That’s how they say “hello… how are you?” in Chinese.

Sorry I haven’t posted anything new in a while… Call it writer’s block, life related stress, heat exhaustion, whatever… but I’m back…

Every four years, the one thing I look forward to is the Opening Ceremonies of the Summer Olympics. And this year’s Opening Ceremonies in Beijing is by far, my favorite, and definitely will be the most memorable. Talk about SENSORY OVERLOAD!

So, in honor of the 2008 Summer Olympics… let me introduce you to Chinatown – Honolulu’s Chinatown to be exact… and where you can find the BEST EVER PORKY GOODNESS – EVER!

Honolulu’s Chinatown is like any other Chinatown in any other state with a big enough Asian population – crowded, traffic congested, full of character and the best place to get Chinese Roast Pork and char siu… among other things….

Pass the old residential area of Kalihi-Palama and across the bridge that crosses over a canal that feeds into Honolulu Harbor, lies Honolulu’s Chinatown district. No gilded statues or ornate Chinese gates reminiscent of San Francisco’s Chinatown greet you here. The only indication that you are in Chinatown are that the street signs are written in Chinese characters, along with the vernacular street names like King Street, Beretania Street and Kekaulike Street. Subtle hints like the names of vendors like Chun’s Meat Market and Lee’s Bakery and Kitchen (where they have the BEST CUSTARD PIE in all of Honolulu, if you’re lucky to get one before they run out) further remind you of where you are.

But this is not the Chinatown that I remember. Shops that were once owned by Chinese immigrants are now owned and operated by a growing Vietnamese population. Chinese herbal shops and acupuncture practices are still around, though hidden among the many Vietnamese jewelry stores and pho noodle shops, on nearly every corner. But the produce markets and meet vendors remain as they were, albeit, now run by a different population.

Oahu market brings great memories for me. Growing up, I remember weekend trips to Chinatown with either my parents or grandparents to get a week’s worth of vegetables, meat or fish. It’s where you went to get the freshest ingredients possible – produce straight from the farmers, meat from the ranchers and fish straight off the boats docked alongside the harbor. It’s also where you got the best Chinese style roast pork and char siu (Chinese barbeque pork). My favorite place to pick up these wonderful delicacies is at Chun’s Meat Market.

Chinese style roast pork is made by roasting pork belly that has been seasoned with salt and Chinese 5 spice until the skin is super duper crispy, but the meat is still moist and juicy. Chun’s Meat Market has what I think is THE BEST Chinese style roast pork – crisp, juicy pork belly with a meat to fat ratio that was pretty much hit or miss. Sometimes more fat than meat (good), sometimes more meat than fat (better for you) and sometimes almost equal amounts of each (pure bliss).

Char siu, on the other hand is made by marinating a leaner cut of pork (usually the shoulder) in a mixture of honey, Chinese five spice, soy sauce, hoisin sauce (plum sauce), Chinese wine and red food coloring. The pork is then either grilled or broiled. (In the picture below, the char siu is the meat stuffs hanging on the left; roast duck hangs to the right of the picture.) Chun’s char siu is also the best I’ve ever tasted – seasoned perfectly, with just enough char on it to enhance the smokiness of the marinade and not overpower it.

The roast pork and char siu are sold by the pound. You basically point to which piece or pieces you want from the meat hooks that proudly displays the goods and the butcher will chop it all up for you in seconds with his crazy-fast-super-sharp-butcher-knife-skills, then wrap it all up in butcher paper for you to take home.

I’ve since mastered the skill of opening up the tightly wrapped package to sample the goods in the car on the way home, then re-wrapping whatever is left into an equally tight package. Not an easy task, trying to keep all of the pieces of porky goodness on the butcher paper on your lap while the car is moving… but with practice, totally doable… just make sure you’re not the one driving… in which case, the opened package of porky goodness will usually sit open on the passenger seat all the way home and you’re lucky if there’s a piece left for sharing…

*****

Chun’s Meat Market

(Located in the Queen River Market)

157 N King St
Honolulu, HI 96817
(808) 533-0577

As the years pass,

I wish that you were still here with us…

I often sit…

wondering…

waiting…

To see your smile…

Or hear your voice…

But long to just hold your hand.

