spam and mac salad

alanamoana · August 30, 2003

with some prodding from "fifi" i'm starting a thread here in cooking regarding "local foods" from hawaii to see what people think...i'm a little disappointed with the geographic subsections of the forums because there seem to be few, if any, eGulleteers in Hawaii (barring KarenS in Hawaii and Kimo living on the mainland)... :sad:

fifi suggested mac salad. well, i'm not a huge fan mostly because the mac salad in hawaii tends to be made with macaroni and mayonnaise on a 1:1 ratio. bleahhhh...so if anyone has good recipes, feel free to post them! remember, this qualifies as a vegetable on a "plate lunch" (rice, some form of meat and mac salad...usually for about $5).

spam is another subject altogether and it may have been addressed somewhere else on eGullet, but i haven't bothered to search...

my favorite is spam "musubi". musubi are japanese rice balls usually with a pickled plum in the center (umeboshi) usually in triangular form. in hawaii it is made with a slice of fried spam, a block of rice in the same shape as the spam and the whole thing is held together with a strip if sushi nori (seaweed). i like to make a variation with sushi rice and furikake (rice seasonings which come in a multitude of flavors but usually have seaweed, sesame seeds and "stuff"). the spam has to be fried crispy!!! they actually make plastic molds expressly for this purpose! you'd be surprised. :biggrin:

anyone care to comment? will this flush other eGulleteers to admit their geographical locale? if you've visited hawaii or lived there at some point do you miss any of these foods? questions about other local foods? feel free to ask and ALOHA

torakris · August 30, 2003

I get craving for loco moco with a big helping of macaroni salad on the side!

maui ribs and the famous (in Maui at least) ribs from a store that closed just after I left in 1995, and I can not for the life of me remember this stores name, it was on South Kihei road, ocean side....

will have to ask my husband when he gets home.

I used to live in Kihei with my husband while he worked at a dive shop.

torakris · August 30, 2003

and the day we left Hawaii to move to Japan we had our last bowl of saimin just minutes before we boarded the plane! :biggrin:

fifi · August 30, 2003

Thanks for this thread.

We had the macaroni salad at the Luau at the Coconut Grove on Kauai. (It was my sister's first trip to Hawaii. I have been going for about 20 years.) She found a local cookbook with a recipe in it and has been making it since. She will make up a big batch for my nephew to take to various BBQs and wild game cookouts and it is always a big hit. When I first encountered it my first reaction was EEEWWW! I have since come to like the stuff. I'll have to get the recipe from her. This one wasn't really too heavy with mayo.

Oh! I forgot about the plum stuff! There is this powder made from dried plums that you sprinkle on papaya or mango. Wonderful stuff but for some reason I always forget about it when I get back to the mainland. This will require a trip to Hong Kong Market.

I almost always get something with Spam when I go out to breakfast when I am there.

AAAAHHH! Sweet memories.

FoodZealot · August 30, 2003

Hawai'i no ka oi. Born on Oahu and raised on Big Island, brah. Now I stay in LA. I talk a little bit about local food in my bio. Link in my sig.

Macaroni salad can be a good foil for the teriyaki-kal bi-bulgogi-tonkatsu type meat items commonly available on a plate lunch. Although, you can get dangerously close to that mayo on rice thing which is just wrong. Main thing for mac salad is you use a light hand with the mayo, and use a good one - cheap mayo is baaaad news.

The institution of the plate lunch means that some of those steam table-places (like the $1 Chinese food joints) are pretty damn good. No, I swear. Simple stuff, well prepared. High turnover of food. Freshly made.

The classic loco moco that Kristin mentioned is steamed white rice, a fried egg, a hamburger patty or two, covered in brown gravy. Lots of places make variations on that, but the rice, egg and gravy of some kind are required.

Spam is not my favorite. But if you're gonna make spam musubi, it has to be crispy, as alanamoana says. I've seen people make it with barely cooked spam, and that is also wrongwrongwrong. Little flecks of lard still visible. Ungood.

