For Traditional Hawaiian Macaroni Salad, Don't Skimp On One Ingredient

If you order plate lunches from popular Hawaiian restaurants, you can rest assured that you'll always get at least one scoop of macaroni salad with your meal, along with some rice and your main entrée. The mac salad is typically a simple concoction of elbow macaroni, sometimes with a scattering of shredded vegetables like carrots or onion. But most importantly, it has plenty of mayonnaise — usually about two cups of mayo to one prepared dry pound of pasta. That's pretty much it — there are very few bells and whistles when it comes to Hawaiian mac salad. There's typically not even sugar, vinegar, mustard, or MSG, though some recipes do deviate from tradition. 

You have to use mayonnaise in this macaroni salad, and there is a preferred brand of mayo too — Best Foods, which is known as Hellmann's in other parts of the country. Hellmann's is a staple brand nearly everywhere, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that it's popular in Hawaii, too. 

What's quietly great about Hawaiian mac salad is that it's just made with a minimal amount of shelf-stable pantry ingredients, two of which many people usually have on hand. For an island state where many products need to be brought in from the mainland, it's easy to see how this perfect combination of noodles and mayo has evolved to be a regular part of everyday lives in Hawaii.

If you've ever had Hawaiian macaroni salad, you may have noticed one thing: It's always pretty soft. That's because the noodles in the salad are boiled well beyond al dente, and it's done like that for a reason. When overcooked, the mayo is better able to permeate the noodles. After the mac has been dressed and cooled, the soft noodles firm up slightly to just the right texture. Deliberately overcooking pasta might seem counterintuitive according to what many have been taught in the kitchen, but considering macaroni salad is meant to be held chilled, keeping it soft actually makes quite a bit of sense in these ways.

Mac salad's cooling and silky texture plays well against the crisp texture of char-grilled and fried meats, and it is distinct enough from the bouncy grains of white rice to give your plate lunch some textural diversity. This hearty and starchy side makes for an excellent accompaniment to Hawaii's more flavorful main dishes, like chicken katsu, teriyaki meats, or kalua pig. If you want to try your hand at making it, we've got you covered with our own Hawaiian mac salad recipe. All you need to add is a scoop of rice and a hearty protein, and you might as well be eating on the Big Island.