Just Our Cup of Tea
Hawaiian-style tea doesn’t necessarily mean Hawaii-grown. For example, Hawaiian Islands Tea Company offers the flavors hibiscus honey lemon, coconut macadamia and mango Maui.
Food Box
Sweetly Gluten-Free
My hanai sister has a gluten allergy. With one bite of anything that’s touched wheat or barley, she gets intense stomach cramps and rashes, and her immune system goes haywire.
Viva Palenque
Amongst the smorgasbord of Hawaii’s mixed cuisines, it can be difficult to pin down the authentic. One rule of thumb is that dishes should be prepared using ingredients similar to those from the homeland.
Drink To Your Health
There is a magic elixir, locally known as kombucha, that has been around for centuries, but only burst into the Hawaii food scene three and a half years ago. It’s a tangy, sweet, fermented tea carrying a slew of vitamins and minerals.
What’s Poppin’, OnoPops?
Looks like locavore-friendly, farmers’ market-regular OnoPops has gone all sweet on us. Its new line of natural syrups are ideal for mixing into Italian sodas on those humid, sweltering days.
Magic Soybeans
The art of making fresh tofu is a craft that is slowly dwindling away. Once, there were 14 local factories, but now, less than a handful remain.
Fishing For Bivalves
Molii fishpond, beyond its ancient green and muddled reflection, hides a sea of oysters. Kualoa Ranch’s Hawaiian fishpond is nutrient-rich and perfect for growing the shellfish.
Try Healthy Chai
Anyone who’s dined there has felt personally welcomed by kindly Chef Chai Chaowasaree of Chai’s Island Bistro, which recently closed its palatial doors after 14 years of turning out fine Thai and Pacific Rim cuisine. His new venture, simply and aptly named Chef Chai (his name is already a bona fide brand), officially opened Saturday, March 9 at the Pacifica Honolulu.
Downtown Juicy Brown
Anyone interested in a fruit that tastes like tangy brown sugar? Look in Chinatown markets for a marvel called the “chiko,” or what is more commonly known as a sapodilla, pronounced sa-po-DEE-ya.
Ready for Teddy’s?
One name satisfies any craving for a simple, all-American burger–Teddy’s Bigger Burgers. At Teddy’s, simple, straightforward preparation is married with bold, beefy flavor.
Drink to Your Destiny
As much as we’re grateful to the Maya for their inventions–a system of government, pottery, corn tortillas–all that apocalyptic fretting was something we could have done without. Lest we forget the value of portents, Maui Brewing Company crafted a brew to commemorate the supposed fatalism of 2012, Aloha Baktun.
Jamba, You’re On Notice
Juice Box, a petite juice joint on Monsarrat Avenue, wears a black exterior, houses wooden stools and stacks books about liquid diets on its bar. A chalkboard menu boasts various juices and blends–aka smoothies–along with a short manifesto that includes buying locally and organically, using real ingredients and not much sugar, providing health information and, well, just being nice.
A World of Pure Imagination
“‘Made In Hawaii’ was not [always] as mainstream as it is now,” says Amy Hammond, the director of the Made in Hawaii Festival and volunteer executive director of the Hawaii Chocolate & Cacao Association. She recalls that locavore ideology has never been as in-vogue as it is today, even when considering chocolate.
An Excuse To Be Cheap
Half off sounds good any day, especially when talking about Chef Hiroshi Fukui’s contemporary, fresh sushi and seafood creations at Hiroshi Eurasian Tapas. Fancy, locally sourced ingredients prepared with sophistication by the hands of a James Beard Award nominee?
The Joyful Kitchen Goddess
The best-beloved cookbooks are practical, no-nonsense and not for the squeamish. To make soup from a bird’s nest, “Wash carefully several times, removing tiny feathers,” instructs Mary Sia in her Classic Chinese Cookbook.
Consider the Tamale
Raised on johnnycake, scrapple, spoonbread, hush puppies, grits–the uses of cornmeal (which, by itself, is rather bland) are many in a Southern household–I was transformed by my first tamale. Here, at last, was cornmeal mush cooked with something tasty inside.
A Grand Relaunch
When Grand Cafe & Bakery first opened in 1923, it faced closure after a few years. Fast forward three generations to 2005, when the cafe was resurrected by owners Patsy Izumo and the original owner’s granddaughter, Mona Chang Vierra.
Surf For Pie
In early December, Hawaiian Style opened where Quiksilver used to be on Kapiolani Boulevard. The store sells the usual surf merchandise: surfboards, shirts, swimsuits and–yes–pies.
Breakfast All Day
Since opening a third location in November, Eggs ‘n Things (established in Hawaii in 1974) has extended the tourist hotspot from the heart of Waikiki to international shopping destination Ala Moana Center, all while preserving what makes the restaurant chain popular. With creamy yellow walls adorned with vintage photographs of Hawaii and light fixtures hanging above booths and tables, the Ala Moana location of Eggs ‘n Things is the type of diner you might not expect to find near a fast-paced urban shopping center.