Probably the ingredient I miss the most from the homeland is pipi kaula, a sweetish smoked meat, usually pork or beef. Almost everything else I can get from various markets or restaurants. This includes pretty decent Hawaiian food down in Gardena/Hawthorne.

I'm not from Oahu, so Zippy's (a local fast food chain) doesn't really make it onto my cravings list.

~Tad

fifi · August 30, 2003

OH MY GOD! I forgot all about Zippy's!

On the first trip that I took the kids, they were about 12 and 15. (Early 30s now.) They were, even at that age, quite the gourmands and we had been to some really neat restaurants in Waikiki. We were late getting to Kauai and were starving. In those days, Kauai rolled up the sidewalks about 7:00 so there were very few choices for food. We stopped into Zippy's. We ordered some kind of pasta thing. My daughter tasted it first and broke out into uncontrollable giggles. "Mom! This tastes like Chef Boyardee!" We still laugh about that to this day.

FoodZealot · August 30, 2003

Oh! I forgot about the plum stuff! There is this powder made from dried plums that you sprinkle on papaya or mango. Wonderful stuff but for some reason I always forget about it when I get back to the mainland. This will require a trip to Hong Kong Market.

Li Hing Mui powder! Flesh of Chinese preserved and dried plums (sweet/tart/salty) ground into a seasoning. Similar profile to Mexican saladitos, but no chili. The majority of li hing mui and therefore li hing powder is sweetened with saccharin for that little extra sumthin'. For a while, people were putting it on every damn thing they could think of - popcorn, gummi worms, dried mango - everything. Some of it is still available, some of it good, but thankfully, I was out of state during the height of this craze.

Side note: one time in a college dining hall, I thought I was putting chocolate sauce on ice cream, but it was actually A1 steak sauce (who puts steak sauce near the ice cream!?!!?). Everyone at my table freaked out once I figured out what it was. Of course, it was a horrible 180 for the tastebuds, but because of the tamarind, the A1 is similar to li hing mui, I had tasted something similar before, and it was a good laugh rather than a reversal of dinner.

~Tad

alanamoana · August 30, 2003

thanks for the great replies! foodzealot, your bio is great. maybe it will inspire me to go ahead and post mine. i'll think about it.

this brings me to another point...with hawaii home to at least three james beard award winners for best chef...and with such an ethnic diversity which includes culinary diversity, why is there such a lack of really good moderate restaurants on the islands? i think that most of us would like to be able to go out and NOT eat at tony roma's or some other corporate chain...also, to not bust the wallet and go to a hotel/resort restaurant. there's so little in the middle!

maybe one day when i move back, that will be my niche and i'll have to open a place.

for now, i'll stick with rainbow drive inn...i used to work graveyard shift at a hotel. in the morning, i'd go surf (i'm not good, it was more to get outside) then go to rainbows. they have what they call a "slush float"...it's like a slush puppy or slurpy type beverage and they'd throw in a couple of scoops of white ice cream. i call it white because i don't think using the term vanilla would be legal :laugh: . anyway after ingesting a huge plate of rice, mac salad and fried meat and a gargantuan slush float, my mouth would be bright red (including my teeth) and i'd be completely sated. what a life!!!!!!!!!!!!!

fifi · August 30, 2003

I can't think about food in Hawaii that I don't remember some spectacular meals that we have cooked. I prefer to rent a condo with an equipped kitchen. My son and I both like to cook and have a great time with the produce that we pick up at roadside stands and the wonderful fish that you can get even in the grocery stores. My daughter appreciates this as she likes to eat what we cook. We haven't been together in a few years and that is our next trip. On our trip last year, our kitchen in Princeville on Kauai was very nicely equipped. The balconey had a fabulous view. The fish in the grocery store was amazing. We took pictures of our meals they were so gorgeous.

This is our favorite beach. They have condos for rent here. Click on the web cam if you get "Hawaii-sick".

