ZUSHI JAPANESE FOOD LAHAINA MAUI

The restaurant's name is Zushi, a local Japanese dive that's been around a long time here on Maui's west side. The menu is small, and the owner (does not want her picture taken or name revealed) is a vey friendly Japanese woman that handles duties including, order taker, prep cook, and chef, and cashier. It is not uncommon to see a line out the door from around 11:30 am to about 1pm during the weekdays, and busy again around 5:30 to 7:30 pm for the dinner crowd.

This is a one woman operation, and what you really need to do is dine there for full appreciation, sometimes we'll order and take the food somewhere like the beach and eat. Some of the local faves there are her Tempura dishes, or the Deep Fried Chicken Teri, complete plates with rice and macaroni salad, and a bowl of miso soup. So good and the prices are reasonable.

When the owner hired me to do this blog, she didn't want me to take any pictures, however if you do go to Yelp, there are some pirate photos, despite me not being allowed to take photos, I can write about her menu and tell you what you have to get. Okay I already talked about the Deep Fried Chicken Teri and the Tempura Dishes, so here are the rest...

Chicken Katsu- Her breaded (with panko) chicken katsu is one of the best on island or anywhere, it is not heavy or greasy, just right, flaky, awesome tasting, good portions, again rice and mac salad with miso soup too. $7.55

Katsu Curry- Chicken Katsu with a curry sauce (gravy), for less than $9.00, it's a winner, so simple.

The Lady's Special- This is another simple and very popular plate, it comes with Shrimp Tempura, California Roll, Miso Soup, Rice and Mac Salad $8.50

Oyako Don- Simmered chicken in rice bowl for less than $8.00 is another favorite.

Unagi Bento- If you love fresh water eel, (Unagi), she does have the Unagi Bento for dinner at $12.00, this is another Japanese favorite local Maui style.

* Dinners are served with Green Salad, Macaroni Salad, Namasu, Sushi, Miso Soup & Rice.

Hours of operation

SUNDAY: CLOSED
MONDAY- SATURDAY: LUNCH 11am - 2pm  DINNER: 5pm- 8pm.

ZUSHI INC.
840 Wainee St. Ste G3
Lahaina, HI 96761
808-667-5142

Maui's Ruby's Diner- Fried Egg Sandwich w/ Turkey Sausage

NOTE: THIS IS HUMOR WRITING FOLKS.

THE FOOD AT RUBY'S IS GREAT, LOVE IT, PRICES ARE REASONABLE, SO IF YOU ARE NOT INTO HUMOR MAYBE DON'T READ THIS! HOWEVER IF YOU DO ENJOY.

ONCE AGAIN, KIRK AND STAFF AT RUBY'S DINER IN QUEEN KAAHUMANU IS THE BOMB! GREAT FOOD, GREAT SERVICE.

My love for breakfast, hot coffee, fresh Wall Street Journal, o.j., toast with real butter, not that fake ass shit! Eggs Benedict, crisp bacon on the side, hash browns, corned beef hash. Love that high cholesterol diets for breakfast man. The only time a cease to eat that type of breakfast is if I'm catching a flight to Argentina or Frankfurt for business, and the flight is a couple hours away, I'll be pooping all over the place, a hearty breakfast like this needs to be eaten when you have the luxury to take a crap at your leisure, preferably at home and not in some public restroom.

On this day 7/12/13, had a meeting with some friends discussing funds, you know funds as in "I need f....ing money!" Yeah that kind..funds.

So Al tells me "So what you need the funds for?"

"Well Al, I was thinking buy some cocaine, and resell em for profit, what you think?"

"Hmmm..not a bad idea just don't get caught."

Then he says, "Hey Ron let's go to Ruby's Diner and eat."

I was like "No shit? Eat? Shit yeah I'll eat!!!! And eat, and eat, and eat!!!"

So when we get there it was moderately full, locals mostly since it is summer vay cay time. To the left of us there was a no doubt a Christian family, when they got their meals, they all bowed their heads in prayer, I thought it was cool, hey I'd rather see someone praying than someone standing up on their chairs and say, "F...k Yeah!!!! Yee Ha! After this we gonna kill some ......ggaz" Nope don't want that, these folks were praying nicely. And then a kind of washed up hippy couple sat down, I wanted to tell them, "Hey there's no hummus here."

So Al he gets a Cobb Salad, the salad was named after Elmer Cobb, that cartoon character from Bugs Bunny...Oh no that's Elmer Fudd not Cobb. Oh well, hey I'm almost 50 my brains going dead. But Al has a Cobb Salad.

