The Man Behind Shokudo’s Popular Honey Toast
He created Shokudo, Búho and, now, Bread + Butter.
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Dining Editor Mari Taketa spearheads coverage of the city’s dining scene for HONOLULU Magazine and its digital food blog, Frolic Hawai‘i. A 10-year veteran of traditional journalism, she traded in a career at The Associated Press in Tokyo and Hawai‘i Business Magazine for nonprofit adoption work in Ho Chi Minh City. Food brought her back to journalism, starting with Metromix Honolulu, The Honolulu Advertiser, Hana Hou and now HONOLULU. She is also excited by travel and periodically attempts to learn new languages.
He created Shokudo, Búho and, now, Bread + Butter.
UPDATE: The Feb. 17 natto dinner is sold out. Don’t cry, natto lovers, we hope to have another in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned to Frolic!Ika natto shiso tempura of squid, okra, tobiko, natto and green onion wrapped in…
I grew a tomato plant on my back porch last year. It was either that or keep blowing $20 a week on Beretania Safeway’s sweet, gargantuan, mainland-grown heirlooms at $5.99 a pound, which in my mind cost even more because…
Café Maharani delivers rich flavors from Northern India.
Not Reese’s: Frozen Waialua chocolate peanut butter cup with chocolate mousse. — Photo by Olivier Koning “We’re gonna do a vertical tasting of different chocolates,” MW Restaurant’s Michelle Karr-Ueoka was saying. That was it. Vertical tasting of anything, I’m in.…
The Mō‘ili‘ili gastropub that won first-place Hale ‘Aina awards for best beer program and best cocktails.
One of Grondin’s best-selling entrées is also the most complicated to make.
First things first: Starting Monday, Pig and the Lady is raising the dessert bar with new creations by Vintage Cave’s original pastry chef. Rachel Murai, the homegrown Nobu Waikiki alum hand-picked by former Cave chef Chris Kajioka “because she’s crazy.…
A Lucky Modern Buddha Belly put 1,000 diners poolside at The Modern Honolulu Thursday night, grazing at 14 star-chef-studded stations and sipping Asian-inspired cocktails and wines poured by the vintners themselves. Spotted: Legions of off-duty chefs, including the ponytailed Hubert…
We’ve rounded up the best spots to avoid gluten on Oahu.
Did we skip your favorite spot? Here's a quick guide with some general rules of thumb to avoid gluten, whatever kind of restaurant you end up at. Turns out some cuisines make it easier than others.
Another Natto Day dinner is in the books, and while the stink may have faded and the sticky-gummy slime been washed from our lips, the glorious afterglow lingers.The place: Pig and the Lady. The time: Sunday night. The chefs: Robert…
It’s a year now since Kelvin Shimazu left this earth, and left it a happier place, thanks to the shave ice shop he put on the map with its wild and wacky flavors. I stopped in the other day and…
UPDATE, 7/4: The Hard-Core Natto Dinner is SOLD OUT.At long last, dinner. Hard-core natto, this year’s Natto Day* feast by Ethel’s Grill, happens Sunday, July 13. And if you’ve ever been to Ethel’s Grill, you know a little of what…
Ah, summer! Languid days, south shore swells … and here in Honolulu, the musical crackle of 370 sake bottles being opened. The Joy of Sake returns to the Hawaii Convention Center on July 18 with 370 sakes from all over…
Heads up, Honolulu: There’s a new rooftop lounge coming to Waikiki, and it’s not Skybar. Buho Cocina y Cantina soft-opens this month atop the Waikiki Shopping Plaza with a menu of contemporary upscale Mexican food, a tequila bar and Mexican…
Some “weird facts” I found about natto on foodista.com have convinced me Honolulu is ready:Some Japanese restaurants even make sushi rolls with natto. — Get outta here. Next you’ll be telling me there’s even natto spaghetti.Those with adventurous palates can…
Please. A bit of respect for the maligned.Ever since Myong Choi came out with his “Fed up with foodies” rant, people have been gushing in agreement. A few have even gushed to me. Well delivered, Myong. Great for the new…
If, at a bon dance, you’ve seen men with drums leaping and twirling, the air pulsing with their energy, chances are you’ve seen eisa. It’s exhilarating, this uniquely Okinawan drumming style, and often martial, so that sometimes they’re drumming and…
He’s back: Three months after closing Taste Table, the awesomely quirky popup incubator that changed out restaurants every day of the week, Mark “Gooch” Noguchi is opening a new place on Auahi. Snackbox, a kiosk inside Lauren Makk’s Pad Hawaii,…
Each month Field Notes explores Honolulu’s vibrant and varied scenes and subcultures. This month: Weekday Afternoons at Manoa Pool.
