The Hirshon Maui 'Flying Saucer' Sandwiches — Flying Saucer Image Used Under Creative Commons License From yelp.com

My Citizens! After a whirlwind trip to the Nordic region last week, I now find myself in the halcyon state of Hawaii! Here, I am staying with several friends in a condo on the Waikiki beach as we enjoy each others company, play Dungeons and Dragons and generally geek out – My idea of a great holiday!

I – of course – am Chef de Cuisine and have been thinking about making these unique Hawaiian sandwiches – a delicious amalgamation of grilled cheese and Sloppy Joes (with a uniquely Asian twist!). Without further ado, I present to you the historical genesis of the Hawaiian Flying Saucer craze!

I first learned about this unique sandwich via a fascinating article on bloomberg.com, excerpted here:

Close your eyes and imagine you’re on Maui, Hawaii’s second-biggest island. Maybe you conjure up a beach with turquoise waters and a surfboard, or some badly behaved people from this year’s hit HBO series White Lotus. If you’re thinking food, you might cast your mind to fresh poke or a plate lunch.

What you are unlikely to think of is molten grilled cheese stuffed with meaty sloppy joe. But the over-the-top sandwich, known as a flying saucer because of its round shape, is beloved by locals on on Maui and also on Kauai.

Flying saucers are such a local specialty that Sheldon Simeon never heard of them while growing up on the Big Island, Hawaii’s largest. It wasn’t until he hopped islands that he discovered the sandwich.

Flying saucers are a less-expected entry. “Very few local dishes involve American cheese, which is somewhat surprising given our affection for canned meats and picnic condiments,” writes Simeon in the book. The sandwich is an exception. He describes it “as the glorious love child of a sloppy Joe and a grilled cheese: tomatoey beef goulash and Kraft Singles squished between two slices of white bread, then grill-pressed over an open fire until melty and toasty.”

There’s an inter-island rivalry over ownership of the sandwich. “It is from Kauai, but Maui has taken it over. It’s our pride and joy” says Simeon. He got his first taste of one at the Maui Country Fair, where people lined up before the stand even opened. “It’s crazy,” he says. “They’re delicious—but really, it’s about the nostalgia. Your grandparents have stories about standing in line. Some aren’t perfect, they still have crust on it. Each one is different, but you love it.”

The filling is simple, as a sloppy Joe-style filling should be: ground meat mixed with sautéed onions and garlic and a few other vegetables, cooked in a chile-spiced oil that adds a layer of heat. Tomato paste and canned cream of mushroom soup—yes, it’s still around—add to the good-natured gloppiness. That filling is piled into American cheese covered bread rounds and fried until golden, so the cheesy part is a melty, salty contrast to the saucy meat. Eat it as hot as you can stand it.

One thing that defines true flying saucers is their shape. They’re typically made with a contraption called a Toas-Tite pie iron from the 1940s, which presses the filled sandwiches into rounds to be toasted over a fire. If you don’t want to make the investment, Simeon recommends cutting the bread into a round shape (you can use a large ramekin or mug as a guide) and pan-frying, as we do below. They’re pretty much guaranteed to be imperfectly shaped and are no less tasty for it.

FYI – traditionally, the Maui version contains corn, the Kaua‘i saucer doesn’t – I fall firmly on the Kaua’i side of the fence here.

Discovering this hyper-regional delight is one thing – learning about its murky backstory and origin was something else entirely! After much research and several sleepless nights, I discovered the following story in the Hawaii Herald archives!

An ad in The Hawaii Herald announcing the 2015 Soto Zen Temple’s Obon Festival noted that the Hanapépé temple is “the original home of the Flying Saucer.”There is a long and curious story about the origins of this unique and yummy food item.

What’s a Flying Saucer, you ask upon learning that I am not referring to the unidentified flying object variety.

Generally speaking, it is the most popular food item served at bon dance festivals here on Kaua’i. People who attend bon dances on O’ahu, Maui or the Big Island concede that it is “a Kaua’i thing. would have to agree. The only Flying Saucers I’ve heard of and have consumed have been on the Garden Isle.

Kauai’s Flying Saucers can be described as a Sloppy Joe — but not from a can! – sandwich that is grilled into the shape of a flying saucer with a pie iron.

I got hooked on the Flying Saucer ™- not just the delicious sandwich, but also its mysterious history. In the summer of 1969, I returned home to Numi-la, on Kaua’i’s west side, with a college friend. I took him to his first bon dance at the old Zenshuji temple (Kauai Soto Zen Temple) at McBryde’s Wahiawa Camp Three.

One evening while we were having dinner at home, he said he had enjoyed eating Flying Saucers. My mom responded, saying the Zenshuji was the first temple to
have made it.

Upon further investigation, Ruth Muranaka, a longtime employee of Wong’s Restaurant in Hanapèp, added a new twist to my pursuit of information on the Flying Saucers.

“The McBryde folks did it,” she said in response to my question about who made the original Flying Saucers.

Fle’ele resident Harold Shimono recalled his mother telling him that she mixed the first batch of Fying Saucer ingredients for the Hanapepe AJA baseball team’s fundraiser. Harold’s mom and my mother were active members of the Zenshu temple’s fujinkai, or women’s organization.

Most of the elder fujinkai members have either passed on or are confined to nursing homes, so it’s difficult to corroborate these bits of information with them.

The most credible source of information about the Flying Saucer recipe is Sakiko Okihara of Keka-ha, who is now 94 years old. She was a good friend of the late Sueko Tanigawa of Hanapepe. The two women were longtime cafeteria managers – Mrs. Tanigawa at ‘Ele’ele School and Mrs. Okihara at Waimea High.

They are said to have attended a gathering at Koke’e Park and sampled a toasted hamburger sandwich encased in a pie iron and cooked over a fire. From the taste of it, they developed a recipe, which was tried for the first time at a carnival at the Hanapepe town park.

They are said to have called their hamburger filled sandwich a “Flying Saucer” because of its shape. Flying Saucers were also sold at Waimea High School’s 75th anniversary carnival in 1957.

Still a mystery, however, is the origin of that very first Flying Saucer – the one Sueko Tanigawa and Sakiko Okihara tasted at Koke’e Park. Some people say it came from another island. The mystery continues.

My version of the classic Flying Saucer sandwich – of course – is more complexly flavored and spiced than the classic versions sold at street corners and fairgrounds – nonetheless, it is authentic to the spirit of this delicious comestible! I lean heavily into Korean and Japanese flavor profiles here, in addition to the classic flavors found in the fairground version. First off – only one ketchup should ever be used in My exemplification of the recipe – and this is it!

Gochugaru chili flakes, gochujang, ginger paste, mirin, dark soy with mushrooms, red yuzu kosho and mesquite liquid smoke (equivalent to Hawaiian Kiawe wood) are a few of the optional tweaks I have made to the recipe to bring it up to TFD standards – I am confident you will enjoy My take on this delicious recipe, posted for the enjoyment of all of TFD Nation!

Battle on – the Generalissimo