Shoyu Mango

Gosh, it’s been AGES since I had Shoyu Mango, a snack I used to love as a kid. Just saying the name, let alone looking at it makes my mouth water. The way I remember making this “back in the day” was just shoyu and vinegar, using semi-ripe mangoes. I’ve also seen this robust/salty/sour “sauce” used in the same fashion with tangerine wedges and, believe it or not, Vienna Sausage straight out of the can. Whoah!

Of course things are different now as an adult - especially eating habits - making shoyu or even pickled mango, today, something I really have to be in the mood for.

The Shibata Mango tree at mom’s place is a late-bloomer this year, with matured, fully-grown fruit only now reaching their harvesting stage.

Shibata Mango Tree

While I much prefer a sweet Hayden or Pirie for eating plain at fully-ripe stage, Shibata mangoes are perfect for pickled mango when still green due to their larger size, tangy flavor and fibrous flesh.

(green) Full-grown Shibata Mangoes

Notice there’s a few Shibata here that outsize the 4-3/4″ diameter Kikaida DVD next to it. There’s been some come off that same tree in the past that measured closer to 7″, which perhaps a Godzilla DVD would best be suited for THAT size comparison. lol

Also notice a distinct one-sided curved shape the Shibata have.

Here’s what one of those larger ones looks like in cross-cut view…

(green) Shibata mango, cross-cut view

This Shoyu Mango dish was actually a spin-off project to pickled mango that I had been preparing the other day, using a batch of Shibata I recently harvested. While peeling and slicing them, I noticed a couple fruits were at the perfect semi-ripe stage, so those were separated and used for the Shoyu Mango…

Those darker yellow slices are pefect for Shoyu Mango, so I separated those into another bowl

Since I had all the ingredients and cooking utensils out and ready to go, I figured go for it. As mentioned earlier, the recipe I remember from the “old school” was simply shoyu and vinegar. But that was then and this is now.

Based on measuring carefully, and taste-testing to my current personal preference, this is what I came up with on the Shoyu Mango dish I’m presenting here today…

Shoyu Mango

1 or 2 Semi-ripe (more ripe than green) Mango (Shibata shown), sliced in bite size strips
1/2 cup Rice Vinegar
1 cup Shoyu (I used Aloha brand)
1/2 cup granulated white sugar

Heat vinegar, shoyu and sugar in pot to dissolve sugar and combine flavors, then let cool. Pour in a serving bowl with the sliced mango and serve.

The reason I added sugar was to counter the tartness of the Shibata, which helped it quite a bit. Of course, that’s just my taste buds. If you you like it more salty, acidic or sweet, adjust the ratio accordingly. Some folks also add black pepper and/or Hawaiian chili pepper, and God knows what else, but I think simple is best.

Shoyu Mango

How did it taste? Pretty much how I remember it as a kid. Sweet, sour, salty and bold. Very bold. That’s why I say you have to be in the mood for it. To be honest, it kinda’ hit me like a brick wall. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but I just wasn’t ready for the kick this thing’s got!

If you have childhood memories of Shoyu Mango or a your own recipe you’d like to share, buss ‘em out cuz!

In a post coming soon, its big brother (or big sister, however you wanna’ look at it), Pickled Mango!

A jar of Pickled Mango just made, that still needs to soak for a few days

Related Links:
• Mayo’ Mango Madness
• Mango Bruschetta
• Takin’ it back to the old school… (external blog site)

Au (a.k.a. Kajiki or Pacific Blue Marlin) sauteed in canola oil (left side), and lard (right side)

Last week I did a post about rendering pure lard from pig’s fat, hoping to become enlightened by the said virtues of cooking with it.

As mentioned before, Diner E swears the best Akule he ever had was one his friend pan-fried simply with garlic and lard, which he claims was just awesome.

Going through various online articles and message board threads, it appears unanimous that lard is superior to commercial cooking oils and shortening not only in flavor, but also for your health,

Since fresh hooked Akule wasn’t available in the supermarket over the past week (it just was at Marukai a few weeks ago!), I went with Au (a.k.a. Kajiki or Pacific Blue Marlin) to test what this hype about lard is all about.

What I like about using Marlin for this test, is that it can be a dry fish if overcooked, so it was the perfect choice to gauge the benefits of cooking with lard.