Price for this Cobb Salad? $3,899.99 plates optional.

And then when it was my turn to order, like a little kid excited because the guy playing Santa just got busted for possession of a Glock 9MM, loaded on his way to center stage at the mall, I was like, "Mam, mam, can I gets me the Fried Egg Sandwich with Turkey Sausage mam?" The waitress was like, "Sure young man."

And this was it, price? $1,045.39 plates optional comes with a Ruby's Diner Radio Controlled Drone with bombs, or a Ruby's Diner Syringe (LSD) optional.

Copyright 2013

Photos and text are owned by Ron Sambrano, usage of material without written consent from Ron Sambrano is prohibited.

LAS VEGAS CONSIDERED THE 9TH ISLAND

My next project will be to trek over to Las Vegas, Nevada and visit locals and talk to them about food. Locals meaning any person with ties to Hawaii, and the question many ask of Hawaiians in Vegas is this, "With a lot of different cuisines that are very good, why are you looking for a Loco Moco, or Dry Mein?" Well that's why I'm trekking to the so-called 9th Island in August, to do just that figure out why locals still want local food on the mainland.

The local food craze is gaining ground across the U.S. and in other countries, just recently L&L BBQ opened in New Zealand. What? That's right New Zealanders are getting a taste of that local plate lunch, it is happening, it is becoming bigger than the taco and burrito. Why do you figure? Local Hawaiian style foods encompass almost every Asian culture, locals love to delve in Japanese, with the udon noodles, saimin, ramen, miso ahi, sukiyaki. The Chinese, with dim sum, won ton soups, roasted duck, kau yuk. The Filipinos with pork adobo, pinacbet, pancit, pork and peas, lechon, and escebeche. The Koreans with kalbi barbecue, kim chi, meat jun. And other countries are represented in Hawaii, the Portuguese, with the bean soup, sweet bread, malasadas. And new comers from other European countries that injected and fused their styles such as Italian, Greek, German, French, English, you name it, local Hawaiian style is global, and it is taking off.

Last season on the Bravo Network, Chef Sheldon Simeon represented Hawaii well, if you haven't heard of him, he was the Executive Chef at Star Noodle. And just recently my good friend Chef Adam Tabura and his buds filmed their Great Food Truck Race for the Food Network, so local foods are gaining such a huge popularity.

Over the past few years having our own local cooking show on Akaku T.V. we did a lot of different ethnic foods that got people to really stop and think..."That's all to it?" I get asked a lot about local cooking, since I been doing it since I was a kid, it's really simple. Simple is intriguing, simple rules the school, simple good foods.

And when you throw in the location Hawaii...people go nuts, absolutely nuts. So my next trip to Las Vegas I'll be blogging my heart out for my bloggies who follow me. I'll go into as many local style dives I can find, and talk to as many people as I can and post pictures of the delicious "ono" foods too.

Now it's getting the backing to get there.

Until then- Keep in touch here on chefsambrano.blogspot.com- because Vegas and Hawaii's pipeline will never rupture. 

LOW GLYCEMIC SWEET & SOUR GARLIC SHRIMP

This is for Geri, a recipe for sugar free Sweet & Sour Garlic Shrimp.

1 lb. medium size shrimp, cleaned and shelled, tail on or off.
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. crushed garlic (to add in oil)
3 tbsp. crushed garlic (to add in as shrimp is cooked)
1/2 tsp. chopped parsley
2 tbsp. soy sauce

Sweet & Sour Sauce

1/2 cup of vinegar (white)
3 tbsp. agave nectar (or add more)
1/4 tsp. minced ginger
1/2 tsp. turmeric

Slurry
1 1/2 tbsp. corn starch
3 tbsp. of water
(Mix this in a small cup, to add in before done cooking to thicken the sauce.

1 tbsp. minced green onions for garnish.

Directions:

1. Heat up a medium size wok over medium high heat with vegetable oil, after 2 minutes or until hot. Add in1 tsp. garlic, stir for about 15 seconds, add in the shrimp, and cook until slightly turns pink.

2. Add in the 3 tbsp. of garlic, and the parsley, and the soy sauce, stir fry about 2 minutes.

3. Add in the sweet and sour sauce, and cook until it bubbles, immediately add in the slurry, cook until thickens. Platter and garnish with green onions.

Note: Agave syrup comes from the agave plant, and is low in glycemic and is used by lots of chefs that cook for diabetic patients.

