Manapua Man (with Lanai Tabura)

Aloha mai kakou Welcome to a new episode of What School You Went?, where we start every conversation with this question because well, that's how we connect here in Hawaii. I'm Ron Mizutani and today we're talking about the manapua man. And I have to say it, the manapua lady, because they're out there as well. Every community has one. And you know when they've arrived. You know growing up in Hawaii in the 70s there were a few ice cream trucks and even food trucks. Instead, we had the manapua men.

Thanks for having me. Is it like old as in age?

You're one of my mature friends.

Okay. I take that.

First things first. What school you went?

I went Lanai High School. Yeah, Hail Hail Hail Lanai High.

Sing me your first... your alma mater.

Oh my gosh, I asked-- I usually ask people that and they always forget, now I forget. Can you ask me that in a little bit?

But you folks were the...

Pinelads. Which I don't know what is, till today? I don't know what it is. It's a Pine Lad and Pine Lasses was the girls.

Some of the best athletes.

Yes, for sure.

You know, we had Jimmy Fernandez was my classmate.

Oh really?

At Kamehameha Schools.

Was he really?

The guy could do I'm not kidding you four, 500 sit-ups, push ups...

Yeah, physical fitness was was the thing. And he was he was an amazing wrestler.

Yes he was. Yes he was.

Yeah, I didn't know you guys were classmates. I know Jimmy very well. So you're a couple years older than me.

Oh, just a couple, just a couple. But yeah, cuz the Lanai Lads, and then the Molokai Farmers

Molokai Farmers. So it's funny because when they were our rivals, right? Whenever we went to play with each other or against each other, their gym was packed. The whole island show up. There was nothing else to do. When they came to see us, our gym was packed. When we went to see them, they would put our faces on pineapples, and the farmers would harvest us. Plow us over. And it was so funny, but that was like our rival.

Yeah, the Molokai Farmers. I have a story about the Molokai Farmers. I'll share with you on another show.

Okay.

Yeah, I want to talk a little bit about the manapua man and manapua lady. Growing up on Lanai though, did you folks have a manapua truck?

We didn't, but we had a place that sold them. And then, of course, you had people who sold them in the park, Dole Park in the middle of the island. And then I spent most of my summers, either here or Maui. So I got to experience the manapua man, as far as I can remember, you know, what's cool, too, is I actually did I was part of a manapua man documentary about 10 years ago, and it just surfaced on YouTube because I guess it wasn't on

Yeah, of course the Chinese, our Chinese immigrants came here to work in the plantations. They say char siu bao, right?

Yeah. Do you-- I, so I have two stories.

Yeah.

Can I share my two stories?

Yes, please. Absolutely.

So the bao came from that. And it was a mound of pork on a piece of bread. And in the 1800s, the Hawaiians saw it and said mana puaa. And they said mound of pork, and they mispronounce it to manapua. But then also, there was another version with the Hawaiian word that means snack. And I can't remember the name of it. But I've got these two different versions from a handful of kupuna. And there was like 50/50.

Yeah, yeah.

What did you get?

I remember because, you know, back in the Heights, we have to learn about mea ono.

Mea ono, that was the other one.

So it was like a pastry.

Right.

But of course, the puaa story stuck as well. And that makes sense. Because now we all say manapua. And a lot of people don't know where manapua came from.

Right?

They think it's a Chinese word.

Yeah. And I have, you know, I do a lot of food things now, the last 10 years of my career. I've had chefs from all over the world, when they come from China, even from Hong Kong, they tell me what is this manapua? We wanna taste. You know, because because they don't know. They-- it's, it's obviously derived from the bao and it was smaller. And then Filipinos have their own as well. And then you have... Taiwan has a little different from Hong Kong. Everyone has

Yeah, yeah. I mean, even though the char siu bao--I say manapua.

Yeah.

But even the char siu bao in Chinatown is different from...

Yeah, so where's your spot?

Oh gosh, my go to used to be Libby's

Mine too. Yeah, 57 years.

So sad.

