Pressure-cooked Kalua Pig

Success! Ah yes my friends, this second time around I’ve successfully made Kalua Pig (“Pork” if you prefer the sound of that) in my new pressure cooker. This, after FAILING MISERABLY in my first attempt.

As I’ve suggested in comments from my previous post about “My First Pressure Cooker“, the ideal goal of using a pressure cooker should be about both speed and simplicity. Well, this method of making cooking Kalua Pig certainly exemplifies both those virtues in using this “wonder gadget” of a cooking tool. Which I’m convinced in this resource-crunched world, that EVERY household should have and use on a regular basis.

Here’s how I did it.

I began by deeply scoring the fat cap on a MASSIVE 7¼-pound pork butt that’s been thawed from previously frozen state. Then I rubbed it generously on all sides with Wright’s Concentrated Hickory Seasoning Liquid Smoke (the must-have Kiawe wood substitute), followed by an also generous sprinkling of Hawaiian rock salt. Then in it went DIRECTLY in the pressure cooker pot, resting on the bottom, fat cap side up, cut side down, using NO steamer basket.  Just directly resting in the pot. Then I added 2 cups of water, to which it looked like this…

Fearing it would scorch and burn like it did in my first attempt, this time, instead of wrapping the pork butt entirely with Ti Leaves, I added it around just the sides…

Then topping it with layer-upon-layer of Ti Leaves like this, making sure to tuck both ends of each Ti Leaf tightly in so the overall “build” within didn’t obstruct the pressure valves on the underside of the lid, keeping in mind that my 6-quart pressure cooker must have at least 1/3 of it’s total capacity reserved to build pressure…

Cover it up, lock the lid, set the switch to “High”, put it on the stove, set the fire to HIGH, then once the yellow pressure button indicator pops up, TURN THE FIRE DOWN TO LOW and start the time for 1½ hours.

As is emphasized in LOCKED CAPS in the previous sentence, LOW HEAT from the stove top fire source is all this pressure cooker needs once it hits 15 PSI, whereas, the big mistake I made in my first ever use of my pressure cooker was leaving the flame on HIGH, which pretty much “blew” the valve.

Keep in mind that, although the heat is reduced to low from the stove top source, the heat within the pressure cooker itself remains at a stable, high pressure 257ºF temperature, which PENETRATES the meat fibers throughout the entire cooking time, in a way conventional oven roasting can’t be achieved.

After about an hour of pressure cooking time, steam starts to slowly release from the automatic valve switch, due to the pressure increasing beyond the valve’s designed threshold…

At this INCREDIBLY QUICK 1 hour cooking point, you already begin to get a drift of “Luau” aroma that wafts in the air from the combined smell of the near-tender pulled pork that’s been thoroughly infused with the flavor of liquid smoke, Hawaiian Salt and Ti Leaves.

1½ hours is up, so I turn off the fire, then turn the valve switch to “release” to depressurize the cooker, which takes about a minute or two to blow all the hot steam out. Once the yellow pressure button drops down, I remove the cover, where it looks like this uncovered…

Aaaaahhhhhh… ooooooohhhhhh… aahhhhh.

The Ti Leaves certainly look like they’ve been “extracted of their essence”, yet amazingly still look incredibly GREEN, and not parched at all.

Uncovering the Ti Leaves, the 1½-hour pressure cooked pork looks like this…

LOOKS tender. Now let’s find out if it’s REALLY done and ready for “pulling”, where the tools of choice are simply two forks…

I really shouldn’t have done it yet at this stage, but I drained the liquid in a heat-proof container, although of course I saved it, as that’s the “essence” of your Kalua Pig… it’s all in that liquid!

But nope, not quite ready yet, as after that 1½-hours pressure cooking time, underneath the top layer of buttery-tender pork and fat cap, the inside part of this massive pork butt was still tough and resistant…

No probs. Put back the rendered Ti Leaves, drained liquid and cover it back up, brought it to back to pressure, then I decided a half-hour (30 minutes) should be enough more time to fully cook this “butt” to pulled-pork tenderness to the very core…

My “guesstimate” proved correct, as sure enough, the 30 minutes of additional pressure cooking time, plus the time it took to let it cool down naturally, which took another 30 minutes, resulted in absolutely ONOLICIOUS, fork-tender pressure-cooked 7 pounds (starting weight) of Kalua Pig…

Once again, that MASSIVE 7½ pound pork butt turned into falling-off-the-bone, super-moist, tender ‘n tasty Kalua Pig in just 2½ hours in my 6-quart pressure cooker. If THAT isn’t incredibly energy-efficient and outright statistically AMAZING if you understand cooking basics, I don’t know what is!

Here in this next shot, you see I’ve saved the cooking liquid, as, once again, this has the “essence” of the Kalua Pig, which you should add to the meat slowly until it reaches just the right amount of moisture and flavor profile that you’re happy with…

Notice in the cooking liquid is the one single bone this pork shoulder had in it.

7.5 lbs. bone-in pork butt cooked for a total of 2 hours under pressure + 30 minutes natural release = a bone that LITERALLY fell off the meat…

At this final stage after you’ve added the liquid drippings to the moisture and flavor profile you like, the last thing you want to do is adjust the seasoning by adding more Hawaiian rock salt to taste, if necessary. Yet be VERY careful when doing this, and by all means, DO NOT go overboard! Remember when salting foods, you can always add, but you can’t subtract. If in doubt, have someone who has a “good palate” do the salt seasoning taste testing for you. I’m pretty good about it, as I’m quite sensitive to sodium on my tongue.

Now to illustrate how my method of not using a steamer basket (and following directions) worked out beautifully, notice here that there was absolutely NO burning or scorching of the pork (or Ti Leaves for that matter, thank GOD!) on the bottom of the pressure cooker pot after all was said and done…

Nothing but net…

Just add poi, Hawaiian music, hula dancing, da’ ohana and friends, and we’ve got ourselves a Luau!…

With this, you can also do all kinds of other fun ‘n tasty stuffz.

Oh, like say, being adventurous and going south of the border, “KP style”…

Or bowl-up some hot steamed rice and top it with the all-time fave’ Kalua Pig ‘n Cabbage…

Summing it up, I give my pressure-cooked Kalua Pig in this successful method an absolutely moist ‘n tender, super onolicious 4 SPAM Musubi.

I honestly must admit that roasting it in the oven or of course in an Imu tastes better, as, if you were to compare it with this pressure-cooked Kalua Pig, you could tell this tastes more “steamed”. Still, at just 2-½ hours of cooking time using this no-fuss method, I have absolutely no complaints!

Follow my energy and time-saving instructions here on making Kalua Pig with your pressure cooker, and I’m confident that — providing you understand the dynamics of your own pressure cooker — you too will have fantastic results!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-uUjyRsik4

My First Pressure Cooker

Whether it’s a first date, first time solo in the cockpit of an F-22 Raptor, or first touch of that spankin’ new, “lastest ‘n greatest” smart phone you’ve just committed a 2-year contract to, as “simple” as it may appear, there’s certainly going to be a few things you need to know before you start, and learn more about as you go. And a pressure cooker is no exception.

In the case here, there are a few rules and procedures that set a pressure cooker apart from your conventional cookware which need to be taken into consideration. Far apart actually, as in much, MUCH FASTER COOKING TIMES. Up to 70% quicker, SERIOUSLY, as I soon discovered.

That sealed-in, high pressure heat inherent in pressure cooking is also said to retain much more of the natural moisture AND water-soluble vitamins and minerals in the food using this method, hence this is also a HEALTHY way to cook.

The significantly faster cooking times also makes a pressure cooker VERY ENERGY EFFICIENT. Especially when you consider the extremely high, beyond-boiling point 257ºF cooking temperature a pressure cooker generates within its hallowed walls requires only a low heat source setting from your stovetop burner once the 15 psi pressure is achieved.

So if you’ve already converted all your appliances to Energy Star compliant models and changed all your incandescent bulbs in your home to compact fluorescents (CFLs), you best be adding a pressure cooker to your energy (cost)-saving “THINK GREEN” must-have list.

After recently hearing my coworkers rave about how they’ve prepared dishes such as St. Paddy’s day corned beef brisket and pot roasts in just minutes in their pressure cooker – both which can normally take several hours conventionally – I was sold.

So I headed out on a hunt for a good price on a good quality model and ended up with a very nice one from ROSS’ Hawaii Kai store (gotta’ love that store). According to their price tag, this item’s regular retail price is $90, yet they were selling it for just $41. Works for me. Sold.

The pressure cooker I got that’s featured here today is manufactured by FAGOR, a major appliance manufacturer based in Spain.

Like other manufacturers, FAGOR offers several pressure cooker models. The one I have is the Rapida, which is their most basic model, and didn’t come with any accessories, which in hind sight, I kinda’ wish I got that. Then again, I don’t want any more “stuff” than my cramped condo-sized kitchen already has, so this works. If I do need any other accessories, I’m good at “McGuyvering” stuff in my kitchen.

Here’s the entire list of features and benefits of my new kitchen gadget “toy”:

RAPIDA 6-QUART PRESSURE COOKER
Manufactured by FAGOR
Quality features:
• Made of 18/10 stainless steel
• 3-ply Stainless Steel/Aluminum/ Stainless Steel thermo heat conductive base for even heat distribution
• Cooks on all types of stove tops: gas, electric, ceramic or induction
• Heavy-duty silicone gasket (replaceable)
• U.L. approved
• 10 year warranty – fully guaranteed
Safety features:
• Safety lock on handle prevents opening before all pressure is released
• Two independent over-pressure release valves assure no pressure build-up
Unit includes:
6-Quart Rapida Belly-shaped Pressure cooker
• Instructions manual with Recipes and instructional DVD

Here’s the same Fagor Presssure Cooker instructional video on the included DVD that someone uploaded on YouTube…

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmuGX7pwjTE

Other features on the box go on to say:
1. FAST
• Reduces cooking time up to 70%
• Easily adapt your recipes and cook 1/3 of the time (instructions inside)
2. EASY
• Load ingredients, lock lid in place and begin cooking… release pressure and enjoy healthy, flavorful meals
3. HEALTHY
• Create delicious meals while retaining important water-soluble vitamins and minerals
• The tender taste of slow cooking
• Cooks without oil (fat)
• Maintains the natural color and flavor of foods

COOKS: Vegetable Medley in 2 minutes, Fresh Steamed Lobster in 3 minutes, Cioppino in 5 minutes, Bean Soup in 20 minutes, Mediterranean Chicken in 15  minutes, Risotto in 7 minutes, Pasta Primavera in 7 minutes, Pepper Steak in 4 minutes, Cheesecake in 30 minutes, Chili in 16 minutes, Fajitas in 5 minutes, Corn Chowder in 12 minutes.

