Hawaiian Cookbooks

[torakris]

Though I only spent one year of my life on Maui, a lot of what I remember is the food and for a long time I have been looking for a good Hawaiian cookbook. I have two, one from Roy Yamaguchi (which I don't really consider "Hawaiian" rather difficult to do at home fusion, though I have had great success from it) and one that is a local publication of Japanese cooking Hawaiian style, which it ok but doesn't cover much else.

I really want a book that covers the popular local foods, loco moco and the like as well as more traditional Hawaiian foods as well as the Hawaiian variations on other (mostly Asian countries) foods.

In the cookbook thread I noticed a reference to a book called Food of Paradise which seemed to cover mostly what I am looking for and just seconds ago I purchased it through Amazon Japan.

What else is out there?

Any favorites?

[Ruth]

I think you might like Sam Choy's books: "With Sam Choy" and "Sam Choy's Cuisine Hawaii" are two that I have and enjoy using. Both were published a few years ago but I would think they are still available. Jean-Marie Josselin and Alan Wong have both written good cook books but if you don't like "fusion" cuisine you might not enjoy them. The very first Hawaiian cook book I saw was a collection of recipes entitled "The New Cuisine of Hawaii", published in 1994. (Villard Books, New York). I had never been to Hawaii, but that book excited me so much that I planned a gastronomic tour of the islands and within a month my husband and I were there visiting almost all the restaurants mentioned in the book.

[prasantrin]

Any favorites?

Does it have to be a cookbook? I've always liked the Hawaiian Electric Company's recipes. They seem to have the variety you want, plus it's free! You do have to register to access the recipes, though. You can find their homepage here.

[skchai]

I really want a book that covers the popular local foods, loco moco and the like as well as more traditional Hawaiian foods as well as the Hawaiian variations on other (mostly Asian countries) foods.

In the cookbook thread I noticed a reference to a book called Food of Paradise which seemed to cover mostly what I am looking for and just seconds ago I purchased it through Amazon Japan.

Kristen, the author of Food of Paradise is Rachel Laudan, who is a frequent poster to Egullet (as "caroline"), as well as very nice person to boot! She posts mostly to the "Mexico" and the "Pacific NW, Alaska, and Hawaii" forum (you might try to post this inquiry to that forum as well).

Food of Paradise is really the best book ever written on the everyday food of Hawai`i, so you hit the jackpot in finding it. It won the prestigious prize for best literary food book of 1997 from the International Association of Culinary Professionals.

If you are looking for other sources on Hawai`i's food, I have posted a guide to media resources at the beginning of the Honolulu Dining digest in the "Food Media and News" forum. Some of these sites have recipes.

I have also posted a Guide to Guides to Hawaii Restaurants in the "Pacific NW, Alaska and Hawaii".

I'll try to put up a proper list of cookbooks and web sources for recipes soon, but I'm being dragged away right now. . .

[torakris]

Wow is my face red!

I am one of the moderators here and I posted in the wrong forum!

Don't know why I was thinking Hawaii was in the Elsewhere in Asia Forum..............

I will see if I can get it moved.

[skchai]

That's perfectly understandable. Some Japanese refer to us as

"Hawai-ken", someplace east of Okinawa-ken. . .

[tighe]

Jean-Marie Josselin of A Pacific Cafe has a book called A Taste of Hawaii. I don't have it, but it looks good and I love his place.

[russel]

My favorite local cookbook is Best of Our Favorite Recipes, published by the Maui Association for Family and Community Education (formerly Maui Extension Homemaker Council). ISBN 096418821X

[torakris]

thank you for all the suggestions, I am slowly checking them all out!

[Kimo]

My favorite Hawaii-based cookbook is "A Taste of Aloha," published by the Junior League of Honolulu. I borrowed my mother's copy when I moved to Honolulu in 1991 and need to purchase a new one for her. I love the mango bread, banana nut bread and Willows Restaurant original shrimp curry recipes. The cookbook also has a variety of recipes, from the Punahou School malasadas recipe to an easy pineapple iced tea (from the Oahu Country Club) to the mahimahi recipe used at the Plaza Club by Chef Russell Siu, now the chef of 3660 On the Rise. There is also a fantastic section on lu'au foods (poke, lomilomi salmon, haupia dessert, pipikaula, lau lau, etc.) The original cookbook is 20 years old. The second version, which also has some great recipes, is around 10 years old. IMO the original is one of the top three cookbooks in my personal collection. Aloha, Kimo

[Lopaka]

You might want to check out "The Pacifica House Hawaii Cook Book" by Don FitzGerald, published in 1965. I have the 10th edition (1973). It's a mix of local and haole recipes, even has a recipe for laulau, but "chicken long rice" is missing, probably hadn't been invented yet.