So the grandkids just wanted to retire. So I asked for the-- I was there when they announced it. And I asked if we could have the recipe or at least carry on. They didn't want to share with anybody.

Interesting.

I like Royal Kitchen.

Yes.

I think they've been open since 1982 or something like that.

You know the story behind Libby's pink box?

Yes. I kind of do.

Yeah. So what's your version?

Okay, so do you know... have you ever heard of the Donut King?

Yes.

Out of L.A.

Yes.

He's Cambodian.

Yes.

He would create that empire. Same story, I heard.

Same story.

Yeah. So basically, everyone was putting everything in a white box. And he thought how could I be different? So they use the pink box. Right?

Same story.

Okay, we're on the same page.

Yeah. Yeah. Boy...

We're like manapua historians.

I'm gaining weight just talking about it. But you know, when the manapua man used to come to town, true story, I mean, everybody would even know the sound of his van or or, or a truck. The Beep.

Yeah.

And you know, it was just a mad race to get to the manapua man and it wasn't only about manapua.

No.

Slide that plexiglass that they all had, seemed to have. And it's, you know, manapua, fried saimin.

Yes.

What's your memories?

It is that. I think the fried noodles was actually my main thing for the manapua man. As much as I liked manapua. For some reason I got that manapua in the plastic bag.

Yeah.

And then it was always ice cream or you know, some kind of soda, or passion orange or whatever. But it was always the noodles. And then I remember...

The fried noodles was always oily.

Had to be. Or else it wasn't true to the game. It's not the real thing if it wasn't oily, right? And then they would have chow fun. I love the chow fun. But there was a truck that I used to go to, I think it was in Aiea. Or van. My cousins live in Aiea. So he was either Aiea or Waialua. They always had cone sushi. And that's not Chinese. That was Japanese. Right? But that just shows you kind of how the plantations brought all of us together.

Yeah.

You know, I do this food tour now. I've been doing it for eight years. And they're private. And I take you to Kalihi and then we do a whole thing and we stop at Chun Wah Kam-- used to be Libby's-- we do Chun Wah Kam, we do the taro chip factory, we do Young's. And I tell the history of the plantation from when the Chinese came in 1790 all the way to, you know, when they came in 1852 for the sugar plantation and all that. So I'm very aware of the backstory behind all of these

Yeah.

I love this stuff.

For sure. My gosh, you just sent me back to growing up in Hanamaulu, on Kauai. My grandparents or my great grandparents, like probably yours, they emigrated to the islands. My great grandfather, Walter Schumacher. He was six foot nine, you know...

That's where you got the height.

Well, I don't know about that. I'm shrinking. It's true, you know, after you're a certain age, you start to go down...

The belly drags you down huh?

The belly drags you down, gunfunit. But you know, growing up in the plantations and knowing their history, and my grandfather being German, my mom's side, my grandfather was half-Spanish, half-Korean. And on the mom's side was German, Japanese, Hawaiian. That side, same thing, and and you're right, it's the culture's all coming together. And sometimes it would show up in a manapua truck.

Yeah, Yeah. And it really brought the neighborhood together, right? We had an ice cream truck come to my neighborhood and Punchbowl two weeks ago. We never get the ice cream truck. I've never seen an ice cream truck in years. But the music was blasting. And it's the first time I met... I knew most of my neighbors, but there was some neighbors I've never met. It's always a hi, bye, drive-by and I live in a dead-end street. And the ice cream truck came out. And everybody piled out of the

30 in the afternoon. And it was a trip, and I was telling my brother, I go, "look, when's the last time you seen everybody come out of their house to meet together?"

Right.

You know, and he was like, "it's kind of like the manapua truck." I go, "exactly." But everyone came for ice cream.

Yeah. It's great memories. Now you show up in a white van and people run.

Yeah.

Nothing good. Nothing good can be coming out of that. But you know... and not to be stereotyping, but many of them were Chinese.

Yeah.

And I know the manapua lady. I know Mrs. Lee, you know, and I'm sure they made pretty good money. They work hard.

Yeah. Remember when it used to be a quarter?

Yep.

You know, I mean, I guess probably showing our age, but it was really affordable.

