skchai

Falooda can be classified as one of a large family of similar cold drinks that are popular in South and Southeast Asia, such as che ba mau (Vietnam), cendol (Malaysia), and halohalo (Philippines). Each of these drinks is made from a milk or coconut milk base, into which is put a large variety of chewy ingredients, including at least a couple kinds of starch or agar-based gels. Hence even Taiwanese bubble tea can be seen as a simplified adaptation of this concept. Barely cooked legumes are another common addition to this mix, as are the use of highly perfumed flavorings as rose, orange flower, kewra and kus in India, and pandan in most of Southeast Asia. Kewra and pandan come from the same plant, though kewra is derived from the flower and the leaves are used in Southeast Asia. More than the exotic flavorings, however, I think that the most interesting part about this family of drinks is their emphasis, indeed obsession, with providing a wide range of textures. In their more ornate forms, just about every corner in the plant world seems to be represented: besides the various ingredients listed above, and a wide variety of tropical fruits, the drinks listed above can include such ingredients as chopped nuts, diced tubers (such as yam), boiled grains(including corn kernels), or small balls of glutinous rice. The interesting contrast between these techniques and the contemporary European use use of foams, gelee, etc. is, while both are concerned with shape and texture, the former generates texture by ranging far and wide over available ingredients, while the latter emphasizes more on manipulating the structure of ingredients once they are in hand. . .

W'happen? Did they give a reason for closing? Seems they never really were able to find their feet again after moving from San Diego a decade ago. When they left San Diego, the Union-Tribune restaurant critic (don't remember his name) actually went into mourning, saying that the city was losing its very finest restaurant. Unfortunately, nobody (except for you) seemed to think that highly of them in OC.

Second that. Ryan is the undisputed KING of Hawai`i bloggers.

Mahalos for joining us here at eGullet, Ryan. Thanks for sharing your Hilo-related wisdom. Have to admit never having been to Cafe 100 myself, so your take on things is very interesting. While, I lived on the Big Island myself for a several months working for West Hawaii Today, I rarely made it over to the rainy side! What exactly was the main difference between Cafe 100 and Ken's? Was it mostly the size of the loco? Yes, I have to admit that the U.H. version is very heterodox. I think the reason they don't put the meat on to is probably because everything else at Paradise Palms is served on plates so they have to serve it on a plate. As for the gravy - that is pretty thin, as you mention. I don't mind that so much but perhaps it does go against the spirit of the Loco Moco. Speaking of big loco mocos, I spocked some huge ones being prepared at Okata Bento in Kaimuki. Pan-lid sized; in fact they were using pan lids to flatten them down. Even managed a couple pictures, though unfortunately the second was out of focus. Uncovered: How did they taste? I don't know; I ate the bento!

Have you tried looking at Tenzo.net? Welcome to eGullet, RindaRinda. You wouldn't happen to be a Bluehearts fan, would you?

I think puns are truly the highest form of humor, but they might want to think twice about using a pun in the name of their new restaurant. A pun in a restaurant name sets off the "tourist trap" buzzer in my head. Not sure why - but to me, at least, these types of restaurants usually seem to be selling either contrived quaintness or contrived hipness, and not much in the way of food. . . But perhaps that's only me? Note: this is not a comment on the truly stunning quality of the puns suggested earlier in this thread! As an alternative, how about a riff on the numbered Pho stalls of Saigon? I know, it's been done. There seem to be dozens of "Pho 79" around the coutnry., most seemingly with no relation to one another. But how about something a little more creative, like "Pho 95", as in NJ Turnpike? Or if that sounds too much like Windows 95, or simply too lame, how about "Pho 44"? "Pho 2020"? "Pho 69"? "Pho 666"? Or we must have a pun, how about something that plays off the (likely) etymology of the wordf, e.g. "Pot-au-Pho"?

In Seoul nowadays, there's a semi-fad in "roll katsu". It's basically a thin cutlet topped with something else (usually cheese), rolled, crumbed, and fried.