Napili Bay

Edited August 30, 2003 by fifi (log)

FoodZealot · August 30, 2003

thanks for the great replies! foodzealot, your bio is great. maybe it will inspire me to go ahead and post mine. i'll think about it.
this brings me to another point...with hawaii home to at least three james beard award winners for best chef...and with such an ethnic diversity which includes culinary diversity, why is there such a lack of really good moderate restaurants on the islands? i think that most of us would like to be able to go out and NOT eat at tony roma's or some other corporate chain...also, to not bust the wallet and go to a hotel/resort restaurant. there's so little in the middle!
maybe one day when i move back, that will be my niche and i'll have to open a place.

alanamoana, thank you and you're welcome. I like the idea of the bio, so people can have some background on my crazy opinions. Where are you living now?

As for restaurants, I agree that the middle segment is kinda empty. Several of those well-known guys have done middle level things like Kaka'ako Kitchen, Sam Choy's Breakfast, Lunch and Crab, the Pineapple Room, etc with mixed results, IMHO. I think there are 3 reasons - that the low end places are actually pretty dang good, people have a bias that only "fancy kine haole food" should be expensive and people are used to large portions. Not that it's soooo different from any other place, but it means it is competitive, and can be a little harder to find the right balance of quality, quantity and presentation. You gotta know your customers and listen to what they want.

fifi, your point about cooking at home or in condo is well taken. A restaurant is also in competition with all the family, extended family and community events - grandmas, aunties and uncles, etc. who seem to be proportionally more interested in cooking than in other some other markets. This could be my bias, but...

People make a living selling $6 plate lunches in the same economic conditions - high rents, high food costs, scarcity of qualified employees & supervisors - seems like somebody should be able to figure out the middle range, too. Maybe it will be you, alanamoana!

~Tad

Bouland · August 31, 2003

maui ribs and the famous (in Maui at least) ribs from a store that closed just after I left in 1995, and I can not for the life of me remember this stores name, it was on South Kihei road, ocean side....

I think you’re thinking of Azaka’s Market. The ribs were pork ribs, frozen, sawed crosswise into 1/4" slices, thawed, and marinated in a soy sauce-sugar marinade. They sold them as Korean short ribs.

torakris · August 31, 2003

maui ribs and the famous (in Maui at least) ribs from a store that closed just after I left in 1995, and I can not for the life of me remember this stores name, it was on South Kihei road, ocean side....
I think you’re thinking of Azaka’s Market. The ribs were pork ribs, frozen, sawed crosswise into 1/4" slices, thawed, and marinated in a soy sauce-sugar marinade. They sold them as Korean short ribs.

Yes, it is Azuka!

I asked my husband the moment he stepped in the door! :biggrin:

We had BBQ's close to nightly, my husband (then boyfriend) worked for a dive shop and we often partied with the customers :blink: , no BBQ was ever complete without Azuka ribs.............

I went out last night with some friends to a new Hawaiian restaurant that opened nearby and was soooo disappointed, the owner is a Japanese guy who has traveled to the Islands 3 times but never actually lived there :blink: . It was all plate lunch style with macaroni salad (one bite full and not even close to the stuff they make in Hawaii) with 5 (frozen) french fries and the entrees which were so non-descript they could have been from any country. The only thing that made it look Hawaiian was the orchid on the dish............

caroline · August 31, 2003

Hey Alanamoana, FoodZealot, Tokrakis et al,

Thanks for getting something started on one of the most interesting places in the world to eat. I guess I'm hooked on the middle level or may be it's the bottom level. But in the ten years I lived in Honolulu I didn't know how lucky I was. Oh for the pork buns at Kirin (no, not manapua but those little silver dollar shaped pita-like objects covered in sesame seeds and filled with chopped pork) or for the pot stickers at that place on King Street or for the Vietnamese food catty corner from Kirin. OK so the ambience wasn't always the top consideration. But a few months ago I went to the top Chinese restaurant in Mexico City. If I hadn't been English and uptight, the whole lot would have gone right back to the kitchen. And before that I remember a well known food expert taking me to a Korean restaurant in New York and expecting me to be bowled over. Cripes.

