The precise origins of this noodle soup as a dish is debatable. It is certain that saimin, along with much of the contemporary cuisine in Hawaii, is closely related to the immigration of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, and Portuguese field workers during the plantation era of Hawaii beginning in the 1850s. As the popular belief goes, these plantation laborers of various ethnic backgrounds would return from the fields and share communal meals. For example, a Korean family may have had extra green onions growing in their yard, the Portuguese would have some extra pork from making sausage, the Chinese would share some noodles, while the Japanese provide some dashi for the meal. At this point, they would all throw their ingredients into a pot and share what was created. It may be through these improvised communal meals that saimin was possibly born.