Every Day is a Food Day
Every Day is a Food Day
Feelin' Spiky About Pineapple
Aloha! Today we’re feeling spiky about one of our favorite fruits: pineapple! First, we'll hear about hosts Anna Van Valin and Lia Ballentine’s adventures with pineapple, including Lia's ride on the Pineapple Express and Anna's memorable DoleWhip experience at a conference called MurderCon held at Disneyland (you read that right). Then Lia tells us how International Pineapple Day got started as a joke, why pineapples were one of history's most coveted and expensive fruits, and how the pineapple became a symbol of hospitality, friendship and…swingers. In the Deep Dish, Anna explores how pineapple became Hawaiian (because it wasn't!) and shares the incredible story of the brave and talented Queen Lili’uokalanai, the last monarch of the kingdom of Hawaii. If you're a fan of pineapple, pineapple upside down cake, piña coladas, and even Hawaiian pizza (don't let Lia know), then join us on this juicy adventure. Mahalo!
Explore from the show:
- Watch the International Pineapple Day-themed trailer for Psych 2.
- Try making your own Dole Whip at home.
- Celebrate Asian American & Pacific Islander heritage by learning more about Queen Lili'uokalanai.
Connect with us:
- Want to support our women and BIPOC-created independent podcast? Buy us a coffee!
- For more great content about the stories & foods we talk about on the show (plus a peek BTS) follow us at @FoodDayPod on Instagram, Twitter & Facebook or check out our webpage.
- Its a GIVEAWAY! Enter to win a special gift box from our friends at Pantry Party, filled with exciting ingredients to elevate your meals.
- Join our mailing list to keep up with all the exciting things we have planned for this season.
(c) Van Valin LLC, Yumday Co
LIA 0:00:01
But if you were a poor person, you didn't have to totally be left out of this whole pineapple thing because you could rent pineapples.
ANNA 0:00:09
What?
LIA 0:00:10
You could rent them from pineapple merchants.
ANNA 0:00:12
Like bowling shoes?
LIA 0:00:15
Exactly. Do you have a pineapple in a size...in a size eight?
ANNA 0:00:19
Like “I'm having a party. I need folding chairs. Bounce House. Pineapple.”
Intro Theme Music
ANNA 0:00:27
Hi everyone, from Yumday and Van Valin Productions, welcome to Every Day is a Food Day! *** I’m your host, Anna Van Valin.
LIA 0:00:48
And I’m your other host, Lia B. We hope you like pina coladas…
ANNA 0:00:54
And getting lost in the rain.
LIA 0:00:56
Because this episode is all about pineapple
ANNA 0:01:00
First up, Lia reminiscences about her ride on the Pineapple Express, and I share the story of when I enjoyed a delicious Dole Whip at Disneyland while attending a conference known as MurderCon.
LIA 0:01:09
Then we’ll learn how International Pineapple Day was a prank that got out of hand, how pineapples were so coveted and expensive in the 1700s that you could actually rent one to look fancy, and how pineapples became a symbol of hospitality, friendship and...swingers. You’ll never look at a pineapple the same way again..
ANNA 0:01:31
In the Deep Dish, I’m going to tell you the juicy story about how pineapple became Hawaiian and one woman who was an absolute Queen. Seriously! Queen Lili’uokalanai, the last monarch of the kingdom of Hawaii.
LIA 0:01:46
Be sure to subscribe, and please leave a rating and review. Help us get the word out about the show by sharing it with anyone who loves food, podcasts - or both!
ANNA 0:01:54
For more great content about the foods and stories we talk about on the show, and to get a peak behind the scenes, connect with us on social media by following @FoodDayPod. Visit our website yumday.co/podcast where you can join our mailing list and enter our monthly giveaway for the chance to win a delicious prize. All these links in the show notes too.
ANNA 0:02:21
Hi Lia…
LIA 0:02:22
Hi Anna.
ANNA 0:02:24
Today, we're talking about our first fruit.
LIA 0:02:27
Yeah, that's true. We haven't done a fruit.
ANNA 0:02:29
We've talked about a tuber.
LIA 0:02:30
Yes.
ANNA 0:02:33
We've talked about a gourd, but not yet a fruit, and this is one of my favorite fruits.
LIA 0:02:37
Mine too. /Same. I love pineapple.
ANNA 0:02:41
/Oh my god. It's like got an attitude. You know what I'm saying.
LIA 0:02:43
Yeah it does. Just look at it.
ANNA 0:02:45
It's like, you want my juicy sweet inside, you gotta come through the spikey rind.
LIA 0:02:52
It's kind of like a punk fruit, just looking at it. Like all prickly and stuff.
ANNA 0:02:56
Yeah, I like that. But how do you like to eat pineapple?
LIA 0:02:59
I love pineapple chunks. I'll eat them in rings. Sure, but just give them to me in chunks. Yeah and fresh, fresh pineapple.
ANNA 0:03:07
When I was a kid, I used to love the pineapple rings, but I would try to wear it as a ring as I ate it, and then like ate around it and it made such a mess. I got style. What can I say? I was a kid with style. It's one of my favorite snacks, and if you don't eat it, the fresh pineapple, if you don't eat it fast... It'll ferment.
LIA 0:03:26
Yes, it will.
ANNA 0:03:28
It's like this sharp effervescent, kind of dangerous taste.
LIA 0:03:34
Well, yeah, I've, like, inadvertently made that fermented pineapple drink because I've left a little container of pineapple in the back of my refrigerator for when things get into the back, you just gotta forget what's there.
ANNA 0:03:48
But did you drink the fermented juice?
LIA 0:03:50
I had to try it.
ANNA 0:03:53
I mean pineapple makes all kinds of just delicious, delicious types of drinks.
LIA 0:03:57
Pineapple juice.
ANNA 0:03:59
You got your Pina Coladas, you got your mai tais.
LIA 0:04:01
That's right.
ANNA 0:04:01
You got your Dole whips.
LIA 0:04:07
The Dole whips. Oh my God, Dole whips.
ANNA 0:04:14
Disneyland, when we were able to go. I guess they're reopening now, but that seems like a trap. That seems... They're reopening and that seems just like a covid, like I'm gonna be a covid from goofy. I don't want it. No, no on, come this far. I don't want covid.
LIA 0:04:20
Goofy would spread it though. Just look at him.
ANNA 0:04:23
That dude does not cover his mouth when he coughs.
LIA 0:04:25
His tongue's all hanging out.
ANNA 0:04:27
Goofy. But the Dole Whip, Listeners, if you don't know, it's like sherbet made out of pineapple, and then you can either... Or soft serve. Pineapple soft serve.
LIA 0:04:38
It's a soft serve.
ANNA 0:04:40
And then you can either get a cup of just the pineapple soft serve, or you can get a Dole whip float, which is a cup of fresh pineapple juice with the pineapple soft serve. How do we even describe the glory of the Dole Whip.
LIA 0:04:56
Yeah, it's heavenly.
ANNA 0:04:57
It's also, as we've talked about, it's limited, you can... I've never seen Dole Whips anywhere else, I've never seen even like pineapple sherbet or ice cream, which I feel like is a huge misstep. Why do we have blue raspberry everything? Which isn't even a thing.
LIA 0:05:08
So I think you can have things that are sort of like pineapple whips, but to have a real Dole Whip, I believe requires the license and the purchasing of actual Dole whip mix from a Dole distributor, 'cause I looked into this.
ANNA 0:05:21
I know you did. I know you did.0:05:24 LIA: It was like last summer during covid, I thought “I wanna Dole Whip. How do I just make my own Dole Whips at home. Yeah. Do you own like a case of Dole whip powder packets from a wholesale…?
LIA 0:05:37
Guys, you can Amazon Prime cases of Dole Whip...
ANNA 0:05:41
Shut up. Am I ordering it right now?
LIA 0:05:45
I think you need to./
ANNA 0:05:47
/Oh, you need a soft serve machine. Do you have a soft serve machine?
LIA 0:05:49
I don't have one, but if you have an ice cream maker, you could kinda do it that way, but here's another tip, Cuisinart has a little countertop soft serve maker that you can pour your mix in and then have your Dole whip.
ANNA 0:06:00
Are you people listening?
LIA 0:06:01
Guys.
ANNA 0:06:03
We're giving you gold here. We're giving you gold like a sweet Golden delicious pineapple.
LIA 0:06:07
Yeah.
