live in Okinawa Japan, and we have bento lunches, which are kinda the same. Spam also is popular here. I do miss the Hawaii loco mocos!
Well living next to squatters does not help, but you know what you start saying eh I don't need to lock good any more and a suit, an a aloha shirt will do.
I love plate lunches and wish I could access good ones more frequently. I am like you and ration my rice based off how much meat I have available to me. I also go Filipino style with the utensils. I use a fork and spoon. I use the fork to shovel the meat and rice unto the spoon. The spoon is also used to chop the meat and portion out the rice.
Brah, you killing me! I'm in CA and your Zip Pac look sooo ono, and I can even smell from here! Too funny. So every time we go back home we hit Zippy's before we go to my mom's house. Even my kids have adopted this ritual. My go-to is also the Zip Pac 70% and Korean Chicken plate 20% and hamburger steak10%. As for the order, I hit the fish first because the crust is hot and crispy. Then I hit the rest evenly: bite of meat, bite of rice, bite of Mac salad. ALWAYS bummed when you have half the fried chicken left and only get 1Tbsp of rice in da corner. ;-)
I eat plate lunches with a fork and bentos with chopsticks. Also, I never finish the rice. When I can’t finish the food, my husband will finish it for me. When I first came to Hawaii in 1976, a teribeef plate cost $1.80 and the Big Mac was $.85
Rice and mac salad management. Yes, it is very important. A little bit of main dish, followed by rice and salad, with a sip of POG every now and then. Enjoy those plate lunches, but control the calories and carbs. Your biggest advantage is your Japan-born wife, and her dietary influences on the family.
Your channel came out on my recommendation. Glad it did. Aloha, from your new subscriber and distant Malayo-Polynesian cousin from Malaysia! Looking forward to more content. God bless the peoples and nations of the sacred waterlands. Ohana
I'm a "blender". I'll cut up the meat and eat them all together with the rice. Vegetables if any are separate. And I could've sworn I bought a few plate lunches in Chinatown for under $10-of course, that was years ago from one-off restaurants.
Nice to have a "fun" video! Using your example of a Zip Pac, I'll usually eat the spam first, followed by the teriyaki. My reason probably differs from most, but it comes down to the salt content. The salty stuff makes you want to eat more rice, so that helps prevent the leftover rice syndrome. Then, the fish, and finally the chicken. If I don't have any rice left for those two items, it's fine. BTW, my daughter feels the same way as you about the teriyaki. You know you can sub with any of the other items, right? Like if you don't like the teriyaki, you can ask for another fish instead. If the plate lunch has mac salad, that usually goes first so it doesn't "mess up" the other stuff.
Mahalo for sharing. I know about the substitution, but I usually don't because it changes the Zip Pac too much for me. I tried eating all fish once and while it was good, I didn't like the fact that I was just eating fish and rice. 😂
I first visited Oahu (my first trip to Hawaii) in September 2023. I forgot to try a plate lunch during the time that I was there. Gosh, I'll just have to go back again some day, so I can try one ;-) 🙂
I remember when Zippy's used to batter fry their mahimahi, like tempura. They served it with onolicious tartar sauce, and lemon wedges if you asked. Such class!
In my opinion, the plate lunch is the local interpretation/descendant of the Japanese bento. I always take a bite of entree first, no rice. What happens along the way varies according to my mood, though I often combine bites of protein with either the rice or mac salad. The end is usually the last bite of whatever favorite protein is on the plate, combined with the last bite of rice. Oh bruddah, now I so hungry, an' no Zippy's in couple t'ousand miles...
Mahalo for sharing. I think the variety according to your mood is the art of eating the plate lunch. And I've found that most of the time, I finish just right - no more meat and no more rice.
🤣🤣🤣 such a very entertaining vid, so funny and at the same time so very true 🤣🤣🤣the best thing was the "so automatic" concept of rice management ... most don't even think about it, much less acknowledge it, but it is very much "there" ... good fun this vid 💯👌🤙
This is an important topic with a rice to meat ratio. You have watch your ride to meat ratio. We taking about a taste change. The meat flavor power can change the ratio to rice so it could be staged (small bite of chicken to medium sized but of rice). This is a complex topic and I, glad you decided to cover this. 😀
Rice is supposed to fill you up if the meat didn’t do the job. You don’t have to finish rice especially since it is a cheaper product than meat. I became allergic to rice so I don’t eat it anymore so I usually order the meat with salad or macaroni. The katsu has a lot of breading anyways. It doesn’t matter if you eat it with a fork.