So I prepared two dishes to sample with: Macadamia Nut Crusted Au (Marlin) with a Mango Salsa and Sauteed Au (lightly seasoned with garlic salt and cracked pepper) with Ginger-Infused Ponzu (citrus soy) Butter Sauce and Stir-Fried Bok Choy (Chinese cabbage). Note that I didn’t include a starch (like rice), as I wasn’t out to make a meal out this.

Here’s about 3/4 lb. of fresh Au Fillet…

The other set was seasoned simply with garlic salt and fresh cracked black pepper.

Here’s a spoonful of cold rendered lard…

After hitting a hot pan, it quickly melts, resembling regular cooking oil…

The other pan (not shown) had Wesson® Canola Oil for the this comparison.

So I sauteed them until golden brown and cooked through, then plated them up for the taste test.

Here’s the Mac Nut Crusted Au, served with Mango Salsa (store-bought from Costco, fantastic B-T-W!), sauteed in Canola Oil…

A close-up of a cut piece from the plate above..

Mac Nut Crusted Au with Mango Salsa (Canola oil)

Here’s the Mac Nut Crusted Au with Mango Salsa, this one sauteed in lard….

A close-up of a cut piece from the plate above..

Mac Nut Crusted Au with Mango Salsa (lard)

And here’s the Au with Ginger-infused Ponzu Butter sauce and stir-fried Bok Choy, sauteed in Canola oil…

A close-up of a cut piece from the plate above…

Au with Ginger-infused Ponzu Butter sauce and stir-fried Bok Choy (Canola oil)

Au with ginger-infused Ponzu butter sauce and stir-fried Bok Choy, this one sauteed using lard…

A close-up of a cut piece from the plate above…

Au with ginger-infused Ponzu butter sauce and stir-fried Bok Choy (lard)

So what’s the difference?

First of all, the lard seemed more forgiving about NOT burning the fish while in the medium (just below medium high) heat pan. Whereas the Canola oil began to darken the macadamia nut crust on the fish much faster. Actually, the underside of the Mac Nut Crusted Au on that plate is dark brown.. almost burnt, but not quite. Of course I plated it with the good side facing up. Even if you look at the non-crusted Au in the Ponzu butter sauce, you can see the one sauteed in Canola oil is a bit darker. They say lard has a higher smoking point, so that must be why it’s more forgiving here.

I must note, I was fair about the cooking method as well, using the same heat (medium) and type of saute pan (stainless steel) for both the oil and the lard.

How did they compare in taste and texture?

I tend to cook my fish just under medium, so with that said, both were moist and tender, but the lard version seemed a bit more “buttery” in texture if you will, while the Au sauted in Canola oil seemed a bit “tighter” if you will. Just a bit. Not much though.

Taste-wise, in my opinion, the Au that was sauteed in lard had a slightly richer and “expressive” flavor, but just by a slim margin. Just enough where someone might ask, “how did you cook this”? My girlfriend prefered the ones sauteed in Canola, noting that it tasted lighter, which she preferred. She also immediately knew which one was in lard and which one was cooking with oil in an initial “blind” taste test I administered to her. So that alone says, THERE IS A DIFFERENCE.

I don’t think the lard version “blew away” the Canola Oil, though. At least not here where they were sauteed in just enough cooking fat so as to not burn in the pan. Actually, I was a little more generous in the amount of lard used in order to impart its flavor more. So with that I also added an equal amount of Canola oil on that side.

I think if you deep fry or use lard in a pie crust, where it becomes more of the consumed part of the food, is where you’d really notice the difference. Perhaps I’ll try fish ‘n chips next time, if I render enough more fat to deep fry with. That’s the only reason I didn’t try that, is I didn’t have enough lard for it on this first run.

As for the dish itself, the Au with the Mac Nut crust and Mango Salsa was awesome, and so was it with the ginger-infused Ponzu butter sauce. Honestly, I would order either of these two dishes in a restaurant. I really liked the how the fruity mango complimented the Mac nut. My girlfriend really liked the latter, actually preferring it switched, with the Mac Nut crusted Au in the Ponzu butter sauce. Switched around either way, it was delicious.

The Mac Nut crusted Au was easy to make. Season the Au lightly with salt and pepper, then dip in an egg wash, then in a bowl of finely chopped Macadamia nuts and pat it on until evenly coated. Normally Panko (bread crumbs) are added into the mixture, but I didn’t have any on hand, so I just used the nuts. Nuts. Then sauté until golden brown and cooked through. Plate with the Mango Salsa (or Ponzu butter sauce, up to you) and garnish.

chopped mac nuts..

