skchai

Haven't updated the SpamBlog in a while, and I know you were all worrying about me, like Salam Pax's fans, wondering if I had been knocked off by members of CSPI. Don't be concerned, I just couldn't think of anything to write after the overwhelming SpamMobile experience. But finally got enough wind to return to work - this week's installment is about the Great Tulip Challenge. Tulip has been a major player in the European processed meat market for years. With a name like Tulip, you would expect it to be Dutch (herring spam, anyone?), not Danish, but indeed it proudly Danish, an official purveyor to the royal family of Denmark, my by repute one of the top 10 most recognized Danish food brand names. Yet, despite its prominence, it has never sought to challenge the dominance of Hormel in the Spam heartland of (no, not the Midwest) Asia and the Pacific, with the curious exception of Okinawa. This is changing. Tulip luncheon meat was launched on the Hawai`i market in August 2003, and is claiming shelf space away with its Hawai`i-only musubi label. Hormel rapidly countered with its own musubi label (see above). Tulips claims to taste better because it contains real bacon, though a Star-Bulletin blind taste test was inconclusive (six of the testers chose Treet as better than either, which to my mind busts the credibility of the entire test). Other areas pincer points in the Danish expansion plans include South Korea, where Spam was for a long time a luxury item smuggled out of Army PXs to be wrapped in gaudy ribbons to be humbly presented to one's superiors as a New Year's gift. While there have been domestic challengers such as Lotte's Rose Farm (in Korean, "Rosu Pam", get it?), none has really challenged Spam for supremacy until Tulip began to nose in in the 1990s via its Korean joint partner, Nongshim, makers of "Shin" Ramyeon and other popular products. Using the Nongshim's marketing channels, Tulip has managed to nose in Hormel's market share to the point where it is the leading imported brand (Hormel produces Spam domestically in South Korea under a joint venture). In recognition, Nongshim was recently awarded "The Diploma of the National Association for Danish Enterprise and His Royal Highness Prince Henrik’s Medal of Honour". What about the U.K., Spam's biggest foreign market other than South Korea (no, Hawai`i is part of the U.S.)? Here is were the true cold-blooded nature of business in the highest echelons becomes evident. U.K. Spam is solely produced by . . . Tulip, under a joint venture corporation called Hormel Foods Tulip Ltd. (Thetford, Norfolk)!

Ba-Le (Manoa Marketplace Branch) 2855 E. Manoa Road Manoa Marketplace Honolulu HI 96822 808 988-1407 http://www.ba-le.com/ Ba-le ("Paris" in Vietnamese) is the world's largest purveyor of banh mi, or Vietnamese-style sandwiches. It is also Hawai`i's largest producer of baguettes and pizza dough (!), and is second only to the giant Pho Hoa as the largest chain of Vietnamese restaurants in the United States. Beginning in 1984, when Thanh Quoc Lam opened his first shop in Honolulu Chinatown, the operation has expanded to 24 franchised locations in Hawai`i, including the original one, which he still owns. There are two franchises in Japan, and apparently negotiations underway for franchises in China as well. In 2002, Thanh Quoc Lam was named U.S. Small Businessperson of the Year by the SBA. You should also check out Sweet Willie's review of the Ba-Le Kapa`a branch on another thread. Despite the expansion, each location retains some individuality. The Manoa Marketplace location is perhaps the most individual of all, because it combines the bahn mi selection with a full Vietnamese and Thai sit-down menu. They even carry Japanese-local and Korean-local style plate lunch standards such as chicken katsu and kalbi, though I've never seen anyone order them. And to boot, the franchise owners Cindy and Davis Khanthavong, are, judging from their last name, a Laotian couple. A note about Ba-Le's baguettes - they really are crisp. Do not order a banh mi from Ba-Le if you have gingivitis, or mayhem will ensue inside your mouth. Inside sit piles of shredded pickled carrot and radish and slices of tomato and cucumber, garnished with a large amount of cilantro. The meat is not "overstuffed" as it might be in some American-style hoagies, but that's just fine as the balance between the meat and veg is just about right. Prices range from $2.75 to $3.50, which is cheap by Hawai`i standards. For an extra 50 cents, you can have your baguette replaced by a large croissant - if they're out of baguettes, as they often are near the end of the day, you get a croissant for free if that's what you want. Their best sandwiches, IMHO are the hot ones - the Barbeque Pork and the Lemon Grass Chicken. Both seem to be soaked in a fish sauce, lemon grass, garlic, sugar, and chile marinade before being grilled, so both have a fresh, penetrating taste that is neither greasy or overpowering with spices. The chicken marinade has turmeric added, while the pork marinade seems to have little tomato-like (ketchup?) something and the meat is subsequently sliced thinly before being placed in the bun. Their cold cuts include ham, steamed pork (thit chung, and Vietnamese Pate (cha lua), and you can get a "special sandwich" that includes all three. Here's the lineup: Barbeque Pork on baguette Lemon Grass Chicken on croissant Special sandwich on croissant Accompaniments to the banh mi include the usual array of Southeast Asian soft drinks (young coconut, lychee, basil seed, etc). You also can buy a choice of tapioca-coconut desserts: from left to right - purple yam, chocolate, and taro. As mentioned, there is a full-fledged American standard Vietnamese and Thai menu - several varieties of pho, rice and rice noodle plates, assorted curries, stir fried vegetables in bean sauce, etc. The pho is O.K. but not outstanding stuff, as you might expect from a place that doesn't specialize in it - slightly wan on the broth. Salad accompaniments are sweet basil, mung bean sprouts, sliced chiles, and a lemon wedge, with hoisin, soy, and sriracha sauce at the table. Haven't tried a lot of the other stuff, but it's definitely there if you want it. In fact, pretty much anything is there for you if you want it. Since it's in Manoa Marketplace, near our house, we go there a lot. It's informal and a very comfortable place to hang out. Here Mr. Khanthavong is at the doorway dispensing advise to his son (?) who was playing with some kind of remote control car thing. The owners' cute toddler daughter can often be found eating her lunch at a high chair in one of the tables in the dining section. She has amazingly good table manners.

