ULUA AND FERN SHOOTS

The fierce and ultimate catch from shore, that silvery fish that local brothers, and sisters too want to capture, that Trevally (Ulua) that puts up a mean fight. The meat is firm but succulent, terrific for frying, battering, sauteeing, even raw. Nope, never caught one, I'm a lousy fisherman, but Ulua is a very tasty fish. The meat is light flesh, and it is a very very good eat. Check this picture of an Ulua swimming, look at his head, he's like a pitbull in the water. These buddies can go fast underwater, their mouths are kind of jaw ee, I mean, they got some jaw going on.

On any given weekend, if you live in Hawaii, and you are driving on the highway near the coastline, you are bound to see an army of Ulua fishermen with their long ass poles, and huge reels, just trying to land an Ulua in the upper 80 lbs. class. This is a prize fish baby! Look at him, this dude here in the picture, he's got some good eating filets just ready to be sliced, of course... you gotta catch him first, because Ulua is not a weekling, no not at all, he is a fighter. Imagine if Ulua was like a killer fish? That would be crazy, totally crazy.

Here is a recipe for Ulua and Fern Shoots

1- Ulua filet about 9 oz. (dip it in infused oil)

Recipe for infused oil:

3 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. white pepper
1 tsp. onion powder

Mix this well, then place filet of Ulua in it and let it marinade for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Take the fern shoots, and clean out the bottoms, trim them if you have to of any scarred areas. If the shoots are long cut them in half if not leave them whole. Place the fern shoots (a good handful) and poach them in hot water for about 1 minute it should soften some.

Then place in a strainer and run cold water over it to stop the cooking process, then set it in a bowl.

In the bowl, sprinkle some sea salt, some vinegar, pepper, some garlic cloves, some soy sauce, and toss well.

Garnish:
6 cherry tomatoes, sliced in half.

Heat up a nonstick pan with canola oil for sauteeing, then add in the Ulua filet with marinade, sautee about 2-4 minutes per side, when done remove and plate, return pan to stove over medium high heat, then add in the shoots, and sautee for about 1 minute, this will give the shoots some flavor of the Ulua.

Place the filet of Ulua over the shoots, garnish with sliced cherry tomatoes.


Ulua filets, fleshy pink

RON'S FISH STEW

Here is a healthy recipe for a fish stew, and you can purchase these ingredients in any supermarket, but if you are organic savvy, you may need to get into a specialty store, like a Whole Foods or an all natural foods store.

RON'S FISH STEW

2 lbs. of shrimp, deveined
3 lbs. of cod, (use whole, it will get tender and flake apart)
1 lb. calamari rings
6 crushed garlic cloves
1/4 cup of canola oil.

Step one: Heat up canola oil in a pot, sautee the garlic until brown, then sautee the seafoods until it turns color.

Additionals;

4 cups of vegetable broth low sodium
1 large round sweet onion, sliced thin
2 medium potatoes cubed
1 large carrot diced

Step two: Add all of the veg. broth, onion, potatoes, carrots into pot and bring to a boil, then lower to simmer, and cover, cook for about 30 minutes.

Kale 1 bunch
Green Beans 2 cups chopped
Pinch of Coriander
Pinceh of Sage
Pinch of Parsley
Pinch of Cumin

Step three: Add in the Kale and green beans, and seasons, simmer for a few minutes,

Then add salt and pepper to taste

Serve with rice or bread.

Shrimp

Cod Steaks (usually in frozen foods section)

MACADAMIA NUT CRUSTED FISH IS GETTIN OLD

My whole thing about the visitor industry and the retaurants that cater to them is that oh so popular Mac Nut Crusted Fish... Mahi, Ahi, Ono, whatever-well that's cool, chefs got to have that on the menu for the visitors, but there's so much more to fish than crusting it with nuts. To me nuts go great with freeking ice cream sundaes, or for candies, sorry man, that's juss meeee!

You want a good fish thing, go to Mark Ellman's Mala Ocean Tavern and get the Ahi Burger, that's a nuts broke da mouth burger, and a different take on fish done here in the islands. As far as restaurants are concerned. Keep your nuts to yourselves ha ha.

My favorite man, this is the nutsest burger in town, healthier than your BK or Mickey Ds grease burgers, Mala Ocean Tavern's Ahi burger is fresh ground ahi, with herbs and spices, whole wheat bun, lettuce, tomatoes, tartar sauce & frites. What are frites? It is pronounced FREETS it's like fries. It's a French word out of Quebec.

If you are a visitor, skip that dig with crusted mahi, and head to my friend Mark Ellman's dig Mala Ocean Tavern on Front Street behind Safeway, and in Wailea in the Wailea Marriott.

Ono (delicious) food!

And get his book Practice Aloha an awesome book with awesome stories and recipes from some unique people, oh yeah Mark allowed me to put an omelet recipe in the book, and that book is local, so if your are a visitor, checking out this blog, Da Kine place to go? Mala Ocean Tavern the best fish.

STAR NOODLES SO WHAT IS IT GOOD OR BAD?