And even Zippies. Now I can leave a Zip Pack without a whimper. But I would go back for their oxtail soup. Not the best but not bad either. And where else has anything Okinawan got on the the American fast food menu? My husband hopped on his scooter and went down to the one opposite Foster Gardens every midnight. He's missed it ever since. And you could bowl over mainlanders taking them to the Zippies in Hawaii Kai with its view of the water and saying this is how we do fast food in Hawaii.

And if I were in Honolulu tomorrow morning, I'd be heading down to Chinatown to see if the lady in the food court in (what was) the new covered market is still selling that noodle soup topped with roast duck that was my Sunday breakfast for years.

Ay, Rachel

alanamoana · August 31, 2003

i guess this was a good thread to start getting people to "reminisce" (sp?) about their hawaii food memories. it is such a wonderful place to live and to visit.

yes, foodzealot, i'm thinking a lot about starting a business here. i'd have to do a lot of research though. you know how picky locals can be :biggrin: . oh, i only get my long rice from so and so, and my manapua from so and so...hehe

but the more i think about it, the more i miss this paradise. and you'd be surprised at the variety of produce now available on the island. i guess the chefs (higher end) are pushing the farmers to grow some of the things which were only available on the mainland. this really makes it an exciting time here in hawaii. now, if only the economy and thus tourism would pick up to get people out here :smile:

FoodZealot · August 31, 2003

Sounds like we agree that Hawaii has a special food culture. Although I haven't been to Italy yet [i need to fix that!], I get the impression from books and TV that they have similar attitudes about food and culture. Anyone care to comment?

Produce in Hawaii is pretty amazing, since the emphasis is moving from a few major crops (sugar, pineapple, macadamia, Maui onions, papaya, Kona coffee) to diversified agriculture and aquaculture. Most plants can be grown there, so farmers are following the trends toward microgreens, specialty items (vintage chocolate, hearts of palm) and wine, among other things. By pulling cold ocean water from depths to ponds the surface, aquaculture farms are growing abalone, lobsters, prawns and other foods that wouldn't normally be harvested in Hawaii.

We've sorta mentioned it, but to keep the thread going, Hawaii Regional Cuisine (HRC) is an organization of chefs, and also the term they have chosen to identify and market the work of people like Alan Wong, Sam Choy, Roy Yamaguchi, Mavro, Russell Siu, and many others. Here's a pretty decent overview. How do you guys feel about HRC? Too fussy? Trying too hard? More confusion than fusion?

~Tad

fifi · August 31, 2003

I finally got in touch with my sister and got the mac salad recipe that she uses. This started with a recipe in a book she bought while in Hawaii but has been modified as she is inclined to do.

Boil 1 lb of elbow macaroni in salted water.

Mix while the macaroni is warm with:

1 can oil packed tuna, drained

1 cup grated carrot

1 cup finely sliced cabbage (not red cabbage, red cabbage makes for a nasty color)

1/4 cup pureed sweet onion (run it in the food processor or blender)

3 hard boiled eggs, grated on the big side of a box grater

2 tsp Kosher salt

2 tsp white pepper

(Sprinkle the salt and pepper on the egg before mixing.)

3 cups mayonaise

Chill.

Add another 1/4 cup mayo and mix well again before serving.

I have no idea if this is "authentic" but it is what she does and it is a huge success.

caroline · August 31, 2003

FoodZealot, I couldn't agree more that Hawaii has a special food culture. I'd argue the most fascinating (if not the best) in the US. And one of the most fascinating world wide as well. One of the places were you can watch the creation of a new grass roots cuisine.

I couldn't agree more that HRC did marvels transforming high end food in Hawaii. I'm going to tiptoe gingerly into this discussion because I am a home cook and not a restauranteur. Seems to me that HRC always catered to the visitor trade primarily. Sure locals loved to go to Roys and felt more comfortable there than with the "international" cuisine of the big hotels. But HRC remains (I suspect because I've been away from the islands for nearly a decade) high end. And for locals the economy has not been that good. The efforts that people have already mentioned to bridge high end and local food have not moved ahead nearly as rapidly as I expected when I left the islands.