Since I happenned to make tteokbokki for dinner last night, I thought I might try a crude, pseudo-eCGI style "play-by-play" or "look & cook" (my son's favorite cookbook series). O.K., so we start off with the tteok. It's one package of "tteokbokki tteok", i.e. the plain, cylindrical kind that is about 1 cm. in diameter. Cut it into about 4-5 cm lengths. You can also use "tteokguk tteok", which is about twice as thick, in which case you would cut it into thin slices about 0.5 cm. thick. Whichever way you do it, make sure that the pieces are separated. If they're stuck together, rinse them in warm water and pry them apart with your fingers before using, otherwise you'll have huge conglomerate boulders of tteok to deal with latter. Here are the bottled seasoning ingredients that I had ready. From left to right: hot chili bean paste (gochujang), malt syrup (mulyeot), sesame oil, soy sauce, and roasted sesame seeds. These are all common things you can get at any Korean-oriented grocery. Other things you need are garlic, green onions, and Korean chile powder. I just made a simple beef tteokbokki, without a lot of additional main ingredients. The main reason being that we didn't have a lot of additional main ingredients in our house. Take partially defrosted boneless galbi meat, cut it into matchstick-size pieces, and marinated it with . . . something. Approximate recreation - for 0.5 lbs. beef, mix in 1 Tbsp. minced garlic (I know that's a lot - you can use less), 2 Tbsp. soy sauce, 1 Tbsp. malt syrup, 1 Tbsp. sesame oil. Chop up a bunch of large-diameter green onions roughly (enough to make about 3/4 cup unpacked - I know that's a lot - you can use less), and put it aside. Drain the beef out of its marinade, which you reserve, and saute it for a while in a little oil until just done. If it's reasonably tender meat, which this was, take it out and put it to the side so that it won't get overcooked. If it's tough meat, then leave it in to stew with the tteok until it reaches the "moist-tenderness" stage. Cook the tteokbokki tteok in the reserved marinade and a few tablespoons of extra water or beef broth. You can add matchstick-sliced carrots or chinese cabbage at this point if desired. If you are adding dried noodles to the tteokbokki, put them in with the tteok at this point. You should adjust the total amount of noodles and tteok so that it comes out to about four generous servings. If you are making tteokbokki without beef or other marinated meat, you should use about 1/4 cup extra water or broth. If you are making it with flat fishcake slices, it's probably best to use a dried fish-type broth, but that's up to you. If you're making it with Spam, God bless you! Bring to a boil, cover over medium heat, and let soften for about 5 minutes - watch it so that it doesn't get too gooey. The starch leaching from the tteok will thicken the sauce to a muddish color. Uncover, and add the meat back in to heat. At this point I take out a bunch of the tteokbokki for my daughter, who dislikes anything hot or green. . . Add about 2 Tbsp. gochujang and 1 Tbsp. chile powder to the mix. Taste to see if it's salty enough, and add more soy sauce if this is necessary. You can add fresh noodles at about the same time you add the additional seasonings. If you made your tteokbokki with flat fishcake instead of marinated meat, you need more salt, and should add about about 2 Tbsp. of soy sauce at any rate at this point, or use 1/4 cup gochujang in place of the gochujang and chile powder. These variations will lead you to something I judge to be "moderately hot" and "somewhat salty", though you may find this subjective. Stir in the chopped green onions, and lay out on a plate if you're being pretentious. Sprinkle sesame seeds over it and serve.

