SushiFest - Part IV: A Matter of Convenience

After the surprising upset that 7-Eleven enjoyed during my Char Siu Bao Challenge, I thought we should take a closer look at the unseeming little convenience store.  Actually, I do like taking mainland visitors to 7-Eleven.   The mere fact that they have char siu bao to begin with, is a prime indicator that the 7-Elevens in Hawaii are not anything like their somewhat ghetto counterparts on the mainland.  In fact, from what I understand, our 7-Elevens are run much more like the 7-Elevens in Japan than the ones on the mainland.   This would explain the surprisingly high quality Japanese (and local) convenience store snacks you can easily find at 7-Eleven, including our iconic spam musubi.

Spam Musubi from 7-Eleven

When visitors come from the mainland, I love taking them to 7-Eleven, just to unhinge their notion of what a convenience store can be.   Ours are clean, well stocked, and not the magnet for muggings and robberies that the ones on the mainland are.   Instead of ancient hot dogs that have been rotating on their warmers for and inestimable amount of time, the products we have are usually made fresh that day, with a timestamp to prove it.   Sure there are familiar favorites, like Slurpees.   But there is a wide variety of dim sum, musubi's, sushi, and crack seed.   The best part of course is being able to get any of these items, at any time of the day.   When hanging out with my friend Erich in college, we would often make 1AM Jones Soda runs, frequently in remote parts of the island, just to enjoy our availability to do so.  

Admittedly, I love a Slurpee as much as the next guy.  In fact, when I was little, I generally liked Slurpees better than Icees.   As great, as a strawberry / coke mixed icee was, the air to liquid ratio in an icee always yielded a product that was just a little too insubstantive for my taste.   By that reasoning, I always preferred the slushies over at the Jolly Roger in Kahala (where Kahala Zippy's is now), to either Slurpees or Icees, especially the grape slush floats.   Mixing the vanilla ice cream with purple slushie created a beautifully thick lavendar drink that was as creamy as it was icy, and the blending of those textures was always so provocotive to me.  However, since Jolly Roger closed many years ago, the Slurpee is a worthwhile replacement.   Indeed, the there have existed many more flavors of Slurpee than any of the others, including lychee, pina colada, and banana.  

Okinawan Sweet Potato Manapua from 7-Eleven

What makes our 7-Elevens so interesting however, is not the Slurpee that can be found anywhere, but the plethora of local food they serve.   I've discussed how a spam and egg musubi make a terrific breakfast on the run.  Their redondo's hot dog musubi and lup cheong manapua are far more local representations of the hot dog than a Big Bite.   In fact, in addition to the basic manapua, which was surprisingly well received by the manapua taste testers at my mom's office, they've got a wide assortment of manapua fillings.  My wife is particularly fond of the somewhat elusive, Okinawan sweet potoato manapua, with it's sweet, creamy, purple filling that has just the perfect smooth texture.   But the one local snack item that 7-eleven does particularly well, is their sushi hand rolls.

Sushi from 7-Eleven

Surprisingly, I like the sushi hand rolls at 7-Eleven better than just about any temaki sushi, at even the most exclusive sushi restaurants.   Just what makes them so good?   It's the rather ingenious way of wrapping the rice and the nori separately while it is sitting in their refrigerated display.   Like the McDLT, which was famous for keeping the "hot side hot and the cold side cold", keeping the rice and nori separate insures that the nori stays crispy.  Let's face it, from the moment the sushi chef touches the nori to the rice, it begins to get soggy.  It depreciates even faster than a brand new car.   But this is brilliantly minimized by the sushi wrapping system at 7-Eleven.

Unwrapping Sushi from 7-Eleven

To open a sushi from 7-Eleven, you first break the seal on the side.  Then unroll the nori, exposing the rice which is wrapped in the inner cellophane.  Then, you peel back the inner cellophane to expose the nori envelope.  Finally, you roll the rice yourself into the waiting nori, and lift it off of the outer cellophane.  Whoever designed this system was a packaging genius.  The very first bite into the handroll, as your teeth puncture the nori and sink into the rice below, is almost like having your friend hold up a sheet of paper while you punch holes through it with your fingers.  It yields the most incredibly satisfying crunch, that no other sushi has anywhere.  The only thing I have to worry about is my cats, who are adore the nori even more than I do.  From the moment I break the seal on the outer cellophane, they appear out of nowhere and instantly shove their faces into mine, hoping for a bite.