Another book is "Pupus to the Max - The All-Purpose Illustrated Guide to the Food of Hawaii", published by Bess Press in 1986.

I remember that there was a cookbook that came out shortly after the publication of Michener's "Hawaii" in 1959 and used a similar cover to the novels', but I haven't seen a copy in ages.

[skchai]

Welcome to Egullet, Lopaka! Thanks for your comments, and hope to hear more from you.

I'm always curious about vintage Hawai`i cookbooks. What kind of recipes do you recall there being in the "Michener" cookbook?

[torakris]

I am still browsing!

A lot of the older/locally published ones are impossible for me to get in Japan.

I guess I will have to wait until my next trip.

I really love the book Foods of Paradise, it is more of a history rather than a cookbook and it is a fascinating read.

[skchai]

Some of the books mentioned in these posts are normally not sold outside of Hawai`i, but many of them can ordered from the cookbook pages of local online booksellers such as Native Books Hawai`i and Booklines Hawai`i. However, Kristin, the shipping costs to Japan may be enormous!

If you're looking for a particular recipe, let me know and I'll try to PM it to you. . .

Edited because I mispelled your name, sorry!

[Lopaka]

Mahalo for the warm welcome. Encountered this site when I was following "The Restaurant" reality show on the net, and have finally decided to become a member. Am a cousin of one of the three line cooks slandered by Rocco.

I was born in and lived in Honolulu from 1947 to 1968 (the good old days) and remember restaurants like M's Ranch House, Elliott's Chuckwagon, The Evergreen, Canlis' Broiler, The Wagon Wheel, The Hob Nob at the Alexander Young Hotel and Michel's at the Colony Surf, which I believe was the closest thing to haute cuisine in town at that time.

I can't recall any recipes from the "Hawaii" cookbook, but am looking for a copy and will let you know what it's got when one falls into my hands.

A hui hou,

Lopaka

[skchai]

Lopaka, seems like you were one of a number of people who were brought into Egullet by the "Restaurant" show thread. I think people here managed to put the show in its place, regardless of what the general public might have thought.

Anyway, glad to hear from someone who remembers the good old days in Hawai`i restaurants. Perhaps the only one of those restaurants that I had a chance to go to as a kid was M's Ranch, which I believe eventually became a branch of Flamingo Chuckwagon. Michel's is still open, while Canlis' restaurant survives in his hometown of Seattle even though the Honolulu branch (which was actually the original one) closed down long ago.

[wesza]

Lopaka, seems like you were one of a number of people who were brought into Egullet by the "Restaurant" show thread. I think people here managed to put the show in its place, regardless of what the general public might have thought.

Anyway, glad to hear from someone who remembers the good old days in Hawai`i restaurants. Perhaps the only one of those restaurants that I had a chance to go to as a kid was M's Ranch, which I believe eventually became a branch of Flamingo Chuckwagon. Michel's is still open, while Canlis' restaurant survives in his hometown of Seattle even though the Honolulu branch (which was actually the original one) closed down long ago.

skchai: If i'm not mistaken wasn't M's Ranch a Spencecliff Restaurant? Are they still doing business as at one time they were right on the pulse of local and tourist business.

Regarding local Cookbooks my favorites and those most often available in Seattle thrift Shopes are those published by various schools and civic organizations.

These books are all timely and most contain one or two exceptional recipes from grandma's or aunties that seem to be special.

Just purchased for 69 cents "How's this for Starters" published by Chaminade University Alumni in 1989 that covers Favorite Appetizer Recipes. I must have several dozen in my collection that are fun to read occasionally, plus several different local ethinic cookbooks from the fifties thru the eighties that only had modest circulation.

Irwin

[skchai]

Irwin,

M's Ranch is no longer in business, I believe. I'm not sure if they were a Spencecliff restaurant - the only Spencecliff I remember was the local Coco's. The Spencecliff empire was bought up from the Weaver family in 1986 by the Japanese Nittaku company, who sold off a lot of the properties.

One set of locally published cookbooks that has become very popular recently is the "Hawai`i Best" series by Jean Watanabe Hee, out of Mutual Publishing. She has volumes on Mochi, Desserts, and Main Dishes. They are all spiral bound, in the community cookbook tradition.

[Lopaka]

The old Tops restaurant on the corner of Ena Road and Ala Moana was a Spencecliff property, I believe. Their grilled burgers and milk shakes were worth coming miles for.