Wow, those are some mighty quick cooking times! I must note that Fagor’s Rapida and Splendid pressure cooker models are made in China, while the more expensive Express, Duo, Futuro and Elite models are made in Spain.

Still, the fit and finish quality of this Rapida Pressure Cooker is absolutely top notch, with not one visible flaw. In fact it’s so gorgeous, I actually polished it with my Diamond Magic polish (awesome stuff as well) after each use so far, as I still have that “brand new” novelty within me about this wonder of cooking beauty. In other words, I consider we’re both still on our first dates phase and “courting” each other. lol

It’s has a considerably hefty feel to it, with thick 18/10 stainless steel pot walls, and of course that all-important 3-ply stainless/aluminum/stainless steel conductive heat “sandwiched” pot base.

Here’s a closer look at the controls built into the pressure cooker’s black ABS lid handle…

The lid handle interlocks with the pot handle, which you do by aligning that line (where the blue arrow is pointing) with the pot handle, making sure the lid’s lip is aligned with the pots flange, then you simply turn the lid handle towards the pot handle, where they interlock with each other . Then you lock the lid in place by moving that green switch forward.

The yellow “button” forward of the green lid locking switch is not really a button, but a pressure indicator. This yellow button pops up once the cooker has reached its 15 psi cooking pressure.

Up from there is a dial switch with three positions: Unlock , Steam Release and High. To start pressure cooking, you move this to the High position. When the cooking time is up, you can do one of several things, depending on what you’re cooking:

You can immediately release the pressure to stop the cooking process by turning this dial switch to the Steam Release position, which it will blow the hot steam right out of a hole that’s built into the front side of that dial switch. Be very careful when doing this, as it spits out very hot high-pressured steam!

Or you can immediately bring down the pressure the “old fashioned” way by running the pot under cold water to quickly cool it down.

Or you can let it relieve its pressure “naturally” by just turning off the heat and setting the cooker aside. Keep in mind, if you do this, the food CONTINUES to cook for a long time due to the hot pressurized steam remaining “trapped” inside, even after it’s not on the fire. Which probably would be ok for making stocks, but may not be ideal if critical cooking times for meats, vegetables and such are a consideration.

Moving along on our little “tour” of my new Rapida pressure cooker, here’s that 3-ply sandwiched stainless steel/aluminum/stainless steel conductive thermo heat base…

This both literally and figuratively puts the stamp of QUALITY in this wonderful piece of cooking magic, as it gives me the confidence that not only will the heat be distributed more evenly, but that it will also help to prevent scorching. Or so I thought, as you shall soon find out! lol

Next to that 3-ply heavy-duty base, another critical component of this wonder cooker is the heavy-duty “C” profile silicone gasket that literally LOCKS & SEALS the pressure in…

Under the lid you can also see the two pressure valves, while also notice the lid has tabbed segments incorporated into its stamped steel design that fold over around its perimeter. These interlock with matching tabbed segments on the perimeter of the pot’s rim, so when you put the lid on and align the lid handle with the pot handle, there’s virtually NO WAY the lid could blow off while it’s under pressure.

When you turn the handles to align and lock the lid nto place with the pot, you can feel the gasket compress, as it gives a slight resistance as you turn it into the locked position. For added safety, once again there’s that green locking switch on the lid handle, which I must also note, there’s an interconnected mechanism that will not all allow you to unlock the lid unless the High/Steam/Unlock switch dial is in the UNLOCK position.

That makes 3 levels of safety redundancy built right in, so no worries of having your squid luau or oxtail soup become your new kitchen wall paper “look”. lol

One note on storage, according to the manufacturer, you shouldn’t store the pressure cooker with the lid on, especially in the LOCKED position, as this will cause the silicone gasket to prematurely “compress” and have a less than ideal seal when in use. They recommend storing it with the lid either turned upside down or separately. They also recommend lightly coating the silicone gasket with cooking oil to keep it pliable.

That’s pretty much the physical make-up of my modern day pressure cooker. Certainly steps ahead from the “stovetop grenade” your grandma may have had.

Now let’s talk cooking times, which as already noted, these things can RIP. There’s an an excellent and very informative site on all things pressure cooker over at MissVickie.com, where of course there’s a pressure cooking time chart for all types of foods. In that chart, it states Pork Butt takes just 35-40 minutes to cook. It doesn’t say at what level of doneness (just cooked through or pulled-pork fork tender), but that’s still mighty quick.

That said, one of the first things I wanted to try in my new pressure cooker was Kalua Pig, which as you may know normally takes about 8 hours in a conventional oven (a bit shorter in convection), or even longer in an Imu (traditional Hawaiian underground oven).

So I set off on my first attempt at pressure-cooked Kalua Pig, on my first time EVER using a pressure cooker.

Just one problem. One MAJOR problem. Being the “typical man” that I am, did I read my new pressure cooker instructions manual or watch the instructional DVD BEFORE using it for the first time? Nope. Because, you know, when it comes to “gadgets” or anything mechanical or electronic, us fellahz think that we got it ALL FIGURED OUT. I mean, how complicated can this be, right? “Manual, shmanual” as far as we’re concerned.

Well there’s just one important piece of information I was not aware of as a pressure cooker “newbie”, and that’s that you must TURN DOWN the fire to LOW once the cooker achieves full 15 PSI pressure. Did I lower the heat from high to low once the pressure was on max? Nope. And guess what? It was A DISASTER! Talk about “Chernobyl” Kalua Pig, that’s pretty what I had! LOL!

Well, not really “laughing out loud”, as the smell was actually kinda’ TOXIC from the combination of burnt-to-the-crisp ti leaves and pork butt. So much that I had to open all the windows and turn on every fan in the house to get the smell out. ACK!!!  While “smell-o-vision” would be great, trust me, this is one time you DO NOT WANT smell-o-vision, as this thing smelled just NASTY!

I didn’t even take anymore photos after that shot, as it was SO not pretty under that top layer of ti leaves. Ugh. lol

Rewinding on what went wrong, first let me say what I did right, which was adding 2 cups of water, which is what MissVickie.com recommends when cooking Pork Butt in a pressure cooker.

As for preparing the pork butt, I simply coated it generously with liquid smoke and Hawaiian sea salt, then wrapped it ENTIRELY (key word here) with Ti Leaves, set it in the pressure cooker pot, covered it with the 2 cups water, locked the lid, set the fire on high and let her rip.

Now for what I did WRONG, which as you already know, I didn’t turn the heat down to LOW once the cooker reached full pressure. So this thing was cooking away at GOD KNOWS how high of a temperature, but certainly way, WAY higher than what it was designed to be cooking at.

The high heat maintained from the burner ended up making  the pressure in the cooker exceed the 15 psi ceiling, where the automatic pressure relief valve (thank goodness it has that!) stayed open more or less throughout the cooking time. Which me being a “newbie” thought this was “normal”, but Hell no, I found out the hard way that that’s NOT normal. This open valve ended up letting all the moisture out of the pot, while entirely evaporating the two cups of water that was in there. Not good.

While it was cooking, everything seemed fine, and it smelled “OK”, up until about 40 minutes into the cooking time, then it started to smell “strange”, yet not BAD…. yet. Then about just 5 minutes later it was like “dayummm!, what the heck is goin’ on in there?!!!”. So I finally shut off the fire and just let it cool down naturally, mainly to (hopefully) let the pork continue cooking so it would reach fork-tender doneness. That extended cooking time as “naturally” cooled down just gave the ti leaves and and burnt pork on the bottom more time to burn even more.

I must say though, the pork that DIDN’T burn (which actually was most of it) was indeed pull-apart fork tender after just about 1 hour of cooking/BURNING. Too bad the toxic, horrid aroma from the burnt ti leaves and scorched pork on the bottom of the pot pretty much ruined the entire batch. It smelled so bad, I didn’t even risk tasting it.

When I attempt (stress ATTEMPT) to make Kalua Pig again in my pressure cooker, not only will I turn down the fire, but I’ll probably add a little more water. I also won’t put any ti leaves on the bottom (wrapped around the pork), but just cover it in layers ON TOP and AROUND the pork butt. Good Lord, burnt Ti Leaves smells HORRID! lol

After learning the hard way once again that men really don’t know it all when it comes to gadgets, this time around I read the instructions manual thoroughly from cover to cover, watched the included instructional DVD and also checked out a few pressure cooker demonstrations on YouTube. I then set off to make another dish that takes a while to cook, which is “Local style” Sweet & Sour Spare Ribs. This one using my Aunt’s favorite recipe, which is simply a 4 lb. tray of pork spare ribs, ginger, daikon, carrots and 1 cup each of shoyu, sugar, vinegar and 1 can of chunk pineapple, including the juice. In this case, I used apple cider vinegar instead of white vinegar, as I think apple cider vinegar has a better flavor when cooking with it.

While pressure cooking is indeed, fast, energy efficient and healthy, if there’s one “drawback” to it, is that you can’t just open the lid whenever you want to check on your food, stir it, or add ingredients as the cooking time progresses.

As you know when it comes to dishes such as pot roasts, stews and soups, most vegetables and/or starch ingredients in these recipes cook much faster than the tough cuts of meats it also uses. So with pressure cooking, many recipes have to be cooked in several pressurized “sessions”. Or as MissVickie.com calls it, the “Phased Pressure Cooking Method“: 1st pressurized phase the meat, 2nd pressurized phase the vegetables and/or starch and the 3rd unpressurized phase, the thickener. You get the idea.

So going off the cooking chart, which calls for just 10 minutes to pressure cook pork spare ribs, I cooked the (slightly-browned) meat, along with the the shoyu, sugar, vinegar, pineapple chunks ‘n juice and ginger for just 5 minutes pressure time.

Note that when you time pressure cooking, you start the timer from the time it reaches full 15 PSI pressure (when that yellow indicator button pops up), NOT when you first put the cooker on the fire. So while it does look amazingly fast on paper, the reality is theres that approximate 5 minutes of time it takes to pressure up , AND also the time it takes to pressure down (if required) when considering the TOTAL PROCESS (not cooking) TIME, not just the pressurized time.Plus the prep time such as peeling the vegetables ‘n stuff of course.

So anyway, after just 5 minutes of cooking time under pressure, I cut the LOW heat off and let it reduce pressure naturally. This took about another 10 minutes for the yellow pressure indicator button to go down, meaning it’s now safe to remove the lid. Which it then looked like this…

Yup, just 5 minutes of pressurized cooking time yielded pork spare ribs that were already falling off the bones, while the sweet and sour “sauce” was beautifully incorporated and infused with onolicious flavor from the bones in the pork.

