Everywhere in Osaka is warm: trains, department stores, even the refrigerator in my room (luke-cool) as Japan powers down after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The streets blister under a moist blanket of 95-degree heat, but even this pales against Kyoto,…
Face it — it’s not a hard gig covering Hawaiian Airlines’ inaugural flight to Osaka, when the upshot is I get unleashed in a city known as the kitchen of Japan. My 96 hours begins here: in the throbbing, pulsing…
12:30 a.m. in Japan = 5:30 a.m. in Hawaii. I am so full I cannot breathe. I know you want more than this one photo of the heart of Osaka’s street food district, which throbs in all directions outside my…
Mango fiends were out in force on Saturday, converging on Waikiki for the annual Mangoes at the Moana fest. Recipe contest (free tastings!), best mango contest (more free tastings!), mango seminars and wellness products: The king of summer fruits in…
So I’m sitting at my computer after lunch last Wednesday, waiting for the java to snap me out of my fog, when this email lands in my inbox.“Aloha Mari, YOU’RE INVITED TO OSAKA!”Wha—?“Celebrate with Hawaiian Airlines as it launches its…
Summer’s not summer in Hawaii without the sounds of drums and flutes and the scents of beef sticks and andagi wafting across neighborhoods. But what, now? Blueberry andagi? Waffle dogs? Okinawan gumbo?That’s right, bon dance food has evolved way beyond…
The most interesting thing about a Chinese dinner I got invited to at Ming’s last year wasn’t the deep-fried chicken knees. It wasn’t the slivered pork belly arrayed around a volcano of pickled mustard cabbage, or even the 110-proof maotai…
It’s hard, hard, hard to review a restaurant anonymously these days, when new media has reviewers blogging, tweeting, facebooking, doing video and in general all sorts of handstands to keep up with the digital age. It’s not that I mind…
You heard, right? Tonight’s the night for Eat the Street May, THE most happening event for street food in Honolulu. ETS v5 brings to Kakaako 33 trucks and vendors, 10 of them new, with a lineup that introduces ETS’ first-ever…
da ala cart ◄ Back Next ► Picture 1 of 10 By Mari TaketaNonstopI screech into the parking lot of the Kaheka Street Don Quijote, intent on a mission. A hot tip (thanks @FliptOutEats) has alerted me to a new…
To all who signed on for the snout-to-tail dinner, and to all who may see this and want to join in:Wow. I thought this would be a hard sell, a meal made from the parts of a whole local pig.…
Who wants offal?This is a legitimate proposition, born of a random question on Twitter that got me wondering why we eat some things and not others, and really why that should be.The question was where to find good offal dishes…
Let Them Eat Cupcakes ◄ Back Next ► Picture 1 of 12 By Mari TaketaNonstopA tale of cupcakes, this, a tale that begins in gritty reality and modern displacement and ends with a motto: When life nips one career in…
Lei Day for Japan ◄ Back Next ► Picture 1 of 27 By Mari TaketaNonstopAloha Tower Marketplace last night: Like no other night before. jQuery(function($) { new NggPaginatedGallery('b38ba081711628b45c5f6b0257aac83d', '.ngg-imagebrowser'); });
If you never thought you would see this day, believe me, I didn’t either. That’s why my brain nearly exploded Monday night, when I snuck into the Nonstop content management system for a peek at the lineup for today’s Eat…
Ayyy, people, it wasn’t meant to be.It was all so promising, the way it came together. It started with my reveries about Izakaya Naru’s natto ice cream, the stinky fermentation neutralized by black honey and mixed into a delectable goo…
The email nearly made me cry. It was a blast from the Sake Shop, outlining the tremendous damage to northeastern Japan’s sake breweries from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Warehouses collapsed, tanks toppled, bottling lines broke, fermenting sake was…
I remember the time I talked Anna, my hairstylist, into telling me what hard-core Korean dishes she orders when she goes out. She didn’t want to tell me.“Oh come on, Anna, Hawaii people know kalbi and mandoo, meat jun, fish…
You asked for it, you got it. M&M returns with Melissa Chang and Mari Taketa going at it in another yin-yang review. And this time, we’re taking it up a notch: M&M Eats recently premiered on KITV’s Island Television News…
Great Hawaiian Lunch Wagon Festival ◄ Back Next ► Picture 1 of 31 By Mari TaketaNonstopKakaako yesterday, broiling under a hot sun, and yet an estimated 4,000-plus turn out for the Great Hawaiian Lunch Wagon Festival. The lineup: 21 lunch…