Sushi from 7-Eleven

The rice is also nothing like what you'd expect from a convenience store sushi.   Sitting in a refrigeration unit all day, you'd expect the rice to get cold and hard.   But somehow, the units are at exactly the right temperature, that while the rice is chilled, it never gets hard.  It is still perfectly soft rice (softer than some room temperature rice at other sushi restaurants I know of), with just a subtle hint of the sushi vinegar (not nearly as overpoweringly sour as other sushi restaurants I know of).   With good rice and good nori, the sushi is just superb.

Sushi from 7-Eleven

7-Eleven also has a great variety hand rolls to choose from.  My favorite is their classic tuna salad with cucumber.   I would rather have this than any tuna sandwich any day.   They also have a nice salmon salad and a crab & avocado California roll that comprise their core line-up.   However, in addition to their regular triumvirate, I have seen flavors like shoyu tuna, spicy tuna, konbu, kalbi, bbq chicken, wasabi tuna, and many other special, transient offerings.

Ito En Oi Ocha Green Tea from 7-Eleven

Of course to wash down all of this sushi, a Slurpee just wouldn't do.   But again, 7-Eleven offers up an appropriate accompaniment.  They have a wide assortment of the yummy drinks from Ito En.  The different local fruit flavors of Ito En's Aloha Maid, like guava and passion orange, are classic island favorites.   You wouldn't even want to drink a Starbucks's Frappuccino bottle after tasting Ito En's Royal Mills Iced Cappuccino.  There's not even a comparison, the Iced Capps knock the Frapps completely out of the ballpark.   But to accompany the yummy sushi, it's got to be Ito En's Oi Ocha green tea.   Although, it's available at 7-Eleven, I have to buy their green tea by the caseload from Costco.  It has such a nice, perfectly balanced roasted tea flavor that is just so refreshing and easy to drink when chilled, I go through it like water.

Sushi from 7-Eleven

7-Elevens in Hawaii really are a unexpected find when it comes to local food.   What you'd think is a matter of convenience, really becomes a matter of local pride.

A Little Touch of Heart

When I was in high school, one of my best friends found an old picture of himself in a swimsuit that made him completely disgusted with himself (which he nicknamed "the whale").   He ultimately took the drastic action of eliminating virtually all fat from his diet.  He began subsisting almost entirely on bread, rice, and more than anything else cereal.   He took his diet and athletics extremely seriously, and he transformed into one of the most lean and toned individuals I've ever seen. 

Because of him, we always had to keep Costco sized boxes of cereal at our house.   Whenever he would come over (which was pretty frequently), cereal would be the only thing that we could enjoy together.  Although I'm a huge fan of Frosted Flakes, everything would have to be the fat and sugar free cereals (meaning no nuts or dried fruits either).  You'd be surprised at the cereals you THINK are healthy, but actually have a lot of sugar or fat in them, like Cracklin Oat Bran.  But there is still a surprising variety in this criteria; Cornflakes, Cheerios, Chex, Special K, Wheaties, Mini Wheats, Kix, and Grape Nuts to name a few.   Out of all of them, I never really liked Grape Nuts.  Although they withstood milk the best, they were just hard little pebbles that tasted way too earthy for my taste.  But I found that I really liked mixing Grape Nuts with Prego spaghetti sauce.  Don't ask me how that got started, but something about adding a little savoriness to the mix just made them a lot tastier.

Although we kept huge boxes of cereal at our house for our frequent guest, I've never really liked having cereal for breakfast.  To me, it was always a late night snack with my friend.  Something about having cereal with cold milk in the morning upsets my tummy.   Breakfast to me, has to be a warm and yummy thing.  Actually, cold cereals themselves are only a century old phenomenon.  It wasn't until the Kellog brothers invented Corn Flakes and granola, that such a product even existed and became popular.   Prior to their innovation, everyone ate oatmeal or porridge.   In the old world, porridge or gruel was made with oats, barley, or wheat.   Most people think of porridge as a European peasant food, but in actuality, all of the Asian countries also had an equivalent.   But there the porridge is made with rice.   Here in Hawaii, we know this dish for it's Chinese name, jook.

Sau Yuk Pei Dan Jook at Royal Garden

If you go to Hong Kong, or pretty much any other country on that side of the world, jook is the defacto breakfast item.  But here in Hawaii, jook has never really had the same connotation.  I was pretty surprised to see jook being eaten for breakfast everywhere I went in China.  Here, jook is most frequently associated with 2 other things.   It is the most popular way of dealing with Thanksgiving leftovers (something I'm very much looking forward to next week).  And it is the end all cure for the common cold, similar to the way that chicken soup is perceived on the mainland.   I remember whenever I got sick when I was younger, my Po Po would make me the best jook in the world.   After she passed away, and my mom had no time to make it for me, they would always stop at Kwok's Chop Suey on Waialae and pick up a container for me.   Unfortunately, when Hung Won took over from Kwok's, they no longer maintained a supply of jook on the menu.  But these days whenever I get sick, my wife will stop off at Mini Garden on the way home and pick up a bowl for me.   It really does make you feel better when you're sick and miserable.