That’s the first pressurized phase. Next pressurized phase, in goes the the daikon and carrot root veggies…

Let her go for 5 more minutes under pressure, let her cool down naturally (about 15 minutes), then voila, Sweet & Sour Spare Ribs…

A closer look…

Serve it  up…

As you can see, I insist on using only the finest Chinaware for my food presentations. lol

Seriously though, it turned out BROKE DA’ MOUT’ WINNAHZ! What’s interesting is I didn’t even need to do the 3rd thickening phase of adding a cornstarch and water slurry, as the sugar caramelized enough to give it just the right amount thickness.

Here you can kinda’ see the fat and meat of the spare ribs is practically MELTING apart off my spoon…

Pressure-cooked “Local-style” Sweet ‘n Sour Spare Ribs

You know that cartilage-like texture of the “bone” in pork spare ribs? Well these were so soft, yet had just enough “crunch” to it if you know what I mean. Plus, the flavor from the sweet and sour sauce was completely permeated throughout meat, bone and fat of the spare ribs and veggies, thanks to the benefit of high pressure cooking. Winnahz!

In hindsight, I don’t think this recipe needed to be done in 2 phases, as the spare ribs cooked so quickly, I think the root vegetables probably would have been perfectly cooked just as well had I put it all in the pot at the same time from the beginning. So there you go, just take the recipe I gave above and simply throw everything in your pressure cooker, let her rip for 10 minutes, then let it cool down naturally, and voila, you going stay get PERFECT local style Sweet ‘n Sour Spare Ribs.

My third and most recent pressure cooker project to date was Okinawan Pig’s Feet Soup, a.k.a. Ashitibichi, where here’s the final result…

Pomai’s pressure-cooked Okinawan Pig’s Feet Soup (Ashitibichi) with rice (gohan), Benishoga and Sushi Shoga tsukemono condiments

Gotta’ admit, that looks pretty darned OISHII! And you know what? It was very oishii! At least it came out more authentic tasting than my first attempt at Ashitibichi in a conventional pot. Not that I attribute my newfound success at making this dish to pressure cooking, yet I do think it did help extract more flavor out of the bones to make the soup broth.

I’ll now run you through how I did it, while pointing out again that I’m still LEARNING my pressure cooker, realizing just how FAST this thing is at cooking what normally takes much, much longer for these tough cuts of meats. In this case, the pig’s feet and hocks, which we have in raw state here…

Oh, don’t gross out. If you ate a bacon cheeseburger or bacon ‘n eggs anytime recently, this ain’t that much different, and mighty tasty if done the right way. Give it a try!

Along with that one HUGE cut of pig’s feet and hock part are a few cuts of spare ribs for added “meat” in the final soup.

Now the deal with properly preparing Ashitibichi is you MUST remove the blood and “scum” from the meat and bones before making the soup, as the broth has to taste “clean”. The way you do that, is you parboil the pig’s feet  for about 10 minutes, and then drain and thoroughly rinse it. So another mistake I made was thinking I could “parboil” it in high pressure mode in the pressure cooker to remove the blood and excess fat. WRONG.

What happened was, even for a short 5 minutes of pressurized cooking, the pork meat already began pulling off the bones of both the feet ‘n hocks and spare ribs…

…and I STILL have to add water to make the broth. Not surprisingly, upon doing that, returning it to the heat under pressure, after 15 minutes of cooking, the pig’s feet was pretty much rendered to loose bones with all the meat and skin barely sticking to it…

All I did in this next shot was turn the spoon, and it easily, without any restraint, FELL APART…

Which is fine if all you want is “pork soup”, but we want “Pig’s Feet Soup”, where there’s still a foot intact to gnaw on, so this won’t work. I’ll still use the “meat” (because that’s all it is now), but I’ll have to go get another package of pig’s feet and do that step again using a different method.

Here’s that overcooked “destroyed” pig’s feet and spare ribs, drained and put in a bowl on the side…

Of course all this tender pork meat is still good and will be used in the soup as an added “bonus”. Thankfully I also got a WONDERFUL pork broth out of that, which I placed in another separate container, and then refrigerated it overnight so I could easly skim off any separated fat off the top…

So back to the drawing board, I got another package of pig’s “trotters”, this time only the trotter part (no hocks), since I already had plenty of “meat” from the previous batch…

Doesn’t that look lovely? lol

This time around, to remove the blood and “scum”, I parboiled them UNPRESSURIZED for 10 minutes, placing the pressure cooker lid loosely on the pot without locking it. Out they came after being rinsed and drained looking like this…

That’s much better than the pretty much fully-cooked state they were in my first attempt. Cut up into individual pig’s feet servings, they looked like this…

By now you may feel a little squeamish looking at all these animal parts, so we’ll change gears and talk for a moment about the other ingredients that goes into traditional Okinawan Pig’s Feet Soup. One of the most unique being Chinese Squash, a.k.a. Winter Melon, or as the Okinawans call it “Togan”….

The flesh and seeds inside…

To describe how Togan tastes raw, it’s pretty much like eating an unripe melon or cantaloupe, sans the sweet or fruit-flavored element. It’s very subtle and nondescript, with no bitterness, acidity or sweetness whatsoever. I think what’s best about it is that it absorbs all the flavors of the broth once it’s cooked through. The skin is very easy to peel with a standard handheld vegetable and fruit peeler, while the seeds are also easy to scoop out using just a spoon. Very easy to work with. I got this quarter-section of Togan from the Kaheka Don Quijote for $1.49/lbs., which came out to about $4 for this piece, as a WHOLE Togan is is nearly as large as a watermelon.

One of my favorite ingredients in this soup are the tied knots of kombu….

Seriously, I could just as well take that hot pork broth and fill it up with a whole bunch of tied kombu knots for some Kombu Soup and call it a day.

Along with that are cut daikon and carrots, where here I have all the other “veggies” prepped and ready to hit what will actually be the third phase of cooking the vegetables…

So here we have the pot of pig’s feet soup after the pig’s feet have been “half-cooked”, where I used the broth from my first batch of pig’s feet for even more intense flavor…

In went all them “veggies”, then I turned back on the pressure cooker for another 10 minutes…

Then immediately released the pressure using the dial switch, to which my pretty much finished Ashitibichi turned out looking like this…

Serve ’em up…

Hai, itadakimasu!…

I think the pig’s feet are done just right at this point, where they still had some integrity, yet once it hits your mouth, it melts apart. You can see in this angle where the all-important marrow in the center of the bones was so soft, I could easily suck it out…

Like pig’s feet “buttah”…

I definitely did VERY well with the authenticity of the broth flavor this time, thanks to not adding dashinomoto, which made my first attempt at Ashitibichi taste more like Japanese Oden. My only other flavoring in the broth besides the pig’s feet (and various “veggies”) was Miso paste of the “shiro” (white) variety, which I used in restraint, adding it ever so slightly to taste.

The “veggies” were done pretty much how I wanted them, although I think the carrots could have used a little more time. I put in the mustard cabbage raw, as I like it that way, but you can cook it in the final phase if you don’t like the “bite” it has. I like that bite and crispy green taste mustard cabbage has in its raw state, so this was fantastic for me.

In hindsight of my first (actually second within a first) attempt at making Okinawan Pig’s Feet Soup in a pressure cooker, I think just like Sweet & Sour Spare Ribs, next time I’m going to put everything in from the start, except the kombu, as the Pig’s Feet cooks SO QUICK, I’m confident the veggies will still have enough al dente doneness doing it that way. I’ll keep you posted when that happens.

Summing it up, I give my pressure-cooked Ashitibichi on this attempt 3 SPAM Musubi, the pressure-cooked Sweet & Sour Spare Ribs 5 Musubi, with “no comment” on my pressure-cooked “rookie” Kalua Pig, other than to ask, “How often have first dates ever been PERFECT?” LOL!

I’m really looking forward to trying  more favorite recipes in my new pressure cooker, such as Portuguese Bean Soup, Pot Roast, Squid Luau and Laulau, just to name a few. This pressure cooker has already proven to be one of the best investments for my kitchen (besides the new kitchen itself) I’ve made yet. Every home should have one!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a01QQZyl-_I

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LncAQR47eZo

Big Island Eats: Roy's Smoked Marlin & Smoked Ahi

Upon my usual Saturday morning stroll through KCC Farmers’ Market this past weekend, I came across an absolute TREASURE CHEST of dried and smoked fish at the Tropic Fish & Vegetable tent.

You may remember Tropic’s Market, who was a prominent anchor tenant at the Ward Farmers Market for decades. While they no longer have a retail store, they’re alive and well, located in the same Ward warehouse area behind the Farmers Market, where they continue to operate a fish and produce wholesale distribution business to local and overseas markets.

Getting to the ono ‘kine smoked fish grindz we’re reviewing today, come to find out, according to the girl working at their booth, Tropic’s is a partnership business with Hilo Fish Company on the Big Island. It’s through them that Tropic’s brings in these Smoked Ahi and Smoked Marlin products, which are manufactured by Roy’s Fishery (no affiliation with Roy Yamaguchi the restaurateur), also located on the Big Island at the south tip in Na’alehu, near Ka’u.

So let’s check out what we’ve got here, beginning with Roy’s Smoked Marlin…

As you see on the label, that’s a 5 oz. package, which costs $2.79 (great price!), vacuum-sealed for maximum freshness and shelf life. The ingredients are: Marlin, Soy Sauce, Brown Sugar, Salt, Garlic Powder, Canola Bean Oil and Red Crushed Pepper.

Hmm, interesting that they use Brown Sugar. I’ll have to try that next time I make my Big Island style Smoke Meat (pork). Usually I use unrefined cane sugar, which has a natural brown color, but doesn’t taste quite as molasses-like as brown sugar. I also notice the absence of Ginger, which I use generously in my Smoke Meat recipe, and after tasting this Smoked Marlin, I really think it would benefit with the addition of Ginger in Roy’s marinade.

Let’s unpack it and take an inventory of all pieces included in this 5 oz. package…

That would be 9 sticks of Roy’s Smoked Marlin, with each one measuring on average 5½” long x 5/8″ thickness. They were also mostly center cuts, with only a couple that were from the more stringy tail end.

As in usual Tasty Island fashion, let’s have a look at a cross-section cut…

How does it taste? Oishii, broke da’ mout’ winnnahz! I found it tasted even better after letting it get to room temperature vs. being refrigerator-cold. Like eating fine cheese, letting it get to room temperature allows the fats to “melt” out of their congealed state, providing maximum flavor impact. And man, are these packed with flavor. It has the perfect balance of marinade penetration, without the marinade taking away from the natural “meaty” flavor of the inherently-lean marlin.

That leanness makes most smoked marlin waiver on the dry side, and this one is like that as well, yet I think Roy’s reaches just the right dry-to-moist ratio. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being raw to 10 being “jerky” dry, I’d put Roy’s Smoked Marlin at about 6½. Which is perfect, as if I want Fish Jerky, I’ll buy fish jerky. When I buy Smoked Fish, I want it to still have some moisture and tenderness and not be so tough, and Roy’s NAILS it. This is EXACTLY how Smoked Fish should be on the dry-to-moist scale.