A while back, 5 or 10 years ago maybe, I read in the newspaper about a young guy who had been out to Hawaii and was so impressed by plate lunches that he decided to open up a take out place with plate lunches here in Rhode Island. When I read what he intended to put together as plate lunches, I was really disappointed. He apparently learned nothing about what plate lunches really were, because what he described sounded nothing like a plate lunch. It felt like such a fraud to me that, needless to say, I never made the drive to his restaurant to try it out. Would have taken me 45 minutes to an hour to get to it. It sounded like all he was doing was using the name "plate lunch," and that was the only thing his had in common with the real thing.
Oh my, hungry now! I like to eat some rice with mac salad usually to start. Similar to your reason for starting with Spam- comfort food bites first. Oh my, looking forward to when I can get to Oahu again!
The best way to eat a plate lunch is dont eat em everyday if u care about your health. Not much vegetables there. Mac salad and 2 scoops rice isn't that healthy every day. Haha.
Zippy's Zip Pac is a winner for me! As kids we were taught that rice was sacred so we never left one grain of rice on our bowl. Rice first to cleanse the palate and between bites of the sides.
Zip pack chicken skin coming off and I place one bed of rice on the skin then a nice piece of each meat on top then close as best as can with some tartar sauce then I can eat anything once that is done
I have given this topic a lot of thought myself over the years as I sit and ponder my own “plate” meals before eating…I no longer watch tv or follow sports religiously which frees my mind to important things like this. First off, I ALWAYS start with a small bite of the rice to warm up the engines and loosen the moving parts. Then, I take a bite of the protein…if there are multiple protein foods, I start with a bite of the “main” protein and work down from there: If I have ribs and shrimp, for example, I take a bite of the ribs first. Finally, my veggie side is then sprinkled in a consistent pattern as I chow down the proteins and rice…but the veggie generally follows a protein. So my general pattern is rice, protein1, rice, veggie, protein1, rice, protein2, veggie, rice, protein1, rice, protein2, etc…
Mahalo for this video! I ❤love ❤ Zip Pacs!!! I was trying to decide what to meal prep for lunches this week- I can make my healthier version of a Zip Pac! 😉🤙🏼 The combination of the rice with the sauce and the different proteins- such an incredibly humble yet delicious meal. I loved eating these at Zippy’s with my Mom. She would also give them to me as my lunch on field trip days! Zippy’s will definitely be one of the first places I visit when I return home next year for a long overdue visit. 💝🌺💝
Omg! Hi! 🌺☺️ I use brown rice, a thinner slice of low sodium Spam, and plant based fish fillet and fried chicken from Gardein. It’s a lot more convenient for me than trying to make at home. For the teriyaki, I use marinated beef from a nearby Filipino market. I also add more Takuan and cabbage. Living in Southern California does make finding similar ingredients a lot easier, for sure! ☺️🤙🏼🌺
I love it! Such a fun topic. My plate lunch of choice is loco moco from Adele's, but I have to share it with somebody because it it almost exactly twice as much food as I can eat. Especially if I leave room for the cheesecake. Worth doing, for sure. Thanks. Looking forward to getting back there.
What’s more interesting is that people on the mainland really don’t have a plate lunch. Most take out food is burgers, fries, sandwiches, pizza, hotdogs… things you hold in your hands. The plate lunch is inspired by bento, a takeout plate of food. After a baseball game I saw a friend pull up to chat in his car, and his wife was eating breakfast off a dinner plate with metal fork from home. That’s a plate lunch baby!
Local wahine hea. Now living on the mainland. Miss the local foods so much. Even folks from Hawaii running a bento shop here, for whatever reason the food just isn't the same. The taste isn't even close. How I like to eat my plate lunch is, a bite of rice, then the meat, lastly the mac then chew altogether. Always with a chopstick. Hawaii foods are the best!
Wow!!! A lot of thought went into eating the zip pac. For me, I try to eat a protein and rice in the same bite with the volume of the meat matching the volume of rice. Plate lunches are definitely a comfort food. Not something would be able to eat every day or even every week. It helps that I don't live there anymore. I can resist eating the plate lunches here indefinitely, but when I get back, watch out.
