Photo: BembosHamburguesa Hawaiana
The ham-and-pineapple burger found across Latin America: a grilled patty with cheese, English-style ham, pineapple and mayonnaise. Sweet pineapple and salty ham on beef is the Hawaiian pizza idea in a bun. If pineapple on a burger bothers you, this one will too.
The story
Across Latin America, “hawaiana” on a menu means ham and pineapple, and the name comes from a pizza. In 1962 Sam Panopoulos, a Greek-born cook running the Satellite Restaurant in Chatham, Ontario, put canned pineapple and ham on a pizza and called it Hawaiian after the brand of the tin, the Hawaiian Pineapple Company. The pizza went around the world and took the label with it. Peru’s Bembos applies the same sweet-and-salty idea to a grilled beef patty, with ham, pineapple, cheese and mayonnaise.
What’s inside
- grilled beef patty
- cheese
- ham
- pineapple
- mayonnaise
- bun
Make it at home
There is no copycat of the Hamburguesa Hawaiana yet. Until there is, these recipes on the site come closest to it, judged by what goes into the bun.
- Shares pork, beef and cheese
The Mountain from Left at Albuquerque - Shares pork and beef
Pork Dumpling Hamburger Sliders - Shares pork and beef
Good Morning Burger - Shares pork and beef
Hayley’s Impossible Order
Similar burgers at other chains
Built around the same things as the Hamburguesa Hawaiana.- Rolls · pork, beef, pineapple and cheese
SignaturePaPa - Zip's Drive-In · pork, beef and cheese
Papa Joe - Roy Rogers · pork, beef and cheese
SignatureDouble R Bar Burger - VICIO · pork, beef and cheese
SignatureCheeseburger Ibérica
More from Bembos
About Bembos
Bembos opened its first small restaurant in Miraflores, Lima, on 11 June 1988 and grew into Peru’s best-known home-grown burger chain, the local name people set against the American giants. It tried going abroad, with a restaurant in Mumbai from 2006 and one in Guatemala City from 2009, but those closed after the Peruvian conglomerate Intercorp bought the chain in March 2011 and kept only the business at home. It now runs more than a hundred restaurants, all of them in Peru.
More than a hundred restaurants, all in Peru.
Not affiliated with Bembos. Trademarks belong to their owners. The photo is credited under it and is used to illustrate this menu item; it comes down on request.