October 2023: Our Top 3 Most Popular Posts About the Local Food Scene
Proof that few things are as certain in this world as comfort food and roast meats.
No. 3: Hawai‘i’s Oldest Restaurants Are Still ‘Ono After All These Years
Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
Published Oct. 16, 2023
Comfort food is timeless, especially when it’s as simple as sweet and sour spareribs or a bowl of saimin. This roundup of 15 full-service restaurants is a smattering of those that have been in business for 60-plus years. One of our most popular posts of 2022, it soared again when we republished it last month. More gratifying is that 14 of the 15 are still serving up food and drink today (you’re remembered fondly, Tasty Chop Suey). Of these, one is expanding through franchising (Forty Niner, 76 years), while another (Manago Hotel, 106 years) won a James Beard Foundation 2023 America’s Classics Award. I mua!
No. 2: You Voted: Here’s Your Top 5 Chinese Roast Pork 燒肉 Shops on O‘ahu
Photo: Thomas Obungen
Published Oct. 18, 2023
Engaging with readers and followers is a core part of Frolic’s identity—we always want to be the local media brand that people feel they can talk to. So when we published the results of our reader poll asking about the best roast duck on O‘ahu, and @dustyspecial responded on our Instagram with “Let’s try 1 more poll for roast pork!,” we listened. That’s why this mouthwatering post ran just two weeks after our most-viewed post in October, below.
No. 1: You Voted: Here’s Your Top 5 Roast Duck Shops on O‘ahu
Photo: Mari Taketa
Published Oct. 4, 2023
Not only do we strive to be approachable, we also love being timely. Our poll asking readers who makes their favorite roast duck ran one week after Andrea Lee’s poignant tribute to Nam Fong, which closed after 35 years in Chinatown. The results surprised us—not that Roast Duck Kitchen won, but that it won with 39.6% of the vote. And then it doubled that coup when readers voted it No. 1 for O‘ahu’s best roast pork with 27.1% of that poll. All the way in ‘Aiea!
