New eats: Hiking Hawaii Cafe
I found a sandwich I liked so much, I’ve had it three times in three weeks. The only reason I didn’t get it the fourth time I went to Hiking Hawaii Cafe was because the remnants of the third were…
Mari Taketa
Articles
Did this: Dessert Fantasy
It happened yesterday, the yearly homage to sugar, in the form of Dessert Fantasy 2012: 54 desserts from 42 bakeries and restaurants across the island, available for unlimited sampling in as much quantity as you could physically tolerate for two…
Foodscene: November
All of November: National Peanut Butter Lovers MonthI don’t know what to do with this except to tell you, because I find it strangely exciting. Slather, people!Nov. 1: Shochu DayDistilled from barley, sweet potatoes or rice, 25 percent alcohol by…
World Pasta Day at Prima
6 p.m. last Thursday, Prima in Kailua. Thirteen fellow pasta fiends and I have converged on one of the island’s best restaurants for our specially created, this-time-only World Pasta Day celebration dinner. Course after course of carby goodness — that’s…
6 newbies + beer: Friday’s Eat the Street
If you’re a regular to this site, you know we usually preview Eat the Street with a closer look at one or two newcomers. This month that goes out the window: A record six newbies ranging from a new Russian…
Did this: 3@the Table
Farm to table: righteous. Farm-to-table cooking on dishes by local potters: Righteous goes one better 3@the Table ◄ Back Next ► Picture 1 of 12 Thursday night in Kakaako: The furniture and accessories store Fishcake wafted very nice smells. jQuery(function($)…
Calling noodle fiends: Let’s celebrate World Pasta Day!
Oct. 25 is World Pasta Day, people!Most of the world won’t care, but if you’re a pasta fiend like me, you already know. World Pasta Day is marked on my calendar in red. It began dominating my thoughts last week,…
Did this: More Joy
The way More Joy went down last night, you knew that 1) Honolulu sake fans were thirsty for a party, and 2) thirsty to know more.Three months after the Joy of Sake filled Pier 2’s terminal hall with 1,200 sippers,…
Foodscene: October
Oct. 3: Oktoberfest – Premiere of New BeersVice NightclubWard Centers, 1200 Ala Moana Blvd.5:30 p.m.Nonstop Honolulu and friends (that’s you!) try the lineup of new craft microbrews at Vice — made on-site by the former brewmeisters of Brew Moon and…
Happy World Sake Day!
It’s World Sake Day, people!That’s right, sake has a day all its own, and it’s planetary at that! If you love sake — or even (yes) sake bombs — today’s your day: Raise a glass and know that across this…
Eat the Street preview: Bites of cheese & sausage
At long last, cheese! And because cheese needs a partner, sausage to boot — just in time for the (slight) chill of autumn in Honolulu. Both gooey, meaty comfort foods prevail tonight on our favorite block in Kakaako, with food…
The Lū‘au Stew from He‘eia Pier
An unforgettable dish that brings back glimpses of simpler times.
The secret about Ringer Hut
I don’t know where I first heard about the tonkatsu. But it was enough to get me researching, and I found out Ringer Hut, the newish Nagasaki champon shop in the Waikiki Trade Center, is not just famous for its…
Did this: Food & Wine Makahiki
At Saturday’s Hawaii Food & Wine Fest Makahiki, the whole night sounded like this:“Oh my god, it’s Marcel!”“Todd English is looking goood.”“Robert Irvine, can you flex your bicep for me?”All that came out of my mouth. Of the media passes…
Outrageous pork at Eat the Street
It was mega-pork time in Kakaako Friday night, dozens of trucks and street food booths selling everything pork. Bacon pop tarts, pork belly bao buns, maple bacon gelato, pork-stuffed malasadas — and these in the photo gallery below, highlights of…
Foodscene: September
Sept. 1: Wine season beginsProbably the most ignored first-day-of-season ever. We’ll drink to that!Sept. 1 & 2: Okinawan FestivalKapiolani Park9 a.m. to 5 p.m.Bon dance Saturday 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.Andagiiii!! Okifest’s crunchy fried donuts are among the best on the…
Beyond falafel and hummus: Go
As good as Da Falafel King’s Israeli-style falafel is, stuffed in its whole fried brown glory into fluffy pita pockets with deep-pink cabbage, fresh slaw, pickles, diced tomato and cucumber and tahini, the small menus at the Waikiki kiosk and…
Anybody up for Israeli BYOB? How about noodles and tonkatsu?