In Chinatown, a Bistro is Born
A bistro evokes thoughts of Parisian restaurants serving classic, homey, deceptively simple cooking such as cassoulet, the original pork and beans. Now, adding to the distinguished yet sparse selection of Honolulu bistros–JJ Bistro, Duc’s Bistro and Le Bistro, to name a few–is HASR Bistro, which opened its French doors in October.
Squash Your Winter Blues
Without the Northern blaze of fall leaves and snow, the idea of winter squash–with its thick, starchy skin–loses some relevance in the tropics. An example: Hawaii’s obvious lack of root cellars.
Food Box
The Ambitious Loafer
Food Box / This is not your supermarket sliced bread. “Parents have actually said their kids like my bread .
Desserts in the Works
This holiday season, whether you’re in need of a last-minute gift or some party treats, Cake Works has a slew of goodies that are delectable, but not too sweet. The bakery, known for their customizable cakes, is offering holiday specials in their already popular items–cupcakes, French macarons and scones–but seasonal and traditional desserts, such as Stollen, are available on a made-to-order basis.
The Herbivore’s Goodie Bag
When Holoholo General Store founder Jill Nordby discovered that 85 percent of our food is imported, she was shocked. After being a client of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) business on Maui, she moved to Oahu to begin her own.
Drizzle and Dip
A newborn portal to the wonderful world of olive oil is hoping to thrive next to the Paul Brown Salon in the small-business friendly Ward Center complex. Island Olive Oil Company is an extensive nucleus of foodie fun, where anyone with any level of gastronomic knowledge can saunter in, grab a few bites of crusty bread and dip oils and balsamic vinegars to their heart’s content.
This week
Derelict Downtown
For as long as we can remember, Chinatown has been notorious for drugs, homelessness and filthy streets. Some claim nothing has changed–and that it never will.
Sweet Ride
Bicyclists have long been overlooked by four-wheel riders on Honolulu’s congested streets. In the gleaming, armored pecking order of the road, cyclists are too often dismissed as lane hogs, hand-signaling nuisances and unfortunates who can’t afford cars.
Hoopili miss
The fate of some 1,525 acres of land at Hoopili in ‘Ewa may have been decided last Wednesday in Hawaii’s First Circuit Court. The decision might have gone differently, but the appellant attorneys’ strategy seemed to collapse as Judge Rhonda Nishimura picked it apart based on technical errors.
Housing First $
Last Thursday, May 9, the Caldwell administration revealed its action plan for solving Honolulu’s homeless problem. But at the City Council’s budget meeting the same day, Budget chair Ann Kobayashi wanted to know where the money for “Housing First” (see Cover Story, pg.
Do it Wright
The Mayor Wright Housing project has been slated for major redevelopment by the Hawaii State Housing Authority (HSHA); requests for qualifications will be going out to developers in three to six months. Nonprofit group Faith Action for Community Equity (FACE) wants to make sure the project’s tenants have a say in the redevelopment process, which could include major renovations or a total rebuild.
Street Disconnect
The Honolulu City Council held a special Committee on Transportation meeting on Tuesday, May 7, to go over its Complete Streets initiative with input from the department directors of Design and Construction (DDC), Planning and Permitting (DPP) and Transportation Services (DTS). At prior meetings, including the Moiliili workshop, community members pressed the idea of combining Complete Streets with Caldwell’s repaving projects, which Dan Burden of the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute and some councilmembers have said makes sense.
Stopping Growth
Not much to agree with my friend Doc Berry (“Limits of Growth,” April 17). None of the scenarios he posits will ever materialize.
Get it together
In your Diary of May 8 (“End of the 27th)” you reported on SB 1214, passed by the Legislature. In their nimble way, the Legislature tacked the wheel boot prohibition on a bill that was intended to abolish the Commission on Transportation.
Look both ways
On Friday, May 3, at 3:45 p.m., I was driving town bound through the Wilson tunnel on the Likelike. I was parallel to another car, and there were several other cars following closely behind me.
Thank you!
Congratulations Honolulu Weekly on the recent Pai award for investigative reporting (“Boss GMO,” Jan. 4, 2012).
Truth be told
When the biofuel guys say that costs are “confidential” (“Big-foot Biofuel,” May 8), I reply that since I am the one who is going to end up paying the cost, I have a right to know. Frankly, when everybody tries to hide the costs, I smell rat …
Nature’s beauty
The Foster Botanical Garden never ceases to inspire for an urban setting it is like a step back in time (“See the Flora,” May 8). If Koko Crater Botanical Garden contains the world’s largest plumeria collection as suggested, it may be thanks in part to the Prussian born Dr.