Oh, yeah.

Not too long ago. It wasn't like, you know, 100 years ago.

But that's what made it sweet. Special, rather.

Yeah.

You as a child could go show up with, you know, 50 cents and you still could have...

A meal.

...a meal.

Yeah.

And a soda.

Somebody asked me today, one of my guests asked me today, how come so many Chinese are here. And I said, if you actually look, most Hawaiians have Chinese last names, because the the first wave of Chinese that came 1852 to work on the sugar plantation was 30,000 single men, and they never saw brown women before. That's why most Hawaiians have Chinese last names, you know? And we gotta thank them for the noodles and the rice too.

Roger that. And in the dim sum and the pork hash, which by the way was part of the manapua...

That goes hand in hand right?

Yeah, you cannot have one without the other.

If you buy a box and you show up to somebody's house with manapua, there better be pork hash and what is the other one?

Pepeiao.

Pepeiao. Or half moon.

Half moon, yeah, half moon. Oh my gosh. And I mean, this is something else that I love with the manapua man too. Although it's hard to find these days, is rice cake.

Oh, yeah.

You know, and not many people make rice cake anymore.

Chun Wah Kam does a pretty good one. Yeah. And I think they're even doing a brown rice cake.

Yeah.

For the healthy. You can't do that.

Hey, what's the point? Like having a Big Mac with a Diet Coke?

Or a loco moco with no gravy.

What's the point?

It doesn't make it a loco moco anymore.

So Lanai didn't have a manapua truck.

Yeah.

But you guys would have it at lunch sometimes.

Oh, yes. Our school cafeteria was so small and everybody... you know, when you live in a small community like that, you have one school. One high school, one elementary, one intermediate, same campus. Same kitchen cooking for everybody. Everyone-- at my time, 30 was the minimum, 50 maybe was the biggest class so it was manageable to make real food. You know, nowadays, I feel sorry for the kids, they're getting, you know, processed frozen food. But we had real good food. I remember for snack,

Yeah.

And for years, the one of the ladies, you know, everybody at Lanai High School gets sent there first. You know, if you're a brand new teacher, you go Lanai, or you go Molokai or you go Maui, they were sent to the small country schools. So I remember our school cafeteria lady, Miss Mao. She was very young. She's like almost the same age as us. Like when I was 17, she was 23 or 24. She's now at Waialua High School. But she was awesome. Because all the older ladies, when she went in

Wow.

You know, so manapua was one of them. That's an amazing story. They called it the manapua? Yeah. Yeah. And everybody knew what day was manapua day.

Everybody went school that day.

The whole school showed up for lunch.

Nobody played hooky on that day.

No.

You know, we talked about manapua man, the truck, the van whatever the vehicle they showed up in, I gotta ask you, because I know you just came back from San Francisco. The Great Food Truck Race.

Yeah.

Congratulations on the first victory. Aloha Plate really made a big splash. In fact, one of your stops was in Minneapolis and my son was there supporting you guys.

That's right. That's right.

And I think you guys served Spam that day.

Yeah. Because that's where it was made.

Right, Minnesota.

Yeah.

But second go-round, what was it like? The all-star finals.

It was the All-Stars. They just showed the final last night. We got eliminated three weeks ago. So we made it to the Final Four. It was very challenging to say the least. It was during the pandemic. The city was empty. It was a ghost town. You were in... some of the trucks, half of the trucks are from California. So they had their families, which I'm not making any excuses. But it was a tough competition. You're dealing with guys who own four or five restaurants. Waffle

Who... because, after you folks were eliminated, all due respect to the show, my wife and I said "we're out." So I know last night was the finale?

Yeah.

Who...

Lime Truck.

Lime Truck won.

Yeah Lime Truck. Thank God they won. Because yeah, the other guys were just cry babies.

Yeah.

They cried every day.

Every time.

Every day, every week. Yeah.

Yeah, I was getting a little frustrated. In the words of my daughter, I was getting a little irrahs. Well thanks for watching. Of course, represent.

It's been cool to walk around, you know, in the store and walk around the streets, how many people actually watched the show?