ANNA 0:06:09
Here’s a hack, if you're at Disneyland. So they sell Dole whips in Adventure Land near the Tiki room and the creepy a** birds, the creepy a** bird show, near Indiana Jones and such and Jungle Book. As you can tell, I grew up going to Disneyland, and up until the end of the world, I was an annual pass holder, so, people line up, they don't realize, you can pre-order Dole whips on the app, people...
LIA 0:06:42
What?
ANNA 0:06:43
There is a Mobile order app for Disneyland.
LIA 0:06:49
That's insane. You don't have to be in the Special D... What is it? 23 club or?
ANNA 0:06:53
No. Those clowns. On the second or third story over Pirates of the Caribbean with a little balcony lording over us, please. I'm not impressed. I'm a little jealous.
LIA 0:07:06
Just a little.
ANNA 0:07:07
No, well, there's a regular Disneyland app, which you should have anyway, guys, because that's how you do your fast passes, you do the paper fast, we're going way off the range here, you could do the paper fast passes, but you can do them through the app and through the app, you can also mobile order food,
LIA 0:07:24
Man, all these tips.
ANNA 0:07:25
And at the Disney Land Hotel, they have tiki bars at restaurants... They sell, wait for it. Boozy Dole whips. Dole whips spiked with rum. You heard it first.
LIA 0:07:39
Woah. Now that. That's amazing. A boozy Dole whip.
ANNA 0:07:42
Wanna know when I had a boozy...
LIA 0:07:44
Yeah, I... Tell me about your experience with boozy Dole whips at Disneyland.
ANNA 0:07:49
At the Disneyland hotel. I've stayed at the Disneyland Hotel one time. It was a completely surreal experience, which is like... You have to check reality at at the turnstiles when you get to Disneyland. But this was a more than usual surreal experience at Disneyland because my partner, Lou works in security and intelligence, and so every year there is a conference for people in his field looking at risks, threats, safety. security, violence, and it is affectionately referred to as MurderCon.
LIA 0:08:26
Wow, so MurderCon is at Disney... Or they held it at least at Disney.
ANNA 0:08:31
Yes. Every year murder con is held at Disney and people stay at the different Disneyland hotels. It is quite a juxtaposition between what's going on in the conference….
LIA 0:08:46
I was gonna say that's kind of weird,
ANNA 0:08:48
And the happiest place on earth. We stay at the Disneyland hotel, which in and of itself is bizarre, every single thing is Mickey, the shape of the shower head, the light switches, the... Everything is Micky, and the craziest thing is all the lamps and shit are sconces and the sconces are... Mickey's arm sticking out of the wall, holding the lamp, even the toilet paper is like Mickey's hand coming out of the wall. Like presenting you with the roll of toilet paper. So immediately you walk in and you're like, Mikey's trapped in the walls.
LIA 0:09:23
I know.
ANNA 0:09:24
Mickey is in a parallel dimension. He can't get out. He is stuck in the walls. He's trying to get our attention.
LIA 0:09:31
Someone help this mouse.
ANNA 0:09:33
Does anyone have a sledge hammer? Oh And the headboard, when you walked in was like this rhinestone scene of Disneyland with Cinderella's Castle and stuff, and like fireworks, and it was very pretty on the headboard, and then we were in the room and Lou was like, What does this switch do?
LIA 0:09:47
Uh Oh.
ANNA 0:09:48
And he flipped the switch and the whole headboard, Lit up. And this sound from somewhere was like, ping, ping, ping ping .
LIA 0:09:59
Oh no!
ANNA 0:10:06
Like the most f****** cursed music box you've ever heard.
LIA 0:10:10
That is freaky.
ANNA 0:10:12
And the fireworks were lighting up. And the castle was turning different colors. Can you imagine if you like get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, and you like, go to hit the light, and instead it's like ping, ping, ping, ping.
LIA 0:10:26
No!
ANNA 0:10:28
So Lou’s at this conference, watching these presentations stuff, on just like the worst calamities and disasters and things. And I'm at the pool.
LIA 0:10:37
At the Disneyland Hotel pool.
ANNA 0:10:39
I’m at the pool with my boozy Dole whip. I invited a friend who was also an annual pass member, and we just laid by the pool. And I was like, what are you doing. And he was like watching a presentation about a Las Vegas shooting and I was like ohh… But then I felt so bad. I went and got him a dole whip. I was so proud of myself I was being like A plus partner.
LIA 0:11:02
Yeah, that's so sweet.
ANNA 0:11:03
So I was like, meet me outside when you're done your thing, meet me outside, and I think he was getting out of a presentation by like, a mother of a school shooter.
LIA 0:11:09
Oh my gosh.
ANNA 0:11:11
Like that is the s*** he's going to, right. I'm at the pool, and so he comes out in his suit, and he's like, he looks very handsome and professional, and also just like.
LIA 0:11:22
Oh, I can't... Yeah.0:11:23 ANNA: Just, he's been watching this s*** all day, and I was like, I brought you a Dole whip. He was like, “Thanks, I can't bring it inside.” and I was like, “Oh no, well just eat the Dole whip, honey, you still have five minutes to eat the Dole whip” and he stood there with the saddest most broken crestfallen face, silently eating his Dole whip in his suit outside MurderCon. Meanwhile Goofy's walking around giving out hugs. And it's like, now is not the moment Goofy for this hug. Goofy probably has popped up on a slide at one of those things... I'm pretty sure, I'm pretty sure Goofy's been up to no good...
ANNA 0:12:13
Has anyone been to Goofy's apartment? It's probably a fucking arsenal in there.
LIA 0:12:19
Right?
ANNA 0:12:20
He's got problems. Don't piss off Goofy. This is not funny, this is terrible. But you... You have also had some amusement park type experiences with pineapple?
LIA 0:12:32
Yes I have. In Hawaii. Yeah.
ANNA 0:12:35
Tell us about it. We are gunna talk a lot about Hawaii today.
LIA 0:12:38
We are. Brandon and I had a chance to hang out in Hawaii, and we decided to check out the Dole plantation,
ANNA 0:12:46
When you say plantation, I don't think a rip roaring time.
LIA 0:12:48
No, but there is a ride that you can take and it's pretty awesome, it's a little train called The Pineapple Express, and you can go around the farm in this train and just chu chu along and see all of the little pineapples growing and all of the other fruits that they grow at this farm. There's a pineapple maze that you can go get lost in, and you have to find your way out...
ANNA 0:13:09
Oh my god. That sounds punishing. With all the little spikes.
LIA 0:13:10
Yeah, the little spikes. The ones that are little though are pretty cute, You know, the little tiny baby pineapple.
ANNA 0:13:17
SO cute.
LIA 0:13:19
They are adorable. But yeah, there's a pineapple maze, you can wander through and then you can actually get a legit real Dole whip from the Dole farm there, and it is amazing, and glorious.
ANNA 0:13:26
What else is there? a museum
LIA 0:13:27
You know, there's a little gift shop of course, the museum, there's a pineapple stand that you can go hang out in, so.
ANNA 0:13:33
Is it like the banana stands?
LIA 0:13:35
It's like the banana stands. In Arrested Development.
ANNA 0:13:37
Is there money in the pineapple stand?
LIA 0:13:39
Yeah, I looked and there wasn't any, no money there. It was cute.
ANNA 0:13:43
I wanna go to Hawaii so bad now.
LIA 0:13:44
Yeah.
ANNA 0:13:45
I mean, we have so many field trips that we need to go on...
LIA 0:13:47
Yeah.
ANNA 0:13:50
All we need is for... All we need is the vaccine and some money...
LIA 0:13:54
Oh yeah, that too.
ANNA 0:13:55
Listeners if you would like to get us to Hawaii or just cover the cost of production, we actually have a way for you to do that. Go to our website, Yumday.co/podcast. You will see a little button that says Buy Me a Coffee. If you press that you can, you know buy us a coffee, or a few, to give us some support so we can keep bringing you this awesome women and BIPOC created independent podcast, and you know, when we get to Hawaii, we’ll send you a postcard.
LIA 0:14:23
Sure.
ANNA 0:14:23
Bring you a key chain, something.
LIA 0:14:25
Some puka shells?
ANNA 0:14:25
Yeah, it will be great. Should we talk about some holidays, some celebrations, a little history.
LIA 0:14:35
Yeah, let's do that.
ANNA 0:14:36
Give it to me.
