FoodZealot

Looks fantastic, fifi! Ahh, the Homeland....

Thanks, SW and sml311. I didn't quite make it to the Moonlite when I was out there, and now I have the Old Hickory Pit to visit, too.

Thanks, trillium and herbacidal - much appreciated!

I loves the Pork. Would someone be able to help with the Chinese name for the barbeque pork that mudbug mentions? In Hawai`i I only heard it called simply "Chinese Roast Pork". I believe it is made with the meatier part of the belly. The skin is almost as crispy as Mexican chicharrones. Any thoughts about preparation methods and flavorings would be most appreciated as well. Thanks!

Thanks, SK. This reminded me that we didn't have great manapua on the Big Island when I was growing up, and so one of the most treasured omiyage items was often a box or two of handcarried manapua, pork hash, and such, tied with string. As sometimes the filling was less than abundant, my mom would doctor up some canned corned beef to put in the empty side of the bun. To me the bun is the special part - you could put almost anything in it and it would be good. BTW, they freeze well if you use real steam to warm them.

Pork.

In LA there's Barrio Fiesta in Atwater that is decent. There's also Max's of Manila in Glendale, but I haven't been there myself. Don't know if either would qualify as really great, but... What are the places in Daly City?

Yes!

I've been thinking about this for a while. Great points so far. Here are some humble, yet idealistic thoughts. While I don't agree with declaring a school, who the practitioners are, etc, I think HRC served a purpose. But the flip side of the way they invented it and handled it is that now that it seems a bit tired and there are some connotations to the name HRC, the other chefs who would have taken up the torch don't identify with the name, and so it doesn't go on indefinitely - it becomes associated with a particular span of time. I'm not a fan of labels, but labels serve a purpose. So if I was a chef trying to differentiate myself from HRC now, I'd have to invent my own term, like Contemporary Hawaiian Global Cuisine or New Hawaiian Cuisine or whatever. The problem with those is that there's a reference to time there as well. Perhaps something more poetic would be better - Trade Wind Cuisine or Volcano Cuisine. For the sake of discussion, let's say that the vast majority of all ingredients and techniques are now global. Everything is available, just about everywhere. How do you make that work within a context? How do you make the globally influenced food from Hawaii taste and SEEM identifiably different from the globally influenced food of Australia or Spain or New York or Tokyo? Clearly, it's not just the names - calling something lau lau or loco moco is only a small part of it. In terms of food, I think Hawai`i can legitimately be a player among food destinations, but it faces the same challenges of being at the highest level. Beyond being delicious and technically well prepared, the best food conveys a sense of place, shows a recognizable aesthetic, and is memorable. The advantage Hawai`i has over some places is hospitality - the Aloha spirit. But that doesn't come across automatically - it has to be fostered and encouraged. I guess what I'm getting at is have to put yourself in the mindset of creating an experience for your guests, with emotions and memories attached, not just tasty and pretty food. And if you're doing it for real, it shouldn't be done with declarations and press releases.

From this Nesco site: I take this to mean that their serving size is a hearty 1 quart/person or MORE. 1.2 quarts, perhaps? ~Tad

You know, I always hear that on cooking shows - "you can find these at any Asian market" - but I didn't really put it together that there would be local neighborhood markets that cover several Asian cuisines. Maybe because people are more willing/likely to drive in SoCal, supermarkets are forced to carry more ethnic items to be more competitive with each other. Then small markets are forced to specialize more and more to compete against supermarkets.

About 3 years ago, I ate at Cozy Corner, Interstate, Charlie Vergo's Rendezvous, Corky's and Willingham's. I hear Willingham's has since closed. I thought the Cozy Corner pork sandwich was one of the best things I've ever had, but it doesn't fall into the regional style that you might expect from a Memphis place.

Thanks, SA! Sounds great.

ErinB- do you have specific ingredients in mind? For what it's worth, Nijiya, Granada and Mitsuwa are smaller Japanese markets, with not much else. Marukai has a supermarket size selection of everything Japanese plus housewares, gifts and furniture, but also has many products familiar to Hawaii residents (Gardena/Torrance has a high concentration of Hawaii people). 99 Ranch is a supermarket with more emphasis on Chinese, SE Asian and Filipino products. Although it's not nearby, for Korean groceries, I prefer Hannam supermarket (Koreatown, Olympic, between Western & Vermont) to HK. edit: added size comparisons

Gary, I agree that Kauai Kookies are not so special. BTW, if you need a poke fix, this poke kit is surprisingly good, IMHO. Just doctor up to your taste.

