Loco Moco

Hilo, Hawaiʻi island, 1949 — created by Richard Inouye at the Lincoln Grill at the request of a group of teenagers from the Lincoln Wreckers Social Club who wanted something hot and cheap; the name was contributed by Nancy Inouye; the dish spread across all Hawaiian islands and is now an internationally known Hawaiian food icon

Hawaii's comfort food invention — two scoops of steamed white rice topped with a grilled beef hamburger patty, drowned in brown gravy, and crowned with a fried egg (or two) — was created in 1949 at the Lincoln Grill in Hilo by teenagers who wanted a hot, filling meal cheaper than a sandwich. The name 'loco moco' is Hawaiian slang meaning roughly 'crazy mixed up thing', and the dish is precisely that: a food category collision that should not work and does. The gravy is the critical element — too thin and the rice absorbs it and becomes porridge; the correct consistency is thick enough to hold a glossy pool on top of the patty and flow slowly over the rice. The fried egg yolk breaks as you eat and becomes part of the gravy; the moment of yolk-breakage is a defining sensory event.

Eaten for breakfast or lunch at Hawaiian drive-ins; at 2am after a night out (Hilo's local diner culture); the egg breaks, the yolk meets the gravy, and the whole thing is eaten with a spoon against the rice; with Hawaiian Sun Iced Tea or a fountain drink; the Loco Moco is intentionally excessive — it is comfort food without apology