Besides "Thanksgiving turkey" jook and "chicken soup for the local boy" jook, you can find nice steaming bowls of jook at dim sum.    Dim sum in Hawaii also has different connotations from dim sum in Hong Kong.   Originally created as a snack food for travellers visiting roadside inns, "dim sum" translates to a little touch of heart (although there is some debate as to whether it is touch as a verb meaning "to touch", or touch as a noun meaning "just a touch").  In the Orient is eaten all day long, but frequently enjoyed as "siu yeh" or a midnight snack.   Dim sum restaurants in Hong Kong serve dim sum 24 hours a day, and frequently at 1AM you can find a dim sum restaurant packed with people.   Here in Hawaii, dim sum is primarily a brunch occasion.  For a Chinese family, dim sum is the traditional Sunday brunch, and that is when you'll find most the most people at Chinese restaurants.

My favorite dim sum restaurant when I was very little was the Oceania floating restaurant.   It was a gorgeous Chinese restaurant built on a boat and docked at the harbor near the Falls of Clyde.  As I recall, the ship was built as a sister ship (or a clone of) the famous Jumbo Floating Restaurant in Hong Kong.   Unfortunately, it didn't do well, and it's bankruptcy financially devastated and marred the reputation of the late great Sen. Hiram Fong.  I was very little at the time, but distinctly remember how cool it was to be eating nai dan bao and grass jelly rolls on such a gorgeous boat.   As I was growing up, I would always favor Sea Fortune (whose chef moved on to build Happy Days), and of course the always crowded Legend Seafood Restaurant in the Chinese Cultural Plaza (probably the king of all dim sum places in Honolulu).   But these days, I also look for a little bit of ambiance, someplace a little nicer to take visitors and clients alike.   Although it isn't as cheap as eating dim sum in Chinatown, a little bit of elegance, and very high quality food, make the difference worth it.    For this extra touch, I like visiting Royal Garden in the Ala Moana Hotel.  

Baked Char Siu Bao at Royal Garden

Just walking in to Royal Garden, you're greeted with a beautiful display case of some of the more exotic dried Chinese delicacies.  They've got enormous dried doong gu (black mushrooms).   They've got some really expensive dried birds nests.   They've got dried abalone the size of softball, and dried scallops the size of golf balls.  Most impressively though, they've got one of the largest pair of shark fins that I've ever seen, that look to be taller than my baby boy.  Around Moon Festival time, they also bake an enormous mooncake which is the size of about 200 regular mooncakes and takes up an entire table.

Sau Yuk Pei Dan Jook with Yau Char Gwai at Royal Garden

When it comes to jook, Royal Garden has some of the best in town.  It's not as thick as my Po Po's was.  It's a little thinner, but it's got a nice smooth consistency.   There are some places where the jook is way too watery and the rice kernels still too distinct, so it's more like a rice soup than a jook.  Royal Garden is also one of the few places in town that serve it with the crispy fried dough (called yau char gwai).  For the Chinese in Hawaii, being originally farmers, jook was a working man's breakfast or lunch.  They really didn't have the little extras that Hong Kong style dim sum brought on, like the crispy fried dough.  Although not having it growing up, I really like dipping the cruncy little things in my jook.   It's similar to dipping saltine crackers in your soup, having the crunchiness play off of the flavorful soup trying to make it soggy.   It's a nice contrast of textures.   My favorite jook at Royal Garden has to be sau yuk pei dan jook (or pork with preserved egg).   The thousand year old egg (which is actually only several months old, preserved in clay and ash), has such a strong, salty flavor.  I once made the mistake of entering a pei dan eating contest, where I had to devour 2 straight whole pei dan, and it was quite overwhelming.   It tasted like putting pure salt and ash in my mouth, and I wound up gagging.   But in the jook, the flavor mellows and blends perfectly well with the rice.  People from the mainland may find it disturbing to eat a jet black egg, but to me the dark sheen of the egg "blacks" and the marbled greenish tinge of the yolks is just a beauty to behold, like black onyx agates.