Here's a picture of the soccer ball nori that I mentioned: Just one in a whole genre of products designed to help mothers make beautiful bento for their kids.

So . . . . . . you are. . . . . . the famous George's Meat Market? Did I get it right?

It's called tah dig - you can find it in a lot of "chelow" (plain rice) and "polo" (pilaf) recipes in Iranian cookbooks such as those of Najmieh Bamanglij. Here's a link to a chelow recipe from her personal website.

Foodies can tap into Egullet, By Burt Lum Strange person to write a story about. . . Party with a purpose: A star-studded night of dining memorializes the loss of a father and son, by Betty Shimabukuro Roy's Restaurant 15th anniversary benefit for a scholarship fund at KCC. Waianae project teaches youths the value of farming, by Betty Shimabukuro Aloha Aina Cafe is part of Mala 'Ai 'Opio, a youth internship program Wai`anae. By Request: Going bananas over popular bread, muffins, by Betty Shimabukuro Kaka`ako Kitchen's Banana-Poi Muffin Recipe QUICK BITES, by Zenaida Serrano Espanol "A Passage to Paradise: Holomua i ke Kai", benefit for ASSETS school. Keoki's Paradise in Good Housekeeeping. "The Kona Coffee Story: Along the Hawai'i Belt Road," an exhibit running through April 24 at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i. QUICK BITES, by Zenaida Serrano Espanol D.K. Kodama debuts on the Today Show. It's a Beautiful Day Cafe offers drive-thru coffee. Kona Brewing starts distribution on the mainland.

Gah is right. Those are not really sushi pictures but bento (box lunches) for kids. I especially like the intricately made Anpanman (fourth from top, lower right corner), fashioned out of mashed pumpkin, potato salad, hotdogs, and nori. Speaking of extreme bento materials - my sister-in-law, who lives in Tokyo, brought for us last time some packaged nori cut into the shape of soccer ball panels for making soccer riceballs. . .

That's a great list smartcookie - welcome to our little forum! Hope you make it back from Vegas one of these days. . . Though so many local people visit Vegas it must seem at least a little bit like home. Have to admit I've actually never tried Zippy's Spaghetti - I always go for the zippac or the chili. What's different about the spaghetti compared to the kind you get elsewhere? Was just there last week with my daughter. People still line up outside the small window to get their own personal customized version shaved ice - the li hing mui, lilikoi cream, azuki bowl, and just about every combination you can think of. And now they have Spam, too. . . They have Korean Chicken at a number of different places now - it's become a standard plate lunch item. I hope we can track down Chicken Alice one of these days and find out how she originated the dish. . .

Welcome to eGullet, lym! Don't be bashful about telling us more about your saimin and your establishment. Dried scallops and kimchi? Sounds completely upscale and innovative, not to mention ono! How did you come up with the idea, and what other kinds of ready-made food items do you make?

Now all we need is some Indian Tex-Mex (which, believe it or not, does exist). . .

I believe it was referring to the VHP and all their Sangh Parivar cousins - quite a different kind of "vegetarian fury". . .