The ginger-infused Ponzu butter sauce is easy. Bring 1/2 cup Ponzu (store-bought) to a boil, then reduce to simmer and add minced ginger and 1 tablespoon of cold butter and whisk until the butter melts and is fully incorporated. Let stand for at least 10 minutes to bring out the ginger flavor. Whisk again just before plating. The Au that was plated with that was seasoned with garlic salt and fresh cracked black pepper, then sauteed. After the fish was done cooking, I stir-fried coursely chopped Bok Choy quickly (just until wilted) in the same pan.

Well that sure was a tasty test!

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About a week ago, I also sautéed Monchong in lard just to get a taste of cooking with it.

Monchong a.k.a. Pomfret is one my favorite fish. It’s flesh is white and it tastes similar to mahimahi, except it’s more oily, making it a bit more flavorful, tender and delicate. Because it’s oily, it’s a great fish for steaming, though sautéing like we’re doing here is great too. It’s usually brought in as by-catch from longline ahi boats, so it’s not always available. Surprisingly, when it is, the market price is amazingly very affordable. Wahoo! Oh, that’s Ono. I mean, woohoo!

Here’s a 1 lb. cut of Monchong that I picked up from the Kapahulu Safeway. It’s seasoned lightly with Hawaiian sea salt…

Then I dredged it in flour and off into the pan..

Notice how nice and golden brown the color is. This seems to be one of the benefits of sautéing with lard.

I plated it with a ginger and cilantro chinese pesto sauce..

Here’s a look at a cut piece of this Monchong up close…

How did it taste?

Extremely moist and buttery-tender, though the monchong is already an oily white-flesh fish, so cooking it in motor oil would probably taste just as good. Actually, I’ve prepared this same dish a few times before, except I steamed the Monchong. It’s awesome like that.

As for the Chinese Ginger Pesto sauce, that stuff is great on just about any white meat, whether its chicken, pork or fish. I poured a little too much of it on this plate though, where it kinda’ drowned out the virtues of the lard - if there were any - which may have enhanced the flavor of the Monchong. Not that this a bad thing. Heck, I gotta’ admit this lard-sauteed Monchong and Chinese Ginger Pesto dish rocked!

I’d say lard is certainly something to at least try, as it just might add that “oomph” your dish needed. Of course, anything cooked in fat, whether it’s lard or vegetable oil, should be consumed in moderation. But when taste and texture are what counts most, lard is something to consider.

Related links:
• Praise the Lard
• The Skinny on Fats (Benefits of Lard)

Well ok, we’re not talking about religion or flying pigs for that matter, but we are talkin’ lard, as in rendered pig’s fat, which does receive high praises from those who use it.

A friend of mine recently asked where he could buy pure & natural rendered (not the the stabilized hydrogenated commercial type) lard locally. After inquiring verbally and from online message boards, everyone who responded were clueless on resources, with the best suggestion being to make your own.

Those who are familiar in cooking with lard swear by it as superior in flavor, texture and capability due to its higher smoking point. Especially fried chicken, pie crusts and corn bread. My friend said he never had a better-tasting Akule then the one his friend fried in lard with garlic, saying it was just amazing.

So with that, out of curiosity, I decided to try rendering lard myself, beginning by doing some online research in home-made techniques. This demonstration by blogger Derrick Schneider, is very informative and detailed, including photographs, so I decided to follow his method.

Because this was just a test run, instead of seeking out a butcher who sold the proper “highest grade” pig’s fat, which they say is either the “back fat”, or “leaf fat” surrounding the organs, I picked up readily-available pork belly from the local supermarket.

So here’s the “Guinea Pig” used for this test run…

1 pound belly pork

I was s little concerned the meat on this cut would make the lard taste too “porky”, but after reading a few other instructionals, they said leaving any meat on is OK, as it turns into “cracklings” anyway. Also, because this was just one pound of belly pork, I wanted as much yield as possible and didn’t want to cut out any fat that could still be rendered out between the meat portion.

It’s recommended to have as much cooking surface area on the fat as possible, which you do either by grinding it up or cutting it into small cubes. Because I don’t have a meat grinder, I cut it into cubes…

Then I added it into a heavy-bottomed stainless steel pot on the stove top, then filled it with water about half in volume to the pork…

The water moderates the temperature at the beginning stage, and prevents the pork from being scorched on the bottom. I brought the water to a moderate boil, then reduced the stove heat to low, to a point where the water was barely bubbling, keeping in mind the goal here is to melt the fat, and not cook it.