Back to the flavor profile, it’s kinda’ shoyu-ee-sweet, but not where it tastes like I’m eating Teriyaki, yet just enough where the Shoyu and sugar brings out the “Umami” factor in the smokey, meaty Marlin. It says there’s Chili Pepper Flakes in it, but I detected practically no heat whatsoever, where this would probably wouldn’t even register a single unit on the Scoville Scale.

The smokiness of it is at just the right balance as well, where you know this marlin has been smoked, yet not to the point like you’re biting into a piece of burnt Kiawe wood, if you know what I mean.

Summing it up, I give Roy’s Smoked Marlin a very solid, supah’ ono 4 SPAM Musubi. WINNER! Add some ginger and crank up the heat from the Chili Pepper Flakes in the marinade a couple notches and this would definitely earn the top 5 SPAM Musubi prize!

Next up we have Roy’s Smoked Ahi…

Roy’s Smoked Ahi costs about a dollar more than the Smoked Marlin at $3.79 for this 5 oz. vacuum-sealed package. The ingredients are: Tuna, Soy Sauce, Brown Sugar, Salt, Garlic Powder, Canola Bean Oil, Artificial Food Coloring and Red Crushed Pepper.

Let’s unpack it and take inventory…

These were cut a bit smaller than the Marlin, with each strip of Smoked Ahi measuring on average about 4″ in length x 1/2″ thick. They were also mostly cut towards the tail, with only two pieces that were more forward on the fish in the center area. Also notice the second one from the right is cut from the dark meat near the bone of the fish.

Let’s check the cross-section cut…

How is it? Roy’s Smoked Ahi’ marinade flavor profile was totally identical to how I described the Smoked Marlin above. Where it differed in was of course the fact that it’s Ahi, which is inherently a fattier fish, hence the Smoked Ahi was considerably more moist and less dry than the Smoked Marlin. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being raw to 10 being “jerky” dry, I’d put Roy’s Smoked Ahi at 4½. Like the Smoked Marlin, I also think this would have benefited by having more heat factor from the Chili Peppers, as well as some added pizazz from the ginger.

Its considerably more moist texture was certainly its best attribute, as was the freshness and clean taste of the Ahi itself, where it didn’t taste “fishy” at all; surprisingly even that dark meat piece didn’t taste fishy like it does in raw form, but fairly neutral. And even though the cuts were predominantly from stringy areas of the fish, it didn’t have any stringy attribute at all when chewing it.

Summing it up, I give Roy’s Smoked Ahi, again, 4 SPAM Musubi, again also noting more kick from the Chili Pepper along with some ginger in the marinade would elevate this easily to 5 SPAM Musubi.

Oh, did I say these go GREAT with an ice cold beer? Well they do! A St. Pauli Girl to be exact, wheah’, ho brah, whack one piece smoke fish, den’ chase em wit’ one sip of da beeah, buggah stay so ono! The smokey, mildy salty “meaty” flavor of the fish when combined with the hops in the ice cold beer are like peas in a pod. I GUARANTEE you one thing: you put a plate of this Smoked Marlin and Smoked Ahi on the table at a party and GAURANZ’ that’s going to disappear first, before everything and all else on the pupu spread.  GUARANZ. Well, at least it would get wiped out if I were there! lol

With Christmas 2010 quickly creeping up on us, surely most of you have already made your gift wish list for Santa. Well here’s mine: “Dear Santa, please get me a whole box just like this from Tropic’s”…

That’s like several POUNDS of Smoked Marlin, Smoked Ahi and Dried Aku. Truly a treasure chest of da’ most ono kine grindz! “Ho Om Nom Nom Ho, Merry Christmas! Om-nom-nom-nom-nom-Ho”. lol

Before we leave Tropic’s KCCFM tent for some Tasty Island bonus content, here’s a few cases of Kahuku Papaya they had for sale…

Moving along to some bonus content for this post, it isn’t uncommon to run into local celebrity chefs and movers ‘n shakers of Hawaii’s culinary scene at the KCC Farmers’ Market, and this weekend was no exception, where Honolulu celebrity chef Alan Wong set up a booth to promote his new cookbook ‘The Blue Tomato‘…

Here’s a video by Watermark Publishing on Chef Wong’s new cookbook…

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL7POFR3bS0

Ironically, he was also selling his signature Li Hing Mui Dressing, which I featured here in the form of Alan Wong’s Hamakua Tomato Salad a while ago in my write-up of my Godmother, Aunty Nalani’s 75th Birthday at Washington Place…

According to Chef Wong, his Ling Hing Mui dressing is only available exclusively at his restaurant, and currently not available for retail sale in stores. Foodland? Tamura’s? Don Quijote? Times? Safeway? Costco? Hello?!!!

They were giving out samples of the dressing drizzled on Yellow Grape Tomato halves…

This is how Chef Wong serves his Li Hing Mui dressing in the restaurant…

Alan Wong’s Hamakua Tomato Salad with Li Hing Mui Dressing

I LOVED this dressing so much when I tried it the first time at my Aunt’s birthday party several years ago, that I went as far as recreating it myself at home, which is really easy to do. Check it out…

Learn how to make Alan Wong’s Li Hing Dressing at the post, “Li Hing Everything“. Or better yet, buy a bottle of the real deal at his restaurant!

Man, just saying “Li Hing Mui”, let alone looking at the red color of that dressing always makes me slobber and drool. lol

Finally, in honor of loyal Tasty Island reader Debbie-chan, we stop by Ono Pops KCCFM booth once again to try yet another flavor…

“Spock” my Foodland SPAM Musubi Reusable Shopping Bag sitting on the table, which is full of fresh produce and French Baguettes for my Banh Mi Sandwiches.

Here’s brother/co-owner of Ono Pops, Josh…

Josh is a Punahou grad and super nice guy. There were a couple flavors that weren’t listed on the menu board, including an Okinawan Sweet Potato Pie Ono Pop and Lemon Peel Ono Pop. Also not listed was the one I decided to try, which Josh calls “Ginger Tanical”…

Let’s unwrap it and have a better look…

Like many of the other Ono Pops flavors, Josh came up with the recipe for his “Ginger Tanical” Ono Pop himself, and boy is this thing a “doozie”, with ALL KINDS of stuff going on in it. According to him, the “Ginger Tanical” Ono Pop includes the following ingredients, which he also points out are mostly locally-produced and/or organic: fresh ginger, lime juice, orange juice, Big Island honey, Holly Thai basil, lemon grass, Lemon Verbana, Sea Asparagus and Chamomile.

Whoah! I’m not sure whether to eat this or rub it on my head get to rid of my bald spot and grow my hair back. LOL!

Seriously though, Josh said he won some kind of award last weekend with his new “Ginger Tanical” Ono Pop at an Herbal Convention? here on the island. Sorry, I forgot to write that down in my notes. I’ll ask him next week if I see him.

While it may not cure male pattern baldness or get rid of wrinkles on your skin, the “Ginger Tanical” Ono Pop certainly TASTES medicinal, yet incredibly, in an appealing and not off-putting way. That really is the best way I can describe it. It also seemed to have sort of a mood-enhancing and energizing effect, kinda’ like Prozac-meets-Red Bull, all conveniently frozen and ready to eat in one handy-dandy, very delicious and refreshing stick!

Ginger is certainly the most definitive flavor element happening here, which has a medicinal quality about it all in itself, along with a complex herbal thing in a “green way” going on in the background, thanks to all those unusual ingredients. Some of which I had to “Google” for just to spell correctly, let alone ever consuming them in my life before trying this. The addition of Kahuku Sea Asparagus is arguably the meanest “left curve” thrown into this pitch of a popsicle.

Overall, I really, really DIG this flavor, giving Josh’s new ‘Ginger Tanical” Ono Pop creation an invigorating, well-executed. wonderfully exotic and unique 4-SPAM Musubi. You gotta’ try it. Highly recommended! It’s CRAZY TASTY, both literally and figuratively!

P.S. If anyone out there has a good recipe, as well as making process for ono ‘kine Smoked Marlin (or any other fish), please share! I’m specifically looking for instructions on how to properly cure and/or brine and/or dry the fish, as well as what is the proper temperature to smoke it and how long? Mahalo in advance.

Things To Do
Honolulu

Time for Tako Poke

Happy belated Thanksgiving ya’ all.  Hope you had a great FEAST.

At this point, if you now don’t want to see Turkey for the next week at least, here I offer something entirely different and from the ocean in the form of Tako! A.K.A. “Squid”, or more technically, (an 8-legged) Octopus, which is a cephalopod. This, from a guy who had just arrived on shore with his catch as I arrived at Kuliou’ou Beach Park in Hawaii Kai, after having caught them right on the reef in Maunalua Bay.

The very first thing I asked him was, “What brah? Tako Poke?”, to which he (essentially) replied, “You know ‘dat cuz!”. lol

Check out this set of really cool pics I took (as always, click on each photo to enlarge it) just last weekend of his AWESOME, BEAUTIFUL catch, which are estimated to weigh between 3 to 4 pounds for each Tako (Octopus)…

The underside, where the “beak” is (hidden in that hole are the teeth the Octopus uses to crush small crabs and shrimp, which are its ideal food source)…

The Octopus’ ink sack (that black thing)…

Pretty neat, and truly one of them “Lucky We Live Hawaii”, priceless moments! I love the texture of the Octopus’ skin, as well as the complex parts inside and around its head.

I must admit, those were some GREAT photos. Which brings to mind this parody logo I created a while ago…

Those two Tako (the Japanese term for Octopus) got me so jazzed-up and “psyched”, I just had to go get me some Tako to eat, so I immediately headed back to town, down Kapahulu Avenue, and dropped by none other than the POKE KING of kings, queens and all other royalty in Honolulu over at Ono Seafood!…

I swear to God, this is by far, THE BEST place to get Poke on Oahu. Absolute BROKE DA’ MOUT WINNAHZ!

Ono Seafood’s Smoked Scallops…

Ono Seafood’s Dried Ahi…

Ono Seafood’s Smoked Marlin…

Dried Dark Meat…

Ono Seafood’s Sashimi…

Ono Seafood’s Smoked Tako…

Ono Seafood’s Opae (dried shrimp, which is ONO by itself with POI!) and Dried Tako…

Ono Seafood’s ‘Seafood Combo’…

Ono Seafood’s Pickle Onion (notice it’s singular “pickle onion” not “pickled onions”) and pickle ogo…

Ono Seafood’s Namasu and Kini Lau…

Ono Seafood’s Taegu, Usu Aji Kyuri and Dried Poke…

Ono Seafood’s Kukui Nut and Limu Kohu (gold!)…

Ono Seafood’s EXCELLENT Boiled Peanuts…

Ono Seafood’s Chili Pepper Water (a.k.a. “Chili Peppah Watah”)…

Ono Seafood’s current menu (as of 11/19/10)…

Notice the menu says “Poke Made to Order”. Big difference my friend. HUGE difference. That’s what makes them DA’ BEST-EST, EST, EST, EST, EST, ESTES.