Jellyfish Salad at Royal Garden

Besides jook, Royal Garden has a huge variety of dim sum.  But besides the regular dishes like char siu bao, lo bak gou, and noh mai gai, they've got some of the more elegant dishes.   They have nice cold appetizers like their jellyfish salad.   Jellyfish actually a little crunchier than you'd expect it to be.  Kind of like daikon or cucumber in it's crunch.  But it's almost tasteless.  Instead it imbibes the flavors of whatever you dip it in, in this case a slightly spicy sesame oil.  It's such a beautiful light taste, just the thing for whetting your appetite.

Yuu Jyuu at Royal Garden

They also make an amazingly killer roast pork.   But this is NOT siu yuk as we're normally accustomed to here.   This is yuu jyuu, or suckling pig.  Because it's such a young pig, it doesn't have layers of fat that you get with siu yuk.  However, also because it's such a young pig, the meat is so amazingly tender, you don't need the fat to moisten it.   Instead you're left with an extremely crunchy (but not oily) skin, and some tender lean meat, with a very delicate flavorful pork taste. 

Roast Duck at Royal Garden

Probably my favorite thing at Royal Garden though is their roast duck (or siu ngap).   Their duck may possibly be the best roast duck in town.   It's first of all quite lean, yet still tender.   It's also quite meaty, not just all bones.  The skin is crisp, not oily, and intensely flavorful.   But what it really has is an incredible duck flavor, which is kind of hard to describe in English.   In Chinese, we say a flavor like this is very "herng" or fragrant (this is also the first word in Hong Kong or herng gong meaning "fragrant harbor"), as if the smokey flavors of the duck transcends your sense of taste and intoxicates your sense of aroma as well.   This duck is certainly the most fragrant in town.  To top it all off, it's served on a bed of candied azuki beans, that just sit there and absorb all of the fantastic duck juices and flavors.   So you've got this amazing combination of candy sweet azuki bean flavor mixed with the smokey duck flavor.  My son will sit there and just pop them in his mouth, one by one, with his little chopsticks and be perfectly content.

Whether it is just a simple bowl of jook, or a full dim sum brunch, having a Chinese breakfast is such a nice change of pace from bacon and eggs.  A little touch of heart that fills you up for the rest of the day.

The Char Siu Bao Challenge!!

Welcome to my 25th post!   I can't believe I've already done 25 postings.  Guess I'm really a "blogger" now,  LOL.   Well, for my 25th post, I wanted to do something special.   So I decided to conduct a little experiment.  Just a little blind taste test, like you always used to see in those Pepsi vs. Coke commercials.   In this case, featuring my favorite little mini-meal, the manapua.

In Hawaii, it's pretty much the mainstay of business.   If you're going to a meeting, visiting a new client, or giving a presentation, you bring a box of food with you.   You can go with something sweet, like malasadas from Leonards, naples from Zippy's, or cream puffs from Liliha Bakery.  But for me, especially if it's a morning meeting, I like to bring something a little more substantial for breakfast, like a box of manapua.   Everyone swears by their favorite shops.   So I decided to put this to the test, and see which one was really the best.   One morning, my wife and I drove all around town to the classic manapua places to pick up a couple representatives of their main item, and deliver it to an impartial panel of judges.   As we're talking about bringing food to a client's office, I thought, what better test than to bring the candidates to an actual office, namely my mom's office at Guardian Escrow Services, Inc.   

Char Siu Bao Challenge

So here were the ground rules of our little competition.    First, the contenders were all local style manapuas, and not dim sum style char siu bao, otherwise we really wouldn't be comparing apples to apples.  Also, although there countless different fillings you can get these days, we stuck with strictly char siu manapua.   Secondly, to make things fair, I did not disclose any of the locations, so that no one's personal bias could factor in.  Thirdly, I divided the manapuas up into 1/8 wedges, and assigned them numbers, again to insure a blind test.  There were 3 categories.   The staff was to tell me:

1. the number of the steamed manapua they liked best
2. the number of the baked manapua they liked the best
3. the number of the manapua they liked best overall

So, without further ado, let me introduce you to the contenders...
(BTW, you can click on the pictures for a high res zoom)

Beginning with the steamed manapua division:
First up was the classic manapua from Char Hung Sut.   Unfortunately, Char Hung Sut was closed on the day of the competition.  So I had to use a bao that was left over from a few days before.  This means that their breading was not going to be nearly as soft and fresh as it should have been.  It put Char Hung Sut at an unfair disadvantage, but I didn't want them not to have any representation here.

Steamed Manapua from Char Hung Sut

Next up, the steamed manapua from Island Manapua Factory.   In high school, when I had an off campus pass, I remember going to Island Manapua in Manoa Marketplace to pick up lunch.   Since then, however, they've merged with Regal Diner, and now have locations all over the place.   I picked these up from the one in McCully Shopping Center.

