LIHU‘E — The sign on the door of Kaua‘i Bakery indicated that the bakery voted Best by TGI readers is normally closed on Tuesday.
“Gotta open,” said Nurey Sudaria of Kaua‘i Bakery. “Today is Malasada Day.”
Business on Malasada Tuesday, a custom initiated by Leonard’s Bakery in Honolulu back in the early 1950s, was brisk from the special opening time of 6 a.m.
“I already bought a box of malasada,” a customer said while waiting on more. “But my wife called, and when she found out where I was, well, I gotta get another box.”
According to Leonard’s Bakery, Malasada Day dates back to the days of the sugar plantations of the 1800s. Malasada Day always falls on the day before Ash Wednesday, and is also known as Shrove Tuesday or Fat Tuesday. This refers to the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods and desserts before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season.
Jea Laganina of Kaua‘i Bakery said the four-person crew had prepared nearly 5,000 malasada before the 6 a.m. opening through a few minutes past 1:30 p.m. when the crew pulled the last batch of malasadas from the fryer.
Laganina said under normal conditions, Kaua‘i Bakery makes between 800 to 1,000 malasadas a week.
“Today, we made almost 5,000 in a single day,” she said.
Deep-fried, sugar-dusted doughnuts were brought to Hawai‘i with the 1878 arrival of Portuguese plantation laborers from the Madeira and Azores islands, reported the Hawai‘i magazine in 2020.
“Malasadas, which is loosely translated to ‘poorly cooked,’ are thought to be the specialty of Sao Miguel, an island in the Azores that was first settled by the Portuguese in 1427,” said Hawai‘i magazine.
“In Portugal, there’s a dessert called filho which is very similar. The dough is made with flour and eggs, then left to rise before shaped into balls, deep-fried and sprinkled with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon.”
