Poi It's Not A Condiment, It Is Food For Life

Diagram Picture of Taro plant from http://www.bishopmuseium.org/

Poi is not a condiment, it's a staple in Hawaiian survival, the bulb or root section is utilized, and a technique used to mash it up into a pulp, and eventually into a smooth paste like texture is called pounding poi.

The leaves are used for lau lau, which is a steamed mixture of beef, pork, chicken, and butter fish, or cod. Not all of these ingredient are in it at one time, but a combination of two or three at times. The meats are wrapped in the taro leaves (luau leaves), and then wrapped with ti leaves, and tied at the top, and is either steamed in a steamer, or cooked underground in an imu.

So when you visit Hawaii, and you visit a local dig, and you see this on their menu board: Special Today Hawaiian Plate. Usually you'll have 2 scoops of rice, 1 scoop of macaroni salad, and one lau lau, and some kalua pork. And a small dish of poi made from taro is also served, and maybe a small container of lomi salmon.

Below a Hawaiian Plate from http://www.tripadvisor.com/

DA KITCHEN

Visting Maui? When you get here another great plate lunch dig is called Da Kitchen, and they are located in Lahaina @ the Wharf Cinnema Center on Front Street, the city bus has routes there. Also Da Kitchen is located in Kahului in the Triangle Square, and in Kihei in the Rainbow Mall across the Kamaole beach parks, they have ono or delicious plates. The Chicken Katsu is great, their Hawaiian Plates are humongous. I'm not too crazy for their chow fun for some reason it's sweet, but try them out, you won't be dissappointed.

Visit their website: http://www.da-kitchen.com/

No pictures available

Plate Lunches

(Note) This article is not to infringe on L&L Drive Inn but to help visitors to the islands find a true local diner. L&L Drive Inn is a legally copyrighted and trademarked business. Vist their website www.hawaiianbarbecue.com

Plate Lunches, Hawaii's claim to fame, plate lunches, 2 scoops of rice, 1 scoop of macaroni salad, and the entree, or entrees. For those of you not familiar with plate lunches, maybe you're from the mainland, plate lunches are something that you have to experience. If Philly has their cheese steak sandwiches, and Chicago their deep dish pizzas, well, Hawaii has her plates.

There is one local diner that's been around for a long time, and if you are traveling from the mainland or other parts of the world, you have to visit an L&L Drive Inn. They have locations all over Oahu, Maui, Kauai, and the Big Island of Hawaii, as well as in cities on the mainland in New York, Sacramento, San Jaoquin Valley, Bay Area, San Jose, Los Angeles, San Diego, Reno, Las Vegas, in Washington State, Oregon, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and big Texas, as well as New Zealand, and American Samoa.

I don't care what people may say about the quality of their food, because yes, there are other mom and pops, or local chefs that do great plate lunches, but you know what? You get a plate from L&L, and you can't go wrong. I'm telling you this, if you can't go wrong with a Star Bucks cup of coffee, you can't go wrong with an L&L plate lunch.

So for all you mainlanders reading this blogger, L&L is the place to get a good first time plate lunch fix, they season their foods simple, the way it's supposed to be.

Try their Hamburger Steak Plate, Chicken Katsu, Lau Lau, Saimin Noodles Soups, or their Chinese side Chopsticks Express and get Chow Mein, Orange Chicken, Egg Rolls that rivals Panda Express.

L&L Drive Inn is a copyright and trademark, this blog is not to infringe on their business, but to help visitors to the islands find a true local diner.

Please visit their website http://www.hawaiianbarbecue.com/

Super Bowl Foods

Steelers vs. Packers Super Bowl 2011 XLV

Okay foodies, what to make for your Super Bowl party? I'd say keep it simple, if you got a grill that's the best tool around. If you wanna make some stuff in your kitchen, then a deep fryer and oven will be the tools to make some awesome football foods.

Start off with how many knuckle heads are gonna show up at your place, let's say you'll have 20 people, mostly from the surrounding houses, and people associated with the office. So prepare for at least 30 peeps. Well, you be the judge, the recipes here are just for 4 people, you just multiply it.

FOR DA GRILL.

Salt and Garlic Chicken (Local Maui Style)

Photo: http://www.inmagine.com/

5 lbs. of thawed chicken thighs, skin off of course. Just sprinkle salt, garlic powder, and pepper all over the thighs, and let it sit at room temperature for at least 30 to 40 minutes, it will cook nicer than if it was cold.

Have a gas grill or charcoal grill hot at about medium high, grill skin side down for about 7 minutes, then flip it and do the same, make sure you see that the juices are coming out through the meat and skin, that's the indicator that it's cooking through, using a small pairing knife, trim next to the bone, if there's no bloody appearance, and not pink, it's good to go. Place in a foil pan, cover and keep warm.




Sweet Pork Chops
Photo: http://www.fotosearch.com/

4 lbs. of loin chops, rub it with this mixutre. (1 tbsp. of salt, 1 tbsp. of black pepper, 1 tsp. of coriander, 1 tsp. of Chinese 5 spice, 1 cup of brown sugar). Make certain that all of the mixture is mixed well, and then rub it into the chops.

Have a gas or charcoal grill at medium high heat, and grill each chop for about 8 minutes on each side, more if need be, less if need be, look for the juices coming out of the meat, use a small pairing knife to check the center if it's not pink.  Place in a foil pan and cover and keep warm.




Kalbi Ribs

Photo: http://www.plateoftheday.com/

Beef short ribs cut long and about 1/4 inch thick, so there's 3 bones in one strip, go to your meat man at the market to get these cuts, also known as Korean style short ribs.

