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skchai

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    http://www2.hawaii.edu/~sunki/

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    Honolulu, Hawai`i

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  1. So sad, but;s that nature of the restaurant business. The vegan bentos offered Well bento filled a unique niche in the city's restaurant offerings - they will be missed.
  2. skchai

    Pho in Oahu

    Hmm . . . Pho is an intensely personal thing, and different people may have deeply held but diametrically opposed beliefs about the "musts" and "nevers" for decent pho. That being said, I'm sorry to say that there isn't any one place in Honolulu that is generally considered to stand up above the rest in serving a superior pho. There are plenty of places with "pho" in their names, but . . . One pho specializer downtown that seem to be popular with both local and Vietnamese patrons is Pho 97, but unfortunately I don't get downtown that often and haven't had a chance yet to try it. . .
  3. As you can see, this has kind of ground to a halt. Sorry! I will try to resume in that near future (that's what they all say), but in the meantime (and even afterwards) you'd be in good shape if you check out Reid's excellent link and archive posts on `Ono Kine Grindz.
  4. 3-pun Cooking TV Show has a lot of recipes on its site, though it probably doesn't qualify for what you consider to be "serious" cooking! Dancyu magazine's site has some recipes that are presumably analogous to Epicurious, but are fairly small in number. So for fairly high-end recipes, as far as I know, I think Tsuji Acad. is probably your best bet. . .
  5. I had heard that as well. It seems that she is going to go back to Korea to travel around and study the regional cuisines before moving on and deciding what she will do next. The restaurant will definitely be missed, in part because it covered two areas of Korean cuisine - Southwestern and health food that are pretty unique here. And also because she was a great cook. Here's hoping that once she's done with her travels she comes back here again!
  6. Uh. . . didn't mean to make anyone quiver. . . Thanks for the link to the Andy Raskin piece in NPR. His friend Masa is quite a character. . . does a great job of making you want to "challenge". But a 40-minute wait! Also, come to think of it, it probably wouldn't be open for dinner, so maybe somewhere else would be better. . .
  7. Here's an article in the S-B with a recipe for Kahala Hilton's lavosh, though I'm not certain it's the original one. But the chronology sounds about right. Kanemitsu bakery on Molokai is also famous for their lavosh along with their other trademark item, Molokai Bread.
  8. Decent parking kind of rules out downtown or Waikiki for that matter. A number of the Korean restaurants, notably Sorabol and Shillawon are set up with private rooms for business lunches at about the price range you're mentioning. Maple Garden in Moili`ili is a popular place for the UH crowd and has a private room, though this might need to be booked well in advance. I think (?) Gyotaku has a private room. . .
  9. Sorry, can't find a recipe, but it would probably be possible to recreate the curry by adapting recipes for "raj-style" curry served at British Officer's clubs throughout colonial India, and was the original inspiration for local-style curry. The main thing here is the fact that (1) a anglo-curry sauce can be made from "Madras" curry powder, meat stock and roux, (2) accompaniments of raisins, Major Grey chutney, chopped coconut, chopped bacon, hard-boiled eggs, bananas, etc. are essential. The main innovations of the local-style curry are the substitution of coconut milk for meat stock in the curry, and things like chopped candied ginger and/or macadamia nuts that wouldn't be found in the original version. Also, the the Willows version in particular I believe had a darker, roasted curry powder, reflecting the influence of Kusuma Cooray, who was chef there prior to its temporary closing in the 1990s.
  10. "Hawaiian" Sweet Bread is a local adaptation of the Portuguese "Pao Doce" that was brought over by plantation laborers from the Azores and Madeira during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was originally popularized by the "King's Bakery" which was located on near the corner of King St. and McCully in Honolulu - so I think the original name of the bread had more to do with the street than any pretensions to royalty (the Hawaiian Ali`i at any rate would probably not have recognized sweet bread, much less eaten much of it). Pretty soon sweet bread became so entrenched in the local food scene (particularly as a fundraiser for sports teams and the like) that, at least to outsiders, it became seen as a typical Hawai`i food. Once King' Bakery started marketing the sweetbread at retail outlets, the profit opportunities far outweighed those of the original bakery, which was closed down in the early 1990s. After a series of successors (each named "King's" something), the original spot is occupied by Makino Chaya, a all-you-can-eat Izakaya (!) run by the Todai folks. A more "rootsy" pao doce is still produced by a number of local bakeries, most notably Leonard's on Kapahulu, more famous for the malasadas (sic). How do I like to eat it? Definitely toasted - otherwise the contemporary version is too squishy - with poha preserves. Portuguese sausage (linguica) and eggs round out a nice greasy breakfast.
  11. I guess it depends on what "level" of restaurant you are looking for, and what level of transportation you have available. If you have around 4 hours time - practically the entire city center of Honolulu is available to you for ~$25 each way and 30 minutes or less ride time as long as the traffic isn't too bad (which it shouldn't be on Sunday). In which case an Alan Wong's or Chef Mavros is not out of the question - though a reservation would be pretty essential. None of the local restaurants require jacket and tie, as far as I know, though trousers and button-down shirt would be expected for the aforementioned. If you are looking for something more ethnic or would prefer a shorter drive, then there are a number of cheap hole-in-the-wall places in the Mapunapuna and Kalihi-Palama areas within a couple miles from the airport.
  12. Thanks for mentioning this, and for uploading the relevant information for the meeting to your site. This meeting really deserves a large turnout, and is a novel, perhaps unique, attempt to bring together the various stakeholders for sustainable ag in Hawai`i under one open sky, along an explicit teaching component to it as well. You're right that there isn't really any info out there about this. If found this short announcement at the CTAHR website, but nothing else. So you're doing a real service by making this available. For those unfamiliar with the Wai`anae Community Re-Development Corp., here are a couple of background articles from the Star-Bulletin on the MA`O farm and the Aloha `Aina Cafe.
  13. skchai

    La Toque

    In his early career, Frank's trademark dish was his rösti with caviar – is this still on the menu?
  14. PPC, I think you're right about oxtail stew - I haven't seen it anywhere. Bea's Drive In! Makes me think about Jolly Roger, Chunky's, and now KC's. All the local-style drive-in landmarks that have gone to meet their maker. . . But getting back to your question, it was not oxtail stew but I though I saw stewed oxtail (as in red-cooked style) at the okazu section of Shirokiya the other day. That might not satisfy the cravings, but. . . Ms. Meliss, having lived in Tucson for a few years, I emphathize with your remarks about good Mexican. There are a few good places that serve either decent tex-mex or taqueria-style food - the latest that people are talking about is Taqueria la Michoacana, which is run by the same people that run Quintero's. There are actually a number of academic studies of food cravings - look, if a subject exists academics will find a way to render it incomprehensible. Most of these studies are from the physiological side, but a number look at psychological and cultural issues as well. You might seek out the journal called Appetite - yes such a journal exists.
  15. Ogo looks interesting - but the one thing I notice about all the Hawaii-style restaurants in Japan is that the food is so "neatly" prepared compared to what you get in Hawaii. The spam musubi is kawaii-zed to the max compared to the big lump you get here. BTW, Ogo in Hawaiian is "limu loa". Because it's crunchy, it's often used in poke dishes. Plain ol' "limu" (seaweed) usually refers to ogo, and the term ogo is often used here too. . .
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