Shillawon 747 Amana St. Honolulu HI 96814 944-8700 Shillawon is an upper-casual Korean specializing in jeongol dishes, or Korean hotpot. It also carries a full range of standard grilled meat dishes, but the jeongol (plus Korean-style genghis khan and shabu-shabu) set it apart from other places. It's also known for being booked by Korean league baseball teams for two or three meals a day when they come over to Hawai`i for Spring Training. If you happen to eat there roundabout now, you will likely be surrounded by members of the Kia Tigers or Hanhwa Eagles. One notable thing about Korean baseball teams (other than the boring nicknames) is the fact that when a senior member of the enters the room, everyone else has to stand up. Since senior members seem to come and go whenever they please, the other team members have to constantly stand up and sit down, over and over. Wonder how they ever finish eating . . . The Honolulu restaurant is the sole foreign outpost of a gaudy-looking eating establishment in Daechi-dong, Kangnam-gu, Seoul. Shillawon serves three kinds of jeongol - beef noodle (guksu), intestine (gopchang), and bulgogi-octopus ("bulnak"). Since it was only lunchtime, we just had the beef noodle - sorry for not making things more exciting! First they bring you a large pot filled with seasoned beef broth, and place it on a gas burner. Then they dump a pile of sliced sirloin, spinach, green onions, and noodles into it, adding ground roasted sesame seeds and Korean chili powder for flavoring (as the wife waits with bated breath). The noodles are plain fresh white flour noodles. They would probably be called udong in Korea, though they are slightly smaller than Japanese udon in diameter. The broth is very is a rich kalbi broth that has been thoroughly defatted and clarified, so that it's got nice clean taste and doesn't obscure the other ingredients. Once all that's done, the soup is brought back up to boiling, and you're ready to eat. You dip the pieces into a spicy soy-vinegar sauce before downing them with rice and what's left of the various panchan that they have brought you about 15 minutes earlier. So you eat for a while, then when you've worked your way past all the solid ingredients and have more or less only broth left, they bring on the second stage. One bowl of rice is unceremoniously plopped into the boiling broth and stirred around for a while until it begins to soften and turn into a kind of juk (gruel). Then large amounts of chopped shiitake mushrooms, green onions, and chinese cabbage are added, and the thing is stirred around for a while longer. More ground roasted sesame seed are placed on top, then you eat it up if you've got any room left. The jeongol must be ordered for two people at a time (not at least two, but exactly two or some multiple), and it's $34.95 with panchan. The other kinds of jeongol are similarly priced. Shillawon, like most Honolulu above-midrange full-range Korean places, also serves a jeongshik, or set menu. This consists of a (by now standardized) menu of kalbi, modum jun (egg-battered and pan-fried fish, meat and / or vegetables), broiled corvina, and several other side dishes. Shillawon is on Amana Street, a cul-de-sac near the Ke`eaumoku / Kapiolani intersection. Coming makai direction from the Ke`eaumoku side, you turn left when you see the Ross Dress-for-Less, then right after passing the Pagoda Floating Restaurant. It's in the Pacific Grand "Hotel" (now a condo) - you park for free in the garage underneath the building, then take the elevator up. But don't try to take the elevator down again once you're done - it doesn't allow you to go down to the garage without a key, so you've got to walk down alongside the auto ramp - don't ask me why! There are usually a few elderly men playing cards down there to help you in case you get lost or confused.

Thanks for the advice, Tad and dfunghi. It sounds like it's not a place that I'll go myself unless I was in Ala Moana and really determined to eat a low-fat meal. . . It does seem that it's part of the chain, since the California locations are listed on the back of the brochure. Also, Mongo - sorry, I hope you didn't find the "vegetarian fury" quote offensive!

Lotte is an interesting company - it was started in Japan in 1948 by a Korean-Japanese, the late Shin Gyeok-Ho. It didn't invest in South Korea until 1965, but since then has expanded to the point where the Korea operations outweigh the Japanese ones. In Korea, they are a full fledged conglomerate (chaebol) into hotels, department stores, amusement parks, etc.

Welcome to eGullet, Kirk B, and thanks for your very interesting post. Here links to some discussions about Indian Chinese food that have taken place in the India forum: Indian Chinese Indian/Chinese I don't live anywhere near Texas, but seems like you're quite lucky to have one of the few Chinese Indian restaurants in the U.S.!

You are a boulderite, I am an island. . . Your new sig reminds me (in a roundabout way) of the crack made by Ravi Shankar (the columnist, not Norah Jones' dad) ridiculing those who sought to equate Al Qaeda-type extremism with the "vegetarian fury of the naked sadhu".

Thanks for the info, June. Unfortunately, it sounds like California Wok might actually be healthy (at least relatively speaking). Then I might feel some pressure to go. However, even the positive reviews make it sound extremely bland: basically a lot of steamed and / or barely wokked standard meat and vegetables with tiny amounts of teriyaki-like sauce.

A rather belated welcome to eGullet, Yong Tae Kim! BTW, here's the link for Korea Lotteria's "regular" burger menu, with the items that you mentioned.

