Plate lunch

This is another food post with a cultural angle. The plate lunch is a thing here. Those establishments offering this option advertise it as such. The cultural association with the plate lunch taps into Kauai's multicultural background. As I understand the origin, field workers used to bring food to their work site and at lunch time share with each other. We midwesterners might describe this as pot luck. The mix of backgrounds present in the fields led to some very interesting food combinations. Foodies might describe this as fusion. At least this how I as a nonfoodie and a midwesterner would attempt to explain the phenomenon. I see that a bento box is an alternate description, but bento box has a different meaning to me.

I am not certain if the quality of the food is a cultural thing, but a couple might try ordering one plate and maybe an app until they have visited a given establishment a few times. Our experience was with a plate lunch forward establishment called Bobbie's. You can find lists of best plate lunch eateries online and Bobbies was #2.

My plate is at the bottom of the photo - rice, fried seimen, beef, chicken, mushrooms. Everything seems to have been marinated or sauced.