Pupus an Island Tradition

Having a community Luau and needed authentic Hawaiian finger food. Found it in this book, easy to make, and tasty

Sachi Fukuda is a natural foodie who was born and raised in Hilo and worked as secretary to the chief at the Hawaii Police Department for 35 years before retiring in 1987. She says she didn't know how to cook when she got married 40 some years ago. She used cookbooks, followed recipes faithfully and gradually developed an interest in collecting pupu recipes for frequent potluck gathering of family and friends. This interest grew into doing cooking demonstrations and calls from friends to publish a cookbook, which naturally turned out to be on pupus. "Pupus...Island Adaptations" was published in 1983, followed in 1989 by "Pupus...Again". These books were compiled into one book and published by Bess Press as "Pupus...An Island Tradition" (*) in 1995 and still available today. Because of requests for recipes other than pupus over the years in early 2005 her latest book "Pupus...Plus" was recently published. Sachi modestly comments about her success: "I survived all these years because of their (family and friends) kindness. I am not a good cook; I just enjoy cooking."

Born and raised in Hawaii, Sachi Fukuda gives cooking demonstrations, conducts cooking classes, and is dedicated to experimenting with recipes -- especially those which are ethnically relevant to Hawaiian cuisine's impressive diversity. Her latest cookbook, Pupus: An Island Tradition is a 170-page compendium of delicious, nutritious, palate pleasing and kitchen friendly recipes divided into sections devoted to "Dips and Spreads", "Breads and Cheese Pastry", "Mushrooms", "Vegetables", "Chicken", "Seafoods", "Meats", "Healthy Pupus", and a final section called "Miscellaneous". From Hot Broccoli Dip; Portuguese Mini-Pizza; Mushroom Newberg; and Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes; to Butter-Honey Chicken Bits; Oven Curried Shrimp with Hot Marmalade Dip; Beef Sashimi; Terriyaki Tofu; and Korean Aburage, Pupus: An Island Tradition is a simply wonderful and exotic addition to any kitchen cookbook collection.

I love this book. The recipes are very easy to make and very original. It is excellent and well laid out.