LIA 0:14:38
So there are about a handful of pineapple-focused food holidays during the year. You got National baked ham with pineapple day, there's a national pineapple upside down cake day. You have international pineapple day, piña colada day. Of course, you have to have piña colada day. And National Hawaiian pizza day. I have strong feelings about that which we will...
ANNA 0:14:58
I can tell, I'm getting that.
LIA 0:15:00
Which we'll talk about later. But let me give you a few interesting details about some of these days, so the baked ham with pineapple day is the first Sunday in April, and that's usually just connected with Easter because of the whole baked ham being on the easter menu thing. And then the pineapple upside down cake day is April 20th. So April is all about the springtime foods, spring time desserts. Now, people have been fond of inverting cakes to reveal their toppings since the Middle Ages. But historians say that the term upside down cake started popping up in the late 1800s, and these were also called skillet cakes because ovens weren't actually very reliable back then, so people would make cakes in a cast iron skillet on the stove top.
ANNA 0:15:45
Flipped 'em over.
LIA 0:15:46
And then flipped them over. To serve them that way to get a good glazed thing at the top of the cake. So before, these upside-down cakes used to be made with more seasonal fruits like apples and cherries, but once canned pineapples started to become a thing in the early 1900s, which we're gonna chat a little bit about, thanks to the Hawaiian pineapple company.
ANNA 0:16:05
Oh yes.
LIA 0:16:07
Well, that's when we started to see more upside down cakes being made with pineapple. And it kind of grew to popularity because of some marketing that the Hawaiian Pineapple Company, aka Dole, did to really promote the canned pineapple sales. So they did this thing where they sponsored a contest for pineapple recipes, and apparently out of 60000 submissions, uh, they had a few thousand that were for pineapple upside down cake. And then the recipes for this started to appear in more and more magazines, cookbooks, lots of ads for canned pineapple, as we all know about these pineapple growers, pineapple producers and pineapple companies, you know, they get together.
ANNA 0:16:44
I bet they had a board.
LIA 0:16:46 They had a board. There's a Growers Association.
ANNA 0:16:47
There you go. I don't know that I've ever actually had a pineapple upside down cake. But I like cake. I like pineapple, and I'm willing to be upside down.
LIA 0:16:55
They're pretty darn good. And then we have international pineapple day, June 27th, and this has kind of a weird story to it. So it was started by this guy named Andrew Lee, who was a co-founder of a company called Firebase, which was a tech company that has this suite of tools that helps to accelerate app development, and now it's part of Google. But back in 2011, Andrew decided to show up to the start-up co-working space with a whole pineapple in tow. Apparently he was craving pineapples for breakfast that morning, and he was on this health kick to make sure he was trying to eat more fresh fruits, and he thought, Well, I'll just grab a whole pineapple on my way to my co-working space, and I'll just cut it up there and I'll share. So he shows up and people are like, What the heck are you doing with a whole pineapple. And Andrew joked and said, Oh, it's international pineapple day. And then of course, the other tech people around said, well, that's not really a thing, and Andrew said, Yes, it is. And so he made a recurring event on their shared Google company calendar that said, International Pineapple Day, bring your pineapple to work day, and then he put this tweet out that said, “Worst bring your pineapple to work day ever... No one else even brought their pineapples.”
ANNA 0:18:06
So this holiday basically started as a meme.
LIA 0:18:09
Yeah, basically.
ANNA 0:18:10
And now it's a real thing.
LIA 0:18:12
Now it's a real thing. So Andrew kind of forgot that he added it to the calendar... Right, and so the next year, 'cause he had set it as recurring, the company grew, a few more folks joined the team, and then folks showed up bringing pineapples to the office the next year, and then it just became a thing to the point that as their company grow, every year, they had this pineapple day, bring your pineapple to work event. Even their international offices started to celebrate it, and then that got picked up, you know, my internet publications and media outlets. And in 2016, even Steven Colbert tweeted about it. “Today is pineapple day. Pineapple, the only fruit with a mohawk.” So... I mean, Colbert's in.
ANNA 0:18:50
I mean, that's all I need.
LIA 0:18:51
It's legit.
ANNA 0:18:54
It's so funny because we've talked a lot about holidays that didn't have an obvious story or a story on record, people just been celebrating them and then Google indexed it, and so then it started showing up for people searches, but this is like... Would we say Google decided this was a food holiday, like Google decided this was a food holiday, this was an executive decision, this was not an algorithm...
LIA 0:19:17
Right. And so as the company grew in 2017, one of the co-founders of a fire base talked about it on their YouTube channel, and he discussed how it kind of help shape what their company culture was.
CLIP 0:19:29
Firebase Founder
Speaker 1: You know, it's been like six years now since we have been doing this, and it has just sort of escalated and escalated, and now, you know we have like sliced pineapple and you know, apples called pine and people in pineapple costumes and, every June 27th, we have bring a pineapple to work day and I think that it represents the silly fun like this is your happy place spirit that we try and embody.
LIA 0:19:53
And then apparently they used to hide little pineapple Easter eggs in their tech. It became that popular. So... Yeah,
ANNA 0:19:59
This is making me think about some of the symbolism with pineapple though, that we're gonna talk about later.
LIA 0:20:05
Oh my gosh, yeah.
ANNA 0:20:07
I feel like this might be danger zone. But carry on.
LIA 0:20:10
This could be. Well, by 2019, it had gotten so popular that the show Psych... Have you ever watched that?
ANNA 0:20:15
No.
LIA 0:20:16
I've ever seen it either but people really love it. Apparently, so they published a video celebrating international pineapple Day, and they used that as like their teaser trailer for their movie Psych 2.
CLIP 0:20:26
“Psych 2”
Speaker 1: Its national Pineapple day. Which surprisingly is a real thing and not something we just made up.
Speaker 2: To celebrate, we wanted to share with you the top three reasons we love the ananas comosus.
Speaker 1: Comosus.
Speaker 2: Number one, its delicious flavor.
Speaker 1: That's a given.
Speaker 2: Number two, its fun yet functional appearance.
Speaker 1: Party on top, business down below.
Speaker 2: Number three, legend has it that you can find it in every Psych episode.
Speaker 1: Well I find that hard to believe.
Speaker 2: See if you can spot one in Psych the movie, Deux.
ANNA 0:20:56
Getting a lot of mileage out of that pineapple day, I can't believe there was no pineapple celebration before 2011, considering it's been a major food since the end of the 19th century. That board really dropped the ball. Rule number one for a board, get yourself a day.
LIA 0:21:12
So that's the story of international pineapple day, and then now I said we have national piña colada day. So that day is all about celebrating this rum-based pineapple and coconut cocktail that you can have blended or shaken with ice, however you prefer, and there are some interesting origin stories to the piña colada. So it's said that the piña colada was invented in 1954 in San Juan, Puerto Rico by a hotel bartender named Ramon Monchito Moraro who worked at The Caribe Hilton. And apparently, once he made this, it became so popular at the hotel that he was like making the specialty piña colada for everybody, everybody flocked to this Hilton to get the piña colada. It was so popular that in 1978, Puerto Rico named The piña colada its official drink.
ANNA 0:22:01
Ours is probably like 2% milk.
LIA 0:22:03
2%... 'cause we don't like... We don't like fat. No one wants the whole milk anymore.
ANNA 0:22:06
It probably was whole milk, but then fucking Phil Socholoff showed up, put out some full-page ads.
CALLBACK JINGLE
LIA 0:22:15
Well, the piña colada was so popular that in 2004 that particular hotel was presented with a proclamation to celebrate the drink’s 50th anniversary and named it like the birthplace of the piña colada.But if you kinda look back through history, I don't doubt that there's been some version of a rum based drink that had coconut pineapple, but we'll go with Ramon Monchito Morero as the inventor of the Pina colada.
ANNA 0:22:41
As we keep learning. A lot of foods are invented because they just got stuff and gotta put it together, so it was probably they had too much rum, too much coconuts and too much pineapple And they were like, uhhh put them together.
“Escape/Pina Colada Song”
LIA 0:22:54
Put them together. And of course, the piña colada song. How can you forget that?
ANNA 0:22:57
I was gonna ask you if you like piña coladas.
LIA 0:23:00
Getting caught in the rain.
ANNA 0:23:02
I do.
