Rearview Mirror: Omiyage — gifts of aloha

Jul 19, 2023

COURTESY 88 TEES, TEA CHEST HAWAII, BIG ISLAND CANDIES AND EDEN IN LOVE

Popular omiyage items to take on trips include Big Island Candies, Tea Chest Hawaii teas, Eden in Love eco bags and Maui Strong items such as 88 Tees’ collab T-shirt, according to Sean Morris.

COURTESY 88 TEES, TEA CHEST HAWAII, BIG ISLAND CANDIES AND EDEN IN LOVE

Popular omiyage items to take on trips include Big Island Candies, Tea Chest Hawaii teas, Eden in Love eco bags and Maui Strong items such as 88 Tees’ collab T-shirt, according to Sean Morris.

COURTESY 88 TEES, TEA CHEST HAWAII, BIG ISLAND CANDIES AND EDEN IN LOVE

Popular omiyage items to take on trips include Big Island Candies, Tea Chest Hawaii teas, Eden in Love eco bags and Maui Strong items such as 88 Tees’ collab T-shirt, according to Sean Morris.

COURTESY 88 TEES, TEA CHEST HAWAII, BIG ISLAND CANDIES AND EDEN IN LOVE

Popular omiyage items to take on trips include Big Island Candies, Tea Chest Hawaii teas, Eden in Love eco bags and Maui Strong items such as 88 Tees’ collab T-shirt, according to Sean Morris.

Most Hawaii schools have started up, marking a vague end to the summer vacation season. Of course, in Hawaii an important aspect of off-­island trips is omiyage, the gifts of aloha we take to our friends, or the goodies we bring home with us.

Omiyage is a Japanese word that translates to “local product” or more loosely as “souvenir.”

I usually take Kona coffee and macadamia nuts to the mainland. The empty space in my suitcase is then filled up with a stop at a Trader Joe’s for cookies, nuts or dried fruit to bring home to friends.

I asked readers about their favorite gifts. Here’s some of what them said.

“It could be anything local, really,” Kathy Kane commented. “Once, I took Sun noodles to Oklahoma for my daughter, who was missing saimin. I had to go to their factory in Moiliili to get them.”

Filled cooler

“We used to take our daughter, Mari, and her family in Centennial, Colo., near Denver, laulau and poi,” Carol Sakai-Feiteira said. They recently found an Asian market that sells them sometimes.

“So now we take a cooler filled with eight Redondo’s Portuguese sausage, Napoleon Bakery’s apple Napples, Liliha Bakery’s Coco Puffs, Anna Miller’s peach pie, three types of Cookie Corner bite-size cookies, Shishido mochi, Ani’s apricot bread and three bottles of hot sauce from Windward Mall’s Farmers Market.

“We also take lilikoi butter. It’s my granddaughter’s favorite to put on anything, including cinnamon toast!

“If we can make enough room in our suitcases for most of the nonperishable items, we pick up Korean food from Tasty’s or Yummy’s BBQ to put into the cooler. They haven’t found a good Korean restaurant in their area yet.”

Snacks

Michele Baker in Waikiki said, “My husband and I just visited our kids and grandkids in West Virginia. We shipped back our own treats: spicy Planter’s Heat peanuts, Utz Creamy Onion Dip, Martin’s BBQ potato chips and Armour Vienna sausages (not Libby!). Plus, some good friends gave us some local honey. Yum!”

Egg cartons

Tony Saifuku had an unusual item. “In the mid-1960s my father was stationed in Thailand working on the construction of a new pineapple canning facility for Dole. He and my mother lived in a small village south of Bangkok.

“Returning from home leave, my mother would take to Thailand egg cartons that her friends had collected for her. When you went shopping at the village market, you would bring back eggs that you purchased in a string bag.

“Inevitably, an egg or two would get broken by the time she got home. Eventually, many women in the village had egg cartons from Hawaii when they went shopping.

“She also brought to Thailand No. 2 pencils and Bisquick — my father needed to have his pancakes.”

Coors beer

“When living in L.A., I’d bring back a case of Coors, when it wasn’t sold at stores in Hawaii yet,” Mal Chan said. “Once after picking cherries at the orchard, I sent a case of them to family here. They were a big hit!”

Peanuts ’n’ beer

Marian Yee agreed. “In the very early 1970s, before Coors beer was widely distributed nationwide, you were immediately A-listed when you arrived at the party with a six-pack or more in hand.