This sounds familiar…

Ooh, now on Facebook!

This is Mrs. Sakuma, Ono Seafood’s owner/operator/”Poke Chef” (because, really, it truly is a very technical profession to make EXCELLENT>>Honolulu’s BEST Poke as they do!)…

Here’s a closer look at those BEAUTIFUL slices of Tako, just waiting for a dash of Shoyu, Chili Pepper, Kukui Nut, Hawaiian Salt and everything else that makes it the FANTABULOUS Poke that it shall become…

And finally, after it’s all dressed-up in said “ingrediments”, Ono Seafood’s MADE-TO-ORDER Tako Poke!…

How is it? AWESOME! So tender, and not rubbery at all. Fresh-tasting, while being perfectly seasoned with just the right level of salt, sweet, hot and spicy. 5 SPAM Musubi Tako Poke, right here at Ono Seafood. So, so ono! Om-nom-nom-Tako Poke-nom!

Rounding it out, I also grabbed a package of Ono Seafood’s Smoked Tako…

How is Ono Seafood’s Smoked Tako? Umm, can someone get me another package? EXCELLENT! Not too smokey, where I can still taste the Tako flavor, while being perfectly seasoned and sliced thin, so it was naturally easy to chew. Good stuff! 5 SPAM Musubi. Heck, probably everything that rolls out of Ono Seafood’s tiny hole-in-wall door is probably 5 SPAM Musubi stuff!

Ah yes, nothing like savoring the memory of super-fresh, made-to-order, broke da’ mout winnahz Tako Poke after a day of Turkey, Turkey, and more Turkey.

Happy Black Friday everyone!

Things To Do
Honolulu

Poi Battered Fish & Fried Green Tomatoes

The Hawaiian Chef – Poi Battered Fish with Local Tomatoes, Sea Asparagus, Mandarin Oranges and Hawaiian Chef Dressing. $7.50

This past weekend I paid yet another visit to KCC Farmers’ Market, on the hunt for more unusual and exotic eats that abound at this weekly grand event. This time going for bad and good at the same time. As in good, healthy ingredients, deep-fried for what I’m hoping will be “bad ass” onolicious texture and flavor. How’s that for an expletive adjective oximoron? lol

In my last write-up on KCC Farmers’ Market, I noted that at the next opportunity, I’d try The Hawaiian Chef’s Poi Battered Fish ‘n Chips…

The Hawaiian Chef – Hawaiian Scottish Poi Battered Fish & Chips. $6.50

Just fried stuff was a bit too heavy on an early Saturday morning, so I instead opted for the Poi Battered Fish with the Mandarin Orange Salad, as shown in the first photo.

With that, on my NEXT opportunity, I”ll be sure to try this delicous sounding Kabocha and Granny Apple Soup!…

The Hawaiian Chef – Hawaiian Vegetarian Kabocha and Apple Soup: with Kabocha, Granny Apples, Onion, Curry Powder, Mustard Seed, Fresh Ginger, Vegetarian Broth, Lime and Yogurt. $5

Damned, that sounds good.

Here we have Juanita “The Hawaiian Chef” on the side cookin’ it up…

Juanita Kawamoto “The Hawaiian Chef” of Fresh from the Farm

Juanita took time explaining to me her company’s mission, which I’ll simply copy and paste directly from their website:

“Our mission is to play a key role in the sustainability of regional farms and agriculture in the state of hawaii by providing island farmers an alternative source to direct market their produce to earn a fair return and gain the recognition and reward for their efforts and hard work.”

~ Fresh from the Farm

My impression by our very interesting conversation is that Juanita is highly educated and very akamai about native Hawaiian foods and culture. I asked her what exactly Poi Batter is and she gladly explained it as being simply thinned-down Poi (she makes her own, but you can use store-bought), with the addition of Mochiko Flour, Paprika and Garlic Powder. Here’s how the batter looks…

Essentially to the consistency of, well, what those new to poi say it tastes like… wallpaper paste! lol

So here’s my Poi Battered Fish and Salad…

The Hawaiian Chef – Poi Battered Fish with Local Tomatoes, Sea Asparagus, Mandarin Oranges and Hawaiian Chef Dressing. $7.50

Juanita said the fish she uses is both Ono and Shutome (swordfish), which sounds A-OK to me. Let’s sample it…

Still piping hot, the fish on this bite tastes like the Shutome, which was very moist, tender and flakey, while having that usual low-fat and mild flavor that Swordfish usually has when cooked this way.

The Poi Batter is the big question here. What’s the deal there? Well, it has a texture almost like it was made with cornmeal. It seems the poi (taro) turns into little particles as it gets cooked in the hot oil. That’s really it. It’s pretty good, and no doubt interesting, although I’d prefer if it had a little more glutenous and air body to it like a beer batter. Perhaps the addition of baking soda and/or more Mochiko flour would help.  I dunno, as I’m not a baker, but you get my drift.

The paprika and garlic didn’t shout out loud, but it did certainly taste “seasoned”.

As for the Salad with Hawaiian Chef’s dressing, that was fantastic and a welcoming fresh contrast to the light-yet-heavy deep-fried Shutome and Ono. The dressing tasted ike a simple sweet ‘n sour vinaigrette, which I’d actually probably prefer something more zesty with more “bite”, like say Cocktail sauce as the dressing, but as it is, this works fine.

Overall I’ll give The Hawaiian Chef’s Poi Battered Fish & Salad a poi-pounding 3 SPAM Musubi.

I also tried their Hibiscus Lemonade…

The Hawaiian Chef – Hibiscus Lemonade. $3

She said this is made from the “juices” of actual Hibiscus flowers that are wrung out. And you know what? It tastes just like drinking a flower pedal-laced Lemonade. You know how a rose pedal smells, right? Well, imagine drinking that, and that’s exactly what this tastes like, along with a sweet and mildly lemon-ee kick. Really, really ono. A refreshingly Saturday morning delicious 4 SPAM Musubi.

I’ll be back for that Kabocha & Apple Soup for sure! Mahalo Juanita!

Moving on to our next good-meets-bad delight, we have Two Hot Tomatoes Fried Green Tomatoes…

Here’s their menu…

Here we have their Combination Basket of Fried Zucchini and Fried Tomatoes…

Three orders of Fried Green Tomatoes ready to feed the masses at KCC Farmers’ Market…

And when I say masses, I mean it, as Two Hot Tomatoes booth ALWAYS has a long line of mostly Japanese Tourists. Fried Green Tomatoes are a novelty for me, and it surely must be for them.

In fact, having little to ZERO exposure to southern cuisine, this is indeed my first time trying Fried Green Tomatoes. This just isn’t something you don’t see much of,  if at all here in the islands. Well except for here at KCC Farmers’ Market!

Wanna’ make ’em yourself? Get some of Two Hot Tomatoes’ Batter Mix..

Notice they individually hand-paint each bag. I suppose that validates the $10 price tag.

Here’s my order…

Two Hot Tomatoes – Fried Green Tomatoes with wasabi lemon and basil lime sauce. $7

Notice it includes 2 dipping sauces: wasabi lemon and basil lime sauce. Both of which their flavors are very subtle, making taste predominantly like, well, mayo’. If anything, I could taste the wasabi the most, yet even that was subtle. I say “gas” da’ wasabi, baby!

Here you can see how the’re made from while slices of green (unripened) tomatoes that are cut about 3/8″ thick…

I didn’t ask the owner what’s in their “secret” batter, but I did read a recipe in a magazine I have which uses Polenta Cornmeal, with Buttermilk as the “binder”.  It’s then finished with a light sprinkle of Paprika and kosher salt. That’s the magazine’s recipe.

I do know this batter is very light, with a fine and gritty texture (cornmeal?) that goes nicely with the acidic and “meaty” green tomatoes inside. The green tomato itself being cooked slightly under al dente, so it had a semi-raw taste, which I actually prefer, as I wouldn’t want it cooked through. The way it was here was perfect.

Summing it up, I’ll give Two Hot Tomatoes’ Fried Green Tomatoes a thumbs-up 3 SPAM Musubi, with my only complaint being its price at $7 a tray, which is kinda steep for what it is.

The weekend earlier at KCC Farmers’ Market, Two Hot Tomatoes had actually SOLD OUT of Fried Green Tomatoes, which I’m not surprised by, given the long lines they get. So on that visit I tried their Fried Zucchini and Fried Sweet Island Onion Rings as a combo’ set…

Two Hot Tomatoes – Fried Zucchini and Sweet Island Onion Rings. $7

These come with the same Wasabi Lemon and Basil Lime sauce.

Let’s sample some cuz’…

Yeah, that’s the way to do it. Nice ‘n sloppy. lol No, but seriously, again, like the green tomatoes, the zucchini is only partially al dente or semi-cooked through, so it comes across as snappy and fresh-tasting. In fact, I like this equally as much as the green tomatoes. The green tomatoes’ main advantage is its higher acidity level, so you get that mild tartness to cut through the richer flavor of the golden-fried batter. Yet they’re both equally a satisfying snack.

3 SPAM Musubi for their Fried Zucchini.

Now let’s sample the Fried Sweet Island Onions…

Yeah, diggin’ this one too. Me and onion rings are best friends, and this is certainly a fantastic spin on the classic with its more gritty batter, which I’m assuming is cornmeal. The onions are indeed sweet and also not overcooked and limp, but still retaining some shape of its natural conical shape. Very, very nice. Not surprisingly, the two mayo’ based sauces complimented the onion rings the best.

Summing them up, I’ll give Two Hot Tomatoes’ Sweet Island Onion Rings a “Maui-licious” 3 SPAM Musubi.

I’ll sign off with more sights around the market on this most recent visit…

“Lemonade Man”…

Speaking of colorful flowers, here ya’ go…

The following are hybridized Hibiscus by Jill Coryell, the “Hibiscus Lady”. As you may know, Hibiscus is Hawaii’s state flower…

See you again this Saturday at the KCC Farmers’ Market!

Things To Do
Honolulu

Return to Marujyu Market

Marujyu Market – Laulau, Squid Luau and Lomi Salmon plate #14, 6.25 plus $1.05 extra to substitute rice with Poi ($7.30 total)

Continuing my quest to find a Laulau that can dethrown the reigning champ at Highway Inn in Waipahu, this past week I decided to sample the Hawaiian grindz at Marujyu Market in Aiea.