I'm going to have to think this through. But my suspicion is that one of the problems is that mainlanders and other visitors still haven't the faintest idea about what's going on in Hawaii. The Hawaii Tourist Board, Jim Dole et al discovered a marvelous formula for drawing visitors to the islands but it makes the local scene invisible. It does so quite deliberately.

I think of the novelist James Michener. I'm not promoting his work but he was married to a Hawaii Japanese and did think a good bit about the problems of the islands (not always to the liking of people there). Anyway in his novel on Spain, he tells a story, true or not I don't know. In the 60s, the powers that were in the Hawaii state government decided to try a new kind of promotion. Hey, they said, we are a fascinating culture, great Pacific Island and Asian resources, one of the most mixed cultures on earth, an augury of the future. Let's promote this along with our great beaches.

Result (according to Michener) tourism plummeted. Hula and natural bounty was what visitors wanted. So ever since, it's been computers for the locals, luaus for visitors (his phrase more or less).

I don't think HRC has cracked this nut. Maybe no one wants to. May be no one can. Hawaii remains tiny so the visitor market has presumably to be included for any even modestly ambitious restaurant.

What is needed is the entrepreneur who can sell not just food, not just a simplistic notion of fusion foods, but Hawaii's secret. And that, I think, is the sheer glory of what local people have achieved (well, are achieving): a real political and economic transformation of the islands since the 50s. And with it, and indissolubly linked to it, a real grass roots fusion cuisine.

Now that would be revolutionary. But how to pull it off? Well I'm not a restauranteur.

Rachel

FoodZealot · September 1, 2003

Excellent points, caroline. I'll have to digest them before making any real response!

~Tad

tanabutler · September 2, 2003

I love pulled pork from a little strip mall in Kihei, though I fear I will never be able to eat it again. I was in Maui at the end of February, and on my last day, stopped there again for the mac salad and pulled pork. Alas, in the middle of the night I realized I had gotten food poisoning—either on the pot or on the way to it for hours. Luckily I had most of the day to recover before our overnight flight back to California. I love the pork but man, oh, man.

As for Maui in general, I am fondest of Hana—as far from those condos and Blockbusters and crowds as possible—and Hasegawa's general store where you can buy dried cuttlefish. My husband is a complete nut for that stuff. It's where we discovered the Island Organics "Lemongrass Ginger" marinade, which is my favorite condiment on earth.

My husband and I were in Lahaina in March of 2000, and I'd done my homework before the trip. We went to Longhi's for brunch after hearing all the praise. Well, guess what? The owner of Longhi's ruined our meal. I, of course, knew it was Robert Longhi at the table next to us, surrounded by sycophants and sheep, yessing him up one side and down another. He sat there, bragging and profane and completely obnoxious— "F--- them!" and "S--- on them!" over and over and over. In front of children and babies, at top volume. He was holding court, and felt that profanity was clearly the missing spice from everyone's meals.

At one point, Bob turned around and said, "Sir. You are profane and you are obnoxious. Would you please keep it down?" and turned back to his meal. Of course, little goodie goodie me, I wanted to fall through the floor even though I was a customer of that braying jackass.

Longhi turned to his table and said in a stagey voice, "Oh. I see. I should talk to the owner about that!" and they all laughed in that nervous and polite way that suck-ups do. They were probably hoping he wouldn't start swearing again. He laughed at his own anemic joke, and we finished our meal and left. (He was noticeably quieter after Bob took the wind out of his sails, thank God.)

What he should have done was apologized and made amends—bought us a drink or dessert or anything that indicated he knew he'd made a mistake.

But no-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o. Not Robert Longhi. Clearly he's got an ego the size of the pre-combusted Hindenberg.

Later that day, we were at the grocery store and I got out of the car only to come face to face with you-know-who. GASP! I threw myself back in the car—he recognized me and suddenly got very busy with something in his back seat. Bob was howling with laughter at my nervousness. Finally Robert "Longh-ego" drove off and I could get out of the car.