Star Noodles up above the Lahaina Gateway Shopping Center is owned by the same peeps that formed the Old Lahaina Luau, and Aloha Mixed Plate. But everyone is having contrasting opinions of the joint, and here it is.

Junior: Makawao- I came ova fo grine, da food is ono, but not enough on da plate, not my kind of place, but da food is ono.

Kawika: Lahaina- Da food is good, but the portions isn't dat great for the prices they charge.

Wendle: Kahului- I been in the restaurant biz for a long time, I think they have a great concept, it isn't your typical plate lunch restaurant, so you have to expect this place to be a little different. The food is very very good if you ask me, I definitely have no complaints.

Susan: Lahaina- I love Star Noodles, it is a different concept, and the noodles are fresh, it's excellent, I'll highly recommend this restaurant.

Jan: Napili- Well, when I went there with some friends, we had some noodles, and it was just okay, I mean it was good, but I don't know what all the fuss was about, it was okay, I don't know if I'll go back there, maybe.

Albert: Lahaina- I think the food is good, but the price doesn't suit me, but if I get extra kala, I'll go back.

Milly: Honokowai- Great food!

CRISPY PORK WITH ONIONS

Crispy Pork w/ Onions

Here is the plantation camp style dinners of yesteryear, the hogs that were used were raised by neighbors, and was actually a tastier kind of meat than the mass produced hogs (pork) we consume today. Today the pork that we purchase are filled with water and sodium, negating the true flavor of natural pork meat. Unless you can get fresh pork from a local farmer, or a Kurobuta quality pork which is like Kobe beef, where the whole hog is tender with loose muscles, you're stuck with supermarket grade pork which is very variable. Look for pinkish meat, whitish fats, once you see cloudy meats, don't bother buying it, it is definitely stale.

So here my friends is a simple Crispy Pork w/ Onions recipe, I once had a friend who was from the east coast and his family is Italian, and he made this almost like how my dad used to. This is a return recipe from before, if you've seen it on my website before, I keep getting requests for it so here it is again.

2-3 pounds of pork belly, sliced into cubes, and deep fried until very cripsy and almost burnt.

Place it in a mixing bowl, non reactive, a stainless steel bowl or glass bowl will suffice.

Sprinkle generous amounts of Hawaiian Salt or Kosher Salt, generous amounts of black pepper,
some smashed garlic cloves, some round onions, sliced thin. maybe some scallions too. And apple cider vinegar, sprinkle it into the pork and mix it up, taste it until you have ther right flavors. It is more of a salty/sour dish.


Or you can roast a pork belly and slice it like this picture

CHINESE FOOD BY REGION

For you foodies out there who think that Chinese food is just food that is sliced thin, and cooked in a super hot wok with spices is all it is, think again. Chinese food encompasses the different regions of the China landscape. For instance, take a look at this whole world, it is pretty vast, and foods that we experience comes from people, many different kinds, from different places. Here in Hawaii, the melting pot of the Pacific, different people from different countries brought their style of cooking, ingredients and lifestyle and shared it with everyone else. So herbs and spices used in Portuguese cooking was shared with every other ethnic group, and Japanese shared their kinds of foods with everyone, well you get the picture.

Chinese food is very contrasting depending on the region you are in in China, there were lots of trading going on in China, for instance, people near the ocean had seafood, but did not have any pork or foul. So inland people traded with coastal people. Spices were used differently as well, some regions utilized hot and spicey ingredients, some regions used more of a salty, or sweet and sour variety. Let's get into Chinese Regional Cuisine, and what is to be expected.

First let's look at what we eat here in America, the Chinese food that is found in most shopping centers, around the block hole in the walls, and take outs, more than likely it is Cantonese style of Chinese cooking. Cantonese style brought us dim sum, chop suey, foods like that we are so used to eating at Golden Dragon, Golden Palace, or Golden whatever.

The reasons why the first style of Chinese cooking was like it was here in America was because most of the Canton cooks could not find Chinese spices here, and they had to use western herbs and spices to make their foods from their homeland. Cantonese cooking is totally wok based, for most Chinese kitchens do not have ovens or salamanders or grills.

Other types of Chinese cooking is the hot and spicey types, most common is the Szechuan style, where traders from other parts of the continent would travel through these districts and share spices more common in Indian cooking, and later Spanish settlers introduced hot peppers, which cooks utilized, so over the centuries, Szechuan cooking has been known for hot and spicey Chinese. Kung Pao Beef or Chicken is one dish you could find for certain in a Szechuan restaurant, any stir fry will have a spicey condiment in it, that's what their style is known for.

Northern China or Peking style of cooking, because of the dry hot summers and fierce cold winters, Peking cooking uses noodles to its maximum, and wheat flour to make steamed dumplings, wheat is more of staple in Peking than rice. Peking roasted duck, Mongolian Hot Pot, Mu Shu Pork are famous Peking style dishes of the menu.

Though there are more to this fact, this is just a tickler for you foodies who want to delve into Chinese food. Find a Chinese dig and see what their menu is like, talk to the managers and ask them what style do they focus on, it maybe just Cantonese, or a combination of Cantonese and Szechuan. It is an interesting animal Chinese cuisine, just the ingredients that are used will dictate what style it is.