Which here we have their #14 Laulau, Squid Luau and Lomi Salmon plate, which runs $6.25 with rice, but of course I ain’t having no freegin’ rice with my Hawaiian food! No, it’s gotta’ be POI my boy! Which costs just $1.05 extra. $7.30 for all that is truly a steal of a deal, especially considering everything except the poi is made in-house.

Whenever you order Hawaiian food and it includes Laulau, always ask if they make their own, or if not, where or what brand they’re using. Very important! I’m not going to name names, but all you “Laulau connoisseurs” (that sounds kinda’ weird) out there know what I’m talkin’ about.

So I was happy to hear Marujyu does in fact make their own Laulau, and as you see, unlike many places, they serve theirs still wrapped in the Ti Leaf. Yay! Ti Leaves impart a unique, well, “Hawaiian flavor” to Kalua Pig and Laulau that would certainly be amiss without it. Some places may skimp (due to lack of availability or whatever) and not use Ti Leaves when steaming their Laulau, resorting to lowly TIN FOIL. Ack! No, no, no! May as well not make it if you don’t have all the right ingrediments, right? Me thinks so.

I also was also happy to hear their Laulau includes Butterfish. Double Yay!

Well, let’s find out if Marujyu’s house-made Laulau tastes as good as it looks. Well, actually Laulau doesn’t have much visual appeal, if any at all, but you know what I’m sayin’. Here it is unwrapped, where you see it’s absolutely HUGE-MANGOUS…

See here how it occupies about two-thirds of the large entree section…

Put your two fists together, and that’s about how big it is, unwrapped!

Let’s open this monster up and and check out what’s “under the hood”…

A chunk of falling-apart pork meat, check. Even bigger pieces (plural) of melting pork fat, check. Pretty good size piece of tender Butterfish, check. A thick layer of tender Luau leaves wrapping it all together, check. So far, so good! Here’s a better look at the (tan-fleshed) Butterfish in it (with the lighter-colored melting pork fat to the left)…

How does it taste? Eh, not bad, but not great either. It just doesn’t have that “IT” factor like Highway Inn’s Laulau had. And I know exactly what was missing, was enough Hawaiian salt put in BEFORE they steamed it. So even though I could add my own Hawaiian salt as I ate it, the salt wasn’t in there from the beginning to melt into the pork, pork fat, butterish and luau leaves. Therefore none of their individual or homogenized flavors stood out. I won’t say it was bland, but not like “Pow! This is broke da’ mout’ winnahz!”. Ya’ know?

Of course with Hawaiian food, Poi makes everything taste right, so let’s try some Butterfish dipped in Poi…

Oh yeah. Sprinkle just a few grains of Hawaiian salt and whack ’em, poi and all… hoooooo da’ buggah’ is winnahz!

Wait, you said “dip” the butterfish in the poi? Well, yes, as Marujyu thins their poi down with water quite a bit…

Not that bad though. It still had some body. Not like where it was “Poi Soup”. It was very fresh as well, tasting like it came from the factory that day, or at the most just 1 day old.

Summing up Marujyu’s Laulau, I give it 3 SPAM Musubi. A better hand with the Hawaiian salt in the Laulau making process and this just may have been a 5.

Now let’s check out da’ Squid Luau…

Buggah’ look “tick” (thick) eh? It is. Check ’em out…

Notice how it stays put on my spoon, even as the spoon is tilted at a 45 degree angle. Impressive!

How does it taste? Excellent flavor without being overpowered with Coconut milk. The only problem? Like Kanak Attack, Marujyu’s Squid Luau is TOO SWEET. Not as bad as Kanak Attack’s was, but still, more so than I’d prefer. I dunno’, maybe some folks like it tasting that way, but not me. I think Squid Luau should taste more savory and earthy, not sweet like that.

Speaking of savory, there’s certainly a generous amount of chopped Tako (Octopus; not Squid!) in it..

Why do they call it “Squid Luau” anyway, when it’s usually (at least if done right) made with Octopus (Tako)? From now I’m going to start calling it He’e Luau or Tako Luau. Actually, I think “Tako Luau” sounds better.

Remember this one?…

Anyhow, regardless of it being more sweet than I would have preferred, the thick consistency and overall flavor of Marujyu’s, ehem, TAKO LUAU was very good, which I’ll give it 3 SPAM Musubi.

Moving on with this “obsession”, let’s check out Marujyu’s Lomi Salmon…

Wow, you heard of “Lomi Tomato” right? Da’ kine where get mostly tomato with only scarce (if any) bits of salt salmon in it. Well this is the polar opposite of that, where it’s mostly salt salmon and only scarce bits of tomato in it! Ou-right!

Actually it was little too much salmon and not enough white and green onion it. Still, at least the very pink-colored and tender salt salmon was rinsed properly, so it wasn’t too salty. Was jusssssss’ right (like Rap’s “Aunty Marialani” would say).

Summing it up, I give Marujyu’s Lomi Salmon Salmon (yeah I said it twice, because that’s how much get “inside”) 4 SPAM Musubi. Winnahz!

And that wraps up this indepth look and tasting analysis of Marujyu’s Hawaiian plate #14.

Next we have Diner E’s choice, where he was very disappointed they didn’t they didn’t have Maki Kombu (they were supposed to according to their website) and Turkey Tails for the day, which are his favorite Marujyu items. So instead he went with their Pastele and Gandule Rice plate…

Marujyu Market – Pastele, Gandule Rice and Mac Salad plate, $5.95

Just as I admire Marujyu for serving their Laulau wrapped in Ti Leaf, I appreciate that they serve their Pastele wrapped up in Banana Leaf…

Unwrapping the banana leaf from the pastele, you see the masa is filled with big chunks of tender pork…

The pork doesn’t stop there, as there’s also a generous helping of sliced pork in the Gandule Rice as well…

Even though their Mac’ Sal’ has the dreaded green peas in it, Diner E still gave it a thumbs-up…

Summing up his entire Puerto Rican plate, Diner “Saimin Kaukau” E gives it a very solid 3 SPAM Musubi.

Finally, Diner C chose a Baked Mahimahi mini plate…

Marujyu Market – Baked Mahimahi mini plate with 1 scoop brown rice and tossed green salad with ranch dressing, $4.25

The Mahimahi was coated with mayonnaise that tasted like it was seasoned paprika, salt and pepper. She thought the flavor was OK, but not what she was expecting, which was more like a lemon caper butter sauce kinda’ deal. Summing it up, she gave it 2 SPAM Musubi.

I also picked a bag of their boiled peanuts to try out…

Marujyu Market – Boiled Peanuts, $2.50

While these can’t touch Alicia’s superior flavored larger sized Virginia boiled peanuts, their still pretty decent…

Nice and “juicy” inside, just how I like’ ’em. A hint of sweet and star anise in the flavor, yet I think it could have used just a little more salt. Otherwise, very good. 3 SPAM Musubi.

Marujyu Market is a lot like Alicia’s Market in Kalihi Kai and Masa & Joyce in Kaneohe: a place where you can get ANYKINE local grinds under one roof: Chinese, Filipino, Hawaiian, Japanese, Puerto Rican, to classic American comfort foods such as meatloaf and fried  chicken. Plus a wide variety of fresh poke and other ethnic specialty foods. There’s no place to sit and eat, so this place is strictly takeout. They also do catering.

Certainly something for just about everyone at Marujyu Market.

Marujyu Market
98-820 Moanalua Road (in the Newtown Business Park)
Aiea, Hawaii, 96701
(808) 487-0057
website: MarujyuMarket.com

The Tasty Island rating:

(3) Very Good. Considerable of another visit or purchase. (Supah’ Ono!)

Related Links:
• Aiea Eats: Marujyu Market – The Tasty Island

First Taste: Windward Poi Bowl in Kaneohe

After recently discovering what I’ve proclaimed to be “Da’ Bes’ Freekin’ Laulau on da’ island” over at Highway Inn in Waipahu, I’ve been sort of bent lately on finding another Hawaiian food eatery on the island that might be able to top them.

Which leads me here to today at Windward Poi Bowl in the 96744, baby! Kaneohe peeps in da’ house say “ya-yah!”. say “yah-yah!”. Say “woot-woot!” Now one more time, say “woot-woot!”. lol

Everytime I’ve driven past this place, I was always curious about their Hawaiian grindz. Then I asked Diner AC, a Kamehameha school grad (endorsing the Hawaiian heritage credibility) and windward-side resident what she thought of Windward Poi Bowl, and she said “pretty good!”. Shoots ‘den, I going check ’em out, and that’s just what I did.

Like most hole-in-the-walls, there’s a very small dining room, in this case with a very clean, laid-back tropical theme going on…

In case you’re going to ask if Windward Poi Bowl has any affiliation with Ala Moana Poi Bowl, no they don’t. Different owners. The owner of Windward Poi Bowl is Brian Hayasaka.

Let’s check out Windward Poi Bowl’s menu board…

Here they have a visual aid chart of their various container serving sizes…

The Wasabi Poke sounded good on its own, but nah, not with my Hawaiian food. Wasabi not going match. With this meal, Poke gotta be prepared the tradional Hawaiian style way wit’ da Limu Kohu (red seaweed)  and Inamona (roasted, crushed Kukui Nut).

They have more photos of their menu items on the other side here…

This is a neat bowl…

I want one to keep my precious Kauai salt ponds Ala’e salt in.

I told Lei, the very friendly server, that I only wanted poi with my meal and no rice, and that I also wanted Squid Luau as part of the meal. To which she suggested I get “Brian’s Combo”. This is described as having “The Works”, including Laulau, Kalua Pork, Pipikaula, Lomi Salmon, AND your choice of either Chicken Long Rice or Chicken Luau and Rice or Poi.

Perfect! Finally a Hawaiian food restaurant that gives me some of just about everything at one comfortable price. The only thing I had to pay a dollar more for was the upgrade to Squid Luau instead of Chicken Luau. No problem, hook me up!

So here we have “Brian’s Combo” with a Squid Luau “upgrade”…

Windward Poi Bowl – Brian’s Combo: “The Works” includes Laulau, Kalua Pork, Pipikaula, Lomi Salmon AND choice of Chicken Long Rice or Chicken Luau and Rice or Poi. $10.95 (plus $1 dollar more for Squid Luau “upgrade” as shown).

I’m just a little disappointed they used the “dreaded” white styrofoam clamshell takeout container, a.k.a. “WSCTC”. What happened to the partitioned paper cafeteria tray they have depicted in the photo? Oh well.

Let’s zoom in for a closer inspection of each dish, starting with the main attraction, da’ Laulau…

This buggah’ is MASSIVE. Bigger than my fist. The only complaint I have is that it’s not served still wrapped in the Ti Leaf. I really think the Ti Leaf “purse” is an important part of the presentation when it comes to Laulau, while also reassuring you it will have the uniquely “Hawaiian” flavor imparted by the Ti Leaf.