Happy Birthday, Papa! I miss you!

Now for the savory stuff…

A trip to Hawaii is not complete without the at least one plate lunch. A plate lunch normally consists of 2 scoops rice, 1 scoop macaroni salad and your protein of choice. I know – CARB OVERLOAD. Way too much rice, if you ask me.

We drove to the North Shore specifically to get some shrimp. Our initial plan was to hit all (okay maybe not all, but most) of the shrimp trucks and do a taste comparison between the many shrimp trucks and stands. But due to time constraints, we ended up just eating at my favorite shirmp shack - Romy’s.

Fortunately, by the time we got there, the usual lunch line had subsided, and we were able to order within 10 minutes. Waiting for our food to be cooked was a bit longer, but well worth the wait. Their plates are prepared upon order and usually takes about 10 to 15 minutes to prepare. Each plate gets a super generous helping of steamed rice with one pound of shrimp or prawns (when available). The shrimp and prawns are farm raised in aqua-culture beds located behind the shack, so you know that what you’re getting is fresh and local. There’s also a semi-covered picnic table seating area to the right and left of the shack so that you can enjoy your meal right there. There are workers that wipe down the tables after each party leaves to eliminate pesky ants from ruining your shrimp feast. They even have a sink area where you can wash your hands – how thoughtful.

Romy’s #1 – Garlic and Butter Shrimp -served with way too much rice

Romy’s #2 - Sweet and Spicy Shrimp – served with way too much rice

Back in Honolulu, we stopped by Sugoi at City Center in Kalihi, to enjoy some of their plate lunch offerings. Ever since they closed Mitsuken on School Street due to some inappropriate activity, I had to find a place to get garlic chicken (not that I can’t make it myself, but it’s always better served in a styrofoam box). Sugoi’s came to my rescue. Here are a few of the plates that we ordered. Notice… every plate has the sought after garlic chicken – LOL!

Garlic Chicken Plate

The garlic chicken at Sugoi’s was okay. It’s basically boneless chicken thighs that are dipped into a light batter then deep fried. The chicken pieces are then tossed with their own recipe of garlic sauce which is soy based with other seasonings and spices. A bit too sweet and not as crispy as I would have wanted it. But it satisfied my craving.

Chow Fun with Garlic Chicken Plate

I have a weak spot for chow fun. It’s by far my favorite Chinese noodle dish – flat Chinese noodles cooked with an array of seasonings and garnishes. And if done right, it will leave a smile on my face all day. Sugoi did this right. Perfectly cooked so that the noodles were not mushy, perfectly seasoned so it wasn’t too salty or too bland and with just a touch of sesame seed oil for flavor. The sesame seeds could have been left out, but thankfully, there wasn’t too much of it to have to make a fuss over.

Kalbi (Korean BBQ Short ribs) with Garlic Chicken Mix Plate

Just the way I would have ordered it too – all rice and no mac salad. The kalbi was grilled to perfection, with just enough fat to keep the meat moist.

The wedding reception was another food fest in itself. The Chef John Hightower and his staff for the Ainahau Showroom at the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani really know how to put together a feast - Prime Rib, Baked Chicken with Garlic Butter Sauce, Pan Fried Noodles, Beef Curry, Steamed Fish (Chinese Style), Sushi, Veggies and BOTTOMLESS MAI TAIS. I really needed to let out my dress at the end of the night.