It is common to find a Chinese restaurant here in the western hemisphere to have other American-ized dishes, like grilled t-bone steak for instance, just a reminder of how people from all over the world are fusing other types and styles of food to their menu or kitchen tables, we continue in this time of life to fuse, fuse and fuse.

So what did we learn from this very short article?

There's Americanized Chinese food, there's hot and spicey Chinese food, and a whole lot more of Chinese food. But despite all this rhetoric, to me I have to say this, Chinese food no matter where it originated is still one of my favorite kinds, it is done simple and to the point, like how most of us want answers in life, simple to the point, do not jerk us around or we'll be bloody pissed! Just make it to the point, cut to the chase so we can enjoy it, be it sweet and sour, with lots and lots of noodles, or hot and spicey, just make it good and to the point, and we are all happy campers, or happy foodies.


Mu Shu Pork usually is done with pancakes made from scratch, this cook used a flour tortilla which does the job if you can't make pancakes.

The right way to make Mu Shu Pork:

1 lb. of pork tenderloin cut into strips
Marinade:
1/4 cup of dark soy sauce
1/8 cup of dry sherry
1 tbsp. brown sugar
3 tsp. of cornstarch
Mix marinade well and put the pork strips inside

For the sauce:
4 tbsp. water
4 tbsp. chicken broth
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. dry sherry
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. sesame oil
3 tsp. cornstarch

4-5 dried mushrooms (soaked until soft and squeezed out of excess water)
3/4 cup canned bamboo shoots
2 scallions
1 inch ginger sliced thin
2 eggs
1 tsp. salt
oil for frying
2 tsp. sesame oil

1. Make sure that the pork marinates for about half an hour or so
2. Mix the sauce ingredients in the order it is written
3. Slice the mushrooms, bamboo shoots, scallions and set aside
4. Mix the eggs with salt well.
5. Heat up wok with ginger and oil, stir fry the pork until cooked and remove.
6. Heat up wok again, with some oil, and fry the egg and remove.
7. Heat up wok add in the cooked pork, eggs, sauce and the sliced mushrooms, bamboo shoots, scallions, and add in sesame oil, stir fry together to heat up, remove. Use this to fill Mandarin pancakes, serve with hoisin sauce.

A simple way to make the pancakes that works pretty good is to use regular breakfast pancake mix, but water it down so it is thin like crepes, cook several of these up and use it as a wrap.

LACK OF GOOD DINERS ON MAUI

There's a lack of home cooking diners on Maui, I mean a really cool place that's open late, that serves out of your mind good good food. There a places people go to in Wailuku and Kahului, and I don't need to name these places because they're good, no complaints really. But I guess this isn't Honolulu, or Vegas, or any big city where food can be eaten at any time of the day. I'd like to have an awesome diner in Lahaina, where friends can get together and eat saimin, chow fun, or a juicy T-bone steak at 1:00 am. But there's non, zero.

If I was a business man with lots of cash, I'd open up a joint, a good size joint that can seat at least 70 people, booths, and some stools for counter service, maybe 12 right in a row, and this place I envision will have monitors where the customers can watch the cooks in action, and the cooks have to put on a show, well, maybe not tossing knives and standing on their heads to cook an omelet, but to smile, and just make the customers happy. They'd have a microphone, and if Judy wants a Loco Moco, the cooks will make it, and maybe do a play by play such as: "Hi Judy, I got the egg right here in the pan, and its coming, its coming, and it slid on top of that juicy Maui Cattle Company's burger, and here comes the homemade brown gravy Judy!" I bet the cooks be making some tips, for one thing it won't be boring. But I can see some guy telling the cooks to shut up and just cook the damned food. Oh well, just a thought.

My diner would be simple, the menu simple, the decor simple, nothing fancy, just simple good food where people can come in and relax and talk story. Got to have a juke box, got to have music playing in there. No live bands, no live guitar dude, just a simple place to eat.

How many times, parents just want to converse with friends, and eat maybe a pie, and have coffee, or just a sandwich or spaghetti, ice cream,  and maybe some stir fry or soup. A diner like this is kind of old school, but to me, there's nothing wrong with old school diners. Simplistics can't be found these days, people want to be complicated, why? Don't we want simple any more?

I'd like to eat a homemade apple pie once in a while, and see the local people enjoying what I'm enjoying, maybe not an apple pie, but a casual evening out, eating simple food, what's wrong with that man? Someone open a diner like this, where junior can eat an egg salad sandwich, and Sara the vegan can eat an avacado raw pie, uncle Freddy can eat a juicy steak with sauteed onions, Al can eat the meatloaf. There's no place like this in Lahaina, none whatsoever.

Okay I'll draw up a business plan and see what comes of it- would be nice to own a joint like this, and put people to work, especially local teens, set them on a right track, cater to the everyday folks if you know what I mean, and I know I can come up with food that can kick IHOPs ass! I'll call in RHOP, Ron's House of Peeps.