Mari Taketa

Dining Editor

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.

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Articles

Eat the Street Tomatofest

Tomatofest: The food by Tracy Chan & Mari Taketa Eat the Street Tomatofest ◄ Back Next ► Picture 1 of 35 jQuery(function($) { new NggPaginatedGallery('1230ca23a48a11e8fd7be3d1b1679cf0', '.ngg-imagebrowser'); });Tomatofest: The scene by Jonas Maon Tomatofest scenes ◄ Back Next ► Picture 1…

Eat the Street debut: SL2 Delectables

Leonard’s Malasadas is making a tomato cupcake. Jawaiian Irie is stuffing a tomato with jerk chicken topped with melted cheddar and a tangy salsa. EAT Honolulu’s bringing a Shinsato pork sausage slider with green tomato relish, Momo Burger will have…

Eating Kalihi: Hidden sweets

Sometimes, the best treats are hidden from view. Sometimes they come with the best stories and the nicest people. Here are five of Kalihi’s gems. Hidden sweets ◄ Back Next ► Picture 1 of 17 Nisshodo Candy StoreWhat: Home of…

Did this: Hawaii Wine & Food

The tickets came in the mail on Wednesday. “A Celebration of Great Wines, Music, Food & Fashion,” they said. “Includes food, beverages, entertainment and Fashion Fusion Fashion Show by Hawaii designer Valerie Joseph.”Cheehoo! An excuse to head out leeward, for…

M&M eats: Kickin Kajun

Roll up your sleeves, tie back your hair and put on that plastic bib: Melissa Chang and Mari Taketa take you through the no-holds-barred glories of Keeaumoku’s messy new seafood phenom.Kickin Kajun1518 Makaloa St.808-946-2787On Facebook at Kickin Kajun RestaurantYou want…

Top picks: Islandwide Crafts & Food Expo

Friday afternoon, Nonstop’s Diane Seo — who can easily resist food — was starving after a day of work. I — who cannot — was stuffed after a cross-town eatfest. How our mission to scope out the top 10 finds…

M&M eats: Weird Japanese snacks

Those Japanese. The people who invented scallop-flavored potato chips and chicken wing ice cream are still at it, churning out snackage the world is trying to wrap its brain around. Or not.Fresh off the plane from her trip to Fukuoka,…

Bacon, mon amour

Get ready for a major bacon frenzy, Honolulu: Eat the Street Bacon happens tonight, with 41 food trucks and street food vendors bringing out new creations featuring our favorite strips of salty, meaty goodness.The baconfest kicks off at 4 p.m.,…

Whose tonkatsu reigns supreme?

I don’t know what it is about tonkatsu, but ever since Kimukatsu brought its storied 25-layer pork cutlet to Waikiki in March, the question I’ve been asked most is, Have you tried that new tonkatsu place yet?Yup.What did you think?…

LOL: Holiday spice Spam OnoPop

I laughed out loud over a mouthful of food the other day, which hardly ever happens. In fact, the last time I had food this funny was exactly a year ago — and the thing in question then was a…

Did this: Yelp Uncaged @ Honolulu Zoo

OK, I’ll modify: there were no lions or tigers or bears. Instead we saw a Yelpicorn, a flying gorilla, lots of pandas and leopard prints, and dozens of girls wearing animal ears. Yelp’s latest event Thursday night was a benefit…

Honolulu’s new Japanese hotspots

In Japan, there are no Japanese restaurants — not the kind where you’ll find the whole repertoire of tempura, sushi, udon and sukiyaki, anyway. Restaurants in Japan specialize in one kind of food, sometimes even variations on one dish, the…

Did this: Arabian Nights

Once upon a time, in the fabled land of Kakaako, there arose a storied tent … uh, warehouse … wherein twirled belly dancers fast and furious, where scents from hookah water pipes drifted over golden lamps, and where people dined…

Honolulu’s food trucks get the green light

It’s official: Food trucks are legal on city streets again.After a long winter of being chased off the streets by an obscure, outdated law, trucks on Tuesday got the green light to legally dish up their tacos, yakitori, whoopie pies…

Did this: Off-Premise: HUBurban

Whole Ox deli, Eat the Street Japan, now an Off-Premise gastropub pops up at the Greenhouse: The latest from a whirlwind food week in Kakaako. Off-Premise: HUBurban ◄ Back Next ► Picture 1 of 15 I'm highly liking this stretch…

Eat the Street Japan

Eat the Street came to life on a clear, breezy Friday night in Kakaako. Forty food trucks and street food booths augmented their lineups with one-time Japan-themed dishes, drawing eaters in the thousands. As always when the weather’s good, the…

ETS debut: Il Gelato

Eat the Street is tonight, Honolulu, 40 trucks and street food vendors slinging everything from red bean malasadas and shiitake empanadas to furikake fries and sushi cupcakes. Tonight’s theme, one year after the triple disaster that crippled Tohoku, is Japan,…

Unanimous vote! Food trucks (almost) legal

Good news and more good news for food trucks this week: The Honolulu City Council on Wednesday voted unanimously to lift the 15-minute stranglehold on doing business on city streets, and that change is fast-tracked for a final vote in…

Wednesday at 2: Let’s make food trucks legal

People, we are close.It’s several months now since police started citing food trucks over an old law no one knew existed, a month since their warnings shut down Tacoako Tuesday, three weeks since prosecutors pegged the fate of Tiki Truck’s…

Ala Moana has a new sushi bar. Guess where?