Taste of Marukai ◄ Back Next ► Picture 1 of 47 By Mari Taketa and Melissa ChangNonstopYes, it's a warehouse. Yes, it's on Dillingham just past the prison. And yes, you can really taste it.Last night an estimated thousand people…
Ever since the demise of Go Shi Go last year, the loss of Honolulu’s best udon shop has been a gaping hole in my heart. So it leaps when I get word of the impending arrival of a new udon…
Honolulu’s biggest ever food truck rally rolls tonight, and it’s all about Japan.Thirty-two trucks and booths will converge on the massive open lot at South Street and Halekauwila for the third Eat the Street rally. More than half are pushing…
Korean miso stew, French pastries in Tokyo, and honey: Three foodie films made the roster for the Hawaii International Film Festival’s weeklong Spring Showcase, which runs April 1-7 at Dole Cannery, and Nonstop scored preview DVDs. We’re stoked. Not only…
I love you, durian.I love your fleshy pods of pale yellow goodness. I love you in the hottest kitchens of Vietnam, I love you in a car with the windows rolled up, I love you in windswept fields and on…
Le Crepe Cafe downtown ◄ Back Next ► Picture 1 of 20 By Mari TaketaNonstopLe sigh. Not quite a year and a half ago, deep in breezy Manoa, a tiny creperie came to the valley, and with it a love…
I’m not often in the middle of conversations that include phrases like “the chocolate bacon community” and “I find I don’t care for lamb’s eyeballs.”I wish I were. It can get lonely obsessing about food: the qualities of a perfect…
Back when I worked at the Associated Press in Tokyo, we all knew the biggest news story out of Japan would be The Big One. Not the death of the World War II emperor, not even the 6.8-magnitude Kobe quake,…
Umami Cafe ◄ Back Next ► Picture 1 of 22 By Mari TaketaNonstopThe buzz from one corner of town starts early."Umami opened today at Harbor Court," @ShawnNakamoto, who works nearby, tweets on Feb. 7.Yeah? What is it?"New sandwich/coffee shop."Ah, so.…
La Tour Cafe ◄ Back Next ► Picture 1 of 20 By Mari TaketaNonstopThree things I hear about La Tour Cafe before I ever set foot there:1. It's owned by the family that created Ba-Le, which through its 25 Vietnamese…
I know what you’re saying. I want it too. I want the lines to be sane. I want the food to be appetizer-size, so I can make like Melissa Chang at San Francisco’s Off the Grid street food rally and…
Andrew Zimmern’s off on a new adventure on his Travel Channel show tonight, but it’s last week’s episode I can’t get out of my head. Bizarre Foods: Madagascar climaxed (sorry) in one of that island nation’s poorest villages with the…
In my euphoria over acquiring a whole 7.4-pound durian over the weekend, I publicly announced my love for the stinky fruit and offered a taste to fellow durian fans. There weren’t many takers.“In Hong Kong, we’re legally allowed to chop…
Yakitori Yoshi ◄ Back Next ► Picture 1 of 32 By Mari TaketaNonstopSo it's not much to look at, easy to miss even, but the word in J-lulu is that Yakitori Yoshi — latest in a string of izakaya openings…
Who loves you, durian? Gloppy yellow pods, fragrant with the promise of stinky ripeness, prized by tropical tigers, banned from Singapore subways: I love you!Durian + iced black coffee = one of my Top 3 favorite breakfasts of all time,…
Night in Chinatown ◄ Back Next ► Picture 1 of 22 By Mari TaketaNonstopChinatown last night, three blocks up Smith, three blocks down Maunakea, plus all of Chinese Cultural Plaza: Were you there? If you were, you know that... jQuery(function($)…
Eat the Street ◄ Back Next ► Picture 1 of 33 By Mari TaketaNonstopAn epic night, this town's first Eat the Street food truck rally, and if you were anywhere near the vicinity of Kapiolani Boulevard last night, you knew…
The silver car drove into my dead end again today. Official business: more cupcakes to taste-test.I take this gig seriously, so I won’t reveal today’s flavors, but I took these photos for you. Just look! Use your imagination and you…
12:45 a.m. Friday in Hawaii = 7:45 p.m. Friday in Seoul. Myeongdong’s neon canyons are freezing, about 20 degrees tonight, but not so cold really because of all the crowds laughing, eating, surging. K-pop blasts through our earmuffs; warm scents…
Mary's Kitchen ◄ Back Next ► Picture 1 of 12 By Mari TaketaNonstopSix p.m. on a rainy Monday. 99 Ranch food court in Mapunapuna may not be the center of the universe, but it's dinnertime! Where is everybody?Melissa: Why did…
