Hawaiʻi - Cultures and Cuisines: Books

The Hawaiian Collection holds dozens if not hundreds of cookbooks. The few listed here were selected because they include nutritional and/or cultural information about the foods in their recipes.

Bibliographies are lists of books on a particular topic. They're very useful for identifying resources, especially for topics on which there are more materials than the beginning researcher or casual user could be expected to know.

For example, in our library's catalog, if you searched on the terms JAPANESE and HAWAII, you would get a list of almost 6,000 items! A bibliography on the Japanese in Hawaiʻi would help you figure out what was useful to you by pointing to specific topics within the broader subject.

The bibliographies listed here were compiled quite a while ago but are of very high quality and remain useful today. They were done under the auspices of the University of Hawaiʻi's Social Science Research Institute.

How to use these bibliographies

1. Pick the bibliography on the topic you want. (Note, the link goes to our catalog record, which includes a link to a free online copy.)

2. Go to the bibliography's index at the end of the volume. Look for topics of interest to you, for example, FOOD or HEALTH.

3. After each entry, note the numbers. They point to the numbered bibliography entries in the main part of the bibliography (not the page number). Check the numbered bibliography entry/ies under your topic.

4. Check OneSearch for the titles you want and submit a request that they be brought out for you. 

5. If you're not at UH or not in Hawaiʻi, check with your library to see how you can get access to these titles. Your library might hold copies, or might be able to arrange for interlibrary loan on your behalf.

If you need more, please see instructions for searching our catalog (use the tabs above on the far right).

Today, nothing beats online sources for up-to-the-minute information on restaurants. Sites like Yelp! and TripAdvisor provide user reviews and a currency that print guides can not keep up with. Still, a few of our print resources provide what the web does not.