Haupia.

I've eaten some haupia in my day. No experience in making my own though. I recently came into a small fortune in haupia mix...

What is it? Here's how I've described it in the past: "It's a coconut dessert. Hawaiian. Kinda gelatinous, but not as firm [as Jell-o]. I guess more pudding-like." 


I'm going to go ahead and assume the preparation from mix is different than making without. I really don't know. In this case, I boiled a little water in a small pot, added the powder mix. I stirred over heat until smooth. Poured off into a very small pan and left to cool in the kitchen. When it was cool enough to touch, I popped it into the refrigerator for about an hour to fully set.

My favorite serving of haupia is something I've had from Aloha Cafe in downtown Los Angeles in the Little Tokyo (J-Town) neighborhood, located in Honda Plaza at Central and Second. I might have mentioned Aloha before; the food is pretty good and service very friendly but notoriously slow and they often run out of several menu items. The time Eric and I went for late lunch was particularly understocked and slow despite us being practically the only customers there. I generally don't mention it to anyone but fellow Islanders. These people are definitely on "Hawaii time" and friends that don't crave a Spam plate the way I do, probably can't deal.

Back on topic, Aloha offers haupia cubed up and mixed with cut up strawberries for just under $4. Here's what theirs looks like:

You would not actually see haupia served this way in Hawaii, ever. But I like it so I've adopted it for my first attempt at home. I wanted something that was more spoonable, so I cut the strawberries quite small like confetti. My haupia cubed smaller too. A few spoonfuls of each in a nice glass dish and we had a nice light dessert after some heavy carnitas at my cousin's house.

Check it out:

It may be worth it to make haupia from a recipe using real coconut milk(?) instead of a mix. I'd love to have some that's richer and more coconutty in flavor. This was quite good and very simple. Think you might give this a try? Let me know how it works out. Perhaps different, more tropical fruit choices?