Steamed Manapua from Island Manapua Factory

Next, we have the manapua from Libby's Manapua Shop.   Right on Kalihi St., when you see one of their famous for their pink boxes, the same color as butcher paper, you know you're in for some classic manapua.

Steamed Manapua from Libby's Manapua Shop

Right across the street from Libby's, is Chun Wah Kam.   The famous noodle factory is also the home of some very classic manapua.   Their store in Waimalu is much prettier, but there's nothing like going to the heart of Kalihi for that classic old school feel.

Steamed Manapua from Chun Wah Kam

You may not be familiar with U-Choice Inn, but I used to work in the Ala Moana area, so visiting Daiei for lunch was not uncommon for me.  There on the end of the eateries outside, is where you'll find some fairly decent manapua.

Steamed Manapua from U-Choice Inn

Finally, just to throw in a "control group" as it were, I decided to stop off at 7-Eleven and pick up one of their manapuas.   After all, they are definitely the most visible and convenient place to pick up some last minute manapua.

Manapua from 7-Eleven

Next, for the baked manapua division.

First up, the "home of baked manapua", Royal Kitchen in the Chinese Cultural Plaza.  They are known for having smaller, baked manapua, with less breading.   With less bread, you can eat more of them.  Tastes great, less filling.

Baked Manapua from Royal Kitchen

Besides, their great steamed manapua, Island Manapua Factory, makes a fantastic baked manapua.

Baked Manapua from Island Manapua Factory

Chun Wah Kam also makes a terrific baked version of their manapua.

Baked Manapua from Chun Wah Kam

Finally, U-Choice Inn also makes a baked manapua that we put in contention.

Baked Manapua from U-Choice Inn

So, onto the results of our competition.

In the steamed manapua competition here were the results:

Votes Shop
3     7-Eleven
2     U-Choice Inn
1     Char Hung Sut
1     Chun Wah Kam
1     Libby's Manapua
0     Island Manapua Factory

In our baked division, here were the results:

Votes Shop
3     Island Manapua Factory
3     U-Choice Inn
2     Royal Kitchen
0     Chun Wah Kam

Finally, for best manapua overall, here were the results:
 
Votes Shop
2     7-Eleven
2     Island Manapua Factory (baked)
2     U-Choice Inn
1     Libbys Manapua Shop
1     Royal Kitchen
0     Char Hung Sut
0     Chun Wah Kam

The real jaw dropping surprise here is obvious.  7-eleven??   Really???  7-eleven?!?  I gotta tell you, honestly I don't like 7-eleven's manapua.  Before, they were made by a company called Dim Sum Chef, and I actually did like them.  But since then, they've found a new distributor, and to be honest, I think they sit in that steamer way too long (as in all day waiting for someone to buy them).  So really I think the bread is kinda mushy, and the meat has way too many fillers in it.   But the office staff seemed to really like it, saying that it was lighter than the other buns.  U-Choice Inn also surprised me.  I only knew of them because I worked nearby.  But apparently, my wife told me, that her Goong Goong used to drive in all the way from Nuuanu (bypassing Chinatown) to buy their manapuas.   U-Choice's strength, is that their meat is covered with a sticky, sweet barbecue sauce.  The addition of a little sauce seems to set them apart.   Other comments that I heard during the baked competition, were that people really enjoyed the bun from Chun Wah Kam, which was more of a sweet bread bun, but that they liked U-Choice's meat better.   Island Manapua also has a sweet sticky glaze on the outside of their baked bun, setting it apart.   I was also surprised that in general, people preferred the steamed manapua to the baked ones.  I personally like the baked ones, with the sweet glaze they put over it and the usually lighter dough.  I also can't help but wonder what the result would have been if Char Hung Sut had not been closed, and I had a fresh entry from them.   Also, during their conversations, I noticed no one ever discussed the meat-to-bun ratio.  This may have been a drawback of using small sample wedges, because usually this is a strong influencing factor either for or against.  

As you can see, the overall results were pretty even across the board.   I guess everyone really does have different taste, and a different shop to fit each taste.    Don't agree with the results of the competition?   Here's your chance to participate in my blog.   On the right you'll find a new gadget to cast your vote for your favorite manapua!   May the best bao reign surpreme!

Ma-na-pua!! Pe-pe-iao!!