As I mentioned in the previous thread, common add-ins include small slices of beef, fishcake, onions, carrots, and / or kim chi, as well as noodles of various kinds. But it's something that's meant to be played with - if you're making it home, you can use a different combination everytime. Here's some non-traditional suggestions: I like to add fatty pork products (bacon or spam), crisply precooked, as well as (in compensation?) nearly raw chopped green onions, briefly blanched snow peas. I one dumped a lot of sauteed pine nuts on top as well for flavor contrast.

It also occured to me - Mexcian chicaquiles (sp?), in which the fried tortillas sit in a chile sauce until they lose their crunchiness. Jason, I feel the same way about tempura or nabeyaki udon. I even ask then to toss tradition and to serve me the tempura on the side. But I've wondered if this somehow a manifestation of our cultural biases, and if so, where those biases came from.

I find it interesting that, until iguana chipped in, nobody had mentioned Morton's. Isn't it the case that until about 10 years ago, Morton's was considered by much of the Chicago food community to be THE quintissential Chicago steakhouse, ergo the best steakhouse in the world? Now it doesn't seem to attract anywhere near as much interest anymore. Is it because they started to franchise ala Ruth's Chris and S&W?

Sounds wonderful and very post-Adria, Alana . . . one could even imagine a mixed "sushi" platter with char siu "tako" and pork hash "uni". . . BTW, yesterday I took the kids to the Sacred Hearts Academy "Superfair". It was a lot of fun, but as came out of the craft exhibits and turned the corner and what should we see but . . . THE SPAMMOBILE. As you approached it, we were bombarded by a surprisingly aggressive recording of some quasi-hiphop piece about spamburgers - can't recall the words, though. After managing to brave the spamburger song, we munched on free spamburgers (1/3 of a hotdog bun filled with a slice of grilled spam). No one per customer here - eat as many as you want, the lady inside the spammobile said. I can just imagine what would happens when some local Konishiki-type hears that. No spam musubi either, but the lady was wearing a T-shirt with the musubi commemorative design on it. She said that they were going to be around until the end of Feb, then ship back out to the mainland to join their normal West Coast tour. If you are so inclined to eat unlimited free spamburgers, their schedule is posted here. Here is the rest of the Hawai`i sked: Then it takes them about a month to get back to the mainland, just in time to attend the "Monster Truck Jam" in Reno NV.

Alana - sounds extremely ono. What you're describing, with its seasoned and vinagered rice, deserves the title "Spam Sushi" rather than merely Spam Musubi. Perhaps you could even run a little dab of wasabi between the meat and the furikake? And then serve it as part of a "nigiri" platter. . .

Tad - as usual I kept sitting on any response, hoping to think of something original to say - since that's obviously not going to happen, I'll at least try to give some brief reactions to some of your thoughtful comments. That's a good question, and one that is arguably harder to answer at the higher end of the restaurant scene. Indeed, in your larger cities, there's really little attempt by high-end restauranters to clearly define a regional style. They can afford to be eclectic and idiosyncratic. That's why it's very difficult to identify a coherent "New York", "Paris", or "Tokyo" style of high-end restaurant cooking - styles are associated with specific chefs or restaurants rather than a geographical area. On the other hand, being a smaller population center dependent on tourism, Hawai`i has to provide a clear identity in order to draw in customers who may very well be from New York, Paris, or Tokyo; or at least have regular access to such cities. The question for such customers is "Why should I spend $100 to eat in Hawai`i when I could save this money to eat anywhere I want in <big culinary captital X>?" The answer is not going be - "Because our choice is so much wider and our technique so much better", so it has to be "Because we can provide you with a distinctive dining experience that you can't get anywhere else". And the simplest way to convince people of that is to mark out a clearly recognized, distinctive regional style of high-end cuisine. There's no strict requirement that such a distinctive cuisine have a strong relationship with the traditional foods of the region. Indeed many high-end regional styles, HRC being only one, tend to stretch the plausibility a bit on that and risk accusations of "inventing tradition". Nonetheless, it does help to create at least a putative connection, however, since the tourist/customer to some extent is likely to viewing his/her dining experience as a kind of cultural adventure. And here's where things get very difficult, as you mention. Since traditional ingredients associated with nearly every traditional food culture are now available throughout the world, local chefs cannot rely on a monopoly on such ingredients as their means to creating a distinctive style. Hence, the solution is to define local high-end cuisine not so much in terms of ingredients but rather in terms of some sort of local culinary aesthetic, not so much as a fancification of local traditional cuisine but as an expression of where a combined aesthetic embodying our particular mix of cultures would take things given an expanding range of ingredients and techniques. Obvious, defining that aesthetic is very difficult - simply calling it "East-West" puts us in the some culinary bin with dozens of other destinations that are attempting to exploit a similar niche. To me, the most notable attribute that we can exploit culturally, and also culinarily, is sheer intensity which which national styles and attitudes are pushed and kneaded together. There is nowhere else in the world with as much ethnic diversity in such a tiny land space, and with regards to food this means that it is very difficult to respect national boundaries. Hybrid dishes that take their inspiration from multiple parts of the Pacific are a common occurence in local popular cuisine, and the blending of traditional foods is so seamless that it is often difficult to guess the national origins such of dishes. If we can harness this in some way into high-level cuisines, it could really set Hawai`i apart from the rest. IMHO, the main weakness of most East-West cooking, including HRC, is that cultural borrowings are too visible and blatant. "Eastern" and "Western" cuisines are not so much combined as juxtaposed, often by combining classic French cooking techniques with putatively local ingredients. A smooth integration of cuisines has yet to make place, and Hawai`i is as well-equipped as anywhere in the world to generate this integration.

