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Watch: Slurping Saimin at Sekiya’s, a Honolulu Classic

Japanese Hawaiian comfort food means noodle soup and meat on sticks

The eighth season of Dining on a Dime gets off to a steamy start as host Lucas Peterson and the DOD crew visit Sekiya's Restaurant and Delicatessen, a classic Honolulu establishment serving Japanese-Hawaiian comfort food.

Sekiya's opened in 1935, and has been a local favorite — serving three meals a day, every day of the week — ever since. In this segment, Peterson steers himself past the koi pond and into a booth to order a spread of the restaurant's signature dishes, including the ideal Honolulu breakfast: a hot bowl of saimin. Saimin is a noodle soup dish developed during the plantation era of Hawaii's history, when Portuguese, Chinese, and Japanese laborers combined ingredients to create a morning meal. Now an essential part of the state's culinary identity, it can be found even on the menus of island McDonald's locations. Watch the video above to learn more.

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