Moving on over to the Kalua Pig and Pipikaula…

In the back row we have our Lomi Salmon…

Visual chunks of salted salmon in there. Good sign. Green onion, check. White onion, check. fresh (not overripe) Tomato, check.

Finally, da’ Squid Luau “upgrade”…

Hmmmm, looks kinda’ “milky”, which I’m assuming this one’s gonna’ have a strong Coconut Milk flavor, which personally I LOVE! Some folks don’t like the Coconut flavor to be that strong, but I do. As long as it’s not TOO SWEET! That was the problem I had with the Squid Luau from Kanak Attack.

Enough looking. It’s time for kaukau! Let’s go back to that freekin’ beeg Laulau, cut it open and have a bite…

No Butterfish, but at least there’s two sizeable strips of pork fat in there for that burst of FLAVAH. And look at all those layers of Luau leaves. Choke! Love it! I actually enjoy eating the luau leaf part of the Laulau as much as the pork that’s in it, so for me this is a big plus! Taste-wise, this Laulau overall is a WINNAH!

Salted with Hawaiian salt just right, really punching out the flavors of the fork-tender, super-moist Luau leaves, pork and pork fat.  Has it dethroned the current holder of “Da’ Best Freekin’ Laulau” at Highway Inn? No, not quite. But I applaud it, and give it a very tasty 3 SPAM Musubi. Had it been wrapped in Ti Leaf it would have got a 4. Had it had butterfish, probably a 5.

Now let’s sample da’ Kalua Pig and da’ Pipikaula…

Da’ Kalua Pig is also winnahz! Super moist, perfectly seasoned with Hawaiian Salt, with a natural “Imu-like” smoked flavor to it, without being too subtle or overpowering. 4 SPAM Musubi on the Kalua Pig.

So far, so good!

As for the Pipikaula, nah, pass. It’s almost exactly like the one at Highway Inn, which for me at least, tasted like nothing more than a piece of beef that’s been cooked beyond Kingdom Come, while being very bland. My leather belt probably tastes better than this. Well not that bad, but you know what I’m sayin’. Actually, after putting some Hawaiian salt on it that helped. So I’ll still give at least a 1 SPAM Musubi.

Now let’s sample da’ Lomi Salmon, because you know, after you eat one bite Kalua Pig, you gotta’ chase da’ buggah wit’ da’ Lomi…

Lomi Salmon’s good. Real ono. Fresh-tasting. Generous pieces of salt salmon, while not being too salty. 4 SPAM Musubi. The Maui onion that’s served alongside it was a winnah as well. Supah sweet da’ buggah! Whack dat’ with some lomi salmon and chase ’em wit’ da’ poi, whoooo, broke da’ mout’!

While I’m at it, the Poi, which tasted like Taro brand, was very fresh as well, and most importantly, not watered down to SOUP! 5 SPAM Musubi for the Poi. Better be, after all this place is named ‘Poi Bowl’!

Now let’s try da’ Squid Luau…

The flavor is OUTSTANDING. Lovin’ it. Strong unsweetened coconut flavor that’s intensely flavored with the flavor of cooked Luau leaves, while being salt-seasoned perfectly. There’s a pretty good amount of very tender, not rubbery Tako in it that you can also taste its flavor in the luau-leaf infused coconut milk “broth”.

But texture-wise, whoah brah, what is dis? Waihe’e ‘kine Squid watah or what? lol It was so loose and runny, I practically could have drank this out of a straw! May I suggest to Brian he take some of that generous amount of Luau leaves he’s wrapping the Laulau with and throw some in the pot with the Squid Luau!

Was still really ono though. Even as runny as it was, flavor-wise I give it a very solid 5 SPAM Musubi. The soupyness was a substantial deficit though, so for that, overall we’ll have to give the Squid Luau a still highly respectable 3 SPAM Musubi.

Summing it up, I give Windward Poi Bowl’s ‘Brian’s Combo’ a supah ono 3 SPAM Musubi rating. I’m impressed!  Thicken the Squid Luau with more Luau leaves, serve da’ laulau still wrapped in da’ Ti Leaf, fix the Pipikaula, and finally serve the food on a cafeteria tray type of paper plate and this could be a 4 or 5-SPAM Musubi’er!

Windward Poi Bowl
45-1117 Kamehameha Hwy.
Suite #106
Kaneohe, Hawaii  96744
Tel. 808-236-2695

Business hours:
Monday – Friday: 11am to 2pm/5pm to 8pm
Saturday: 11am to 8pm
Sunday: closed

The Tasty Island Rating:

(3) Very Good. Considerable of another visit or purchase. (Supah’ Ono!)

Grindz of the Day: Fish 'n Chips & Kalua Pork Okinawan Sweet Potato Mini Cakes

For the Grindz of the Day today (actually consumed on Saturday) we have a plate of Fish ‘n Chips from Teddy’s Bigger Burgers in Hawaii Kai. For takeout, it doesn’t come served on a paper plate as shown, but in separate white paper bags for the fish and the chips (fries).

The counter guy convinced me to “upgrade” to garlic fries (chips) for 50 cents more. With that, I was expecting there to be actual pieces of minced garlic and perhaps herbs laced all over it (like Gordon Biersch), but instead was disappointed to find they just sprinkle it with bottled garlic salt seasoning. Hah?

I should have asked more questions about it before going that route, as I didn’t care for this faux version of Garlic Fries at all. Teddy’s regular fries are excellent, but in my  opinion this garlic seasoning stuff totally ruined what would have otherwise been a perfectly cooked batch of fries.  Needless to say I gave most of it to our pets. At least they liked it.

As for the fish part, the beer-type batter had a nice ‘n golden brown, crunchy, slightly airy texture and OK flavor, but could have used some herbs and seasonings in it. I’m just spoiled by Alexander’s (in Kihei, Maui) seasoned Tempura-based fish ‘n chips batter in that regard, who still holds my “Best Fish ‘n Chips in Hawaii” award.

According to Teddy’s menu, the fish in it is Pollock, which for me is too mild and really just characterless in flavor. While I don’t expect a burger joint to ace fish ‘n chips, it’s not a hard thing to do if they use the right fish. They should seriously consider Mahimahi. I mean common’, this restaurant is in Hawaii, not Alaska. It would taste so much better with Mahi, and I’d be willing to pay extra for its superior flavor over Pollock.

I’ll give them points for being super tender and moist though. So tender that one fillet broke in half just by picking it up. The included malt vinegar and lemon always provides  nice acidic contrast to it, while their tartar was rather flavorless. Almost like plain mayo’, and not enough relish in it. Personally I prefer cocktail sauce for dipping my fish ‘n chips, which is something I learned from Alexander’s. The kick from the horseradish in the tomato sauce base of the cocktail sauce really enhances the flavor of the batter-crusted deep fried fish fillet. You should try it.

Summing it up, I’ll give Teddy’s Fish ‘n Garlic Chips 1 SPAM Musubi. Next time I’ll stick with what they’re really good at – the burgers. No garlic salt on my fries, thank you very much.

Next up we have these here Kalua Pork Okinawan Sweet Potato Mini Cakes from Kahai Street Kitchen…

Take the corned beef hash patty concept and swap out the corned beef for Kalua Pork and Russett potato for Okinawan purple sweet potato, roll into a ball, coat in panko and fry ’em up and you have these here Mini Cakes. And I must say, they’re mighty tasty! The sweet potato compliments the smokey ‘n savory Kalua Pork quite nicely. It’s served with a Hoisin Aioli Sauce, but I preferred them as is with no sauce.

Very creative, that’s for sure. Rating it, I’d say 3 SPAM Musubi.

Which has me now wondering how Corned Beef would taste with the Okinawan Sweet Potato? While I’m skeptical, I won’t knock it ’til I try it! With St. Patrick’s Day just two days away, I’ll have to put back on my “Food Scientist” hat and do some experimenting! Hopefully it won’t turn out like my Teriyaki SPAM Macadamia Nut ice cream NIGHTMARE-ON-A-PLATE. lol

*************************************************************************************

On another note, from the east side of Oahu, a bunch of changes have been happening at Aina Haina Shopping Center in the last year or so. For starters, Chuck E Cheese, who was a tenant there for decades has moved out of Aina Haina since December 2008 and is now open for business in City Square shoppping Center in Kapalama (Kalihi), taking the (very large) space of the former Grocery Outlet.

More recently back in February of this year, Foodland reopened their Aina Haina store after months of extensive renovations — essentially an entire overhaul — and are now rebranded as ‘Foodland Farm’…

If you’re familiar with this Foodland location’s former layout, you’ll be in for a shocking surprise once you step through the front door. My initial impression while walking through this new ‘Foodland Farms’ for the first time is that they’re trying to look like (and compete with) Whole Foods. Which is totally fine by me, as long as their PRICES don’t resemble Whole Foods, a.k.a. “Whole Paycheck”.

Designwise, like Safeway’s new look, Foodland Farms has that rustic countryside market theme going on. They’ve even gotten rid of the white commercial floor tiles in favor of bare concrete floors, although that part is a  little too “rustic” in my opinion, as the floors now look kinda’ beat up in some areas.

As expected based on Foodland’s recently renovated other stores, a full service deli and meat counter has been added and stands as the centerpiece of the store just as you pass the front checkout counter. Their poke counter situated on the side is also substantial in size; both of which this former location didn’t have before.

Being rebadged as ‘Foodland Farms’, the new produce department, which is now located in the front of the store, is certainly much more impressive than previous, with a even wider variety of local and and organic produce, all of which looked to be culled for quality and freshness.

Their meat department, which is still in the back, while wasn’t very big to begin with in the former layout, doesn’t look any bigger or smaller the way it is now. Just slightly rearranged.

Other new features include a full-service florist (which takes up a considerable amount of space in the corner of the produce department area), an R. Fields Wine staffed outlet and a Gelato Bar. all these “bells ‘n whistles” additions have obviously consumed plenty of floor space that once served where runs of gondolas (product shelves) once were. And with that, it looks like they may have gotten rid of a lot of skus (products) from their former layout in the process.

While I’m not clear exactly which products may have been sacrificed for sake of making the selection at Foodland Farms more “upscale”, the impression is it’s now practically half interactive market (the deli and poke counters, R. Field outlet, florist) and half grocery store, and not really a ‘supermarket’ anymore.

One thing that stands out that matches their new look is the staff’s genuinely friendly attitude and for the most part great customer service, so BIG, BIG shaka on that!

There’s great video coverage of the new Foodland Farms in Aina Haina provided by the team at Hawaii News Now. Check it out at that link.