Especially in recent years, due to the slow economy on the Big Island, many people supplement their income with homemade foods and handmade craft items. I think some people are happy to keep their products out of wide distribution, relying on the omiyage concept. These aren't necessarily the consensus picks, but things I often bring back from the Big Island: small producer 100% Kona coffee or Kona blends Mountain View Stone cookies mac nut pie (like a pecan pie) Atebara's Taro Chips, Crunchies, etc Maebo's One Ton chips Punalu'u Sweet Bread Big Island Candies - cookies & chocolates - pricey, but tasty and smart packaging KTA's house brand of ohelo berry jam & other products, and evaporated deep water sea salt from the ocean thermal project in Kona

Robert, welcome to eGullet and the California board. Thanks for your comments.

I don't usually consider the grades in picking a restaurant unless someone in my party is won't eat at someplace lower than an A. This is rare because I don't generally like to eat with people like this. [grin] Some of the things that are unfortunate about ratings are that just about any ratings system is imperfect. For instance, (keep in mind I'm a layman, not a food pro) you can still keep an A even though there is evidence of cockroaches and rodents. And you can get a false sense of security in that just having an A rating speaks more to cleanliness than anything else - it won't stop them from serving an undercooked piece of chicken by accident. And while ethnic places have a comedic reputation of having C ratings (like "C is for cat"), there are plenty of mainstream places that have had problems - deli's, hotel restaurants, highly regarded restaurants, etc. I'm sure we've all seen some freakin' scary practices in home kitchens. But in favor of the ratings, if you've ever seen some of the scary stuff they've caught on hidden camera stories on TV (local LA news does these periodically), it's convincing, gnarly stuff - vermin infestation of all kinds, unsafe storage, not sanitizing utensils, cross-contaminating, food in the danger zone temperatures - you name it. They've started showing success stories of places that have gotten their act together and are now serving much safer food. I have mixed feelings about this, but overall I support them in the name of better information for the consumer. I feel that even though it is imperfect, it makes food safety a much higher priority for most food establishments that it might be otherwise.

Has anyone checked this place out yet?

I think this could be a very cool thing. It made me think of a place in LA called Din Tai Fung, where we've held an eG lunch, and had these bao with sweet black sesame filling. Note the black sesame on top as garnish and to help identify the filling. Sometimes on regular bao, you see a mark to distinguish it by the ink color or Chinese character. Maybe you could play on this with a bit of candied fruit or zest, or something similar to indicate what the dough is flavored with. Japanese wagashi candies are sometimes decorated in a similar manner. For dough/ganache flavorings, I think alanamoana is right on the mark; go seasonal if you can. I don't know what is/will be available to you, but I might add to that list coconut, green tea, persimmon, pine nuts or cashews (almost like a gianduia?). Another thing to consider is using flavored Chinese rice wines - I've seen lychee and plum - but I have no idea if they taste good. There was also a green tea bao dough at Sea Harbour. Colored dough, a little fillip on the top, and the ganache filling - sounds pretty cool to me. Plus I think you'd be pulling in enough Asian elements to overcome any steadfast traditionalists. Good luck!

I like this idea, but FWIW I'd suggest 2 or 3 different fruit flavored/tinted doughs with chocolate filling & some fruit component. I'm thinking about the visual appeal - kinda like those pastel colored Japanese mochi - rather than brown buns...

I think I'd like to check out Mission 261.

Thanks for the report. I've been to Claro's, but I had no idea 888 was across the street.

Is there interest in visiting the Wat Thai Temple in North Hollywood?

This was my first year at the Fancy Food Show. It's much larger than other food shows I've been to. We spent about 6 hours in the South Hall on Sunday and 2.5 hours in the North Hall on Monday. Being the systematic type, I walked by every booth except the wine section. I can't compare to previous years from personal experience, but there was still a fair amount of pate, prosciutto and decent cheese to be had. Two people mentioned that they thought there were fewer meat samples than previously. One booth offering baby back ribs had a sign saying, "Please, ribs are for not for exhibitors." Personally, I can't blame the vendors for trying to make a better connection with people that are potential customers - they're there to drum up business, not feed people out of altruism. There was no shortage of candy, toffee, chocolate truffles, dipped apples, etc., as far as I could tell. From my perspective, chocolates, jams & jellies (especially those containing wine), chipotle and anything with meyer lemon seemed to be everywhere. There were also many, many olive oils on display. Highlights for me were the balsamic vinegar tasting bar (publicizing the leaf grading system), Crocodile gourmet chips from England, Spanish black truffles, waffle mix with malt in it, vermouth and sage flavored pate, Tuscan herbed ham, prosciutto of various kinds, pate of several kinds, the Sid Wainer booth, and Williamsburg Foods wasabi peanuts. I'm sure there are others that I have forgotten to mention. For celebrity chef sightings, I only saw Nancy Silverton of La Brea Bakery and Judy Rogers of Zuni Cafe, just walking the floor. I did not see any actively hawking products or doing demos on the floor. I had expected that some of these products would not taste appealing to me, but even so I underestimated how many IMHO were mediocre or worse. The show seems to be directed toward small goumet shops/basket assemblers/gift stores - where a good amount of the appeal is novelty of the flavor combination, novelty of the product name and how the packaging looks.