“I got invited to parties because I brought pounds of boiled peanuts to complement the beer. During that time I was a college student working at the local business that supplied the boiled peanuts to Aloha Stadium and supermarkets.”

Premium beer

Jon Rigney concurred. “When Coors was brought back to the islands because of unavailability here, the beer was their ‘Premium’ brew, which was a great beer.

“When they went national and it was sold locally, it was their ‘Banquet’ beer, a completely different beer from the Premium beer. That is why it fell out of favor with the local beer connoisseurs.”

Samoan Samsonite

Hiroshi Kato said, “A good gift from American Samoa was canned wahoo (ono). It tasted similar to canned tuna, but milder and tastier.

“If you knew someone who worked at one of the canneries, you could buy a case, pack it in a ‘Samoan Samsonite’ and add it to your luggage.”

What did he mean by Samoan Samsonite? “It’s a cardboard box secured with rope,” he said, “which also serves as a handle — very practical.”

Red coconut balls

“My favorite Hawaiian candy are the red coconut balls,” George Butterfield said. “From small-kid time to now, I continue to enjoy them.

“I live in northern Nevada now so always make sure I get the red coconut balls whenever we are back in Hawaii. We bring Nevada-­made items as omiyage for our friends.

“The past couple of years, we have been bringing boxes of a dozen handmade chocolate candies made by our favorite Reno chocolatier.”

Top 10

I asked Sean Morris, who works in Asian marketing and media relations, what is popular from his vantage point. He said, “As for omi­yage that locals bring, here are a few things that I know are still popular:

>> Hawaiian Host chocolate mac nuts

>> Big Island Candies chocolate dipped shortbread cookies or brownies, and Harumi’s Hawaiian Salt Cookies

>> Honolulu Cookie Co. shortbread cookies

>> Mauna Loa mac nuts

>> Lion coffee, unless they are a little more affluent, then Kona Coffee Purveyors, Kai Coffee or other brands of Hawaiian coffee

>> Kaiulani Spices bottled seasonings

>> Tea Chest Hawaii teas

>> Beef jerky

>> Eden in Love eco bags

>> Maui Strong items, such as 88 Tees’ collab T-shirt”

Stop!

Ken Fujii said, “My most requested omiyage is from a state that I’m sure neither you nor your readers would guess. It’s from New Jersey, where my sister lives with her husband.

“It’s the ‘state candy’ — saltwater taffy — which was apparently invented in New Jersey in the 1880s. One candy maker from Atlantic City claims to offer 172 different flavors of saltwater taffy in both sugary and sugar-free versions.”

Fujii, however, cautioned islanders about one ubiquitous gift that he says is actually unwanted in Japan.

“The most frequently offered omiyage that Hawaii travelers to Japan give to the local Japanese tour guides in Japan is not mac nuts, chocolate-dipped shortbread cookies or something similar locally made to eat. .

“On my last Japan group tour, I was sitting with Matt, one of our guides, at a restaurant. We were talking and having a drink of sake and some pupu.

“We were approached by Mrs. Nakamura, one of the ladies in our tour group, and she whipped out three brown envelopes and handed them to Matt.

“She said, ‘One is for you, Matt, and the other two are for your boss at the office in Yokohama and the secretary. It’s from Hawaii.’ And Matt smiled and nodded in acknowledgement and thanked her for the omiyage gift.

“Matt then rolled his eyes and was about to say something, and another lady, Miss Yamamoto, approached our table and she also gave Matt a few brown envelopes for himself and the office staff. And after they exchanged pleasantries and she had left, Matt said to me, ‘I know what these are.’

“Matt said that they had almost 300 of those brown envelopes, all omiyage from visitors from Hawaii.

“Those brown envelopes contained Hawaiian wall calendars, the kind which you can purchase for less than a dollar at Longs and many discount stores around town.

“Matt said that the calendars are nice, with photos of beautiful Hawaiian scenery or flowers, but that they are not useful in Japan.

“The American-made calendars do not show Japanese holidays, or Buddhist and Shinto holy days, and other historical or religious days that are important in Japan. They show American and Canadian holidays and events that have no significance in Japanese culture. And so those calendars are useless for most folks in Japan.

“But the calendars keep coming, and no one has the temerity to tell well-meaning visitors to stop!”

Readers, what were your favorite vacations, and what omiyage do you take or bring home with you?

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Bob Sigall is the author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books. Contact him at [email protected] or sign up for his free email newsletter at RearviewMirrorInsider.com.

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