Loved the topic! I have a similar process as you have when eating the Zip Pac, and I always try to make the rice and the protein end at the same time. I tend to eat any plate lunch in the order according to the flavors I like least to best. I always want to finish strong with the favorite flavor in my mouth at the end. And I never want to end with only plain rice, but if it has gravy on it, or furikake, then not so bad if there's extra rice . And, of course, I gotta have chopsticks to eat 'em. In fact, here on the mainland, I always ask for chopsticks when I get any Asian food. One other thing - I must have Tobasco for my mac salad. So ono! (I'm not fond of just mayo in the mac salad.) I'll be in the Islands next month, so I hope to see you when I'm on Oahu. Would be fun to have some time to talk story with you, but I realize you have plenty of commitments, between family, job and the vlog. Probably won't happen, but if I see you, I will say "Aloha!"
Too much thinking & waving da ono bento in front of me! 😂🫣 The plastic green thing was ridiculous. The appearance of food affects my expectations of how they’ll taste, I’m sometimes disappointed. Enjoy(ed) your lunch!
Believe it or not, this video topic has been sitting in my to-do list for over three years. Topics like this, while not popular, are why I like talking about Hawaii. 🤙
❤ da kine! Loco moco is so ono: 2 scoop rice, da ground beef patty, dark gravy and Mac salad. Mmm, mmm 😋 Yum-mo!
Yup, gotta tink how much rice can eat with every bite. If get choke, big bites. If small kine, small bites. Raj there is a strategy
Lol. Small bites of rice.
I don't know if this is a sponsored post or not lol but Zip Pacs are great for travel. That is what my parents take with them when they travel out of state.
They are good for travel. I usually never bother taking meals on the plane, but I know people like to do that. It was so much easier to bring food before the long TSA lines.
Ehh I NO DISCRIMINATE 🤣all is going down same place
So true 😂
Chopsticks for everything over here lol. My husband used chopsticks with my pasta 😂
He must like a challenge 😂
Locol style: with da fingers, especially with poi.
Always eating the Mac Salad first...two reasons, mayonnaise isn't healthy the longer it isn't refrigerated, and doesn't taste good warm. Just like a burger combo, eating French Fries first because fries don't taste good cold.
When eating a ZipPac, I eat the Spam first also, but mainly because I want to make sure that I have it with the Furikake part of the Rice. And yes, I eat the Chicken last because I don't want to navigate around a bone.
Lastly, at my workplace, there was a debate whether 'Bentos' are 'Plate Lunches'. Some even went as far as questioning whether the 'Mix Plate' was a true plate lunch also...that one was really reaching in my view.
All in all, when living in California, this was one of the biggest things I missed about Hawaii...the PLATE LUNCH!
Interesting discussion on bentos and plate lunches. I'm sure that's an interesting debate to have. I think it depends on the presentation and the type of restaurant. If it's from a Japanese restaurant, then probably bento. If from anywhere else, plate lunch. 🤙
I love this kind of discussion! I definitely had a reaction when our friend said the Zip Pac was his favorite plate lunch. And the mention of a bento makes sense to me. I’d be willing to debate that a zip pac is a mix between a bento and a plate lunch, but Japanese food is so integrated into Hawaiian food, I don’t think it can be ONLY classified as something sold at a Japanese place. Foodland farm bentos are BOMB!
@@HelloFromHawaii Which would probably confirm the thought that if you put together selections from a Okazuya, that would be a 'Bento'??
Good point about the mac salad.
I live in Gardena CA aka Plate Lunch City. In a 1 mile radius of my house there are a 100 restaurants. Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Italian, Mexican and Hawaiian. They run the gamit of regular, dim sum, noodle, ayce, etc..
Braddah get one MBA in Rice Management!
lol 🤙
The counter lady at Zippy's asked me, "chopsticks or fork?" for my Zip Pack. I told her, "it sacrilege to eat a Zip Pack with a fork!" ...
lol, fork broken after first use.
I hate it when just the tip of one of the fork prongs chips off and I spend a lot of time looking and digging for it in my food, or chew softly until I find it in my mouth ... 😂😂😂😂😂
Hashi of course.....eat mac/potato salad early, before it gets warm! Rainbow Drive-In still my favorite.
