Local-style crackers far cry from their European kin

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor

Now Ishimoto is sales manager for Diamond Head Bakery Co. Ltd., an 81-year-old O'ahu firm that makes three styles of crackers that have long been Hawai'i favorites: soda crackers, saloon pilot and sweet cream crackers.

Brent Kunimoto, president of Diamond Head Bakery, explains that while these crackers may have European cousins, the way they're made now is unique to the Islands.

The saloon pilot is a thick, chewy- rather-than-crisp cracker that had its origins in seagoing days. The crackers were sold in waterproof tins and retained their texture on long voyages. It's also known as the "jailbird cracker" because it was used by institutions including prisons, Kunimoto said. It's related to the English water cracker. Ishimoto points out that saloon pilots continue to have a seagoing connection in Hawai'i; they go along aboard the Hokule'a whenever the canoe sails.

The Original Soda Cracker is Diamond Head Bakery's No. 1 seller. This style of cracker also routinely outsells comparable crackers from national brands, Ishimoto said. This cracker is not as crumbly-crisp as Mainland-style saltines which, Kunimoto says, "break in da mouth but don't broke da mouth." He theorizes that these crackers were designed to match the assertively flavored ingredients Hawai'i folk favored for eating with crackers: tuna and mayonnaise, Spam, canned sardines and such.

Cream crackers — Diamond Head's version is called Royal Creem — are related to the English digestive or dessert biscuit, but are thicker and have more of a snap when you bite into them.