Oh, Food Network is huge.

Yeah.

I mean, you know that. We live... it's all about food. What school you went, and where's your favorite hamburger steak?

Right.

You know what I mean? I mean, that's our daily conversation.

Where is your favorite hamburger steak?

Good question. Meg's Drive-In, Kalihi.

Ooh, Meg's is awesome.

Let me tell you.

Meg's is great. Yeah.

My friends who say "Oh, come on." I'm telling you.

Yeah.

It's the gravy. The secret to a good hamburger steak...

Is the gravy.

It's the brown gravy.

You know who has a good one?

Who?

Jane's Fountain.

Oh...

Liliha.

Been there, done that. Yeah.

And the original Liliha Bakery.

Yeah.

I really like a charred hamburger once in a while.

Overcooked.

Yes.

Not burnt. But yeah, Jane's Fountain. That is a iconic institution.

80-something years now, they been open. So go support them, you guys. We gotta keep these guys open.

Jane's Fountain is a must-do. If you've never been to Jane's Fountain, you gotta go check that out.

For sure.

You know, when I think about the manapua man and manapua lady though. You don't see them. They're rare these days. And you can say, "oh, it's because 7-Eleven," or, you know, food truck in general... stolen some of that, you know,

We still have 'em though.

We still have them. I saw one in Pearl City.

In Ewa Beach I saw one.

Ewa Beach. They still have 'em.

I was thinking of when I did the documentary with those guys. I told 'em somebody needs to come out with a chain, like a fleet of manapua trucks, make them look little bit nicer.

Yeah. But not too nice.

Yeah.

Because there's shave ice guys that go around right now. It's too fancy.

No, you gotta have the sliding door.

And the broken speaker.

Gotta have the broken speaker.

Right.

You gotta have one guy who cannot speak good English. And you got to have that plexiglass.

You got to have the plexiglass.

Right? You can't fake that. It has to be looked like that.

And the horn got to kind of work but not really. Yeah, I mean, we're stereotyping, but it's really a part of who we...

It is.

Who our Hawaii is.

It is. Does anybody else have one?

I don't know.

I don't know anybody who has that type of truck. Or van I should say.

Well, they do. But they're doing really different things.

Yeah.

Again, if you show up in a white van these days, people gonna call HPD on you. But that's not the case.

Good you're covering this topic.

It's a must do.

You have to carry on the tradition.

Well, I didn't know there was a documentary so I'm kind of late to the party.

Yeah, no. Well, it was done by Moanalua High School. Video class.

Oh cool.

It was like a class project. But it was nice. They did a really good job.

Wow, I gotta go check it out.

It's on YouTube.

On YouTube. YouTube is another one of those social media things that I gotta get used to. Yeah, when I asked our team, "how do I start a podcast?" Then I said, "ah, just call Lanai, he's got like 50 of them."

You should-- this needs to be on-camera.

Well, when I lose 35 more pounds.

You look fine.

I'm gonna ask you to come back one day, and we go talk story

I'd love to anytime.

I got so much that I want to ask you, you're my dear friend, but you're a busy man. You're looking great, by the way.

Thank you.

Yeah, looking great. Kind of making me upset.

We should go paddle one day.

Yeah, somebody saw me the other day and said, "ho, you stopped paddling, ah?"

You know, you do six weeks of paddling and you're in shape already.

True that, true that. Not if you find the manapua man, though. All right. Hey, Lanai. Good to see you.

Thanks for having me. Congratulations on your new gig.

Well, thank you very much.

And I'm glad you're doing this. This is cool.

Yeah, very cool. I appreciate you. You know, all that you do for this community?

You do.

You are definitely somebody who is inspirational, but also just... you're a mentor. That's another way of saying you old.

Thank you, thank you.

All right. Mahalo nui for joining us on What School You Went? 'Till next time, a hui hou.

What School You Went? is a PBS Hawaii Production. Music by Taimane Gardner. If you enjoyed this episode, let us know on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and tell your friends. You can find us on pbshawaii.org and everywhere you get your podcasts.