Bento like container, spam, teri, fried chicken is an example of the island melting pot that Hawaii is. Food is central to any culture and Hawaii has an interesting mix for sure.
🤙
Chinese usually use forks with plate meals and chopsticks when there is a bowl involved.
I usually default to fork, but I'll grab chopsticks if available. 🤙
My husband is Chinese born in China but eats everything with a fork!
Chili chicken plate 🍽️ zipppy's
🤙
Watching you eat the ZipPac makes me soooo hungry. I miss it. LOL, my husband doesn't understand the love of the plate lunch. He really doesn't get when I say I need to eat my ZipPac in and orderly fashion. I'm a chicken first, followed by fish, then spam and teri beef last. I like to make sure there's lots of time having the teriyaki sauce coat the rice. I also have to save the rice with the furikake for last - because that is the best part of the rice. Only local people get it.
Mahalo for sharing your eating order. Interesting that you like the leave the teri beef for last. Makes sense. 🤙
Rice management... hah! Indeed
It's all about rice management. Any equivalent on the mainland, like at In-and-Out Burger? Fries management?
@@HelloFromHawaii Mashed Potato management with steak 😋
I love plate lunches, especially Zippy's. I'm not from Hawaii but they're something I find myself craving and it's almost always my first meal when I visit. So satisfying.
I like plate lunches too. I usually start craving one at least once a week. These days, however, I probably eat once or twice, minus our weekly Zippy's.
Bra , do you realize what you just did? now the next time i eat a zip pak I going over think the whole process ( big word, dere) of my lunch, lol now going take longer to finish. LOL. das alright very original subject( ana da big word, I'm on a roll) Aloha
lol. I've eaten enough Zip Pacs that I've recognized a pattern. Hope it doesn't throw you off. 😂
Really, Chris?!....How to eat plate lunch?-lol. Personally, chopsticks & rice first(Unless it's loco moco)....Always w/da shoyu!-lol
😂
This video came at an amazing time! Been talking about plate lunches recently! Being in Oregon the options are slim, but definitely going to have to make a trip to our favorite spot sooner rather then later 😂
I know there was a L&L in Beaverton when I was there. I used to eat there every week. So good.
@@HelloFromHawaii I don’t know how the L&L in Beaverton is, but there was one on 82nd and it definitely wasn’t the same. We got to Hawaiian Time because I love their mac salad and their Kalua Pork is ✨amazing✨ theres also a location in Oregon city, which is closer to us then Beaverton.
SPOON 🥄 AUTOMATIC ALL ABOUT SHOVELING
I’m not local but everything you’re saying makes SO much sense. I’m gonna go try my first zip pac tomorrow and now I know which order to eat it in
Hope you enjoy it. 🤙
What would Gordon Ramsay say. For me, chop sticks always or maybe a PLASTIC spork or foon, but never ever metal.
🤙
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who calls them foons. 🤜🤛
Yummy!!! Be sure and give me a double portion of SPAM!!!!!
I don’t consider zip pac a plate lunch. Plate lunch should have Mac salad. Zip pac is a bento.
Next video… give us your opinion on the tipping question at these fast food drive in take out places. Do you always tip?
Interesting opinion on plate lunch vs bento. I'm sure that could be a hotly debated topic around office lunchroom tables. Thanks for the video idea. I don't usually tip in take out, but always for dine-in.
@@HelloFromHawaii ok yeah me too. If they ask for tip before I get anything then no tip. But don’t you feel pressured or bad?
It depends on the plate lunch and from where, I'd say. If its curry, beef stew, chili or anything really wet & saucy, it's best to enjoy it mixed with the rice. If it's meat with juices, enjoying the rice slathered with the juices gives it flavored. Meat with little/no juices, people can it whichever way they prefer. I don't need a one-to-one ratio of meat with rice, but it does stretch enjoying the meat with the starch. Main thing, is that we're lucky that we have plate lunches. When I was away, it was either a full menu entree or sandwiches, both get tiring, as it was not enough or too much. You suffered the rest of the day with your stomach growling or ready to be comatose.
When I was away, I missed having rice with my food. While I enjoyed fries and bread, sometimes I just wanted a scoop of white rice with my meat.