Have you been to Shirokiya lately? How many times have I been asking that? First they revamp the entire second floor into a Japanese food mecca and beer garden, then they convert half the first floor into a sweets plaza,…

New(ish) eats: Opal Thai

Yes, we know Opal Thai moved out of its old food truck and into permanent new digs back in October. We’re just glad we finally got back there to check it out. Here’s our report. Opal Thai ◄ Back Next…

VIDEO: A chance for fresh cheese on Oahu

Saturday in Kakaako, I met a cow named Pickles and got to eat her cheese. How amazing is that? I haven’t eaten that close to the breathing source since I was 6 years old and met Lani Moo and ate…

Saving Honolulu’s food trucks: Phew!

I don’t want to jinx anything, but the road ahead is looking a lot better for Honolulu’s food trucks after yesterday at the City Council (knock wood).I know from your responses here, from dozens of retweets of my blog calling…

New eats: Dash Gastropub

Dash Gastropub ◄ Back Next ► Picture 1 of 19 When I made the reservation two weeks ago, there was no phone number. The Facebook page had barely more than an address and some food pics. And this was all…

ETS debut: Sweet Revenge

Dishing up pies both savory and sweet, Honolulu’s newest food truck debuts tonight at Eat the Street Chocolate, from 4-9 p.m. at 805 Ala Moana Boulevard. For more information about this month’s food truck and street food event, see our…

ETS chocolate: A sweet peek

Holy mole! Death by chocolate? S’more, please: It’s not us being this punny. All these are names of real chocolate dishes you’ll find this Friday at Eat the Street: Chocolate. To help you pace yourself through the inevitable cacao overload,…

Love bar food? Free for dinner on 2/28?

When a bar opens boasting of good eats, I don’t care who’s throwing darts or who’s checking out the draft beers. I realize these diversions make people happy, but I’m happily planted at a table, ordering plate after plate and…

Eating Kalihi, old-style

Eating Kalihi, part 2 ◄ Back Next ► Picture 1 of 25 It's on a golden street of faded low-rises, light industrial and old-time good eats, and until this year I never knew Chun Wah Kam was among them. That's…

What to eat at the Punahou Carnival

Punahou Carnival is today and tomorrow, people, THE most buzzed-about carnival of the year, and for those non-veterans who haven’t mapped out their food priorities, we’ve got you covered. Just scroll down to the photo gallery below for best eats…

New eats: Yakitori Glad

Cluck, yeah! Ten eaters help me power through most of the dishes on a chicken-centric menu. Yakitori Glad ◄ Back Next ► Picture 1 of 25 When I saw this place, I almost canceled this review.I'd jumped too fast. Giddy…

If you care about food, see this movie

I didn’t know what to expect when I previewed “Ingredients Hawaii,” Bob Bates’ new documentary about taking control of the food we eat. I knew it would be quality: Bates wrote and directed “Ingredients,” a look at eat-local efforts across…

ETS debut: Da Falafel King

One of five newcomers to tonight’s Eat the Street brings the most ancient of foods and a new twist on the luau theme. When you visit Da Falafel King, look for a side dish called luau pita chips. We have…

ETS debut: Five-O Hawaiian Style Smoked Ribs

The year’s first Eat the Street happens tonight, with 41 food trucks and street food vendors slinging all kinds of good eats. This month’s theme is a luau (ETS is one year old!), so leave room for variations on kalua…

VIDEO: Top 5 moments of Eat the Street

One year, already? Thirteen times we’ve eaten the street since that first gathering on a Friday night on Kapiolani. That was just three months after Melt and Gogi Korean Tacos, the first of the new breed of tweeting, Facebooking trucks,…

Calling chicken lovers: Let’s go eat!

Q: How many yakitori shops does this town have?A: How many wings on a chicken?Hence my bursting excitement about the latest, Yakitori Glad, open on Kapahulu as of yesterday — and why I’m putting it out there as Nonstop’s latest…

Eating Kalihi, old-style

Eating Kalihi, old-style ◄ Back Next ► Picture 1 of 22 Down on the makai side of Nimitz, surrounded by industrial shops and cinder-block walkups, Alicia's Market is as old-school as they come. The neighborhood store opened in 1949, a…

Top 5 food trends of 2011

No. 5: Shrinking portions. Chicken wings cut in half to make the plate look fuller. Shabushabu platters with only one shiitake mushroom. Four years into our shrunken economy, portion sizes have shrunk to match as restaurants struggle to keep cost-conscious…