Get about 4 lbs. and use this marinade.

2 cups of soy sauce
1/4 cup of sesame oil
1 3/4 cups of raw sugar
1/2 cup of honey
4 garlic cloves crushed
1 inch ginger smashed
1/4 cup of chopped scallions
1/2 cup of toasted sesame seeds

Mix well in a bowl, soak the ribs for about 4 hours or more before grilling. Heat up a gas or charcoal grill, and cook these for about 3-4 minutes each side, because these are beef ribs, I like these on the medium side and not overcooked.

IN THE KITCHEN

Buffalo Wings

Picture: http://www.wikimedia.org/

1 -5 lb. box of thawed wings, with that funky triangular part trimmed off, and the sharp side trimmed completely off. So you have two pieces. Salt and pepper each pieces, and bake them in an oven at 375 deg. F. for about 1 hour, or check for doneness by piercing the meat to check if not pink. Because the pieces are small and will be separated on the baking sheet, it may take a shorter time to cook.

For the hot sauce:

Well, let's face it, the best sports bars in the U.S. use ready made sauces, and at time the chefs will jack up the flavors. There are many hot sauces available, go and buy one that suits your needs.

Add some melted butter to the sauces to give it a nice shiny appeal. Hot sauces, BBQ sauces, any sauce you choose. Ranch with celery sticks are all common.

SLIDERS

Or tiny hamburgers on tiny buns.

Photo: http://www.kegerators.com/

3 lbs. of ground beef
2 tbsp. of steak sauce
1 egg beaten
1 tbsp. garlic salt
1 tsp. hot sauce
1 tsp. oyster sauce
2 tbsp. minced shallots
1/2 cup of bread crumbs

Mix well and make small patties, and place in oven and bake them for about 25 minutes at 350 deg F. or until it's cooked through. Serve on buns, top it with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, whatever you feel like. Provolone, Swiss, cheddar, is all good.

Well that's just a few ideas. And it's alright to get those frozen fries and cook them up too, frozen onion rings, it's all good and simple, why work too hard? You gotta enjoy da game!


Steelers all da way!

PAD THAI (Thai Noodle Dish)

For you foodies out there that are wondering "What is Pad Thai?" well, it's a spicy Thai style noodle dish. The utilization of thin rice noodles, you can find in Asian food marts, is the ones to buy, usually it is sold in packages and it is dried. When you use these dried gluten free noodles, you'll need to soak them in very warm water to soften. Other ingredients are either tofu, or chicken pieces or slices, garlic, soy sauce, fish sauce, fresh bean sprouts, eggs, slices of green onions, fresh coriander, chicken broth, chopped peanuts, black pepper freshly ground.

The sauce is made up of tamarind paste, fish sauce, chili sauce, and brown sugar.

Pad Thai is a very very popular dish in Thai restaurants, like Chow Mein is in Cantonese restaurants, or a pasta dish in an Italian dig, you have to sample this simple dish. The first thing the chefs do is of course soak the rice noodles in warm water to soften about 20-30 minutes. Then they heat up some oil and saute the garlic, and chicken or the tofu, then they add in some eggs and work it into the wok, then the other ingredients are added in then the sauce. Then it is plated and garnished with peanuts and black pepper, and green onions. (Photo from http://www.thaielephantdestin.com/)

KLUAY BUAT CHEE Thai Dessert

Thai noodles have been popular in the U.S. of a lot of years, in fact decades, or even.... centuries? When did the first Thai restaurant open up in the U.S.? I give up I'm trying to google it, and it's not giving me what I need. Anyhow, let's make believe the first one opened up many many years ago in some suburb. Okay so that's the answer.

What would a foodie find in a Thai dig? Well noodles for one, a typical Thai dig will have stir fries, like most Asian restaurants, the wok is utilized no just for Chinese cooking. Thai foods are spicy, they utilize lots of peppers, fish sauces, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, peanuts, sesames. Almost like Korean and Chinese, and in some instances Filipino foods. But Thai and Vietnamese foods have gained tremendous popularity, but let us stick to Thai foods. What would you want to try when you're at a Thai dig?

Well there's all kinds of goodies, how about dessert first? Maybe you got the munchies and want something sweet? How about Kluay Buat Chee it is a sweet simple treat, made of warm bananas, if you like classic desserts like Bananas Fosters, well, this Thai creation is a love relationship for sure, minus flambe with rum. Bananas are heated with cococnut milk, salt and sugar, the cooks reduce the milk with the sugar till the sugar dissolves, and the bananas are served with remaining milk into dessert bowls. Wow! Gots ta have dat!

Picture from an awesome site
http://www.thaifoodplus.com/

CUSTARD BASICS

Being a foodie, you just gots ta know how to make stuff from scratch, if you're a foodie that cooks, so here's a simple custard that all those culinary students learn to do. Get out your ramekins.

Preheat oven to 350 deg. F.

Get a baking pan large enough to fit several small ramekins that will hold the custard, and fill it half way with warm water.

1 1/4 cups of raw sugar
3 1/4 cups of whole milk
1 tsp. salt
5 eggs beaten
1 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Mix the milk and raw sugar really well, use a whisk, add in salt and whisk.
2. Take the 5 eggs, beatened, and mix it with the milk mixture, add in vanilla exract, mix well.
3. Pour contents into ramekins.
4. Place ramekins into baking pan, then place pan into oven, and bake for about 30 minutes or until the insides are firm. When done, set on counter let cool.

Photo newscientist.com