@@HelloFromHawaii I know. Potatoes, Bread, pasta is fine for a short while, but it feels so empty after a prolong period of time.
You're killing me!
I just got home from my doctor visit. After years of blood pressure meds, I finally will be eliminating one of two meds.
Enjoy your youth before old age creeps up on you.
Yeah, I'm trying to enjoy regular plate lunches while I can. I know I'll probably have to reduce the size to minis in the future.
@@HelloFromHawaii my last plate lunch from L&L was the small one. I don't go there very often anymore.
My go to at any place is the Hamburger Steak. If the Hamburger Steak is not up to par, I'd question the rest of the lineup. The order I eat the entrees change with the selection. What is important is that all components finish at the same time. So when my wife offers me a portion of her food as I finish..I pass because it would throw my proportions off. I know...stupid.
Interesting that you try to finish everything at the same time. I laughed at what you said about when your wife offers food. I guess she also has to give you some rice too.
Meat first, then if Im still hungry eat the rice. Rice is cheap and its not the main part of the meal for me. I can toss the rice out and not blink.
It's an individual preference, especially if you grew up always eating rice. My wife & brother-in-law can easily eat cha-cha rice, or even the staple small kid sick food of hot rice, soy sauce, raw egg mixed up and eaten. The six months I spent on business training on the east coast was something that I knew I'd miss the rice, that I took along a small individual rice cooker, which finding rice was hard. Even the rice from the Chinese restaurants weren't like Hawaii rice. These days hot rice with furukaki is okay , with daiko, kimchee, or taegu.
It's hard for me to throw out rice, even if I know it's the cheaper part of the plate lunch. I always feel like I have to portion it out with my meat.
Zip pac deluxe mo betta. I use fork cause mo fast and I eat meat and rice together with mac salad buggah is onolicious. lol
I moved here over a year ago and got so deeply entrenched in the melting pot of culture that I now eat everything with chopsticks.
Love plate lunches when I am Hawaii. Fun video!
Plate lunches also taste good on the mainland. I used to drive to L&L in Denver. Over one hour each way. Worth it. 🤙
@@HelloFromHawaii Not the same experience. But still good.
Personally, I love Hawaii plate lunches! I live in Okinawa Japan, and we have bento lunches, which are kinda the same. Spam also is popular here. I do miss the Hawaii loco mocos!
Japan has great bentos. Lots of rice, but the portions tend to be smaller than I'm used to. 😂
My favorite is a Korean BBQ chicken plate lunch!!!!! Soooo ONO!!!!! 👍
🤙
Sorry,but never move here it is a cursed place. It has ruined my life.
Sorry to hear that. Why do you think Hawaii is cursed?
Well living next to squatters does not help, but you know what you start saying eh I don't need to lock good any more and a suit, an a aloha shirt will do.
@@HelloFromHawaii and shoes.
I love plate lunches and wish I could access good ones more frequently. I am like you and ration my rice based off how much meat I have available to me. I also go Filipino style with the utensils. I use a fork and spoon. I use the fork to shovel the meat and rice unto the spoon. The spoon is also used to chop the meat and portion out the rice.
Interesting. Didn't know about the fork and spoon technique. 🤙
Spam
Teribeef
Chicken
Fish
And i really don't eat rice
🤙
Brah, you killing me! I'm in CA and your Zip Pac look sooo ono, and I can even smell from here! Too funny. So every time we go back home we hit Zippy's before we go to my mom's house. Even my kids have adopted this ritual. My go-to is also the Zip Pac 70% and Korean Chicken plate 20% and hamburger steak10%. As for the order, I hit the fish first because the crust is hot and crispy. Then I hit the rest evenly: bite of meat, bite of rice, bite of Mac salad. ALWAYS bummed when you have half the fried chicken left and only get 1Tbsp of rice in da corner. ;-)
Interesting that you eat the fish first. And yeah, bummed when you have a lot of meat left and not enough rice. 😂
I eat plate lunches with a fork and bentos with chopsticks. Also, I never finish the rice. When I can’t finish the food, my husband will finish it for me. When I first came to Hawaii in 1976, a teribeef plate cost $1.80 and the Big Mac was $.85
So cheap!
Mediterranean diet?
Don't know how that would go in Hawaii.
@@HelloFromHawaii The Islands have great farmers markets and the best fresh fish.