*****

Romy’s Kahuku Shrimp

Kamehameha Highway on the North Shore
South of Kahuku Sugar Mill
North Shore, HI 96734

Sugoi Bento and Catering
City Square Bldg.
1286 Kalani St. #B-106
Honolulu, HI 96817
(808) 841-7984

*****

Sheraton Princess Kaiulani

120 Kaiulani Avenue
Honolulu, HI 96815
(808) 922-5811

The wedding was very beautiful and memorable. I truly enjoyed Hilo and the coqui frogs. Really laid back. But, after 4 days in Hilo, I was ready to get back on a plane and head back to the city. The plane ride, though, is another story… Heed my WARNING- no matter how cheap the airfare is – NEVER, NEVER fly GO! Airlines. Unless belly-flopping onto the runway, then drifting a couple hundred feet till you come to a stop, is your idea of fun. Nuff said.

Back in Honolulu for the last leg of my vacation, I couldn’t wait to start crossing restaurants off my go-to list. Unfortunately, most of us got sick from the rain and vog in Hilo, so we spent most of the week at home trying to recuperate enough for the second wedding reception that weekend.

But that doesn’t mean we didn’t get to eat some of the sweet treats that Honolulu is known for.

Matsumoto’s Shave Ice

This is the 3-flavor combo that I chose: strawberry cream, banana cream and coconut cream…. topped with condensed milk. This wonderful, deliciously sweetened, mound of finely shaved ice is sitting atop 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream. Definitely not one for those who are lactose intolerant. If that’ll be a problem, take a Lactaid, because this is not one to miss. It doesn’t matter what flavor of syrup you get… the condensed milk AND the ice cream takes this one step beyond nirvana. Choosing one over the other is NOT AN OPTION.

DeeLite Bakery’s Macadamia Nut Cake (2 of them) and Guava Chiffon Cake

We celebrated my cousin’s birthday while he and his family were in Hawaii from Los Angeles for the wedding. And we celebrated it as only our family knows how – with 3 cakes. 2 identical ones and one bought on a whim. Funny thing is… the 2 identical cakes were bought by 2 different people, from the same exact bakery, within minutes from each other. What’s even funnier is that they requested to have wording put on the cake, so you’d think that the baker would’ve done it up differently, but they were exactly identical.

Anyway, back to the cakes… The Macadamia Nut Cake was a two-layer cake, consisting of very light and spongy cake with buttercream filling and frosting, with a generous dusting of crushed macadamia nuts all over the cake. By far my favorite cake from this bakery. The Guava Chiffon Cake was also a two-layer cake, also consisting of the same very light and spongy cake. However, this cake was flavored with guava essence and pink in color. The filling was guava flavored and the entire cake was frosted with buttercream frosting, topped with more of the guava filling, then dusted with cake crumbs. Very light and refreshing.

Liliha Bakery – Coco Puffs

I *HEART* COCO PUFFS! Especially if they’re from Liliha Bakery. Actually, I love the butter frosting… *sigh*…

Liliha Bakery altered the traditional cream puff and created this little puff of LOVE. It’s a basic choux pastry recipe that is baked till golden brown then filled with chocolate pudding-ish cream, then topped with a dollop of frosting made with lots of butter, sugar, egg yolks, cream and vanilla. The frosting is what makes it exceptional.

*****

Matsumoto Shave Ice

66-087 Kamehameha Highway

Haleiwa, HI 96712

(808) 637-4827

*****

DeeLite Bakery

1930 Dillingham Boulevard

Honolulu, Hawaii

(808) 847-5396

*****

Liliha Bakery

515 N Kuakini St
Honolulu, HI 96817
(808) 531-1651

Even though we were only in Hilo for 4 days, we indulged (maybe over-indulged) in a few of the sleepy town’s local favorites.

Located across the parking lot of Rainbow Falls is a little storefront, Rainbow Falls Connection, not more than 12 feet long and 8 feet wide. Here, you will find an offering of lavosh, Hawaiian honey, butter spreads and cookies, that are made and produced locally. The store is run under a non-profit organization that uses the sales proceeds to create job-skills programs, for the low-income community.