LIA 0:23:21
And then this brings us to national Hawaiian pizza day, August 20th, Guys, what's the deal with Hawaiian pizza? They say that this Hawaiian pizza thing just popped up one day in the 50s at a place called Pizza jungle in Portland, Oregon, and then there's another account that a Greek-born Canadian Cook and businessman named Sam Penopolis created the Hawaiian pizza. Actually, this is similar to what you were just saying about people taking random things and mixing them together... So I guess Sam was inspired by mixing sweet and savory flavors and just started experimenting by adding pineapple, ham, bacon and other toppings to pizza. Somehow this has become Hawaiian pizza is very controversial. It's a divisive food.
ANNA 0:24:03
And it's because of the pineapple, right?
LIA 0:24:04
It's because of the pineapple, the ham and the Bacon, the cheese. Those go great. Then you add the pineapple to it... I just don't know. I don't know.
ANNA 0:24:12
Not convinced. Anybody else had a really good Hawaiian style pizza?
LIA 0:24:17
Yeah.
ANNA 0:24:18
Somebody must be ordering it 'cause it's on every menu...
LIA 0:24:20
Well, in 2014, Time Magazine listed Hawaiian pizza in its list of the 13 most influential pizzas of all time...
ANNA 0:24:29
What was its influence?
LIA 0:24:31
It said The Hawaiian pizza paved the way for unique flavor combinations
ANNA 0:24:37
Oh, okay. /I can see that.
LIA 0:24:39
So maybe from there is where we start getting a little bit more experimental with what we're finding on pizzas.
ANNA 0:24:45
Sure.
LIA 0:24:45
Sure. I still don't like it.
ANNA 0:24:48
Lia is not convinced, people.
LIA 0:24:50
I bet Goofy loves Hawaiian pizza.
ANNA 0:24:53
F****** Goofy eats that s*** up.
LIA 0:24:55
He does.
ANNA 0:24:56
I bet you he sat in the back of those rooms at Murdercon and just laughed... He just laughed, all the death and destruction and misery, and he was like, Hu-huh.
LIA 0:25:06
Hawaiian Pizza, heuh. So, for those of you who do like it, you can celebrate on August 20th. I will not be celebrating it.
ANNA 0:25:16
Try to try to hide your disdain Lia, come on. We love all our listeners equally like try to hold it in. Say it again.
LIA 0:25:24
If you wanna celebrate Hawaiian pizza day. Feel free to do so on August 20th. Don't invite me. I don't know, maybe somebody can tell me, like, have I just always had, I don't know, just a nasty version of a Hawaiian pizza. Is there like a good Hawaiian pizza that I should be trying?
ANNA 0:25:44
That's why I'm asking, Has anyone had a great Hawaiian pizza. That we should know about and check out. I'm willing to be convinced.
LIA 0:25:52
Yeah, try to change my mind. Just try it. So Anna, how the heck did Pineapple get so popular that it made its way on to freaking pizza.
ANNA 0:25:02
You mean pineapples aren't for Italy?
LIA 0:25:05
I know, right? Pineapples are native to South America, but like we've talked about it ended up in Europe because of the Columbian Exchange, Christopher Columbus spotted the...
ANNA 0:26:14
What a f****** guy.
LIA 0:26:15
He spotted them in the Caribbean and decided to take them back with him to Spain.
ANNA 0:26:16
Took pineapples and left syphilis.
LIA 0:26:19
Yeah, yeah, it was an even trade right?
ANNA 0:26:19
Fair trade.
LIA 0:26:20
So, when Columbus showed back up in Europe with these pineapples, and this is similar to the other foods we've talked about, well, it turns out these things are hard to grow because… It took a while, but eventually by the mid-17th century, some folks were able to set up some hot houses, in England and in the Netherlands that could kind of mimic the climate, they're still super low in supply, but because they were low because of this whole scarcity thing that they were exotic, they were in high demand by the extremely wealthy people like the monarchs who were basically the only folks who could afford to have pineapples. And then when pineapples were first starting to arrive in America as well, also imported from the Caribbean, they were so expensive. Like one pineapple would cost as much as $8,000 in today's dollars.
ANNA 0:27:05
Woah. That is a juicy pineapple.
LIA 0:27:08
So remember when we talked about fruit cake in our fruit cake episode.
ANNA 0:27:10
Yes
LIA 0:27:15
And fruitcake was a way to show status…
ANNA 0:27:17
Right you could make a fruitcake, you would serve it at high tea, and in the fruitcake you put all the fancy rare, high falutin fruit that you got from your expensive hook-up...
LIA 0:27:27
Yes.
ANNA 0:27:27
In the new world.
LIA 0:27:28
Exactly, so here we go again, like a status symbol, we've got fancy pineapples in our fruitcake... it was the New World Food that only very wealthy people, the royalty, could afford to have...
ANNA 0:27:41
Wasn't there like a monarch that got painted with a pineapple...
LIA 0:27:44
Yes, there was, I believe it was it, Charles II There was... Yes I believe it was Charles II with a pineapple, like Louis XV, Catherine, the Great. They were all very much into pineapples, but they were also the only people who could really get pineapples then...
ANNA 0:28:00
Right.
LIA 0:28:02
And because of this history and the rarity and the expense of the pineapples, if you were to have a pineapple and you could give it, it was like the most luxurious gift ever, so if you were a host and you had pineapple at your house... Just to even show off, people already thought like you are the bomb, and if you would serve a pineapple to your guests, like that was the height of generosity. Pineapples became the symbol of the ultimate type of hospitality that you could ever experience it. and if you had pineapples for decoration like you were even cooler,
ANNA 0:28:38
Right, pineapples make the perfect centerpiece.
LIA 0:28:39
It does. The way it's got this little mohawk,
ANNA 0:28:41
Right. And it gets a bit of high texture... Perfect.
LIA 0:28:47
But if you were poor person, you didn't have to totally be left out of this whole pineapple thing because you could rent pineapples.
ANNA 0:28:53
What?
LIA 0:28:54
You could rent them from pineapple merchants.
ANNA 0:28:57
Like bowling shoes?
LIA 0:28:59
Exactly. Do you have a pineapple in a size...in a size eight?
ANNA 0:29:03
Like “I'm having a party. I need folding chairs. Bounce House. Pineapple.
LIA 0:29:08
Yeah, totally, that was it.
ANNA 0:29:08
Basically...
LIA 0:29:10
But they were like, Okay, you can't afford to purchase them outright, but you could rent one for the night, take your pineapple to the party with you, but make sure not to give it to the host as a gift, 'cause you're gonna need to bring that back or you lose your deposit and then some... But they were really just carry these around to show off this ability to quote, maybe afford an expensive fruit.
ANNA 0:29:32
That's commitment though, because those things are not easy to carry or hold.
LIA 0:29:36
No, they are like poking your arms and stuff, they're quite heavy.
ANNA 0:29:40
They're covered in thorns.
LIA 0:29:43
Yeah, this pineapple became a symbol of hospitality, you start to see the pineapple being used as an artistic motif So in the 1700s and 1800s, I'm sure you've seen this, you know, all over pineapples on the door, there's a little pineapple sculpture on top of a column.
ANNA 0:29:59
Like archways or arched or stuff like that. Yeah, yeah.
LIA 0:30:00
Exactly. So that was a way to still incorporate that sense of hospitality into your home, even if you couldn't have a pineapple as a centerpiece. And just this whimsical fruit, it's an interesting symbol of friendship, but... Do you know what else pineapple means?
ANNA 0:30:19
What else does it mean, Lia?
LIA 0:30:21
A pineapple is a symbol for swingers, swingers. Talk about hospitality.
ANNA 0:30:27
Talk about welcoming. Alright, look, full disclaimer, we are a sex positive show, we are not putting anyone down as long as it is safe and consensual, live your best life.
LIA 0:30:42
Yeah, I guess go for it... But I did not know that this was a symbol for swinging, apparently you put pineapple on your door to signal to your neighbors that, Hey, we're very hospitable over here, if you have a pineapple on the porch or on the mailbox, it's like a thing to indicate that they're, I guess is a swinger party happening, An upside down pineapple left at your door means that someone is looking for a swinger Party and you know, if they’re leaving it there for you, that's an invitation, so...
ANNA 0:31:02
I went down a little bit of a rabbit hole about this, I don't know if you want me to share.
LIA 0:31:04
Share!
ANNA 0:31:06
So obviously, once I found out that pineapples were a symbol of Swingers, I had to know everything about it and specifically... Well, first of all, I want to know why, what was it about pineapples.
LIA 0:31:16
Yeah.