The entire rendering process is done at very low heat on the stove top in an uncovered pot.

I also stirred it every 10 minutes to prevent any bottom pieces from browning. After about 45 minutes, it looked like this…

Notice how the lipids have already started melting and combining with the water.

After about 3 hours on the stove, the water completely evaporated, replaced with pure melted lard…

Along the way, I used the whisk to break up the softened unrendered fat. That really helped it along. Surprisingly there was very little scum that I had to spoon off the top.

You can tell when it’s done (which here took about 4 hours), as most of the solid fat is no longer visible, leaving behind those brown residual bits and pieces known as “cracklings”…

Lard rendering process complete, after about 4 hours on the stove.

So now it must be thoroughly filtered. I didn’t have any cheesecloth on hand, so instead used a paper towel as a “micro-filter”, which worked great. I placed that in a sieve over a clean pot…

Lard filter: Paper towel > sieve > clean pot

Here you see the crackling left behind in the filter…

They said not to throw this away, but to put a little salt on it and eat, so I tried that…

Pretty good. It tastes like unsmoked bacon bits. The smaller bits are crunchy, while the bigger pieces are chewy. This would be good on a salad or baked potato.

Back to the lard, here’s how it looked after being passed through the paper towel and sieve filter twice..

Voila, pure lard…

So that 1 pound of belly pork yielded about a 3/4 cup of lard, which is what we have in this glass here.

Here you see how it turns white like vegetable shortening (Crisco) after being chilled in the refrigerator…

It also has a silky, soft texture, ready to dollop a spoonful into a hot sauté pan.

A step I skipped before refrigerating it was to fill the lard container with water to help clarify and separate the protein bits out, but it seems fine how it is.

What’s interesting is how neutral the flavor is, without much “porkyness” to it. I suspect the meatless, more pure back fat or leaf fat would be even more neutral, and probably preferable if you’ll be using the lard for baked items like pie crusts and breads.

Whatever mild pork-like flavor this lard does have, might actually be beneficial in the application I”ll be using it, which will be to to sauté a fillet of Monchong that I picked up yesterday at the Kapahulu Safeway. I’m already imagining that’s gonna’ ROCK! I’ll let you know how that turns out in a follow-up entry coming soon!

Oink oink.

Pomai’s Mango Bruschetta - Toasted French Bread, rubbed with a garlic clove and dressed with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, a fresh, sweet mango slice, Hawaiian Salt and fresh cracked black pepper

Mango season in Hawaii is beginning to reach its peak for harvest, as it always is during summer. With that, many of you with trees or who have family or friends with trees will start receiving what sometimes becomes more mangoes than you know what to do with, or care to eat yourself.

A table full of Hayden mangoes a coworkers shared with us from his home in Ewa Beach. This is actually the leftovers. There originally was much more than this!

You’ve made pickled mango, shoyu mango, mango chutney, mango bread, and perhaps even Geico Caveman’s favorite: Roast Duck with Mango Salsa. lol

But what else can you do with it? Mango Bruschetta, of course!

I actually came up with this recipe myself, when one day I happened to have a fresh loaf of French Bread and some mangoes sitting on the same counter. I looked at them both, put the two together (as I’ll soon demonstrate here) and voila! Mango Bruschetta! There might be a few other variations of “Mango Bruschetta” on the web, but none were referenced at all when I thought this up.

My preparation is very simple and adheres to the basic principle of authentic Italian Bruschetta (pronounced “bru’sketta”) - namely in the rubbing of a fresh garlic clove on the toasted bread and the use of quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil, a.k.a. “EVOO”.

Here we have from left to right: Extra Virgin Olive Oil (good quality), fresh peeled garlic cloves, Fresh Cracked Black Pepper (mill), Mango (chilled, fresh, ripe and sweet), Hawaiian Salt and French Bread. I prefer the fresh, piping hot-out-of-the-oven French Bread from Safeway (great crust!), but we already had this one from Foodland on hand, so that’s what I’ve got here. Still good.

First peel the mango, then cut slices about 1/4″ thick, and in diameter that will fit nicely over the bread’s surface. Keep chilled in fridge.