The lavosh here is reasonably priced at 4 for $15.00. They come in several different flavors. My favorite is the macadamia nut lavosh which has a butter cookie like taste, with a hint of macadamia nut flavor or essence. There are no macadamia nut pieces in the flat cookie, so I’m guessing that they grind the macadamia nut to a powder form and mix it in with the rest of the ingredients. The lavosh is good plain, with a cup of tea. But, sometimes, I top the macadamia nut lavosh with macadamia nut honey – I know, macadamia nut overkill – but it’s good. This is a perfect afternoon snack.

Another notable local favorite is Two Ladies Kitchen. This little shop, run by, you guessed it, two ladies (and the rest of their family doing behind the scenes stuff), is known for their strawberry mochi, a Japanese sweet rice flour dessert. When my friends were telling me that they were picking up some strawberry mochi to take back to Honolulu, I thought they were talking about strawberry flavored mochi – oh, was I mistaken. Imagine a whole strawberry (humongous Costco-sized), smeared with sweet bean paste then wrapped with fresh steamed sweet mochi, forming a golf-ball sized little package of heaven. Here’s a picture of it that I found online:

I know…UNBELIEVABLE!

The mochi was perfectly chewy with just a touch of sweetness and the strawberry was perfectly ripened.

Other than the strawberry mochi, Two Ladies Kitchen also offers a variety of other mochi. Call ahead of time to place an order as their supply for the day runs out pretty quickly. And once they’re sold out for the day, you’re out of luck.

A trip to Hilo is not complete without a stop at Big Island Candies. I call it the “Home of Chocolate Dipped Goodness”. They’ll dip anything in chocolate – shortbread cookies, strawberries, potato chips and even dried squid. I usually stick to the dipped shortbread cookies.

One of the newest items that they added to their lineup is their lemon shortbread dipped in white chocolate. Crisp and tart, yet buttery, as only a lemon cookie can be, then dipped in white chocolate to add a silky touch to the bite-size cookies. Ahhh…

Another reason why I love this place is they have SAMPLES of everything!!! So you can try, before you buy!

*****

Rainbow Falls Connection

47 Rainbow Drive

Hilo, Hawaii 96720

(808) 969-9316

rainbowfallsconnection.stores.yahoo.net

*****

Two Ladies Kitchen

274 Kilauea Avenue

Hilo, Hawaii 96720

(808) 961-4766

*****

Big Island Candies

585 Hinano Street
Hilo, Hawaii 96720

(808) 935-8890

www.bigislandcandies.com

When we were younger, my parents would wake up my brother and I early on the weekends because my mom wanted to torture us and have a “Let’s Play Tourist Day” or to bribe us into doing our chores by taking us out for breakfast somewhere. My brother and I hated “Let’s Play Tourist Day”. It meant that we’d be driving around the island to visit tourist traps – um, I mean tourist sites – that we’ve already seen a gazillion times. On some of these outings, Mom would even bring the camera and make us take pictures. I mean, really, how many times do you need a picture of your kids with the view of Diamond Head in the background? What was worse, she’d never get the pictures developed. Anyway… I digress…

So, on this one particular Saturday, our parents woke us up and told us to pack an overnight bag because they were taking us out for breakfast. Still too sleepy to question anything, we packed our bag and an made our way to breakfast.

Driving down our street, past our favorite breakfast stop, The Original Pancake House in Kalihi, we eventually reached what seemed to be our breakfast destination – the airport. My brother and I looked at each other, dumbfounded, and one of us (most likely me) finally asked “I thought we were going to breakfast?” My parents just looked at us and said, “We are. In Hilo.”

We hopped on a plane and 45 minutes later, we landed on the island of Hawaii and headed to our real breakfast destination, Ken’s House of Pancakes. Breakfast was then followed … by a day of “Let’s Play Tourist”. We didn’t complain this time, as Hilo was new tourist territory for us. I remember how cool it was to check out Volcanoes National Park and a hotel that my grandfather helped build. This is definitely one of my fondest childhood memories.

I was able to re-visit Ken’s recently. I spent the last 2 weeks of March in Hawaii for my brother and new sister-in-law’s wedding celebrations. The ceremony and first reception was held in Hilo, on the Big Island, and the second reception was held a week later in Honolulu.