Rice and mac salad management. Yes, it is very important. A little bit of main dish, followed by rice and salad, with a sip of POG every now and then.
Enjoy those plate lunches, but control the calories and carbs. Your biggest advantage is your Japan-born wife, and her dietary influences on the family.
Yeah, I'm trying to enjoy them while I can. I know I'll probably have to transition to brown rice and mini size eventually.
Your channel came out on my recommendation. Glad it did. Aloha, from your new subscriber and distant Malayo-Polynesian cousin from Malaysia! Looking forward to more content. God bless the peoples and nations of the sacred waterlands. Ohana
Mahalo and glad you found the channel 🤙
I'm a "blender". I'll cut up the meat and eat them all together with the rice. Vegetables if any are separate. And I could've sworn I bought a few plate lunches in Chinatown for under $10-of course, that was years ago from one-off restaurants.
I haven't seen a plate lunch for under $10 in a while. Maybe a mini, but definitely not a regular.
Nice to have a "fun" video! Using your example of a Zip Pac, I'll usually eat the spam first, followed by the teriyaki. My reason probably differs from most, but it comes down to the salt content. The salty stuff makes you want to eat more rice, so that helps prevent the leftover rice syndrome. Then, the fish, and finally the chicken. If I don't have any rice left for those two items, it's fine. BTW, my daughter feels the same way as you about the teriyaki. You know you can sub with any of the other items, right? Like if you don't like the teriyaki, you can ask for another fish instead. If the plate lunch has mac salad, that usually goes first so it doesn't "mess up" the other stuff.
Mahalo for sharing. I know about the substitution, but I usually don't because it changes the Zip Pac too much for me. I tried eating all fish once and while it was good, I didn't like the fact that I was just eating fish and rice. 😂
I lived in southern California from 1975 through 1980. There, I never heard anyone say "plate lunch."
I think "plate lunch" is a Hawaii thing. I also never heard it in Colorado or Oregon.
Whan returning from Vegas, I always stop by Zippy's and pick up a Zip-Pak. Chop sticks only.
Now you can eat Zippy's in Vegas too 🤙
I first visited Oahu (my first trip to Hawaii) in September 2023. I forgot to try a plate lunch during the time that I was there. Gosh, I'll just have to go back again some day, so I can try one ;-) 🙂
Lots of places serve plate lunches. Big debate among locals on which ones are the best, but most are pretty good.
I remember when Zippy's used to batter fry their mahimahi, like tempura. They served it with onolicious tartar sauce, and lemon wedges if you asked. Such class!
I don't think they have lemon anymore. Maybe still if you ask.
In my opinion, the plate lunch is the local interpretation/descendant of the Japanese bento. I always take a bite of entree first, no rice. What happens along the way varies according to my mood, though I often combine bites of protein with either the rice or mac salad. The end is usually the last bite of whatever favorite protein is on the plate, combined with the last bite of rice. Oh bruddah, now I so hungry, an' no Zippy's in couple t'ousand miles...
Mahalo for sharing. I think the variety according to your mood is the art of eating the plate lunch. And I've found that most of the time, I finish just right - no more meat and no more rice.
🤣🤣🤣 such a very entertaining vid, so funny and at the same time so very true 🤣🤣🤣the best thing was the "so automatic" concept of rice management ... most don't even think about it, much less acknowledge it, but it is very much "there" ... good fun this vid 💯👌🤙
Yeah, it really is a subconscious behavior. And at the end, we hope that there is just the right amount of rice and meat left over for our last bite.
Remember Diners at Kalakaua King st, first time eating chicken katsu and played st fighter with friends. Miss those time without internet.
Street Fighter in a arcade stand? I remember that from Tilt.
Fish first because it gets soggy. Next is teri beef. Then alternate between the spam and fried chicken until done.
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This is an important topic with a rice to meat ratio. You have watch your ride to meat ratio. We taking about a taste change. The meat flavor power can change the ratio to rice so it could be staged (small bite of chicken to medium sized but of rice). This is a complex topic and I, glad you decided to cover this. 😀
It's a fun topic to talk about. Just something we don't think about, but very important when enjoying our favorite foods.
Rice is supposed to fill you up if the meat didn’t do the job. You don’t have to finish rice especially since it is a cheaper product than meat. I became allergic to rice so I don’t eat it anymore so I usually order the meat with salad or macaroni. The katsu has a lot of breading anyways. It doesn’t matter if you eat it with a fork.
