Thirty years ago, in the middle of sleepy Haleiwa Town, a surfer diner was opened by Duncan Campbell, a board shaper, and his wife Jacqueline, a good cook. The Campbells liked this excellent location for their lifestyle.
Aunty Mai’s CUISINE Open Sun-Wed 11am–2am, Thurs-Sat, 11am–3am 730 Kapahulu Ave., 737-8887 BYOB, credit cards except Amex One evening last December, while I waited outside Ono Hawaiian Foods for dinner, a small family came bustling out of the empty store next door. An older little lady was obviously running the show, waving her arms energetically as she envisioned a sign at the storefront.
Once upon a time, not so long ago, Opal Thai was a food truck on the edge of Haleiwa. The food, like the winter waves, was epic, with a perfect blend of colorful and fresh flavors.
While many of us have already jumped on the “Go Local” bandwagon, shopping at farmers’ markets or being gobsmacked by fresh kale from our CSA, Outstanding in the Field (OitF) takes it just a little bit, well, dirtier. Dedicated to serving meals at their source, connecting diners to the land and farmers, the table-to-farm dinner series holds its first Hawaii events this month.
Up here in pre-planned, suburban Central Oahu, where the sky seems closer to the ground and the weather is a few degrees cooler, we do our fine dining at strip malls and chain restaurants. I should explain that it’s tough out here for foodies, so I was disbelieving when my father claimed he’d found an authentic Mexican restaurant in Waipio Shopping Center, home of the likes of Outback Steakhouse and Big City Diner.
New year, new pounds. They go together like fat-, salt- and carb-heavy rice and gravy, saimin and char siu–a problem for lovers of Hawaii local food.
While Champagne may be the go-to for ringing in the new year at home, prices have some reaching for that 12-pack of Heineken. When I first started working in the beverage industry, I noticed all my co-workers’ drink of choice was Champagne.
Alas, hurray, ‘tis the season once again! The planning and execution of holiday feasts can be overwhelming (even if it may have seemed like a good idea two weeks ago).
Food & Drink / The dim little foyer is silent and unpopulated, but the sign says “Open.” Following the arrow, we slide open a wooden door and here are the people, in a room splashed with sun through the big front window. Walls encrusted with tchotchkes, from red devil masks to a big black fish to jolly tip-jar Buddhas, lend a flea market, Mad Hatter air, but the dining space, though not large, feels spacious, airy and uncluttered.
This is a story about five Irish bars, and it begins at the end, with a man named Mitch sleeping on Lewers street. That’s because “all endings are beginnings,” as Mitch says to me.
I could set up tent on Monsarrat Avenue for a solid month and still wouldn’t be tired of its neighborhood dishes. There’s the Pioneer Saloon that sells Japanese bentos with wakame and shiso rice, Diamond Head Cove right across the street (serving the locally famous açai bowl) and don’t get me started on the DH market torte from Diamond Head Market.
“So,” I said to a friend, a local girl–German, Irish, Hawaiian, Chinese, Portuguese– “doesn’t Hawaii celebrate Thanksgiving in its own, particular way?” “Doesn’t everyone?” she asked. Don’t Southerners serve cornbread stuffing?
Next time you’re waiting for a cappuccino, consider where you really are. Right, the lengthy line of your local coffee shop, but where else?
When Grandma wanted a plump bird for the holiday table–a local, natural, no-hormone, free-range turkey–she stepped into the yard with an axe. Or maybe she even sent Grandpa out with a shotgun (there are wild turkeys on Big Island).
There’s a lot to love about Kiss My Grits, a cozy little restaurant located behind Varsity Grill &Bar in Puck’s Alley. It’s as cute as a blue and white apron, it’s as American as a red and white tablecloth, but bless their little ‘ole hearts, they need a lesson in frying chicken from Paula Dean or Sean Priester of Soul Café in Kaimuki.
Food & Drink / I have a daily morning ritual. The location will vary, but the motions are the same: basking in the angelic glow of my MacBook while zoning out on my RSS Feed, catching up with inside jokes on Facebook and adding people I’ve never met before to my “People I’ve Never Met Before” circle on Google+, Twitter, rinse, repeat.
I walk past a familiar storefront in Kailua and imagine what the walls would say if they could talk: I seem to hear, “Free…We are free at last” in an elated, tear-laden whisper. I peek inside the window–situated between Foodland and Baskin-Robbins–now home to the brand-new Italian restaurant Prima and see sleek décor with a modern, minimalist appeal.
Most people don’t consider P.F. Chang’s high-pedigree.
Food & Drink / The term “Happy Hour” dates back to the 1920’s. Folks gathered nightly at their local speakeasy (illegal drinking establishments during Prohibition) to revel in a stiff cocktail or two before dining out where spirits were sure to be missing from the menu.
P opular deals on Groupon Honolulu: $25 worth of food for $12 from Le Cacao Bistro, $20 of pizza and drinks for $10 from Round Table Pizza, and $65 worth for $30 from Gyu-Kaku. If enough people jump on the bandwagon (and they do, in the thousands), you’ll have a set amount of time (24–48 hours) to take advantage of your score.
