- Try it.
(crunches)
Oh.
I thought that I could just bite down on it,
chew through.
No there's a, there's a big. There's a big...
- Okay, there's a seed in it you have to kind of
bite the, yeah. - There's a huge seed.
(upbeat tropical music)
- Hi I'm Malia. I grew up on Maui Hawaii and
it's basically like a fun, tropical rock.
- Hi I'm Michelle.
Um I grew up in Arcadia, which is about
20 miles east of LA.
Today I think I'm gonna try out some Hawaiian snacks.
Maybe some that I've never seen or tasted before.
- Hi my name is Julie and I am a southern California native.
- Hi guys my name is Sean Ikaika 'Opohaku Chong-Umeda
I know it's long, trust me.
I'm from Honolulu Hawaii, born and raised.
One thing I love about Hawaii so much is its a wide
arrange of things.
It's a melting pot of different cultures.
So you have like Japanese snacks, Korean snacks,
Chinese snacks, Hawaiian snacks, Portuguese snacks.
And we kind of like just mix mash it into like this
amazing beautifulness of like yummyness and I love it.
(upbeat tropical music)
- Mochi crunch. Oh my god.
This. This is like,
a go to.
- It's our classic Chex Mix right here.
So California right here.
- So this is called, okay, so there's like 500 names.
So I known this back home as sakura arare or mochi crunch.
Um sakura arare is because it's shaped as like the sakura
cherry blossom.
But you put this with popcorn with some furikake in it.
Oh it's so good!
- Okay.
- Sweet.
(crunches)
- That's like a flavor bomb of like soy sauce.
(laughing)
(crunches)
- Super crunchy.
And then if you get the corners there's like,
a little bit of like, this char to it.
- I mean I'll eat the the pretzel if I have to, but,
I'm not really a pretzel fan.
This bread piece looking one.
I picked this out, and forget about everything else.
(energetic tropical music)
- Woo!
- Kool-Aid Sparklers!
- So this is Hawaiian Sun.
This is everywhere in Hawaii, every grocery store,
every mom-and-pop store.
- This juice is literally mouthful of heaven.
- I haven't had this since I was maybe in like third grade.
And that was only if it was like, a good day
and my mom was like, "you're allowed to have sugar."
- Here you go.
- Pass-O-Guava Nectar
- I've never had this one before.
- It smells a little tart. Like it could be not sweet.
Oh! This is really yummy.
- I've never had Kool-Aid as a soda.
This tastes like a soda.
- So it is like carbonated Kool-Aid.
- I don't know, I don't like it that much
to be quite honest.
- I love this, I mean, it honestly tastes like
a can of Hawaii.
(tropical music)
- Warheads! Oh my god yes. My childhood.
All of my childhood things!
- Woo!
- Wow, Warheads! This is such a throwback, oh my god.
- Okay so you know how I was talking about
the li hing powder?
Well this is li hing mui which is literally the
epitome of like, Hawaiian salty sour foods.
- This is li hing mui, and it's like a seed with this
coating over it.
I remember growing up having it.
At the beginning, I didn't like it, and then as I
got a little older I didn't mind it.
This is definitely a strong taste.
It will make you grow a mustache and some muscles.
(laughs)
- Warheads is just very sour.
I'm kinda scared.
- Is there different flavors?
- Oh my gosh. Like as soon as you
open the bag you can smell it.
It smells very tart.
- I love lemon because it's like,
lemons are already sour as is.
But it's like that plus the Warheadness.
It's like sour times infinity.
So try the lemon first!
- The lemon flavor.
- Yes!
- And so, lets pop this.
I haven't had anything sour in so long. This is so sour.
- But is it more sour than this?
- Yes.
- It tastes different from like the dried plum sour belts
which is more like candy.
It's like salty,
and kind of bitter.
You said this is good right?
(Sean whimpers)
It's like sour and bitter and funky.
But, I'm gonna go in and try it.
Oh. I bit down on it, okay.
I thought that I could just bite down on it,
chew through.