We told our hosts at the inn where we were staying, and she got the biggest kick out of that. "Nobody likes that guy! He's just awful!" She loved the public upbraiding from Bob, and I bet she told everyone she knows.

So. I don't eat at Longhi's. And I miss pulled pork and sweet cuttlefish.

FoodZealot · September 2, 2003

Re: Longhi's - I've never been there, but I was reading his cookbook at a friend's house and picked up on the self-important tone in the writing, but just figured I was reading into it. It's too bad that he doesn't get the big picture...

Sorry to hear about your food poisoning. No fun at all. Although, do you think it could have been the mac salad rather than the kalua pork?

I love cuttlefish and similar snacks. The variety of cuttlefish snacks is pretty amazing - spicy ones, sweet ones, salty ones, smoky ones [drool]. Probably my favorite is the dried clams. [minds out of the gutter, please]

~Tad

tanabutler · September 2, 2003

I had mac salad on the first visit, but on the last one I had green salad. I suppose it's possible it was from the salad, as well, but the pork seemed to be the culprit. I don't want to get too graphic, but in a similar vein, when tequila made me puke, we weren't on speaking terms for ten years. I just couldn't bear the thought of it.

"Self-important tone" describing Longhi hits the nail on the head. His joint is plastered with newspaper articles and celebrity photos.

And I got so excited this last visit to Maui to find spicy cuttlefish for Bob, too. Mmmm! I need to get myself to a Ranch 99 Market in the very near future.

Edited September 2, 2003 by tanabutler (log)

FoodZealot · September 2, 2003

FoodZealot, I couldn't agree more that Hawaii has a special food culture. I'd argue the most fascinating (if not the best) in the US. And one of the most fascinating world wide as well. One of the places were you can watch the creation of a new grass roots cuisine.
[snip]
I think of the novelist James Michener. I'm not promoting his work but he was married to a Hawaii Japanese and did think a good bit about the problems of the islands (not always to the liking of people there). Anyway in his novel on Spain, he tells a story, true or not I don't know. In the 60s, the powers that were in the Hawaii state government decided to try a new kind of promotion. Hey, they said, we are a fascinating culture, great Pacific Island and Asian resources, one of the most mixed cultures on earth, an augury of the future. Let's promote this along with our great beaches.
Result (according to Michener) tourism plummeted. Hula and natural bounty was what visitors wanted. So ever since, it's been computers for the locals, luaus for visitors (his phrase more or less).
I don't think HRC has cracked this nut. Maybe no one wants to. May be no one can. Hawaii remains tiny so the visitor market has presumably to be included for any even modestly ambitious restaurant.
What is needed is the entrepreneur who can sell not just food, not just a simplistic notion of fusion foods, but Hawaii's secret. And that, I think, is the sheer glory of what local people have achieved (well, are achieving): a real political and economic transformation of the islands since the 50s. And with it, and indissolubly linked to it, a real grass roots fusion cuisine.
Now that would be revolutionary. But how to pull it off? Well I'm not a restauranteur.
Rachel

Thanks again for your comments, caroline. My disclaimer - I go to Hawaii once a year, and I don't get to eat out all that much because of visiting with family. But IMHO, I think one of the mistakes of HRC has been the emphasis on lightness, delicacy and refinement. Wonton napoleons, crab spring rolls, fancy salads, etc. I think that's the wrong way to go. As you say, there's a disconnect between the roots of it and the target customers. To me, local food is essentially soul food of Hawaii. And as such, I believe it's possible to elevate kalua pig, kau yuk (Chinese red pork belly), and whatever else the same way that the gutbucket food of France becomes the fad dish, like lamb shanks or gumbo for New Orleans. Or in contemporary Southern cuisine, they have brought grits and collards to new levels.

A better strategy for the cuisine, IMHO, it to do those dishes that no one wants to make anymore for reasons of time, scale, hassle, smelliness, hard to find ingredients or whatever. There's got to be some substance there, or it's just like something you can find in any other city. Sure, use new techniques, new presentation, and put your twist on it. But if chefs can procure opah and moi in NYC, the Hawaii guys better be doing something better or at least different with their homegrown ingredients. So in a sense, I think it's a "vision thing".