ANNA 0:31:18
In my trying to find why, and it is focused on the upside down pine Apple, I listened to a bunch of podcasts and read a bunch of things, and I learned way more about the lifestyle than I ever wanted to know, but it's very common in cruises and retirement communities.
LIA 0:31:28
Wow.
ANNA 0:31:30
And the symbol is built into a lot of things. So it's kind of hidden in plain sight. Which brought me to Etsy.
LIA 0:31:40
Huh, interesting.
ANNA 0:31:28.8
There is so much swinger accoutrement on Etsy and it's all the pineapple. There's all these jewelry, bracelets, there's key chains, earrings, there's all kinds of t-shirts and shirts with nice patterns that are like pineapple checks that you can wear, but all the pineapples in the pattern or upside down.T here's a lot of slogans like “Sharing is caring,” and “if you know, you know” I guess when you need other pe ople to participate in your kink, you need to advertise...
LIA 0:32:12
Well, that's true.
ANNA 0:32:13
In some way...
LIA 0:32:14
Nobody knows unless you tell them...
ANNA 0:32:17
I saw these car magnets and bumper stickers, which to me is like I just imagine the back of a Prius, and there's like a sticker that's like “the yang gang,” and then “my child is an honor student,” and then it's a pineapple like, “you know, you know.” Yeah, very interesting with the porch and the house decorations...
LIA 0:32:38
Yeah.
ANNA 0:32:39
Like I saw, like porch sconces.
LIA 0:32:40
Yes.
ANNA 0:32:42
I feel like there might be a security issue with literally inviting anyone off the streets to come by into your home for sexy time. Maybe there's a vetting process. I don't know, maybe there's questionnaires on the door. My absolute favorite thing was a shirt and it had two upside down pineapples with two gold rings like wedding rings, and it said “Married with benefits.”
LIA 0:33:09
What?
ANNA 0:33:12
And then there was a review underneath the shirt... And the review said, love this shirt at... Oh wait... The review said, “This is a great shirt, I got it for my mom and she loved it. It was so soft and it came fast.”
LIA 0:33:31
Oh no that's weird, mom.
ANNA 0:33:33
I was like, what? Why do you know that... Why are you buying your mom accoutrement? What is happening? And the girl used her full name, and then I realized, so for Etsy reviews, they just put all the reviews for that seller together in one place, so she was actually a review for a different shirt, but it appeared right under the marriage... The marriage with benefits shirt with this girl's full name.
LIA 0:34:58
Oh no. This upside down pineapple stuff. Who knew.
ANNA 0:34:04
Right? You'll never use it now now, every time you see a pineapple out in the world, you're gonna be like...
LIA 0:34:07
Oooop! And then ohhh. I know what you're about.
ANNA 0:34:12
But don't look too long. They might get ideas, unless you're into that, in which case.
LIA 0:34:23
Look all you want.
MX: “Escape/Pina Colada Song”
LIA 0:34:24
It is interesting now that the pineapple became a symbol for that though...
ANNA 0:34:25
I couldn't find anywhere. Why... maybe it's a combo of this hospitality and welcoming, plus I don't know the Hawaiian branding of the free life, the laid-back the...
LIA 0:34:37
Maybe...
ANNA 0:34:38
I don't know. Free Range boning. Wow, so. That's a little bonus for you today on Every Day is a Food Day. Now, you know a little bit more about pineapples that you ever wanted to.
ANNA 0:35:00
Hi Listeners! Since you’re here, we’re pretty confident that you like food and you like podcasts. So we wanted to recommend another food podcast that we love.
LIA 0:35:07
It’s called “Your Last Meal with Rachel Belle” And here’s Rachel to tell you all about it.
0:35:12 FX: CLIP, Rachel Belle
Rachel: Im Rachel Belle and I host the Jane spirit award nominated podcast, Your Last Meal.
Speaker 1: My last meal like, ever?
Speaker 2: That is such a tough question.
Rachel: Each episode I talk with celebrities about their life.
Speaker 3: I love my dead granny. She had like a mink bathrobe and slept with a little pearl handled gun under her pillow.
Rachel: About food.
Speaker 4: This meur cake..
Rachel: This smeur cake.. People like actor and comedian Jenny Slate.
Jenny: Are you allowed to have weed?
Rachel: Professional Hollywood villain and restaurateur Danny Trayho.
Danny: I didn't know a hot dog came in a bun. My grandma used to put it in a tortilla.
Rachel: And saxophone sensation Kenny G
Kenny: Im really good at making pies. The crust I make… and boy this is gunna super sound like Im name dropping, but I got the recipe from Cindy Crawford.
Rachel: Then we talk about the history, the culture, the science of these foods with experts from around the globe like the designer who created Lady Gaga's infamous meat dress.
Speaker 5: I went to like my family butcher and was like which cut would be the best to sew through.
Rachel: Listen to Your Last Meal wherever you are listening to this podcast or at Yourlastmealpodcast.com.
ANNA 0:36:23
I think it's interesting that pineapple is synonymous with Hawaii, but it is not native there.
LIA 0:36:26
Right.
ANNA 0:36:27
Like, at all. In fact, the native Hawaiian word for pineapple is Halakhaheki, which translates to foreign fruit. And it kind of reminds me of Malbec.
LIA 0:36:39
Yep, there's another one.
ANNA 0:36:41
We talked about Malbec in our wine episode in season one, it is known as Argentinian wine, it is the beloved wine of Argentina. It's French y'all.
LIA 0:36:48
Yeah!
FX: CLIP, CALLBACK JINGLE
ANNA 0:36:52
I was really interested in this idea of, how did pineapple become Hawaiian? 'cause even with the pizza or any food, if you say it's Hawaiian you're automatically thinking, Oh, there is pineapple on it. But also because I wanted an excuse to talk about one of my favorite women in history and her story. Her name is Queen Liliuokalani. I'm gonna call her Queen Lili.
LIA 0:37:15
I like Queen Lili.
ANNA 0:37:17
She was the first Queen of Hawaii. She was the last monarch of Hawaii, she was a badass, she was an incredibly talented musician, she is a symbol of integrity and social justice, she fought tirelessly for her people as all these white businessmen were taking over Hawaii. It's going to drive you crazy that you don't know about her.
LIA 0:37:43
Oh my gosh.
ANNA 0:37:44
She ruled at the end of the 19th century, and she was overthrown by white businessmen who deposed her in a bloodless coup to take over what was then the kingdom of Hawaii. And so, pineapple, Queen Lili might seem separate, but in order for pineapple to become Hawaii's top crop, they had to take down a queen.
LIA 0:38:07
Woah...
ANNA 0:38:08
Lia, you gave us a really good background on how pineapple got to Europe, we don't exactly know how pineapple got to Hawaii, but obviously it had to have been someone brought it there up from South America, so it stands to reason that it was one of these... Explorers.
LIA 0:38:24
Yeah.
ANNA 0:38:25
Now, some people say that in the 1520s, a Spanish explorer who had pineapple on board, got lost in the Pacific and crashed his ship into the island, which is pretty lost, that's a...
LIA 0:38:37
Yeah, that's like...
ANNA 0:38:38
Where were you going?
LIA 0:38:39
Most of them though, if you think about it, they all were lost.
ANNA 0:38:41
Right, and I love that they could not admit that they were wrong, like Columbus showed up and what is now Haiti. And looked around, it was like. This is India, definitely India. Nailed it. Yeah, I feel like they hadn't mastered that... Sun rises in the east and sets in the west thing or like, Oh man, was it rises east sets in the West, so as that's in the rise in the east. Its like a righty tighty lefty loosey thing... You know what? Just f****** go for it. Just start sailing.Most people think that pineapple showed up with the arrival of British explorer, Captain James Cook, who was the first European to intentionally go to Hawaii to check it out, but he wanted to name the archipelago, the Sandwich islands.
LIA 0:39:24
The Sandwich Islands.
ANNA 0:39:25
Yeah.
LIA 0:39:25
Lame!
ANNA 0:39:27
Which was either after the Earl of Sandwich or I think he just showed up and it was all beaches and he was like, sand? Sandwich?
LIA 0:39:37
He liked puns.
ANNA 0:39:40
Anybody? Maybe good old Jim Cook, maybe he liked puns to... Here's a fun fact, Lia, on his first trip there, the natives killed him.
LIA 0:39:51
Surprise!