This crispiness / sogginess issue is real interesting to me - I feel the same way about letting deep-fried foods sit in sauce for a while. But I've also noticed that at virtually all Chinese-Korean places there is a dish called "Rajogi" that is quite similar to General Tso's but where the deep-fried chicken is usually allowed to cook in the sauce until the coating becomes fairly soft. This is definitely done on purpose - there are other deep fried items on the Chinese-Korean menu that don't get that treatment. I guess the goal here is to get a tender but slightly resilient mouthfeel on the coating. One difference between Rajogi and most deep-fried dishes is that the coating is extremely thin and delicate, just a light dusting of flour, usually, before it goes into the deep frier. It took a while to get used to it, but now I can see the logic. . . And while I'm not aware of Chinese-Chinese dishes built on the same principles, there are plenty of dishes that use a deep fry-then-steam technique that must seem somewhat weird to Western conceptions, where the whole point of deep-frying is to make things crisp. Likewise, there are Indian snacks in which the deep-fried pakoras are soaked briefly in water to remove their crispness before being sauced or filled. I guess, this is my roundabout way of asking - it this obsession with oily crispness a specifically American cultural trait? Have we simply failed to acquire a taste for what we would call sogginess but others might call delicacy? Again, I'm not suggesting here that we all should let our GSC sit around for hours before eating it!

Today I had the ultimate Hole in the Wall experience - Bert's Cafe in Moili`ili. It's right behind McCully Chop Sui and across from Chef Mavro (!), so people pass by it all the time. However, from the outside, it looks like a abandoned shack that's hasn't been inhabited in years. So I never thought about actually checking it out - when I finally did, it was like being transported into 1950's Honolulu. An ancient shaved ice machine, a rusting vintage Coca-Cola cooler, around half a dozen non-functioning cash registers, nothing that looks like it's been around for less than 50 years. And a pretty damn good plate lunch for only $4.95 - perfectly cooked liver, bacon and onions with an interesting won bok and fishcake salad (no mac salad, I'm happy to report) and two scoops. I would file a more complete report, but the lady there said that they really didn't like any publicity! She seemed almost embarassed by my enthusiasm and was apologizing for the fact that they hadn't remodeled. . .

Here's a short article on the Kimuraya opening (second blurb): QUICK BITES. by Wanda A. Adams

I guess us folks don't actually eat breakfast. . . Anyway, for anyone who's interested, here are the responses that Wanda Adams received: FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Readers praise their favorite breakfast spots