Meatball ◄ Back Next ► Picture 1 of 40 First you choose your meatball, then your topping, then your starch (or greens). At Meatball, it's all about the ... what else? Six different kinds (beef, chicken, veg, etc.) can be…
Nothing more than $6.
It’s plenty of years since I spent time on Maui, plenty of years since my sis lived in Kihei and Kula and I cruised those points and more. That prettiest of drives from Paia to Makawao, the tall scented forests…
First look: W Bistro ◄ Back Next ► Picture 1 of 10 This space, the old Le Guignol space in the medical building at Victoria and King streets: W Bistro at 1010 opened here in late January. The theme is…
NOTE: Baked goods sale locations in last paragraph have been updated.—@aliyoko, who goes by the name Alison Yokouchi and makes desserts on occasion for Pig and the Lady, leaned in conspiratorially. “Three of us are getting together to do a…
Kakaako’s Taste Table ends its run on Auahi Street tonight, and any way you look at it, it’s been a remarkable run. Its beginning was as notable for its promise — a Hawaiian blessing, partners Poni and Brandon Askew, Mark…
“What time do you think we should line up?” my friend Jan said. “You think 10:30 is early enough?”“Oh please,” I said. “It’s a weekday at lunchtime. People WORK.”At 10:30 on the day of Ramen Burger’s only open-to-the-public popup in…
You know the one. The mashup food phenom of 2013, the one 1,000 people lined up for in Torrance, California, the one that sells out every week in New York, that since August has popped up in L.A., San Jose,…
Hawaii's Most Beloved Fish: A guide to finding the best, and stories from the people who catch and serve it.
It was the call I’d been waiting nearly three years for.“Mari. Durian on Maunakea Street. By Bruno’s Forno.”@harrycovair, man of few words, was cutting in and out amid traffic noises. I had one question. Harry answered it before I could…
You were the Willy Wonka of shave ice, with a heart as big as your famous cones
Ghouls, goblins and Mexican food come out this Friday for Eat the Street: Dia de Los Muertos, a.k.a. the Mexican Day of the Dead. So, many kinds of tacos, check. Horchata, check. Churros, tamales and nachos, all check. Plus a…
I have a newfound respect for saimin, thanks to the one time I publicly hated on it. Disdained it, actually, resented it even. Compared to all the noodle bowls I love in this world — ramen, pho, naengmyeon, the roast…
It’s posh, it’s chic, it’s see-and-be-seen — and it’s an eat your heart out, meet the chefs you’ve seen in magazines and on TV, swoon at every turn scene. When you go to the Hawaii Food & Wine Festival, every…
Soju mojitos, soju martinis, soju on the rocks: A new Korean rice liquor debuted in Honolulu last night, but don’t expect any $4.99 sales. Hwayo Soju ◄ Back Next ► Picture 1 of 14 Photo by Ed Morita jQuery(function($) {…
Joy of Sake happens this week, but before we get into sake tips and food pics, did you know that 1) it was born here in Honolulu, and 2) it’s the world’s biggest sake bash outside Japan?That’s how much Honolulu…
From hole-in-the-wall eateries to multi-million-dollar restaurants, we’ve rounded up our favorite dishes and drinks around the Islands.
Natto ruled at Friday’s (belated) Natto Day dinner, but not in the way you’d expect. At Nonstop’s request, Pig and the Lady took on the latest challenge of the fermented bean, and where others brought the full funk to the…
Exploring Kakaako’s plate-lunch past, diner roots, hidden Thai and Vietnamese spots, and its new, healthy-eating corridor.