Next door to Foodland Farms, taking the space of former longtime tenant Komokata Japanese Restaurant is a new Genki Sushi Restaurant…

While I didn’t take “inventory” on my latest visit, as it currently stands, most of the other tenants in the shopping center remain the same. Where as you may already know, the Aina Haina McDonald’s is the first one to have opened in Hawaii back in 1968.

Airport Eats: Driver's Diner

For yesterday’s greasy spoon pauhana Friday grindz, the three of us decided to check out Driver’s Diner near HNL. They’re located on the corner of Ualena and Ohohia street, right across the street from Royal Hawaiian Movers…

If for some inexcusable reason you don’t know where Royal Hawaiian Movers are (because you know, everyone living on Oahu should know where they are lol), than this lonely high rise office building in an otherwise low-rise industrial warehouse area still emblazoned with Wyland’s Humpback Whale mural art a little down the street should help point you in the right direction…

Once inside, you’ll find a quite large, very clean and newly renovated dining room space…

I think owners of restaurants are putting flat screen TVs in their establishment as much for themselves as they are for their guests. lol But no, that’s not the owner sitting there slacking off, but a customer. The owner is a pretty young looking Filipino guy (although all Filipino folks look young, even when they’re old!).

I wanted to ask more questions about the restaurant, but before we knew it, the lunch hour rush busted down the door and they became too busy to bother…

Once again Diner A’s made it into one of my shots, this time giving a shaka, although sometimes he’s been known to sneak in hand signs of the New York variety. lol Notice the clientele of mostly blue jeans and workboots “truck drivers” (actually they were roofers working next door). Fitting for a place named ‘Driver’s Diner’.

Actually, we had heard of this place through Lyle Galdeira and Russell Yamanoha on KHNL News 8’s latest “Cheap Eats” segment. There used to be a place on the corner of Nimitz Highway and Kalihi street named ‘Driver’s’, but we don’t think it was the same owner. That place has recently opened again under the name ‘Lotto & Bento’, which now serves Korean food.

Back to Driver’s, they didn’t have a permanent menu board, but only this dry-erase set of selections for the day…

With that, Diner A decided on trying the Cajun Grilled Ahi with Garlic Shrimp…

Diner E went for the Philly Steak Sandwich with Fries…

A look under the hood of this bad boy…

Man-o-man, that looks AWESOME!

Diner AC ordered the Laulau, which came accompanied with green “salad” (that’s pretty weird)…

Finally, yours truly decided to try their Shrimp Scampi Fetuccine (SIC on the menu as “Fetucinni”)…

Let’s have a bite…

The sauce coating the perfectly al dente Fetuccine pasta tasted like a lemon caper cream sauce, with maybe  just a slight amount of Parmesan cheese in it, but not heavily. It was more like just a thickened cream. There were also generous bite-size pieces of fresh tomato, sauteed onions and mushrooms in the mix. Overall, the sauce was just OK but a little plain tasting and lacked any herbs or “kick” if you will. I would have preferred if it were more like an Alfredo with a heavier-hitting cheesy punch to it.

Let’s try the shrimp…

They were cooked just right, but flavorwise, kinda’ plain and lacked any garlicy-buttery goodness to it that I was expecting them to have.

The green “salad” (if you want to call it that) was really lame, only consisting of cut pieces of romaine lettuce with barely a hint if none at all of dressing on it. On top of that, it was kind of wilted and not crispy fresh.

Summing up my Shrimp Scampi “Fetucinni” plate was generally a satisfying lunch thanks to the HUGE “truck driver’s portions” and perfectly al dente pasta, but lacked anything that stood out in taste. Then again, what can I expect for just $6. With that I give it 1 SPAM Musubi.

Moving on, let’s sample Diner A’s Cajun Grilled Ahi…

Diner A gave me a piece to try, and I must say, it was really, really good. Super moist, and the seasoning was DYNAMITE! It made it almost taste like a beef steak, and not fish. Thumbs way up on this!

Now let’s sample the shrimp…

Notice they’re individually deveined and left with the shells on for flavor. I didn’t try them, but Diner A RAVED about it, giving the them 4 SPAM Musubi right off the bat.

Here, Diner A shows off how jumbo-sized these shrimp are…

He noted that he enjoyed these shrimp as much as he did the ones we had at the Blue Water Shrimp Truck. He also gave a thumbs-up on the Mac’ Salad, giving our “simple, cool and creamy” seal of Mac’ Sal’ approval. They got the Mac’ Sal’ right, so that alone gives Driver’s Diner all the respect.

With that, Diner A weighed in between giving his Cajun Grilled Ahi and Shrimp plate either a 3 or 4 SPAM Musubi rating, but since they passed our critical Mac’ Sal’ test, I’ll take the liberty of awarding it a FOUR!  I must say, that Cajun Grilled Ahi was definitely in it to win it.

Diner AC gives her Laulau 2 SPAM Musubi. Not bad, not great. The “salad” not even worth mentioning. She thinks it’s a store-bought brand, not house-made. I’ll stick with Highway Inn, who I think so far makes the BEST LAULAU on the island.

Finally, let’s see what Diner “Saimin Kaukau” (Simon Cowell) E thought of his Philly Steak sammy…

Oh. My. God. In all of its downright sloppy, drippin’ ‘n oozin’, meaty ‘n cheesy glory,  doesn’t that look absolutely ONO?!!! Dammmmmmm’, I just wanna’ reach right through my monitor and take a bite of that right now! Gino’s & Pat’s, eat your heart out, baby.

“Saimin Kaukau” liked it. Thumbs up. Not way, way up, but enough to grant it 3 SPAM Musubi, which by his critical Simon Cowell standards, is considered very, very good. He noted the beef was grilled nicely and was very tender, which I tried a piece and can concur to. The grilled red bell peppers and onions added tasty fourth dimension to the toasty hoagie roll, melted swiss and grilled beef, although he said there just  might have been “something” missing, but he didn’t know what.

He was also OK with the fries. Not great, but OK.

Summing up Diner E’s Philly Steak and Fries, he gives it 3 SPAM Musubi. I gotta’ say though, just lookin’ at it, I’d give it a 10!

Driver’s Diner
3006 Ualena st.
Honolulu, Hawaii
Tel. 836-1575

The Tasty Island rating:

(3) Very Good. Considerable of another visit or purchase. (Supah’ Ono!)

Related links:
• Cheap Eats: Driver’s Diner – KHNL News 8 (Hawaii News Now) Video Report
• Driver’s Diner – Yelp user reviews

The Return of the Kanak Attack

That would make for an epic-sounding title of a sci fi/horror film about a giant blob of Squid Luau attacking the city of Honolulu. I can just picture the key scene: “Oh my God! It’s… it’s… it’s SQUID LUAU! AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE! RRRUN!!!!”  LOL

But seriously, we returned for lunch this past Aloha Friday at Kanak Attack, that hole-in-wall introduced here just a few weeks ago that’s buried deep within the confines of Nimitz Business Center. This time to our surprise there was a line formed long outside the entrance!…

Could the revelation of the place on this blog have anything to do with that? Dunno’. I do know certain dishes were already disappearing by the time we got there around 11:30am.

Like this tray of Stuffed Salmon, which is already half gone and it isn’t even noon yet…

Another hot seller was their Pork Chops…

I had my eyes on that ‘tick and chunky Hawaiian Beef Stew they were servin’ up…

Da’ buggah’ looked so ono on da’ plate wit’ rice (it looked really good plated-up with rice).

Then there were these massive Grilled Hamachi Kama (Ahi Tuna Collar)…

While I have yet to try it, I’m really curious how their fried chicken tastes…

Here’s the menu for the day…

After that AWESOME Lau Lau plate I had from Highway Inn just a few days prior, it left me longing for Squid Luau, so I decided to give Kanak Attack’s a try…

Mmmmmmm, doesn’t that look YUMMY?! lol

Diner A was also in seafood mode, choosing the Grilled Hamachi Kama…

Along with that, he also got a bowl of Seafood Curry…

In there are large chunks of Mahimahi, sliced calamari and whole small shrimp tails.

While Diner E continues his love of all things Teriyaki, going for the Teriyaki Hamburger Steak mini plate…

I was kinda’ reluctant to order Squid Luau here, as they don’t offer it with Poi, and it really doesn’t go well with rice, IMO. Neither does it go well with Mac’ Sal’. Yet I went for it anyway to satisfy my craving for it.

Unfortunately it turned out this Squid Luau was WAY too sweet. Either they’re using sweetened Coconut Milk or adding sugar in it. Whatever it is, way too sweet. There was a fair amount of Tako (Octopus) in it (what’s incorrectly referred by this dish as “Squid”), and it was all Luau leaves (not Spinach) that were cooked down to tender-soft consistency, so a point for that. But again, that over-sweet flavor profile was a deal breaker for me.

Summing my plate up, I give Kanak Attack’s Squid Luau plate a barely making it 1 SPAM Musubi (average). It has potential to be  a 4 or 5 Spammer if they lose the sweet and offer Poi as an option to rice with their Hawaiian food.

Diner A really enjoyed his Hamachi Kama, which was meaty, moist and tender with that great fatty tuna flavor you get from the collar bone area of the fish…

He also liked the flavor of the curry itself in the Seafood Curry Stew, noting UNLIKE my Squid Luau, this curry didn’t have any sweetness in it, which he appreciated.

Look at this critter he found in there…

Is that a baby Tako (octopus) or is that squid? I can’t tell. Overall, he gives his Hamachi Kama and Seafood Curry Stew 3 SPAM Musubi (very good).

Finally we have Diner E’s Teriyaki Hamburger Steak…

He gave a thumbs-up on the Teri’ sauce, and we all give thumbs-up on their Mac’ Sal’, but he wasn’t impressed with their  house-made beef patties, which he thought were really plain. As if all they did was mix ground beef with some salt and pepper. He prefers his hamburger steak to have bread filler, the “old school” way. It also lacked any seared edges, looking and tasting as if it had been steamed. Which I don’t understand, as this place has the grill to do it, as was evident by that beautifully char-grilled steak I had on the last visit. Ron, please char-grill your burger patties!

With that he gives Kanak Attack’s Teriyaki Hamburger Steak mini plate 1 SPAM Musubi (average). At least grill the patty and it’ll get a much better rating.

If you decide to try this place, here’s where you’ll find them (the operative word being “FIND”)…

Kanak Attack Catering
Nimitz Business Center
1130 N. Nimitz Highway
Building C, Suite 110
Honolulu, Hawaii  96817
Tel. 521-4131

Business hours:
Tuesday through Friday 10:30am to 1:30pm
Saturday & Sunday closed for catering
Monday closed

Related links:
• Iwilei Eats: Kanak Attack – The Tasty Island
• Kanak Attack — Yelp user reviews