ANNA 0:39:55
So Cook’s Marines got in a kerfuffle with the natives, and the Marines tried to kidnap their chief in retribution, Native people weren't cool with that, so they fought back, they boarded the ship and they stabbed the captain who died.
LIA 0:40:10
Wow.
ANNA 0:40:11
So this is not a great start.
LIA 0:40:12
No.
ANNA 0:40:13
After Cook arrived and died, foreigners continued to arrive from the US and Europe, which started obviously a time of massive change on the island, it opened it up to trade with other countries, which meant all these new goods and materials technologies, weapons started showing up. And white people brought one of their favorite exports diseases.
LIA 0:40:37
They always are bringing diseases.
ANNA 0:40:38
What's in your carry on? Smallpox? Yup. And also Western ideas like centralized government, property ownership and monarchy had big influence. So at this point, Hawaii was ruled by separate chiefdoms that interacted. So the most powerful chief was Kamehameha, and he was a shrewd dude, he saw these Westerners come, he saw the s*** they brought with them, and he decided that instead of trying to fight them, he was gonna try to make these Westerners his allies. So he went to them and he was like, Hey, I like your guns. Maybe if I had guns, I could take over this whole place, run the whole thing, kind of like this King George guy you got over there you are always talking about, and then we could have each other's backs, you know...So with the help of some western weapons, he conquered all the other groups, all the other chiefdoms in Hawaii, and in 1810, he declared one unified kingdom of Hawaii and named himself king Kamehameha, the Great...So now that he'd Allied himself with them and they've done him a solid what with the guns... He brought the Westerners sort of int o his circle as his advisors, and one of those was a Spanish ship captain named Don Francisco De Paula Marin, and Marine had brought a ton of different seeds and crops from Europe, the US, the Caribbean, and they wanted to see what they could grow on the island. And that's where we see the first record of pineapple being cultivated in Hawaii. That's from 1813.
LIA 0:42:11
Okay.
ANNA 0:42:13
Next big thing. In 1820s, the first Christian missionaries arrived Hawaii. They do what missionaries do, they build churches, they build schools, they built housing, and they created writing systems for the Hawaiian language, which was just oral at this point. And you know, there was obviously the standard attitude of imperialism, which was the natives needed to be civilized, they needed to emulate western society and Christian society, the children were forbidden from speaking their own language in these schools and encouraged to adopt Western behavior. In the 1820s, the industry there was moving away from trading and whaling and started to move towards agriculture and specifically sugar cane, it was not pineapple's time to shine yet.
LIA 0:42:53
Not yet.
ANNA 0:42:54
That would take a few more decades. Sugar becomes bigger and bigger. The labor needs start outgrowing the native population, partially because the disease was wiping them out, so there was a huge influx of migrant workers from Asia and the other Pacific islands, some who just came for seasons and some who stayed, so it's part of a reason why Hawaii is such a diverse place.
LIA 0:43:17
Okay.
ANNA 0:43:18
However, if these white sugar plantation owners were going to be ballers then what did they need?
LIA 0:43:25
Their land.
ANNA 0:43:25
They needed land except, ohhh. There were all of these natives living on the land and there was no formal system of property ownership and this was just becoming a real pain in the ass to our sugar boiz. This is where the precedent that the first King set by inviting the western businessmen into his kiki becomes a real problem, because the council starts pressuring the King to start making land laws that are favorable to them.
LIA 0:43:52
No.
ANNA 0:43:53
Corruption! These dudes were starting to have real financial and political power, right? And the King did not want to tussle. He did not want to go up against them. So in 1848 he created a compromise called Mahalei which woul divvy up the land between groups and actually allocate some to these guys for farming. And he thought that was it, that was enough, that would satisfy them.
LIA 0:44:15
Yeah, should be.
ANNA 0:44:15
Should be. Do we think it was? No.
LIA 0:44:19
No.
ANNA 0:44:19
That was just the crack in the foundation that these Sugar Daddies needed to start chipping away at the monarchy’s power. And two years later in 1850, they passed the Kuleana Act, which established a western system of land ownership, decreeing that unless you had documented proof that you owned your property, it was up for grabs.
LIA 0:44:39
What?
ANNA 0:44:42
Yeah, but documented proof of ownership was not a thing, once they had the Kuleana Act in the can, huge swaths of inhabited native land were sliced up and turned into sugar cane fields.
LIA 0:44:53
Oh no.
ANNA 0:44:54
I mean, I knew it was coming but still grrrr. So let me tell you about this amazing woman who was growing up as all this s*** was going down.
LIA 0:45:00
Okay.
ANNA 0:45:02
Right, the future Queen was born Lydia Liliʻu Loloku Walania in 1838. And though she was already born to an upper class family, as per Hawaiian custom, she was given to a higher ranking family to be adopted, which meant that she was now royalty... She was now part of the Royal Court. She was baptized at age four and educated in missionary schools in the English language, and from a very young age, she was extremely creative and talented, especially in the arts, music and writing, she was very compassionate, she's very eloquent, and she had a lot of pride in Hawaiian culture and traditions, even in the face of her education, which told her to move away from that. Everything we've talked about, all the changes in Hawaii for the people, the sickness that, the death, the encroachment from other cultures, this was the backdrop of her childhood and her adolescence and watching all of this unfold really affected her, and she decided to dedicate her life to service of the Hawaiian people and preserving their culture.
LIA 0:46:05
Woah.
ANNA 0:46:06
So she did all kinds of just incredible philanthropy. In her late teens and early 20s, she decided that she wanted to build a hospital, so she literally went door to door raising money to build the first hospital in Hawaii specifically to combat all the diseases the foreigners have brought to the island, which had wiped out 85% of the native population in 50 years.
LIA 0:46:29
Oh my God. Wow.
ANNA 0:46:32
She got it done. And the hospital had opened in 1860, it was the first hospital in Hawaii, and they named it The Queen's Hospital after Queen Victoria. A little ironic.
LIA 0:46:41
Of course they did.
ANNA 0:46:42
Of course they did. What else are they gonna call it? Something that crazy language they all spoke?
LIA 0:46:49
Too many letters. Too many consonants.
ANNA 0:46:52
What are these stupid apostrophes in the middle of these words? In 1862, she married a man, John Owen Dominus, who was a white American, raised in Honolulu, born and raised in Honolulu, he was also in the Royal Court of advisors. He would later become the Governor of Oahu. And he also seemed like kind of a bad ass. In her memoir, she tells a story of how during their courtship, he offered to escort her home from a court event, and on the way, he fell off his horse and broke his leg. But he still escorted her the rest of the way home.
LIA 0:47:26
Damn.
ANNA 0:47:27
Before going to seek medical attention. Girl, he's in love with you.
LIA 0:47:33
Yeah, he likes you. Wow. Poor guy . That's also so embarrassing.
ANNA 0:47:40
I know. So gentleman, this is where the bar is set for your first dates.
LIA 0:47:44
Who cares if you break a leg.
ANNA 0:47:46
But that is embarrassing. And he's like, I'll take you home. Boom.
LIA 0:47:50
I'm fine, I'm fine.
ANNA 0:47:52
Friggin horse. After they married, she opened a bank for women.
LIA 0:47:57
What?
ANNA 0:47:58
She created philanthropic initiatives to support the education specifically of Hawaiian girls, she opened up orphanages, homes for impoverished youth. She was amazing, and she, at that point, had become a really accomplished musician and composer, she become the leader of the choir at the main Royal Church in 1866. And she figured out a way to use her musical talent to preserve Hawaiian culture So there were very few written versions of traditional songs, they were passed down orally, and remember this writing system was relatively new, so she wrote out these Hawaiian songs and had them published for posterity so that they were documented and also wrote her own songs.
LIA 0:48:47
Wow. I'm a little jealous. I'm jealous of this woman.
ANNA 0:48:48
I mean how many hours of sleep did she get?
LIA 0:48:49
Right.
ANNA 0:48:53
You know what it's... 'cause she didn't have Instagram, she wasn't looking at Instagram all day.
LIA 0:48:57
That's true.
ANNA 0:48:58
She didn't get news alerts interrupting her day. In 1868, she was actually commissioned by the King to write a new Hawaiian national anthem. She said in her memoir, in the early years of the reign of Kamehameha the 5th, he brought to my notice the fact that the Hawaiian people had no national air (or anthem.) Each nation, he said, But ours had its statement of patriotism and love of country in its own music, but we were using for that purpose on state occasions, the time honored British Anthem, God Save the Queen.” So she wrote a new Anthem for the people of Hawaii in both Hawaiian and English, and it was called The Song of the Hawaiian Nation.