No there's a, there's a big. There's a big...
- Okay, there's a seed in it you have to kind of
bite the, yeah. - There's a huge seed.
(tropical music)
- Good old Slim Jim. (laughs) What is that?
- So this is ika, which is shredded, soft squid.
- Ah.
Have you had this?
This is so good! - I think I've had
- [Michelle] Is that squid?
- Mhm. Dry squid.
- Oh.
- This is so good.
I remember growing up, my mom used to get these for me
all the time and I always used to like, constantly eat it.
Finish the bag.
- I have a Slim Jim. (laughs)
I always think of this as like, gas station food.
- I mean anything Slim Jim and beef jerky, like,
That's my jam, so.
- I'll gladly switch this with you.
Have fun with it.
- I am very very intrigued by this shredded squid situation.
- Anyways. Tradesies!
(laughs)
- Oh wait. Oh there. No.
- Oh my gosh. It smells really weird and stinky
but let's see.
- Oh no.
It's an interesting stringy--
(Sean cries)
(squeals)
- Ah! Oh my god.
- The texture is really funky.
Like it's like, rubbery,
and kinda stringy.
- See I like these. These are just like slim beefy sticks.
- Mkay so, dried squid
- Very meaty.
- is not as dry as you might think, its actually.
You can see like, all these little fibers flaking off
which look weird but they're actually kinda yummy and chewy.
- This reminds me of something in Hawaii that we call
like Portuguese sausage. I don't know why its called a--
- I love, I love Portuguese sausage.
- Right? It tastes like Portuguese sausage but just like,
in a skinnier skinny form.
- This isn't bad at all. Only four grams of,
four grams of carbs which, I mean, I'd imagine,
pretty keto friendly right?
Very California right?
- Yes. Yes.
(tropical music)
- [Both] Last snacks!
- So I said li hing mui was like the pinnacle of
Hawaiian foods and snacks.
This is the pinnacle of Hawaiian foods and snacks.
Everyone knows chocolate and macadamia nuts.
- Well this is very Californian.
Acai and blueberry flavored dark chocolate, so,
essentially dark chocolate covered dried fruits.
- Trade!
- Here you go.
- Here we go.
- Ah.
- Whoa.
- Look at these luscious little babies.
- This is so good. I love mac nuts.
It's all about the milk chocolate. (laughs)
- It's good.
- Does it taste healthy?
- A little bit.
Like, at first it doesn't taste healthy 'cause
I just taste this chocolate and then as I keep on chewing
I'm like, what is this like healthy flavor?
It's acai berries.
- This is so good.
- Enjoy!
- Mmm.
So yummy.
Like, it's milk chocolate and macadamia nuts.
Like, it's just perfect. Like, what else do you need?
- This makes me feel more like an adult.
This literally feels like an adult snack.
- I feel like the more you have, suddenly its like,
oh wow this actually, it grows on me. I like it.
But for like the milk chocolate macadamia like,
you just love it right off the bat 'cause its delicious.
- I feel like a lot of the snacks I've eaten today,
like, I know the flavors, I know the taste.
I know that they like to make alternative
healthier versions of things.
Um, but eating the Hawaiian snacks just reminded me
of just how much that I love not healthy food.
- I feel like hands down the Hawaiian snacks were
so much better.
Because they were like really tasty.
You could see yourself eating the whole bag.
Like, I could eat the rice crackers literally like you said
any time of day.
I could definitely eat the box of
milk chocolate macadamia nuts anytime.
- The Kool-Aid strawberry Sprite soda looking thing.
That's actually pretty good. It's a lot of sugar.
Slim Jim beef sticks. Yes.
I would definitely eat that all the time
on any road trip or any snack if I see it.
- I mean California has some like, combinations of
healthy or non-healthy snacks.
But Hawaii snacks definitely have that little ounce of
the tropical magic in my opinion.
Like, I mean I love traveling and vacationing in Hawaii
and it brought me back to like, the flavors of Hawaii.
(tropical music)