Aside from Sushi ii (pronounced “ee-ee,” Japanese for good), there’s probably no other restaurant in the world that has both sushi and pai‘ai on the menu. Not only that, but it’s impeccably fresh sushi–buttery uni, rich hamachi, even aku, the flavor cut with grated ginger and garlic and a touch of green onions.
Food & Drink / More on the Eat Local Challenge Wanna try 100 percent strictly local and reconnect with food traditions and culture in an affordable way? Town, Downtown and Heeia Pier Deli offer at least one 100 percent locally grown entrée.
To be honest, when I first took on the Eat Local Challenge, it wasn’t so much the green/sustainability/food security issues that drew me in. It was the adventure and challenge of it all that appealed to me, and through the experience, I’ve come up with my own personal motivations for eating local.
Pledged to take the Eat Local Challenge? This is the first in the Weekly’s series of guides to get you through the challenge: where to get groceries, eat out and drink.
There’s a swell on the horizon. Listen closely and you’ll hear it…AUDIO INVASION 2012.
It’s been a while, but a man donning dresses and surgical gowns, spouting rap-rock assaults over a bed of crunchy guitars, has drifted back into the sunbeam of MTV like a forgotten fleck of light. With the spastic delivery of a fallen patient from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Matt Shultz, lead singer of Cage The Elephant, is channeling the preeminent poster-child of grunge–Kurt Cobain.
Boys, beaches, bags of weed. In 2010, Best Coast blazed onto the music scene with a sealed Zip-lock of 7” singles that led the indie pop duo to roll out a fatty debut record called Crazy For You.
So what do you do if you’re a band who made it big in the L.A. hardcore-punk scene with several critically acclaimed self-titled albums under your belt?
Last Thursday, Foster the People sent news through their publicist that they won’t be performing at Audio Invasion 2012 due to “unforeseen circumstances.” (They’ll return to Hawaii on March 18.) Rumors are their two Grammy noms for Best Alternative Album and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance led to their cancellation. What a let down.
On Jan. 26, members of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transit (HART) Finance Committee mostly sat in silence while listening to an earful from Wynnie Joy-Hee of Mililani, who said that she had taken the bus all the way into town at 7am to address the issue of how her tax money is being spent.
HART intends to hire an executive director as early as March 1, 2012. The semi-autonomous agency is currently headed by interim executive director Toru Hamayasu, who is also a candidate for the permanent position The ED’s salary has been estimated to be within the range of $150,000 to $350,000, and HART has allotted $300,000 for the position thus far, Vice Chair Ivan Lui Kwan told the City Council Committee on Transportation on Jan.
Poor communication between the union and the teachers themselves, on top of a general sense of mistrust, were blamed for the overwhelming rejection of the Hawaii State Teacher’s Association (HSTA) contract last week–an unprecedented two-thirds voted against the union-backed contract. The president of the teachers’ union, Will Okabe, quickly took the blame, stating in a Jan.
The “war on terror” has taken a bite out of beach access on Kauai, where the Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) has kept five miles of westside shoreline off-limits since Sept. 11, 2001.
A bill that would require bags of roasted coffee sold in Hawaii to list the place where each type of coffee it contains was grown, and its percentage by weight in descending order, was introduced to the state legislature by Sen. Josh Green.
In September of 2011, the Weekly ran a piece highlighting one of Hawaii’s most dangerous invasive threats: the dreaded brown tree snake. Following up on Gov.
HART Board: The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transit will meet and take public testimony before convening an executive session. For more info, contact the project hotline at 566-2299 or e-mail [email: info].
[Jan. 18: “Cheap Advice”] Robert Kiyosaki did not talk, or attend.
[Dec. 21: “Underground Railroad”] The anti-rail pundits are right of course.
I propose that President Obama devote the remainder of his presidency to doing something useful, which would be to seek out all the crooks on Wall Street and Washington who have contributed to the sorry state of the economy in this country. Obviously he has not lived up to the expectations of a president and continues to perform as if Saul Alinksy was a member of his cabinet and the United Nations was his political platform.
[Dec. 21: “Underground Railroad”] Traffic follows commercial development.
[Dec. 21: “Underground Railroad”] To all those opposed to the “rail.” You are the very people who will be in gridlock on the freeway, not able to move.
I was delighted to read the new USDA guidelines requiring schools to serve meals with twice as many fruits and vegetables, more whole grains, less sodium and fat and no meat for breakfast. The guidelines were mandated by the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act signed by President Obama in December of 2010 and will go into effect within the next school year.
[Jan. 25: “Kyo-Ya-Ya”] Making an exception on zoning sets a dangerous precedence that will undoubtedly be followed by other properties.
The protests last year of Turtle Bay’s expansion plans highlight the challenge facing us in Hawaii. We need to find a way to balance the need for new, upgraded hotel and timeshare offerings that visitors are increasingly seeking with the desire by nearly all residents to protect the remaining undeveloped areas of the island.
[Jan. 25: “Gridlock”] If the plan is to create a second city in West Oahu, I would consider that to be an urban center.
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