MX Hawaii National Anthem
ANNA 0:49:48
But the national anthem was not the only iconic song that miss Lydia wrote. Lia, do you know the song Aloha Oe?
LIA 0:49:56
Yes, I do!
ANNA 0:49:59
Probably the most famous, iconic Hawaiian song right? Well Queen Lili wrote that song too.
MX: Aloha Oe
LIA 0:50:23
Wow, amazing.
ANNA 0:50:25
Right? She's just like 30.
LIA 0:50:27
Right. You know, Building hospital, setting up banks whatever.
ANNA 0:50:30
Write the new National. Whatevs. My boyfriend broke his leg, still walked me home. But it's then in the 1870s when Lydia Kamaka Ah Dominus life starts to collide with the politics.
LIA 0:50:43
Ah. Okay.
ANNA 0:50:45
So everything we just talked about. You with me guys! So the Kuleana Act of 1850, had let the businessman essentially steal land for these plantations, the sugar industry was still relatively small compared to other producers and markets like the American South and the Caribbean, but then all of a sudden, in 1861, sugar production and importation through the American South stopped. Is there anything going on in 1861-1865 in the south?
LIA 0:51:09
Oh, something's happening there, that doesn't seem really good.
ANNA 0:51:14
The fucking Civil War, man, it always goes back to the fucking Civil War. We're still fighting the stupid war.
LIA 0:51:22
It does, it always goes back to the Civil War. It always goes back.
ANNA 0:51:23
I'm telling you. I'm telling you everything, everything we have goes back to slavery, farmers just like daylight savings time, the electoral college, pineapple. The Civil War meant demand from other nearby or nearby-ish sugar producers shot up, including Hawaii, but remember, it was still part of a sovereign nation of Hawaii... It was not connected to the US, it was not connected to Japan. So they had to pay tariffs out the ass. So these businessmen were like, Uh, these tariffs, shipping costs are killing us, and we definitely need more money. In 1877, sitting king dies and Lydia's Brother David Kalakauah ascends to the throne and he names Lydia his heir apparent.
LIA 0:52:09
Oh.
ANNA 0:52:11
So all of a sudden, Lydia is like, I'm just over here painting. Now you're telling me I'm next in line?
LIA 0:52:21
I'm next in line?
ANNA 0:52:24
So Her brother’s a King, she's noticing that her brother had allowed some sketchy dudes into his cabinet, all these corrupt businessman. The white plantation owners, she was like, They have way too much sway with you, this is not gonna be good. And she was right. In 1887, The King was forced to sign the Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii, which stripped the monarchy of much of its independence and power, it put in European governing bodies, it took away the right to vote from anyone who was not a male landowner of Hawaiian, European and US descent, so freezing out all of the Japanese, Filipino, Korean immigrants who owned... Who were there and owned farms and owned plantations, and have been working there for a generation. Right. And remember, this was not a foreign government, this was a bunch of businessmen.
LIA 0:53:06
Right. Business people!
ANNA 0:53:08
This was a bunch of dudes who had weaseled their way into the King's cabinet, but it was not NOT endorsed by the US and Britain, etcetera. So this became known as the Bayonet Constitution, because the King was forced to sign it at gunpoint.
LIA 0:53:27
Woah.
ANNA 0:53:29
Yeah. In 1891, King Kelakaweah dies and Queen Liliohkalanei, the first Queen of Hawaii, ascends to the m*****f**ing throne,
FX: Clip, YAS QUEEN Broad City
Speaker 1: Yas Queen, Yas Queen, Yas Queen.
ANNA 0:53:43
Though she still has... Some of these business owners and her cabinet and his advisors. Some of these business owners and her cabinet and his advisors, 'cause her husband was a white Westerner, they've been elected to Congress, she makes it clear right away that the rights and the good of the Hawaiian people are her first priority. Okay, specifically, she pushes back on the bullshit bayonet Constitution, she proposes a new one that gives voting rights back to the Natives and restores some of the monarchies power and then national independence. How do we think that went over.
LIA 0:53:14
Did those guys get their feelings hurt?
ANNA 0:53:15
They got their fee fees hurt. Well, this brown lady was telling him what to do.
LIA 0:53:19
We don't like it.
ANNA 0:53:21
Well, that's exactly what happened immediately when she took over, a smear campaign was launched in the US driven by these sugar owners, these businessmen with all these racist sexist dehumanizing xenophobic cartoons. They're just awful. The San Francisco Examiner wrote an op-ed that said she was a and I quote “black pagan queen who wanted nothing short of absolute monarchy.”
LIA 0:54:46
What? What?
ANNA 0:54:48
So the big reason they did this is because they wanted to be annexed by the US, so they wouldn't have to pay these tariffs anymore.
LIA 0:54:53
Right.
ANNA 0:54:54
And with this Queen who gives a s*** about her people, there was no way that annexation was gonna happen if she was Queen.
LIA 0:55:01
Right.
ANNA 0:55:02
So in 1893, her own freaking Council led a battalion of US marines with cannons, guns, the whole thing, marched across downtown Honolulu to the palace, confronted the Queen and forced her to abdicate...
LIA 0:55:18
No!
ANNA 0:55:19
She tried to negotiate, she tried to push back, but after 48 hours, Queen Lili abdicated, the native government and monarchy were overthrown and a provisional government of white businessmen was installed in what was essentially a bloodless coup. And in her place was installed, the first president of Hawaii, and his name was Sandford B. Dole.
FX “DUN DUN DUN”
ANNA 0:55:53
You forgot about the Doles, didn't you! You forgot about them.
LIA 0:55:55
Doles.
ANNA 0:55:56
Here they are. So Sanford B. Dole was born and raised in Honolulu. He was born in 1844 and for years he'd been in different parts of the government, and had worked his way into the Privy Council of the previous king, the Queen's brother, and now hers. So, like I said, this, coup came from inside the house...
LIA 0:56:13
Yeah.
ANNA 0:56:14
Now that he was President of Hawaii, next stop was to be officially annexed by the US. 'cause remember these were just a bunch of dudes who owned farms who overthrew a queen, 'cause they didn't wanna pay their taxes.
LIA 0:56:27
Didnt wanna pay, yeah.
ANNA 0:56:31
But dont worry everyone, Queen Lili’uokalanai did not go gentle into that dark night. She was like, “Oh, you’re coming into my house? Then I’m going to go to yours.” And she travelled all the way to Washington DC, and demanded to speak to the manager, who at that time was President Grover Cleveland. Like respect. Can we take a moment and show some respect.
LIA 0:56:51
Uh, yes.
ANNA 0:56:53
This was 1893, so first of all, she couldn’t just grab a comfort-plus ticket on JetBlue, that was a legit voyage.
LIA 0:56:58
Right. This was not an easy thing to do.
ANNA 0:57:00
No! Second of all, this is a woman of color in 1893, rolling up to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue being like, “I’m speaking.”
LIA 0:57:13
Wow. Queen Lili.
ANNA 0:57:15
And, the President was on her side.
LIA 0:57:16
Huh? I mean that's great!
ANNA 0:57:20
This is not the direction white men have been going in this story. No, the president was on her side. He actually commissioned a report on the overthrow, which concluded that it was illegal and there had been collusion.
LIA 0:57:34
There was collusion!
ANNA 0:57:36
Collusion had been proved between the business owners in Hawaii and the US-Hawaiian ambassador, which is how they got the US Marines to back them up in this illegal coup. But then Congress, who may or may not have been taking some of that sweet sweet sugar money as campaign donations, commissioned their own report which concluded, naw. It was 100% the natives, who rose up to defeat this lady in charge because she was just really difficult. Yeah it was basically just a report gaslighting a whole people. The president put forth a resolution to return Hawaii to the Queen and native government, but the Senate rejected it. The silver lining was that Grover Cleveland did put the kibosh on annexing Hawaii, so she lived to fight another day. After being rejected by the US Congress Queen Lili returned to Hawaii and some of her loyalists, they got into trouble, a group of Native supporters tried unsuccessfully to form a rebellion to overthrow the New Republic governed by Dole. They were caught, they were executed.
LIA 0:58:49
Oh my god.
ANNA 0:58:50
But that wasn't enough for Dole and his government. So they arrested the Queen, soldiers went to her private residents, arrested her and marched her to the Palace where she was held under house arrest with no visitors, newspapers or communications for eight months.