On the mainland, every kid remembers the ice cream truck.   The trucks would roam around the neighborhood, broadcasting their familiar whimsical tune and kids would flock to the trucks to pick up a frozen treat.   Well, here in the islands, we had something similar, but with a little more substantial payoff.   It was the manapua man.    My dad would tell us how, in the old days, the manapua man would come walking down the street, carrying two giant steamers over his shoulder (with a bamboo pole in between), chanting his familiar sing-song chant of "Ma-na-pua!!  Pe-pe-iao!!"   You should really hear my dad do the cry, I could totally imagine a bunch of local kids running up to this old Chinese man to buy some manapua.

Sometimes what my dad tells me is so whimsical, I can't help but wonder if it's true or not.   For instance, he told me that he figured out what manapua actually meant.    He said that "mana" means power or energy, so he figured that manpua meant "power bread".  I almost spit my drink when I heard that one.   I replied, that by that logic, "pua" means flower, so manapua really means "flower power"!   I'm not really sure if he was kidding or not.  But my Po Po collaborated his stories about the manapua man, so I knew they must be true at least.   In actuality manapua is a contraction.   The original Hawaiian name for it was mea'ono pua'a.   That makes more sense right?   Some "delicious pork pastry"?    Pepeiao of course meant "ear", which is what the Hawaiians originally called the ear shaped dumpling, fun goh.    For that matter, Hawaiians used to call siu mai, okole (something my Po Po used to do too).   But I guess calling something an okole wasn't very appetizing and it kinda fell out of fashion.  

Over the years, as cars became more numerous and neighborhoods became more developed, the manapua man stopped walking the neighborhoods and people actually had to go to his shop to pick up some manapua, pepeiao, or okole.   But which shop would it be?    Well, in Hawaii, there is one shop single shop that pretty much clearly defined our style of manapua.   That shop would have to be Char Hung Sut, on Pauahi St. on the Mauka most edge of Chinatown.   Char Hung Sut, is such a non-descript little hole in the wall, that unless you're looking for it, you'd easily pass it by.    They've got almost nothing of signage, nothing at all to market themselves.  No neon lights.  Window displays.  Nothing.  There is just a door in the middle of a brick wall.   And yet.... everyone knows where it is.  

Char Hung Sut, is like the granddaddy of our local style of manapua.    Every single manapua shop in town, has tried to emulate their contribution to our culinary heritage.   If you go to dim sum at a Chinese restaurant, and order char siu bao, you'll notice that it is much smaller, with the seam at the top, and the bread is a lot lighter.   Char Hung Sut's manapua is more than twice the size of a regular char siu bao, and has that nice seamless bun look that we're all accustomed to.  

Manapua from Char Hung Sut

Is our style of manapua really that different from anyone else's?   Let's put it this way, last year we hosted some 5-star chefs from China.  They were from Beijing and Shanghai as I recall, and when they tasted our dim sum, they were confounded as to what was wrong with it.   They looked at our manapua and said, why is it so big, with so much bread?   They looked at our fun goh, and ha gao, and asked me, why is the pi (or wrapper) so thick??   Well... I had to explain to them (as my dad once explained to me) that the Chinese in Hawaii were all decended from Cantonese farmers who came to work in the sugar cane platations.   As they were farmers, they were a) poor, and b) needed something substantial that would keep them going as they worked the sugar cane fields.   So the style developed by the manapua man, and Char Hung Sut, was a bigger bao with thicker breading.   It was more cost effective, for the poor farmer, and it was much more filling.   Nowdays, we lead such a sedentary lifestyle, and we look for cuisine that allows us to "taste more" while "filling us up less", as was the case with the 5-star chefs.   But this is a modern luxury that people did not have in the old days.   People were happy that they could pay a dime, and get something much more substantial and filling.   Thus our manapua was made to fit the bill.

Char Hung Sut has a very special place in my heart.   When I was a little kid, or even now for that matter, char siu bao was one of my favorite things to eat.   I was most definitely a "bao boy".  And whenever I wanted to eat it, my Goong Goong would run all the way to Chinatown to buy it for me.   It didn't matter that Kwong On was much closer.   He only wanted the very best for his grandson.   Originally this meant hopping into his '55 chevy, and driving there.  But as he got older, well into his 80's, he would still insist on going all the way to Char Hung Sut for me.   This meant that in the morning, he would hop a bus, take an almost hour long ride to Chinatown, buy a box of manapua, then hop another bus and another almost hour long ride home.   In his 80's.   Just to bring me some manapua.   There are a lot of things that my parents and grandparents did for me that you'd consider being spoiled.   In my mind though, it wasn't how much they would money they would spend on me, as much as the time they devoted to me.   This ridiculously inconvenient trip was how much my Goong Goong loved me, and I will never forget it.