Upon arriving in Hilo, we picked up the rental and headed to Ken’s House of Pancakes, a mere 5 minutes from the airport. (Actually, you can pretty much get to anywhere in Hilo town in 5 minutes.)

Consistently good food, with a menu that rivals Cheesecake Factory’s food “catalog”, every time I left there I was satisfied (more like way too full), and so were the rest of my dining companions. We were in Hilo for 4 days and had a hearty breakfast at Ken’s 3 out of the 4 days.

Hawaiian style hospitality, massive proportions, consistency and reasonably priced food make Ken’s the perfect place to eat for tourists and locals alike. They’re open 24 hours a day and all items on the menu are available any time of the day. So if you feel like eating breakfast for dinner, you can. Don’t forget to get the pancakes and ask for the coconut syrup. SO GOOD!

For those of you with saimin dreams, the saimin here is onolicious. The broth is flavored well, if not a bit on the salty side for me, but what put their saimin in a different league from other saimin offerings elsewhere, were the noodles that they use – chewy, tasty, perfectly cooked noodles. If you’re really hungry, try the Sumo Saimin if you dare – it’s MASSIVE. Enough noodles and broth for a family of six, or as the name implies, enough to feed a Sumo wrestler. They’ve got this ritual where if you order the Sumo Saimin (or any of their other Sumo size specialties), a bell is rung or a gong is banged and the staff as well as the many regulars scream “SUMO!” as the food is delivered over to your table. I wanted to order the Sumo Saimin just to hear them do this. Quirky, but the gimmick works! You can even buy a shirt that says something like “I survived the Sumo Saimin” or something close. Corny, I know, but in a sleepy town like Hilo, you can’t expect much.

Here’s a sample of what I ate at Ken’s on my trip to Hilo.

Sweet Bread French Toast

I’m a sucker for French Toast, especially if someone else is making it.This was nothing really noteworthy. Just your basic French Toast recipe using Hawaiian Sweet Bread instead of regular bread. Lots and lots of butter to smear all over the already moist and delicately sweetened French Toast, that syrup was not necessary.

Lana’s Special

A de-constructed loco moco, if you will (as it’s not all piled up in a bowl). Or a Hamburger Steak plate lunch with 3 eggs. Talk about artery clogging and kanak attack producing, but oh so good! Way too much rice for my taste, even for a someone who grew up in Hawaii. The hamburger patty is grilled to your liking and then covered with your basic brown gravy and grilled onions. The eggs are also done to order.

If you get a chance to go to Ken’s, make sure you try the different syrups that they offer.

This is a picture of their coconut syrup and their guava syrup. They also have a blueberry syrup, that’s not fully shown in this picture. Your usual maple syrup is also available, if you’re not adventurous enough to try the tropical flavored ones.

Here’s their buttermilk pancakes, that I drizzled with their different syrups.

Maple syrup was drizzled over the left side and coconut syrup over the right side. Which side was better? For me, I enjoyed the coconut syrup better than the maple. It wasn’t as sweet as the maple. It added a different taste altogether to the pancakes and made my pancakes and my tummy very happy. It’s a pretty rich and heavy syrup, so I’d suggest you pour it sparingly over your pancakes. Drizzle a little of the blueberry syrup over the coconut syrup and it’s like blueberry cheesecake-ish – yeah, it was good. I wasn’t too much of a fan of the guava syrup, though. It was too tart and runny in consistency, like guava juice.

So when you’re in Hilo, stop by Ken’s and enjoy their local style food and hospitality. Don’t forget to take a look at the photos on the walls of “famous” people that have visited Ken’s (mostly local entertainers and a bunch of Polynesian wrestlers from back in the day) . This is one picture that I found hilarious -

Remember him???

*****

Ken’s House of Pancakes

1730 Kamehameha Avenue

Hilo, Hawaii 96720

(808) 538-1877

Open 24 Hours