Recipes

Watercress, Bacon, and Eggs (No Rice)

Watercress in Honolulu is not a garnish. It is a bunch from Foodland that wilts in bacon fat and still tastes like a stream. The usual plate is watercress, bacon or Portuguese sausage, eggs, and two scoops of rice. This is the same plate without the rice. The greens take the bacon fat. That is […]

Coconut-Milk Chicken Thighs with Bok Choy, Ginger, and Chili

Coconut milk in Honolulu is a pantry can, not a dessert. This is chicken thighs simmered in unsweetened coconut milk with ginger, garlic, and chili, and a pile of bok choy wilted in at the end. It reads like the savory coconut dishes I grew up around — Chinese-Hawaiian home cooking — not Thai takeout […]

Pork-Rind Chicken Katsu (No Panko)

Katsu on a mixed plate in Honolulu is a fried cutlet, a mountain of shredded cabbage, and a dark sweet sauce. The problem is the panko and the bottle of Bull-Dog. I still want the crunch and I still want cabbage. I do not want the wheat. Crushed pork rinds and an egg wash get […]

Weeknight Mixed Plate: Rotisserie + Kalua Leftovers + Chili-Cabbage Slaw

A mixed plate in Honolulu is two proteins, two sides, and a mountain of rice. I still want the two proteins and a crunchy side. I do not want the rice or the mac salad that tastes like sugar once you start reading labels. This is my weeknight version: Costco rotisserie chicken, leftover kalua pig […]

Pan-Seared Ahi with Ginger-Garlic Butter

Fresh ahi is one of the actual luxuries of cooking in Honolulu, and it is wasted under a sweet glaze. I sear steaks hot and fast and spoon ginger-garlic butter over the top while they rest. Twenty minutes, one pan, and it tastes like I tried. This is early dinner on a work night when […]

Portuguese Sausage Breakfast Skillet

Portuguese sausage and eggs is a Honolulu breakfast I ate long before I ate keto. The usual plate is sausage, eggs, and two scoops of rice. I kept the sausage and the eggs and gave the rice job to cabbage, which fries in the rendered fat and actually tastes like it belongs there. This is […]

SPAM Musubi Without Rice

Musubi is convenience food in Honolulu. It is also rice wrapped in nori with a slice of SPAM, which does not fit how I eat. I still want the shape, the nori, and that salty-crisp SPAM edge, so I swapped the rice for a thin egg slab that holds together in the mold. It tastes […]

Spicy Ahi on Won Bok (Not a Rice Bowl)

I like poke as much as anyone who lives here. I do not like pretending a sweet, sticky bowl with a scoop of rice is “keto because ahi.” This is spicy ahi the way I actually eat it at home: sushi-grade fish, a sauce I mix myself, and a bed of won bok instead of […]

Kahuku-Style Garlic Shrimp (No Flour)

The North Shore shrimp trucks are a Honolulu ritual, and they dredge. Flour is how Giovanni’s and the rest get that crust and that clingy garlic butter. I want the same pile of shrimp and the same ridiculous amount of garlic without the flour, so this is a hard sear in a hot pan and […]

Slow-Cooker Kalua Pig with Cabbage

I do not have an imu in the backyard. I have a slow cooker, a Costco pork shoulder, Hawaiian salt, and a bottle of liquid smoke, and that is how kalua pig happens on a regular week in Honolulu. This is the pot I start in the morning when I want dinner to take care […]