Manapua, Pepeiao, Siu Mai, and Ma Tai Sou from Char Hung Sut

Was it worth it?   Going all the way to Char Hung Sut for some manapua?   To me, nothing will ever compare to Char Hung Sut's manapua.   Yes, the bread is pretty thick.   But that doesn't mean that it's stale, tough, or something you'd want to rip off and throw away.   It's nice and soft, but chewy enough to be filling.   No, it's not as light as other people's manapua, but that wasn't the point was it?   The meat inside, isn't really filled with sauce, it's not really bright red or anything.   It's a much simpler, natural brown, but totally flavorful meat.   It is so finely minced, not chunky like other manapuas.  The best part is that there are no fillers.  No unsavory chunks of fat.  No hard chunks of meat.  No weird crunches of onion or chestnut or antyhing else.  Not like some other places, where you bite into it, and will spit out a small piece of some unwanted filler.  There is nothing here but pure finely minced meat.   It's the style that my Po Po and Goong Goong would (and did) approve of.

Manapua from Char Hung Sut

Besides the manapua itself, the pepeiao was fantastic.   I'm not usually a fan of pepeiao.   The reason is, that other places who try to copy Char Hung Sut's style, will make that same really thick pi and it's usually kind of tough.   I usually don't like chewing through it, as it's way too starchy it just doesn't taste very good.   On the other hand, even now, biting into the pepeiao, I was surprised at how fresh and soft the pi is.   It looks thick, but it's amazingly soft.  The siu mai, well, it's just a beautifully big stuffed pork hash, again with no fillers that you bite into and just want to spit out.    The ma tai sou (or water chestnut flaky pastry), was beautifully flaky.   Other places that make ma tai sou, just make it too dry, and it's hard to swallow.  Char Hung Sut's is light and flaky with yummy moist filling. 

The other thing that I always like from Char Hung Sut (which was missing from this menu), is their yip jai, the little char siu filled mochi wrapped and steamed in a ti leaf.   Once again, Char Hung Sut makes the best, because their mochi is the softest, and their finely minced char siu doesn't have any of those unsightly fillers.   The beautiful thing about yip jai, is again how local it is.   The char siu is totally Chinese, the mochi is so Japanese, and the ti leaf is such a Hawaiian touch.   It is such a wonderful reminder of the blending of our cultures.

Tastes change and evolve, and as we no longer toil on the sugar cane fields, there may be a day when we look for a less filling manapua.   But Char Hung Sut, and the manapua man, have certainly left their legacy on our culinary heritage.   Much the same way my Goong Goong and Po Po left their impression on me.

Sunday, Monday, Happy Days

To most little kids, the best part of eating chicken is having the drumstick.  Basically, it's just the right size for little hands to hold and little mouths to bite into.   It even comes with a built in handle to hold.  For me however, growing up in a Chinese family, the best part of the chicken was the foot.   That may sound a little strange to you, but consider that to most people the tastiest thing on a piece of chicken is the skin, and the chicken foot is basically all skin and little else.  As I've mentioned, my Po Po would always cook chicken feet.  My Goong Goong would pretty much have one every night, along with a piece of her yuk bang (pork hash).   But the way she would cook it was different from everyone else.   Basically she would do a simple "white" chicken foot, similar to how you get cold ginger chicken in a restaurant.   But instead of the ginger, green onion, and oil sauce that you get with cold ginger chicken, we would just eat it with shoyu.  I remember, I would hold the foot the same as a drumstick, and dip the whole "palm" into the shoyu, but eat each one of the fingers first, one at a time.  I would save the palm itself for last, as it was the easiest, meatiest part.  It never even occurred to me that eating a foot was something strange or unappetizing.  I was 5, and it was simply one of my favorite things to eat.

I have never seen anyone else serve chicken feet the way my Po Po did.  But if you go to any dim sum place, you will find something on the menu called foong jau, or phoenix claws.  That's basically a nice way of marketing chicken feet.   It's not the same.  For one thing, they cut off the leg part, so you no longer have that handle to hold, like on a drumstick.   For another, it's not white, but always barbecued and steamed, sometimes a little spicy, sometimes with a little black bean, sometimes with a little curry.  While much more seasoned and flavorful than the way my Po Po did it, I still miss hers sometimes.  When I was growing up, the best place to get foong jau was Sea Fortune in Chinatown.   But they changed hands, and they're not quite the same anymore.   The original chef, found his way to Kaimuki, and they opened a restaurant called Happy Days.  