Before you ask me what Israeli food is, have a look at this menu. Da Falafel King’s sit-down restaurant is all about what owner Yanir Yosef calls “Israeli-style fast food”: spring-green falafel, roasted shawarma, garlicky fresh hummus and all the…
Food pics: Latin Nights tapas pop-up
It’s become one of Streetgrindz’ missions to surprise Honolulu, from time to time, with the haute levels achieved by certain food truck chefs. Which is why tonight and tomorrow, if you peek into a certain warehouse in Kakaako, you’ll see…
Eat here … or here … or here
A year ago, pop-ups were so new to Honolulu they were like first bites that left us wanting more. We had only three: Pig and the Lady at Hank’s Haute Dogs, Addis Ababa at J2 in Kaimuki, and Off-Premise, popping…
Foodscene: August
Aug. 3: August MoonHonolulu Academy of Art900 S. Beretania St.6 to 9 p.m.Tickets $85 online presale, $95 at the doorThirty wineries, 13 restaurants and food vendors and artists doing live art team up in this benefit for arts educationAug. 3…
Way beyond tacos and burritos
Remember this? It’s what Baja Style brought to last summer’s Eat the Street: Pig Out! Every time someone ordered a taco, this pork was pulled into fresh handmade tortillas, until by the end of the night the pig had been…
Eat the Street Spicy Fest
Spicy = popcorn, poppers and O.M.G. that ceviche. Check out the range of reactions when the monthly Eat the Street food truck-and-street food rally celebrated fiery heat in Kakaako Friday night.Spicy night in Kakaako: Highlights Eat the Street Spicy Fest…
Eat the Street debut: Caribbean Spice
Spicy? You want spicy? How’s 43 food trucks and street food booths serving up spicy crispy shrimp, kimchee wings, spicy ahi hand rolls, cayenne pepper popcorn, spicy salmon dynamite, chocolate chili gelato, spicy watermelon gazpacho, fresh roasted corn with jalapeno…
Joy of Sake: What to eat, what to sip
It’s the world’s biggest sake-tasting celebration outside Japan, people, and it happens right here in Honolulu. Joy of Sake is this Friday, a record 360 premium sake set out for as much self-serve tasting as anyone can manage in 2.5…
All the glorious cheese
Picture this: Foodies all of us, lusting after the promise of locally made cheese and the chance to fund more, two dozen of us drive to the back of Lualualei Valley Saturday night and descend on tiny Naked Cow Dairy.We…
Naked Cow cheese dinners: le menu
Finally! The first dinners at Naked Cow Dairy featuring Oahu’s first locally produced cows’ milk cheeses are upon us. It’s been a long time in the making — not the dinners but getting to the point where we can eat…
Midsummer Natto’s Dream
How do you tell the story of a 10-course natto dinner on July 10, Natto Day? It’s epic, almost, the stuff of legend, practically — I mean, I was there, and I still can’t believe I ate 10 natto dishes.It…
Next Tuesday is Natto Day — let’s celebrate!
UPDATE: The Natto Day dinner is now fullIt came by Facebook message, the kind of note that gets my juices running:Hi Mari!My name is Scott Pang. You don’t know me but I saw an article you wrote about eating natto…
Eat the Street Garlic Fest preview
Get ready for major garlic breath, Kakaako: Eat the Street Garlic Fest happens tonight, a record 45 food trucks and street food vendors amassed on one gigantic lot to pay homage to this most redolent of bulbs.You ETS veterans know…
Foodscene: July
July 6: National Fried Chicken DayWay more than wings and drumsticks: chicken nuggets, Korean fried chicken, chicken katsu, popcorn chicken, Chinese crispy fried chicken…July 6: Puff & BlowWhole Ox Deli327 Keawe St.6:30 to 9:30 p.m.$35 gets you three cigars, three…
New eats: La Cucina
How a straight-up restaurant review morphed into Nonstop’s latest open-invite dinner:April 2012. La Cucina opens in the lobby of Imperial Plaza on Cooke Street, the first solo venture of longtime Mediterraneo chef Don Truong. Pastas made fresh in-house daily. Housemade…
Naked Cow to host cheese dinners
UPDATE: Both dinners are now sold out.Picture this: Sunset, gentle breezes, cows mooing softly in the distance. You’re in the country, wine glass in hand, eating the cheese that came from the milk the cows made. Merci beaucoup! You toast…
It’s International Sushi Day — are you ready?
Yes, people, there is an International Sushi Day, because after all, how could there not be? If Peking duck (Jan. 18), coq au vin (March 22) and pizza with everything except anchovies (Nov. 12) have their days — and none…
Did this: Joy of Sake Kick-Off Party
Joy of Sake Kick-Off Party ◄ Back Next ► Picture 1 of 15 Not yet! The annual Joy of Sake happens next month, a record 360 premium sake making their U.S. debut at Pier 2 at the height of midsummer.No,…
VIDEO: Wildest ice cream in town
What went down in Kakaako last Saturday, you had to be there to understand. How one ice cream can taste like shrimp chips. How another tastes like the scent of banana. How Cap’n Crunch can exude fog. How fast whiskey…
Mangiamo! Nonstop dinner next Tuesday
Pasta lovers of Honolulu, you know the feeling. Where’s the good spaghetti for under $17 a plate? I’m not talking about overboiled strands in runny marinara, or luxurious heaps of frutti di mare or top-of-the-line uni spaghetti. Just a good…
Wildest ice cream in town
If you’ve been to Prima, you’ve probably heard about the Cap’n Crunch gelato. Nestled among other flavors like chocolate, cherry and lilikoi, Cap’n Crunch is baker/pastry chef Alejandro Briceno’s tribute to the peanutty-sweet breakfast cereal, an instant hit when the…
Foodscene: June
June 7: National Chocolate Ice Cream DayJust so you knowJune 9: One-Year Anniversary, Uncle Clay’s House of Pure AlohaAina Haina Shopping Center820-850 W. Hind DriveFrom 10:30 a.m.Buy a shave ice and HOPA will donate one to its “Share-HOPA-Forward” campaignJune 12:…
Tacoako Tuesday: Go
It’s been a while, a good long while since the combo of an obscure law and a police crackdown killed the only weekly food truck scene in town. But now that the City Council has decriminalized Honolulu’s food trucks, I’ve…
