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Father Damian looks out on Punchbowl Crater
Father Damian looks out on Punchbowl Crater"Make no little plans, they have no magic to stir men's blood."
Daniel Burnham
Local Favorite!
"I certainly want information, but information isn't an end unto itself. Human intelligence is the ability to make sense of that information."
Nicholas Carr
MMMMM, I took a bite out of the shrimp tempura before taking this picture!"Food, like a loving touch or a glimpse of divine power, has that ability to comfort."
Norman Kolpas
Sometimes, we know what we mean, even though we don't REALLY know what we mean. Do you know what I mean?
I guess what I'm saying (with spiral logic) is that the things we are most familiar with, the things that bring us homey comfort, can sometimes surprise us with their secrets, and with how little we actually know about them.
This familiar/mysterious dichotomy can come into focus when we try to describe something that "everyone knows" to somebody who doesn't know it. Like Saimin. A while back I wrote about eating Barack Obama's favorite "Zip Min" at local Hawaii restaurant chain, Zippy's. I even included a picture of the giant bowl. http://comfortspiral.blogspot.com/2009/01/honolulu-chinese-new-year.html
What the picture didn't show is the curious evolution of this isle commonplace.
It turns out that our local "Meal in a Bowl" Saimin is an "only in Hawaii" marriage of Japan's ramen noodle with an old Chinese recipe called "sai-mien." And what a happy marriage! Those curly Japanese noodles play very nicely in the yummy golden broth with their won-ton cousins. Their happily crowded bowl is topped with greens, savory slices of Chinese roast sweet pork (char sui), circles of sliced hard-boiled egg, discs of kamaboko (Japanese fish cake - the red & white spiral!), yellow omelet strips and sometimes even teriyaki beef or BBQ chicken on skewers!
Believe me, on a rainy night a bowl of saimin at Zippys, or at local haven, Shiro's Saimin, can make everything in this world seem mellow and OK once again.
At Zippy's the dish comes in a large bowl with a metal cover that has chopped green onions in a special "cup" at the top. Utensils are chopsticks and a Chinese spoon - the while porcelain or plastic kind that are flat on the bottom. Super hot Chinese mustard stands by too! Add a bottomless glass of ice water, and you may have just read my "last meal" before the hypothetical (I hope!) firing squad.
There is a recipe for Saimin via this link:
http://www.shareyourtable.com/origins/2009/saimin
For those of you who have asked, and those who would like to take a gander at some of the very best contemporary Aloha shirts, you may go to the website for Honolulu Magazine Favorite, Tori Richard at: http://www.toririchard.com.
A L O H A! Cloudia
17 comments:
The meal in the bowl looks very good.My husband does not like asiatic cooking.
I thought the red and white spirally thing was small octopus. A small Hawaiian restaurant that used to be in Kansas City had wonderful siamin, and the chef sometimes used the baby octopus. I prefer shrimp! Their kalua pork was heavenly. Save some Zippy's for me! DrumMajor
I love Chinese food! I don't know much of Japanese food, only sushi. But the dish you discribe looks like a good one. Thanks for sharing. And for your visit!.Aloha!
That looks delicious. It's neat to hear what the President likes to eat and see a recipe for it because it's all new to me. And it makes me hungry even though I just had an extraordinary bowl of granola...!
Thanks for the photos.
It is good, this daily thing I do. Going from London to Hawaii, by way of Tehran and looking at the world through the eyes of others but today I find myself hungry hours before breakfast.
I never tried this delectable dish, a treat to look forward to next time we visit the Islands. I loved reading about its origins. Another enjoyable post about one of my most favorite places in the world. Your book arrived. I am so looking forward to sitting down and reading it.
Now I am craving that siamin ... but to console myself I am off to look at the shirts! Aloha!
That look sooooo good... I want some. The recipe link for the saiman didn't work though :(
You know I just love coming here. It's like a mini-vacation.
Oooh, do they deliver?
That's true. There's still a lot of mystery even in the best understood things around us.
Thank you ALL for visiting,
Friends!
Aloha-
okay, not fair. I just ate dinner and now I want to eat again! Looks delish!
seems yummily delicious!
namaste and aloha!
My husband would love this. I'll have to try it or perhaps get Anna (daughter) to try - she's my experimenter in the kitchen.
Looks positively delicious. Thank you, Cloudia.
It is certainly interesting for me to read that post. Thanks for it. I like such themes and anything that is connected to them. I would like to read more soon.
Keep on posting such articles. I love to read articles like that. BTW add more pics :)
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