Went back to Mekong II (sister restaurant of Keo's) day before yesterday. Have to say that the food seemed to be uniformly worse than the last time I ate there - something that was confirmed by a friend of ours who had visited recently as well. Hopefully they're just breaking in a new chef there and things will get better. . . Ordered Keo's trademark dish, Evil Jungle Prince, which usually deserves its reputation: EJP is a stir-fry of beef n' sweet basil in a small quantity of very thick coconut milk, kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass, and chile, served on a bed of raw chopped cabbage. The version at Keo's ups the ante by using strip loin and substituting shredded bamboo shoots for the cabbage. I like the cabbage better . . . it holds up better to the sauce. The one we had yesterday was kind of watery - seemed like the chef had used thin rather than thick coconut milk, and too much of it. The Ong Choi with yellow bean sauce is another favorite. This one was not such a disappointment - the sauce was well-balanced. However, the tough stems were not sufficiently trimmed off - the large tubular pieces were tough enough that the kids were more interested in playing with them than eating them. Even my son, who usually likes Ong Choi. So what - it won't stop us from coming back, but we may wait until it seems like things settle down. . . Edited after gamma-correcting dark image of ong choi.

Mongo, I thought you were in Boulder. Was an earlier avatar of you a Californian?

Welcome to Egullet, oneidaone! Truly wish I could have been there - but I've always seen those kind events as above my station! Also, my wife was out of town and I couldn't exactly drag my 4 and 8-year old kids there. But it sounded like an almost transcendently star-studded event. Here was the guest list, according to the Star-Bulletin: Nobu Matsuhisa of Nobu's and Matsuhisa; Tetsuya Wakuda of Tetsuya's, Sydney; Alessandro Stratta of Renoir, Las Vegas; Lee Hefter of Spago, Beverly Hills, Rick Tramonto of Tru, Chicago; Ron Siegel of Masa's, San Francisco; Rafih Benjelloun, Imperial Fez, Atlanta; Floyd Cardoz of Tabla, New York; Richard Sandoval of Maya, New York, and Tamayo, Colorado; Yuji Wakiya of Turandot, Tokyo; Stephan Pyles of Star Canyon, Dallas; and Tony Liu of Babbo, New York. Not mention to mention local chefs Alan Wong and Hiroshi Fukui, as well as a large contingent of executive chefs from the 32-restaurant Roy's empire. Here's another story about the difficulties the chefs had in shipping all their ingredients over from the mainland. Tom Matsuda was the executive sous chef at the Sheraton Waikiki, while Warren, his son, was a runner at Roy's Hawai`i Kai flagship restaurant. Tom was murdered by one of his own employees in 2000, and Warren died in an accident in 2002. You'd be hard put to find a similar collection of superstar chefs anywhere in the world at one point in time. Can you describe the food and how it was served? What were your favorite bites there? Any other impressions? Thanks again for the report!

Got a thick and glossy brocure in my mail today advertising the Grand Opening of California Wok's first Hawai`i location int he Ala Moana Center. It informs me that: etc. The menu looks pretty standard Chinese-American (Beef with Broccoli, Beef Szechwan Style, etc.) And while the prices look very cheap, and I'm all for low fat, the whole place just comes across as too generic - and not just because it's a chain. On the other hand, it trumpets the fact that Zagat has rated it the best "to-go" Chinese. . . So what's the real deal California denizens? Is it worth trying after all?

Tana, I've never been to Longhi's but have looked at his new cookbook. Nothing there or on the menu that seems very interesting or would make we want to go. Yet somehow his restaurant (the Maui branch, at least) seems to have become quite an institution - the hangout fo the beautiful people. . .

Irwin, you're right that Samoa deserves its own visit from the Spammobile, and it's sad that it's not happening, especially since they've already come all the way out here. I believe we had a conversation in another thread about the ubiquity of canned and preserved meat products throughout the Pacific. Even Okinawa, famous for its allegedly healthy diet, gets in on the obsession with canned meat, though there the king of pink meats is Tulip, not Spam. On the difference between Tulip and Spam - Ryan, I agree with you that Tulip stacks up well. For me, particularly in the way that it fries up with a very crisp edge. And yes, though some may scoff at this, there are real quality differences between Tulip and Spam on the one hand, and their competitors (e.g. Treet) on the other. Tulip and Spam are made from ground pork shoulder, leg (ham), and belly (bacon). No fillers or "recovered" meat. Treet and their ilk are made from such things as mechanically extracted chicken meat with some pork added for flavor. No comparison.