By Request: Big isle pastry chef crafted her own journey of discovery, by Betty Shimabukuro The amazing story of Evangelina Talaro, who started off as a housekeeper at the Ritz-Carlton Mauna Lani and is now the executive pastry chef at the Waikaloa Beach Marriott. Paintings survive restaurant fire: John Young’s art has been a Maple Garden mainstay for years, by Mary Adamski A kitchen fire hit one of Honolulu's most popular Chinese restaurants - but its prized "100-horse" paintings escaped damage. . . Cookie leaves judges spellbound, by Betty Shimabukuro Kaka`ako Kitchen's Valentine's Day "Cookies with a Heart" Contest. Kona Coffee has rich heritage "The Kona Coffee Story: Along the Hawai'i Belt Road," opening Saturday at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai`i. QUICK BITES. by Wanda A. Adams Historic Japanese Bakery Kimuraya opens up a branch in Kahala Mall Want two scoops of greens with that lunch? By Matt Sedensky, Associated Press Low-carb diets are transforming the traditional Hawai`i plate lunch - but it's tough to give up rice. Vegetables, anyone? FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Readers praise their favorite breakfast spots, by Wanda A. Adams Sav-Mor Coffee Shop, Jack's, Cinnamons, Brent's, New Eagle Cafe, Dixie Grill. Sizzler's???

Chris - thanks for the info about Chicken Alice. Now I feel that I really missed out by not eating there at least once! I believe there was a reference to Chicken Alice once before in the "Saimin" thread. So we have at least two pieces of evidence that Alice was the one who originated Korean Chicken. An alternative hypothesis (put forward by wezsa) is that it originated in the "Korean" Bars very close to the same part of Kapiolani Blvd. Gary, sorry that the Corn Flake Chicken wasn't the one. Rolled in mayonnaise and fried! I have to admit I've never seen that before - You've got to admire the passion for grease embodied in such a recipe. There a some people who use mayonnaise in a shake-and-bake type recipe with bread crumbs, but as the title suggests, it's baked. . .

Spam is in the news in Hawai`i again. This time, some are taking offense with the latest box office-dominating Adam Sandler-Drew Barrymore vomitfest, "50 First Dates", which is set in Hawai`i. According to Michael Tsai of the Advertiser, the movie contains a number of err, rustic stereotypes about local people and culture, including "an overweight cook with Polynesian tattoos on his face and a meat cleaver — which he uses to cut Spam, can and all — in his hand." See: Pidgin-holed and The real 'Ula' isn't much like Schneider's portrayal Most local people seem to take a somewhat lenient view of inaccurate and potentially negative stereotypes on TV and Hollywood films - it's good for business, they rationalize. And, as Tsai notes, the stereotypes in "50" are not nearly as offensive as those found in another Sandler vehicle, "The Waterboy", which was set in Cajun Country. An interesting quote: College-age students?

Incredible - I wish I could have supped on some of the scraps from your table while you guys were here. . . Great pictures. And your use of ingredients sounds a lot more creative and delicious than much of what passes for "Hawaiiian Regional Cuisine" nowadays. . . Winged beans, Maui onion, calamondins, sapote, and roadsite nastursiums! Thanks for the great story. Fifi, how did you find the foraging options and selection of produce on Kauai as compared to Houston? Or Honolulu, if you've been here? eGulleter Rachel Laudan ("caroline") has pointed that the variety of readily available tropical fruit on the islands is not as great as you would expect given the climate and mix of cultures. How much difficulty did you have finding your ingredients?

Chunky's - yeah - I think that closed about 15 years ago! It was across from old Honolulu Stadium on Isenberg - where First Hawaiian Bank is now (?)

In person, it also looks like yet another plate of beef. Chewy like chadol baegi, but maybe not as fatty. The yang I usually see at bbq jips is usually the double kind - though if you order seollongtang or other soup containing tripe, it seems like it's usually the honeycomb type. All these fine distinctions end up just confusing me. . .

Are you thinking about corn flake chicken, which is rolled in mayonnaise and corn flakes? It sometimes appeared on the side of Kellogg's boxes. But it's baked, not fried - which was one of its appeals for people without a lot of time to cook and clean. Not specificially local, but definitely compatible with local tastes, so to speak. . . Anyway, here's a recipe. Wonder if it's what you're thinking about. . .

We've had a lot of Panya activity in Honolulu recently. Ginza Kimuraya (the originator of anpan) opened a branch in the Kahala Mall shopping center. Panya Bakery a local panya chain, opened up a big restaurant bakery in Ala Moana Center. Anyone been to the Kimuraya original store - what would you recommend as their best items?