Foong Jau at Happy Days

Happy Days is still one of my favorite places to go to get dim sum.   They've got a really light and sweet baked char siu bao.   When you've got a good char siu bao, and a good foong jau, then I'm pretty happy.   Everything else pretty much falls in line for me.   Har gao, siu mai, spinich dumpings, seafood rolls, everything else is just as high quality there.

Baked Char Siu Bao at Happy Days

But I started wondering, if their foong jau is that good, how would they handle some of my Po Po's other dishes.   I've already said how McCully Chop Suey used to do yuk bang and oyster rolls almost the same way that my Po Po did it.    But they were where we would go to get everyday food.  Chinese call it ga serng sik, or the food that you would eat at home every day.   What about stuff that wasn't everyday fare?   Well, the possibly the best thing my Po Po cooked was her kau yuk.   Her kau yuk was awesome, it was the pinnacle of old style, grandma made, Chinese cooking.   She would only cook it on special occasions, because it was such a long and difficult thing to cook.   She would boil it, take it out, poke holes in it to drain the fat, then boil it again.   She would boil it 3 or 4 times, so that was the most tender flavorful thing you've ever tasted.   I have never tasted kau yuk the way she did it ever again, but Happy Days comes pretty close.

Taro Kau Yuk at Happy Days

Happy Days' kau yuk is slightly different than my Po Po's, but it's similar.   Most other places, especially fast food places, that offer kau yuk, offer this bright red version of it, as if they are using char siu sauce.   That bright red kau yuk is usually pretty tough, the fat in between the layers is congealed hard, the skin is rubbery and spongy, and it's just not very appetizing.   Happy Days' kau yuk is natural brown and very tender, almost like my Po Po's.   It's remarkably bad for you, as my sister would hound me about, because it's so fatty, but it tastes like heaven.   Not only is the meat tender, but the skin on top has the texture of a very soft cheese, and the fat in between the layers is so buttery it literally melts in your mouth.   But it is the combination of these layers, skin, fat, meat, fat, meat that is so spectacular tasting.   It's like spreading butter on your bread.   You wouldn't want to eat straight butter, and plain bread has great texture but is kind of bland.  Put the two together and you've got something warm, filling, and tasty.   That's what the layers do.   If you're going to splurge once in a while, and indulge in something fatty, this is the dish to do it with.

There are 2 big differences between he kau yuk a happy days and my Po Po's.   For one, there is a thin gravy over theirs, that my Po Po's didn't have (or need for that matter).  For the other, she would serve hers over a bed of wu jook, a type of bean curd, which would soak up all of the flavor and was usually one of the best parts.   Happy Days on the other hand serves theirs another classic Hawaiian Chinese way, with slices of taro in between.   This is particularly significant because it is one of the reasons that the Chinese plantation workers felt so at home in Hawaii.   Cantonese cooking incorporates taro.  Not in exactly the same way that the Hawaiians made poi of course.   But seeing the Hawaiians utilize taro established a kind of kinship, one element of common ground between the 2 peoples.

Wu Tao Gok at Happy Days

Didn't know that taro is used in Chinese cooking?   One of my wife's absolute favorite dim sum dishes, is the wu tao gok or taro dumping.  The one at Happy Days is of course second to none.  The outside is crispy and flaky and the inside is so creamy and savory.   Again, it is the combination of the crispiness and the creaminess that makes for such a perfect bite.   Other places that do wu tao gok can sometimes get the texture inside too thick and starchy, which can get kinda dry.   Happy Day's is perfectly creamy, and an amazing example of the texture you can actually get out of taro.

Shrimp and Chicken Taro Basket at Happy Days

By contrast, another classic Chinese taro dish, and completely different taro texture, at Happy Day's is their taro basket.  You know how good taro chips taste?   Well, this taro basket has that same awesome crunchiness.   The best part is that it stands up really well to the gravy from the vegetables and meats inside.   Whereas other places' taro baskets can get soggy very quickly, this maintains its crunch with just the slight softening from the gravy.   The perfect texture.

House Special Chow Mein at Happy Days

Just to top things off here, we should mention the great chow mein at Happy Days.   Again, it's done in that Hawaiian Chinese style, where you've got a crispy fried noodle, softening to the gravy and ingredients on top, similar to the taro basket.   It's almost like having mein bang, or cake noodle, but not quite.   They do theirs with that really refined, thin Hong Kong style noodle, rather than it's slightly thicker, chewier Cantonese counterpart.  This is a very classic Chinese chow mein in Hawaii.  

With my Po Po's passing, I'm resigned to the fact that I'm never going to again taste the flavors she crafted with her loving hand.   No one could ever duplicate or replace that.   But with the classic Hawaiian Chinese dishes at Happy Days, these are still... well... happy days.