When most of us think of food from Hawaii we instantly picture in our minds a roast hog luau. That’s a beautiful mind picture and certainly wonderful eating.

Along with the roast hog, another popular food in Hawaii is Spam. The world’s  largest market for Spam is smack in the middle of Hawaii.

An interesting food created in Hilo Hawaii in the 1940s is called loco moco. It’s always featured in the Annual Rice Festival and this year they went for the world record in making the largest batch of this food.

The Guinness World Records folks say the record for loco moco is an 1,100-pound batch. Chef Hideaki Miyoshi and crew have whipped up the new world-record batch, beating the old record by 26 pounds.

Miyoshi and crew used more than 600 pounds of rice, 200 pounds of ground beef, 300 scrambled eggs and 200 pounds of gravy in creating this record-breaking batch. I realize you won’t want to be making a batch of this size … but I’ll give you what you need to make your own one-serving meal.

Hawaiian Loco Moco

Hot white rice

Hamburger patty, fried

An over-easy fried egg

Brown gravy

This basic recipe can be multiplied to produce as large a batch as you want. There are variations, and you’ll notice the new record batch uses scrambled eggs.

Just stack the dish in the order given above and have at it. Optional ingredients can include chopped or minced onions mixed in with the cooked rice. You also may want to add some celery or carrots that you have run through a food processor, for extra flavor.

Any variety of cheese you enjoy can be mixed in with the cooked rice or shredded and sprinkled over the top of the gravy. I always like black pepper on my eggs and you may kick up the spice by adding some red pepper flakes.

The Hawaiian cooks don’t mention the use of tomatoes in making loco moco, but I have used cooked diced tomatoes in this dish as well. If you do use the tomatoes you may want to serve this dish in a bowl, as the tomatoes will let down a lot of juice.

This dish may make you fall in love with a hula dancer. But if you’re serious about her, marry her real fast – otherwise, she may wiggle out of it.

Readers with questions or comments for Dave Kessler may write to him in care of this publication.