Allergic to rice? Oh man! Brown rice okay?
A while back, 5 or 10 years ago maybe, I read in the newspaper about a young guy who had been out to Hawaii and was so impressed by plate lunches that he decided to open up a take out place with plate lunches here in Rhode Island. When I read what he intended to put together as plate lunches, I was really disappointed. He apparently learned nothing about what plate lunches really were, because what he described sounded nothing like a plate lunch. It felt like such a fraud to me that, needless to say, I never made the drive to his restaurant to try it out. Would have taken me 45 minutes to an hour to get to it. It sounded like all he was doing was using the name "plate lunch," and that was the only thing his had in common with the real thing.
Too bad he didn't stay true to what a plate lunch is. It's pretty simple. Rice, meat, mac salad, container.
I always eat the main course (one of my favorites is katsu curry) with rice. Then the Mac salad after 😋🤙🏼
Interesting. Mac salad last. 🤙
Oh my, hungry now! I like to eat some rice with mac salad usually to start. Similar to your reason for starting with Spam- comfort food bites first.
Oh my, looking forward to when I can get to Oahu again!
Lots of plate lunches here. I'm sure you'll enjoy it when you get back. 😂
@@HelloFromHawaii looking at January. It’s been way too long!
LOL at "Rice Management". But its true, you allocate the right amount of rice for each of the meat and sides 🙂
And it's a skill locals just pick up over time.
The best way to eat a plate lunch is dont eat em everyday if u care about your health. Not much vegetables there. Mac salad and 2 scoops rice isn't that healthy every day. Haha.
Yeah, I'm trying to cut back. Also, it's getting more expensive.
Eat chicken first. I tried the Zip Pac once and found out it was under cooked. Hate to discover this at the end.😢 They refunded. 😊
Glad to hear that they refunded. Never had that experience, but I know they send out customer surveys with each order.
Zippy's Zip Pac is a winner for me! As kids we were taught that rice was sacred so we never left one grain of rice on our bowl. Rice first to cleanse the palate and between bites of the sides.
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Wow, the only vegetable on the plate you threw away? You had a bit of rice for the takuan.
I forgot to mention that I don't like eating the stained rice. 😂
I use chopstick & spoon
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Rule #1. Don’t press too hard if you use a plastic fork😂
I've broken so many of those newer plastic forks.
Zip pack chicken skin coming off and I place one bed of rice on the skin then a nice piece of each meat on top then close as best as can with some tartar sauce then I can eat anything once that is done
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Loco Moco slaps. The more the gravy the better
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We are already at that stage of plate lunches under $20 😭
There are still places that have good plate lunches for under $15. Once it starts hitting $20, though, that will be a tough call.
I typically use chopsticks at small local joints. It gives me street cred 😉
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I eat the fried mahi (or whatever fish it is now) last on the zip pack
I think it's hoki. I thought it was mahi mahi before. Not sure.
hand
I have given this topic a lot of thought myself over the years as I sit and ponder my own “plate” meals before eating…I no longer watch tv or follow sports religiously which frees my mind to important things like this.
First off, I ALWAYS start with a small bite of the rice to warm up the engines and loosen the moving parts.
Then, I take a bite of the protein…if there are multiple protein foods, I start with a bite of the “main” protein and work down from there: If I have ribs and shrimp, for example, I take a bite of the ribs first.
Finally, my veggie side is then sprinkled in a consistent pattern as I chow down the proteins and rice…but the veggie generally follows a protein.
So my general pattern is rice, protein1, rice, veggie, protein1, rice, protein2, veggie, rice, protein1, rice, protein2, etc…
Mahalo for sharing. Lots of thought on this process. Appreciate the explanation. 🤙
@@HelloFromHawaii Mostly in the spirit of jest..but it’s true. Light hearted topics are needed more often than not…
Mahalo for this video! I ❤love ❤ Zip Pacs!!! I was trying to decide what to meal prep for lunches this week- I can make my healthier version of a Zip Pac! 😉🤙🏼
The combination of the rice with the sauce and the different proteins- such an incredibly humble yet delicious meal. I loved eating these at Zippy’s with my Mom. She would also give them to me as my lunch on field trip days!