Please check with your professional care giver and or dietician before trying this recipe. 

MAC & CHEESE

Here is a simple mac & cheese recipe that you can also add some chopped Portuguese sausage. Ron's style.

1 package macaroni, cooked slightly done. Why? Because it will cook twice, once when you boil it, and again when it is baked with the sauce and cheese.

(Once cooked you may not utilize all of it because it doubles in size)

10 oz. mild Portuguese sausage, chopped fine.

3 cups of half and half

2 cups of chicken broth low sodium.

1 pound of shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 tsp. of nutmeg

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. white pepper

1/2 tsp. parsley flakes

Roux (Mix the two together)

1 stick of butter low salt

4 tbsp. all purpose flour

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. F

2. Take the drained macaroni, enough to fill casserole pan, and add in the Portuguese sausage, nutmeg, salt, white pepper, parsley flakes, and toss to coat.

3. Make the sauce, heat up a sauce pan over medium heat, and heat up the half and half until slightly bubbling, keep stirring, add in the roux and cook until slightly thickens. Add in the mozzarella and melt.

4. Add the sauce to the pan and cover all the noodles, top with bread crumbs for a golden presentation.

5. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until the tops are browned.

BREADED TERIYAKI MAUI STYLE AT TASTY CRUST RESTAURANT

If you are looking for some good Breaded Teriyaki Beef with 2 scoops of rice and a scoop of creamy macaroni salad, stop by Tasty Crust in Wailuku, Maui. Four pieces of thin sliced beef, marinated in sweet teriyaki sauce and breaded and deep fried to perfection, and 2 scoops of hot rice with that macaroni salad hits the spot even during the breakfast hours before 10 am, perfect, local style is lunch during breakfast.

Maybe you'll be visiting Maui for the first time and you are wondering where the locals go, we hit Tasty Crust, and their pancakes are fluffy. The restaurant is an old building and renovated, it's a throw back to like the 50s style drive inns, I remember going there after shopping with my parents and stopping there on the way back to Lahaina which is a 30 minute drive. So to get us kids from getting all cranky we stopped at Tasty Crust for some food. The food is simple home style cooking, nothing fancy the way we like it. If we want fancy Maui has lots of those all over the place, but for simple foods Tasty Crust is just right on!

Located at 1770 Mill Street, Wailuku, HI 96793; 808-244-0845 (inexpensive); 
M-6am-3pm T, Wed, Thrs, 6a-10pm; Fr, Sa-6am-11pm; Sun-6am-10pm

PAULA DEEN THE N WORD? NOOOOOOOOOOO

Okay Paula Deen was never my favorite t.v. chef, but I did however love her rich recipes the ones that would give you a f..... heart attack! However, the Food Network will let this t.v. personality go after a long time on the air. Let's break this down.

1. Under oath, she was asked if she ever used the N word, she said she did, but it was a long time ago. 

2. Blacks use the N word, but if it's a white rich lady using it, then no good.

3. Saturday Night Live writers will have a blast with this one.

4. David Letterman will have a blast with this one.

5. Jay Leno will have a blast with this one.

6. I'm having a blast with this one.

7. Now she can hang with Martha Stewart and learn how to rebound, remember Martha went to prison?

8. Black cooks may take her spot, but they're allowed to say "Whitey, or Honkey"

9. Paula Deen will make several million telling her story to TMZ, and then writing a book, only in America.

10. She can move to Hawaii, love the natives, and have a farm like Oprah.

All in all, she made a mistake, firing her was justified I guess, but there's so much more violent stuff out there...like...home invasions, car jacking, stuff like that...but Paula made a mistake, it was a bad thing, but she deserves it...in these times, when Jackie Robinson was remembered with a movie about him, we can't have that, and I really feel the Food Network did a good job letting her go...I mean if I was white and said the N word, that would be bad. Real bad.

Though everyone has said something dumb in the past, myself included. But we're only human, and despite I'm not a Paula Deen fan, she did touch lives in the foodie world...she can't be all that bad can she? But for sure I wouldn't trespass on her property, my skin's brown, she may look friendly on camera, but man...imagine if she had a shotgun in hand and I was trespassing on her land?

"Hey Boy!"
"Me?"
"Yeah you you brown skin ______ a _____! Git off my _____ land before I blow your N____ head off you son of a ________!!!!"
"Sorry mam! My name is Ron, and I'm Filipino that's why my skins brown, please don't shoot!"

copyright 2013 TM