Now, cut the french bread into serving slices about 1″ thick, either at a bias (more surface area) or straight across, up to you. Then pop the bread into a toaster oven and toast them until the top and bottom are a nice golden brown…

I’d recommend keeping an eye on them, as they can go from golden brown to BURNT really fast! Remove them as soon as they reach that ideal golden-brown-delicious “GBD” color. This is how they should look…

Now, while they’re still hot, as you see I’ve immediately started to rub a fresh garlic clove over the top surface. What happens when you do this is the toasted top acts like “sandpaper” and literally sands off little bitty pieces of the garlic that go into the pores of the bread. It also take on the oils and flavor essence of the garlic. Rub it just enough so that you liberally covered the whole top surface.

After I rubbed all three pieces of bread with that one garlic clove, this is how it looked…

Notice how it got “sanded down” to about half the size! Mmmmmm, you KNOW that’s gonna’ be some tasty bread!

Then arrange your garlic-rubbed bread on a serving plate and generously pour the Extra Virgin Olive Oil “EVOO” over the top surface of each piece, letting it drip into the dish…

Think of the EVOO as butter. The more you like butter or margarine on your toast, the more you’ll like EVOO on your Bruschetta! Give me more! No scade! More!

Then take the cut mango out of the fridge, and top each one with a slice or two…

A very important finishing touch is to drizzle a little more EVOO on top of the fresh mango slice, then sprinkle or scatter just a little bit of the Hawaiian salt on top, along with a twist or two of fresh cracked black pepper. The Hawaiian salt on top of the mango (vs. on the bread before you put the mango on top) helps to punch the mango’s flavor right through, down to the base of the bread, like one happy Bruschetta should be.

When you eat it, bite right through the mango slice and bread in once chomp…

While I’m eating it, I also like to dip the Mango Bruschetta in the EVOO run-off sitting in the dish. That’s the shindizzle bruschetta twizzle, yo. lol

The exotic, slightly tangy, really sweet mango flavor couples so well with the hearty, crusty french bread, and the garlic and EVOO, along with that boost by the Hawaiian Salt and spice of the black pepper is truly a marriage made in heaven. And it’s so easy to make!

I don’t know though. You may think it sounds, or even tastes weird when/if you try it. I’m banking that you’ll really dig it though. I LOVE IT!

You could even experiment and expand a bit by perhaps adding a basil leaf, some cream cheese, or even mayonnaise, which believe it or not, the latter is FANTASTIC with mangoes! But really, keeping it simple like this is probably the best approach.

I also tried sliced mango on a Rosemary and Olive Oil flavored Triscuit…

Looks like cheese, yeah? lol

How was this? Not bad! Better than with Papaya, which I also tried. That didn’t really work, but the mango was pretty darned good. Not GREAT like it is on Bruschetta, but good.

So when you’ve got the Mango Bread Blues, pick up a bottle of EVOO and a loaf of french bread and make yourself some Mango Bruschetta!

Oodles of Vegetarian Chow Fun noodles

Mention Chow Fun noodles to anyone who grew up in Hawaii, and chances are what immediately comes to mind is the “Manapua Man”, or an Okazuya. For the latter, my pick for “best Chow Fun” goes to Matsumoto’s on Gulick, and the “keep it simple” approach to perfection at St. Louis Delicatessen on Waialae.

Chow Fun is another of those seemingly simple dishes, yet it can also be ambiguously complex, with so many interpretations, and no “local standard”. It’s easy to mess up it up by overdoing it and adding too many ingredients, where it ends up “lost”.

Recently a new member on a discussion board I frequent shared a recipe for her “Vegetarian Chow Fun”, which had me intrigued to try, since she mentioned she used to operate an Okazuya shop herself.

I’m assuming it’s called “vegetarian” due to the lack of chicken, charsiu or luncheon meat in it, which is most often what Chow Fun is prepared with here in the islands. But what had me most curious was the use of Hijiki, which I’ve never cooked with before.

So I went for it. Here’s the recipe…

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Vegetarian Chow Fun Noodles
by kani-lehua
Serves 4

Ingredients:
• 1 package dried chow fun noodles (Hula brand)
• Shiitake mushrooms (don’t forget to soak them first, julienned)
• Carrots and onions, julienned
• Green onions, chopped (for garnish)
• Broccoli and zucchini, cut into bite size pieces
• 1 can water chestnuts (the ones already sliced)
• Hijiki (dried black looking seaweed, soak in water to rehydrate)
• Oil for stir frying
• Sesame oil for drizzling when everthing is pau cooked.
• Grated ginger and garlic (according to taste)
• 2T shoyu (i guess you could sub bragg’s amino acids, but i don’t know)
• 1T vegetarian style oyster sauce (if no more, use regular)

Boil noodles until al dente. You have to keep checking on them. app. 9 minutes. rinse in cold water and drain. Cut noodles in half and set aside.