The weakness in my argument is the other issue you brought up - lots of people want the easily digested image of Hawaii, with pre-packaged omiyage(souvenir gifts), puka shell leis, pineapple and papaya with every meal - not the "real" Hawaii. It would be bad business not to include visitors in your business plan. But there are a decent percentage of visitors that go to the areas and the outer islands and look for spots where locals go, just like any other destination.

I suppose for restauranteurs, it's a matter of what route to take to what kind of success do you want? How much Hawaii needs to be in that formula?

~Tad

edit - to add italics to foreign words

Edited September 2, 2003 by FoodZealot (log)

Toliver · September 3, 2003

I've only been to Hawai'i once (back before they got the new apostrophe).

I was amazed at what they use for their road-side fund raisers: barbecue chicken!

We were headed to the south side of Oahu and there along side the road was a man overseeing about 6 half-barrel barbecues, all topped with grill sheets (looked almost like fence material). He was cooking half chickens and selling them to whoever pulled over. He was rasing money for a local scout troop.

And was it was ever tasty! We had never seen such a fund raiser here on the mainland. It was quite unique.

I was there with a family friend and we did all the tourist things which meant eating at a lot of buffets (low end restaurants). I didn't mind so much because I love pineapple and fish (usually ahi), which, of course, was featured at pratically every buffet.

One night we ordered some chinese food to go from a place in a strip mall and my friend ordered chinese-style barbecue chicken. They asked her if she wanted it cut up. Thinking they meant "cut up pieces of chicken" she said OK. When we got back to our room, we discovered that they cut up the chicken all right, but instead of the usual leg, thigh, breast, etc, they had just whacked the entire chicken into little pieces with a cleaver. We still laugh over that.

FoodZealot · September 3, 2003

I've only been to Hawai'i once (back before they got the new apostrophe).
I was amazed at what they use for their road-side fund raisers: barbecue chicken!
We were headed to the south side of Oahu and there along side the road was a man overseeing about 6 half-barrel barbecues, all topped with grill sheets (looked almost like fence material). He was cooking half chickens and selling them to whoever pulled over. He was rasing money for a local scout troop.
And was it was ever tasty! We had never seen such a fund raiser here on the mainland. It was quite unique.

hey Toliver,

that grilled chicken is usually called huli-huli chicken, meaning flip-flip or turn-turn. It's also come to be associated with a soy-ginger-garlic marinade that is less sweet than teriyaki.

Because of this thread, I've been thinking about food from the homeland, and I have a craving for preserved lemons. There used to be a whole industry of shops that sell various pickled plums, prunes, peaches, etc - crack seed, li hing mui, rock salt plums - along with shaved ice (snow cones, raspada), cuttlefish, manapua (big char siu bao) etc. One of my favorite ones in Hilo, which is no longer, made their own lemons - kinda like Morrocan preserved lemons, but mostly sweet, only a little salty. These are all snacks - not ingredients. Many people made things like this at home, too. You'd see them aging in big bottles up on the roof. It's not quite so common these days.

~Tad

Toliver · September 3, 2003

I've only been to Hawai'i once (back before they got the new apostrophe).
I was amazed at what they use for their road-side fund raisers: barbecue chicken!
We were headed to the south side of Oahu and there along side the road was a man overseeing about 6 half-barrel barbecues, all topped with grill sheets (looked almost like fence material). He was cooking half chickens and selling them to whoever pulled over. He was rasing money for a local scout troop.
And was it was ever tasty! We had never seen such a fund raiser here on the mainland. It was quite unique.
hey Toliver,
that grilled chicken is usually called huli-huli chicken, meaning flip-flip or turn-turn. It's also come to be associated with a soy-ginger-garlic marinade that is less sweet than teriyaki.

Thanks for putting a name to what was very good chicken. My subsequent web searches have led to some very bizarre recipes for Huli-Huli chicken. Do you have a recipe for the marinade?

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