M's Ranch was my introduction to grissini (breadsticks to you non-Italians). There was a basket of them on every table. Once I ate so many I didn't have room for anything else. The place was also famous for its 72 ounce steak, a plaster example of which was placed at the entrance. Eat it with the potato and veg within an hour and it was free.

Am still looking for that "Hawaii" cookbook. Have hit 2 used bookstores and B&N online and no luck yet. Auwe!

[skchai]

A long time ago I promised that I would post a list of Hawai`i-related cookbooks. Of course, as the earlier posts on this thread show, a lot has been published, but given that most of them are not readily available outside the state, I thought I could restrict myself to those that might be found in bookstores nationally or internationally. . .

Other than Rachel's The Food of Paradise (University of Hawaii Press, 1996), which we all know and love, there are as far as I know currently a total of only seven (!) cookbooks about Hawai`i cuisine that are in print and distributed nationally within the United States. Four of the seven are from the same publisher (SF's Ten Speed Press). They are (in order of publication, with links to Amazon.com):

Jean-Marie Josselin, Taste of Hawaii (Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 1992)

Roy Yamaguchi, Roy's Feasts from Hawaii (10 Speed Press, 1995)

Sam Choy, Sam Choy's Island Flavors (Hyperion, 1999)

Alan Wong's New Wave Luau: Recipes from Honolulu's Award-Winning Chef (10 Speed Press, 2001)

Beverly Gannon and Bonnie Friedman, The Hali'imaile General Store Cookbook: Homecooking from Maui (10 Speed Press, 2002)

Sam Choy's Polynesian Kitchen: More Than 150 Authentic Dishes from One of the World's Most Delicious and Overlooked Cuisines (Hyperion, 2002)

Roy Yamaguchi and Joan Namkoong, Hawaii Cooks: Recipes from Roy's Pacific Rim Kitchen (10 Speed Press, 2003)

All of the above-mentioned books, with the exception of Rachel's, cover one aspect of Hawai`i's food, Hawaiian Regional Cuisine. Each is written or co-written by a celebrity chef in the HRC movement. There may be others that are available that I'm not aware of, of course.

It does seem that much of Booklines Hawai`i's selection of non-nationally distributed cookbooks is also available on Amazon - in their role as a subretailer or whatever it's called. However, if you want to see their whole list, it's still probably easier to go directly to the Booklines site listed in my previous post.

[skchai]

Oh, I already need to amend that list. Another book is forthcoming from Ten Speed Press:

Dave "D.K." Kodama and Bonnie Friedman, D.K.'s Sushi Chronicles from Hawaii: Recipes from Sansei Seafood Restaurant & Sushi Bar (10 Speed Press, March 2004).

Interesting that Kodama is the first of the non-HRC Inc. chefs to get his own nationally-distributed cookbook deal. HRC Inc. was the group of twelve chefs who originally got together to promote Hawaiian Regional Cuisine, making a name for themselves and alienating some other people in the process.

Keo Sananikone, author of Keo's Thai Cuisine, is another local chef with a national deal (Ten Speed again!) but of course his restaurant does not purport to serve Hawai`i cuisine.

[Lopaka]

Eureka! I found the book and it's "Hawaii Cookbook & Backyard Luau" by Elizabeth Ahn Toupin with an intro by James Michener. I got it from a friend but seems to be abundantly available online at B&N. It was published in hardcover in 1967 by Silvermine and in pb by Bantam. Along with the usual "Polynesian" fare like "Volcano Salad" and "Chicken Lobster Supreme in Pineapple Shells", there is a chapter "The Hawaian Luau" with recipes for kalua pig, lomi salmon, chicken long rice, chicken luau, haupia, laulau and others that us kama'aina are familiar with. There is even something called a "poi cocktail" made by blending poi, milk and sugar, and meant for introducing the malihini to the Hawaiian staff-of-life. Kinda makes my hair stand on end but I guess kids might go for it.

[skchai]

A Poi Cocktail! Perhaps it's like the Taro-flavored drinks that you can get from bubble-drink shops? Thanks, Lopaka, for the reference!

By the way, I've exercised my moderatory (?) perogoratives and decided that the Keo's discussion deserves a thread of its own. Click here to go to it.

[caroline]

Elizabeth Toupin's book is one of the very best of the books written about Hawaii's foods. And she is a wonderful, interesting and successful woman who ended up as as Dean at Tufts University.

Poi cocktail is not really a cocktail, I think. Poi is incredibly digestible and was thus widely used in earlier days in Hawaii for sickly babies and others with digestive problems,

Rachel

[Kimo]

Does anyone have the recipe for Willows curry? My "Junior League Honolulu, Volume I" cookbook is packed in storage and I need to make this curry tomorrow (Saturday) for a house blessing.

Aloha, Kimo