In a large skillet or wok, saute the garlic and ginger (do not burn) for app. 1-2 minutes in the oil. add the shoyu or bragg’s and oyster sauce. mix until well blended.

Stir fry all the veggies until al dente. Add the cooled noodles and heat through. Drizzle with sesame oil (don’t over do it) and then toss in the hijiki at the end.

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What’s obviously the most important factor in this recipe is the type of Chow Fun noodles, as in this case is called for HULA BRAND…

Hula Brand Chow Funn, purchased recently at Tropic Fish & Vegetable Center on GOB clearance for just 50 cents a bag!

Interestingly, when uncooked and dry, these noodles appear “pasty” and delicate, but once they begin to cook in the water, they really tighten-up and become resilient. I think that has something to do with the Potassium Carbonate in it. I’d go as far saying you could make a darned tasty Fetuccini Alfredo out of this.

What’s nice about this package is that it includes 4 individual servings bundled up separately, which should come in handy for restaurant service.

Here’s the cooked Chow Fun (Funn), perfectly al dente…

So while that’s set aside, you saute all the veggies…

When these are all cooked, throw the cooked Chow Fun into the pan with it, combine and finish the dish according to the instructions in the recipe above.

I actually rushed this job, not paying particular attention to how I cut the veggies, as you can tell. As far as the quantity of veggies, it’s really up to you. For that one package of Chow Funn, I used half a Zucchini, 1 large carrot, and about 8 medium-sized Shiitake mushrooms. I also only used only about 1/3 of the can of sliced water chestnuts, as any more than that looked like it would have been too much.

I must note, sometimes the noodles may be sticky or dry from sitting, so when I added them in, I also sprinkled some water and a drizzle of extra cooking oil to “loosen” it up. That worked. I also had to readjust by adding a little more Oyster Sauce.

Speaking of Oyster sauce, that’s another key ingredient here, as that’s the main “flavorizer”. In this preparation, I used Shirakiku brand Premium Oyster Sauce, which was fantastic. Others swear by the Lee Kum Kee brand. Up to you.

I added very very little Sesame oil at the end, as the stuff can be overpowering. But what little was added gave it that “nuttyness” that helped punch out the flavor of the Shiitake mushrooms.

That first photo shows the finished dish in the pan, all done and ready to serve.

Note that I also added Beni Shoga on the right side (red stuff), which goes well with anything savory.

What does bring savoriness to the table here is of course the Shiitake mushrooms, but also the Oyster sauce, along with the way the garlic, ginger and onions are sauteed in the oil before everything goes in.

The Hijiki added a “seafood” like element to it, along with it’s crunchy texture, yet I added just enough, but not too much where it may have been overpowering. You have to be careful how much you add in.

As for the “vegetarian” part, most carnivores would be hard-pressed to find anything “not meaty” about this dish. It doesn’t miss the chicken, char siu or luncheon meat at all.

Now the devil on my right shoulder knocks on my brain and says, “Wait a minute? No meat you say? Well, let’s add some on top of it, Okazuya style!”
So I added a cooked Teriyaki Winner on top. This kine..

I swear, these are one of the BEST hot dogs on the market. I’m not really a huge Teriyaki fan, and I try not to eat too many hot dogs for health reasons, but for what it’s worth, this one has that perfect balance of savory-sweet going on, with hint of shoyu-laced depth that’s unlike any other hot dog I’ve ever had. Knowing how popular Teriyaki is in Hawaii, If Costco sold these at their concession, they’d probably move containers full of the stuff.

The devil made me do it…

I think I’ll name this one “Da’ Hana-koko-lele” Okazuya plate

Hey, this was somethin’ yum! There’s almost this “surf ‘n turf” thing going on with the combination of the Hijiki and the savory-sweet hot dog. I’d take out the Shiitake mushrooms next time though, if I’m gonna’ “carnivorize” this Chow Fun, as that, combined with the porky wiener was a little too “meaty”. Still ono though.

Back to the original recipe, this Vegetarian Chow Fun recipe, as is, turned out to be a winner. It’s relatively cheap and easy to make, and best of all, it can be served as a delicious, satisfying, nutritionally balanced, guilt-free (if you resist the hotdog!), all-in-one meal.

Mahalo kani-lehua for sharing it!