Zippy’s will definitely be one of the first places I visit when I return home next year for a long overdue visit. 💝🌺💝
What do you include in your healthy Zip Pac?
Omg! Hi! 🌺☺️
I use brown rice, a thinner slice of low sodium Spam, and plant based fish fillet and fried chicken from Gardein. It’s a lot more convenient for me than trying to make at home. For the teriyaki, I use marinated beef from a nearby Filipino market. I also add more Takuan and cabbage.
Living in Southern California does make finding similar ingredients a lot easier, for sure! ☺️🤙🏼🌺
Mac salad always first for me
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Assuming takuan gets eaten last?
I always skip it or give it away.
Use a spoon brah, get the most food in your mouth at one time! 😆
lol. Maybe for a beef stew plate 🤙
🤣Rice management!
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I love it! Such a fun topic. My plate lunch of choice is loco moco from Adele's, but I have to share it with somebody because it it almost exactly twice as much food as I can eat. Especially if I leave room for the cheesecake. Worth doing, for sure. Thanks. Looking forward to getting back there.
Always gotta make room for dessert. 😂
What’s more interesting is that people on the mainland really don’t have a plate lunch. Most take out food is burgers, fries, sandwiches, pizza, hotdogs… things you hold in your hands. The plate lunch is inspired by bento, a takeout plate of food. After a baseball game I saw a friend pull up to chat in his car, and his wife was eating breakfast off a dinner plate with metal fork from home. That’s a plate lunch baby!
lol. Mainland style plate lunch. 😂
Local wahine hea. Now living on the mainland. Miss the local foods so much. Even folks from Hawaii running a bento shop here, for whatever reason the food just isn't the same. The taste isn't even close. How I like to eat my plate lunch is, a bite of rice, then the meat, lastly the mac then chew altogether. Always with a chopstick. Hawaii foods are the best!
Mahalo for sharing. I wonder why it doesn't taste the same. Different rice? The meat isn't as good?
That looks delicious! Missing Zippy’s so much❤🇨🇦
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Wow!!! A lot of thought went into eating the zip pac. For me, I try to eat a protein and rice in the same bite with the volume of the meat matching the volume of rice. Plate lunches are definitely a comfort food. Not something would be able to eat every day or even every week. It helps that I don't live there anymore. I can resist eating the plate lunches here indefinitely, but when I get back, watch out.
Definitely not something I could eat everyday. Not sure how some people do that in downtown Honolulu. Kanak attack!
I love this video! I always do one bite of meat with one bite of rice. Unless you are eating loco moco, then I try to get everything into each bite. 😂
I try to go back and forth too. Just need to make sure you don't run out of rice. 🤙
Loved the topic! I have a similar process as you have when eating the Zip Pac, and I always try to make the rice and the protein end at the same time. I tend to eat any plate lunch in the order according to the flavors I like least to best. I always want to finish strong with the favorite flavor in my mouth at the end. And I never want to end with only plain rice, but if it has gravy on it, or furikake, then not so bad if there's extra rice . And, of course, I gotta have chopsticks to eat 'em. In fact, here on the mainland, I always ask for chopsticks when I get any Asian food. One other thing - I must have Tobasco for my mac salad. So ono! (I'm not fond of just mayo in the mac salad.)
I'll be in the Islands next month, so I hope to see you when I'm on Oahu. Would be fun to have some time to talk story with you, but I realize you have plenty of commitments, between family, job and the vlog. Probably won't happen, but if I see you, I will say "Aloha!"
Maybe we'll run into each other. Busy with family and work, but we're around Town and it's a small place. 🤙
@@HelloFromHawaii I know I'll be busy, too, since my time there is limited, but I'll keep my eyes peeled for you when I'm in your neighborhood.
lol hell yes 👍🏼 this kind of content 🤤
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Too much thinking & waving da ono bento in front of me! 😂🫣 The plastic green thing was ridiculous. The appearance of food affects my expectations of how they’ll taste, I’m sometimes disappointed. Enjoy(ed) your lunch!
Hope you didn't get too hungry. I was getting hungry while filming the video. 😂
@@HelloFromHawaii No wonder you kept this video short.😂
@HelloFromHawaii sign at Zippy’s this morning. Zip Pack $14.75! 😱👎😳