LIA 0:58:06
What?
ANNA 0:58:07
Nothing scarier than a powerful woman, I swear. So to pass that time, she went back to how she'd always been most comfortable expressing herself, which was through art, she started stitching a quilt to tell the story of her life, she composed stories and poems and songs, and she began to write a memoir, which was also going to be a memoir of the Hawaiian people.
LIA 0:59:30
Wow.
ANNA 0:59:31
She was released in 1895 after the people petitioned for her release, but she never stopped fighting for justice for her people, she was a believer in non-violence, so she wasn't gonna feed some rebellion to try to force her way back. Instead, she used diplomacy. She tried to change policy, she encouraged her people to petition directly to the govern-ment, she went on speaking tours in the US, and she was fighting for voting rights and land rights for the native Hawaiians. In 1909, she sued the US government to try to get the two million acres of land that they stole from the natives back, but to no avail. It got thrown out. Surprise.
LIA 1:00:111
Surprise.
ANNA 1:00:12
And she encouraged the Hawaiian citizens to preserve their culture and take care of each other. Also in that year, 1909, she established the Queen Liliuokalani Trust for the Care of Orphaned and destitute children in Hawaii, and that trust is still operating today.
LIA 1:00:28
Wow, that's incredible.
ANNA 1:00:30
Yeah. In 1898, he published “Hawaii's story by Hawaii's queen.” That's the title Hawaii story by Hawaii's queen.
LIA 1:00:539
Love it.
ANNA 1:00:40
And that same year, Hawaii was finally annexed to the US in the Newlands Resolution. Now, the man who had betrayed our Queen, Sanford B Dole, was president, and just in time for them to get everything they ever f****** dreamed of, the sugar planters realized the planting sugar was not sustainable.
LIA 1:01:03
Like, uhh.
ANNA 1:01:06
They were like, oh we are really killing the land out here. So they needed some new crops...
LIA 1:01:12
Right.
ANNA 1:01:13
Also in 1898, President Sanford B. Dole reached out to a cousin of his back in New England, his little cousin James, and told him he should come to Hawaii. James was 22, so he went, he joined his big cousin Sandy, and he bought a 64-acre homestead from the government. And he decided he was gonna focus on growing pineapple in 1901, he founded the Hawaiian Pineapple Company, using cheap labor from the immigrants of the native people, and it didn't take off right away, 'cause there were a lot of challenges pineapple goes bad, really easy, like we said, it's really hard to pick its covered in spikes.
LIA 1:01:52
Right.
ANNA 1:01:55
And it's got this thick rind, it's just really hard. They couldn't figure out how to transport it so it would stay good and then also make it easy to eat. Canning had been around for a long time, but you can't can the whole pineapple, it doesn't work. It's a big can. So then James hired an engineer named Henry Gabriel Gianacca, who invented a machine that would peel and core the pineapple, making them easy to slice and can, and that machine proved to be the key to their success. And that's how Dole became the king of pineapples.
LIA 1:02:34
Wow. Anna, I feel terrible.
ANNA 1:02:39
I know. I'm gonna make it worse or I'm gonna make it worse, ready... That's how pineapples came to Hawaii. But how it became Hawaiian was simple. It was just what you were talking about. It's just marketing.
LIA 1:02:53
Yeah.
ANNA 1:02:54
It was just marketing. So before the 1920s, the ads were like, This is a yummy wholesome sweet fruit, but then after that, you know they needed to compete with all the other fruits, and so in order to stand out, what they had that the others didn't... Was Hawaii. And so they adopted (appropriated) Hawaiian imagery to sell. It's so messed up. So this idea of an exotic paradise, the sun, the ocean, the laid-back culture, when it's really plantation work! And especially elements of native Hawaiian culture, so the Hula dances, the grass skirts, the luaus. In the 1930s, they adopted their slogan, “Pineapple, truly Hawaiian.”
1:03:39 FX: CLIP, 1950’s Dole Commercial
Speaker 1: Tropicai. A new flavored delicacy from Dole of hawaii. Tropicai brings together all the luscious fruits you enjoy at a hawaiian luau. Tangy Passionfruit. Delicately spicy guava. Mellow papaya. Fresh Hawaiian pineapple, and bananas. You get all of their fragrance and flavor in new Tropicai. New mixed Hawaiian fruits by Dole
LIA 1:04:12
Oh my god!
ANNA 1:04:13
Yeah.
LIA 1:04:13
This is so horrible.
ANNA 1:04:14
Yeah. So these vintage ads show native Hawaiians, which are basically like muscular, sexy, half-naked brown people in Grass skirts and climbing coconut trees and kayaking through the beautiful waters and like... Oh my God.
LIA 1:04:30
Oh. My. Gosh.
ANNA 1:04:31
I'm gonna kill them all.
LIA 1:04:32
Look how happy this woman is to serve you the cubes of pineapple.
ANNA 1:04:38
Look at these free... Happy go lucky natives. Not to care in the world, oh my God, it's so creepy. Now, it makes me feel like, Oh God, what did the Land-o-Lakes people do?
LIA 1:04:49
I know! Oh geez!
ANNA 1:04:53
What did we do to them! I mean we know. We know. But I think there is... And I don't know if you saw this at the Dole plantation, but James Dole is also one of those titans of industry, kind of like we talked about Ray Kroc, who is just the boot straps, had an idea, worked really hard and became this titan of industry and like, We gotta get rid of that.
LIA 1:05:20
Oh that's totally the thing they tell you on your Pineapple Express tour through the farm.
ANNA 1:05:25
Is it?
LIA 1:05:27
It's all that like, Look, who built this? But they totally don't talk about overthrowing Queen Lili.
ANNA 1:05:33
Right. In 1959, Hawaii became a state. But get this, in 1993, US Congress passed The Apology Resolution. That quote, acknowledges that the overthrow of the kingdom of Hawaii occurred with the active participant of agents and citizens of the United States. And further acknowledges that the native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished to the United States their claims of inherent sovereignty as a people over their native lands, either through the Kingdom of Hawaii or through a plebiscite or referendum.”
LIA 1:06:10
Woah.
ANNA 1:06:11
So, the US Government in 1993 went on record saying “our bad.”
LIA 1:06:416
And then what do they do now that they've apologized.
ANNA 1:06:19
Oh no, they definitely gave the land back and paid reparations. No, they didn't.
LIA 1:06:26
But that's pretty crazy. I didn't know that.
ANNA 1:06:27
I didn't know we did that. 'cause we got a lot of apologizing...
LIA 1:06:29
We have so many. So many...
ANNA 1:06:32
In 1917, Queen Lili passed away, she left all of her wealth to the children of Hawaii via her trust. She is still seen as a symbol of integrity, peace, non-violence, the arts, and the last bastion of when Hawaii was still Hawaiian.
LIA 1:06:53
I love learning about Queen Lili.
ANNA 1:06:56
I know. Aren't you mad you don't know about her.
LIA 1:06:59
I'm so mad.
ANNA 1:07:02
This is the thing is I hear about all these things and they're like, one sentence in my AP American textbook. They were like, Yeah, and then some sugar owners over through the government, and it's like, No, this story.
LIA 1:07:13
There is so much more to this...
ANNA 1:07:17
There's so much here. Right. That is the story of Queen Liliuokalani. That is the story of how pineapple became Hawaiian.
LIA 1:07:24
Incredible.
Outro Music (Aloha Oe)
LIA 1:07:38
Thank you for joining us for this episode of Every Day is a Food Day.
ANNA 1:07:43
The clips & music you heard today were “Song for a Hawaiian Nation” written by Liliuokalanai performed by The Rose Ensemble, Aloha Oe also by Liliuokalanai and performed by Marty Robbins....
LIA 1:07:56
You also heard MeetFirebase with James Tamplin, co-Founder of Firebase, on YouTube, Escape (The Piña Colada Song), written by and performed by Rupert Holmes, and The Happy National Pineapple Day teaser for Psych: The Movie 2. Please subscribe, rate and review the show! Check out the links in our show notes and connect with us on social media @FoodDayPod.
ANNA 1:08:20
Every Day is a Food Day is a production of Van Valin LLC & Yumday. It is produced & hosted by us, Lia Ballentine & Anna Van Valin. Our marketing intern is Elaine Oh, our production intern is Emma Massey.
LIA 1:08:32
We’ll see you next time!
