LIHU‘E — Marlena Bunao plans to be at work at 5 a.m. and Roland Tacsiat isn’t sure if he can make the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation championship basketball game. Bunao and Tacsiat are malasada masters who will be toiling today to
LIHU‘E — Marlena Bunao plans to be at work at 5 a.m. and Roland Tacsiat isn’t sure if he can make the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation championship basketball game.
Bunao and Tacsiat are malasada masters who will be toiling today to satisfy the demand for the tasty morsels on Malasada Tuesday at their respective shops.
“If I don’t do it, people will get upset,” said Bunao, the proprietor and chief cook at the booth outside the Big Kmart store. “I need to be here.”
Tacsiat, owner of Kaua‘i Bakery in the Kukui Grove Shopping Center, said they’ve already received orders from customers for malasadas and isn’t sure he’ll have enough energy to attend the basketball game between Kaua‘i and Kapa‘a high schools to determine the KIF championship. His son Silas is a player on the Kaua‘i High School team.
“I’m going to try and go, but it depends how tired I am,” Tacsiat said.
He plans on starting his malasadas around midnight.
Kaua‘i County Councilman Derek Kawakami of the Big Save stores and the Menehune Marts said the Lawai Menehune Mart also has orders for Malasada today.
“The serious malasada fanatics know and put in their orders so they’ll have some,” Kawakami said, noting that malasada are unique to the Menehune Mart in Lawai.
A malasada is a Portuguese confection first made by inhabitants of Sao Miguel Island, part of the Azores, according to online sources.
Malasadas are made of egg-shaped balls of yeast dough that are deep-fried in oil and coated with granulated sugar.
Traditionally, the reason for making malasadas has been to use up all the lard and sugar in the house, items traditionally forbidden during Lent.
In Hawai‘i, malasadas are eaten especially on Fat Tuesday — the day before Ash Wednesday, and some families associate malasadas with Mardi Gras.
“I don’t really know how Malasada Tuesday started, but I think it has something to do with religion,” Bunao said. “All I know is that I’m having a helper; we’re going to start serving from around 5:30 a.m. and keep going until we run out.”
The sign on Bunao’s booth touts “9 a.m. until close (run out, or pau hana),” but that opening will be pushed up so people on the way to work can stop by and pick up the morsels to enjoy during the day.
Large batches of malasadas would be shared with friends from all the other ethnic groups in the plantation camps.
This practice is believed to be the birth of Malasada Tuesday in Hawai‘i.
Bunao said in addition to her booth, the most popular places on Kaua‘i to get malasadas are at the Kaua‘i Bakery and the Menehune Mart in Lawai where the morsels commonly sell out in the early afternoon.
“We definitely will make more malasadas,” Kawakami said. “People come from all parts of the island to get malasadas on Malasada Tuesday, and sometimes that’s the only time we get to see them.”
The West Kaua‘i United Methodist Church produced large volumes of malasadas during the Waimea Town Celebration that concluded over the weekend, and church volunteers also turn out to produce malasadas for the Kaua‘i Museum May Day and Christmas Craft Fair.
Another source of malasadas is at the Kaua‘i County Farm Bureau Fair where the tradition was started by the Rotary Club of Kaua‘i with Chuck Malley serving as chair. This was later taken over by the Lihu‘e Pop Warner Association that produces hundreds of the tasty morsels as a fundraiser for its football and cheer programs.
Although large crowds are expected for Malasada Tuesday, the tasty morsels can be enjoyed beyond its basic sugar-coated form.
At Bunao’s booth, she offers the basic sugar malasada as well as a cinnamon version.
Cream-filled malasadas are one of the options at Kaua‘i Bakery where it joins variations that include chocolate and black bean filling, the latter being akin to the black bean manju sold by the Chinese and Japanese bakeries.
Malasada Tuesday is Bunao’s busiest day of the year as people line the sidewalks waiting. “People need to come early because we don’t know when we’re going to be done. I guess we’ll just keep making until we run out,” Bunao said.
