PAige Takeya Ka Leo O Hawai‘i

With burgers made from 100 percent grass-fed beef, locally grown on Kulana Ranch on the Big Island, Momo Burger has become the object of lunchtime cravings. Momo’s website boasts that grass-fed beef is “lower in calories, contains more healthy omega-3 fats, more vitamins A and E, higher levels of antioxidants, and up to seven times the beta-carotene,” making their burgers “[t]he healthiest you can possibly get if you are going to eat a burger.”

Some menu items have an Asian influence, such as the Kim Chee Burger ($7), made with ko chu jang aioli, kim chee slaw, kalbi glaze and toasted sesame, and its Teriyaki Burger ($7), made with teriyaki glaze, negi aioli, caramelized onions and American cheese with both items also available as hot dogs ($4). Momo also offers each of their burgers in “slider” sizes, which are equivalent to about half the size of a regular burger.

Gyros are on the menu as well, such as the Bulgogi Gyro ($6.50), made with Korean beef, spicy tzatziki, lettuce, tomato and red onion.

Noticeably, this favored food truck no longer operates on campus, but to find out where you can get Momo, visit its Facebook page or Twitter, @momoburgerhi

Momo Burger

Momo Burger sells both garlic fries and sweet potato fries

Phone: 808-772-1074

Hours: Mon-Fri 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Website: momoburgerhi.com

http://www.kaleo.org/features/best-food-truck-momo-burger/article_9bb007f0-809d-11e2-8865-0019bb30f31a.html

The pictures of our Honolulu-raised president eating shave ice while on vacation represent only a glimpse of the Hawaiian foods that make the Aloha State such a favorite with foodies. Since Barack Obama came into office four years ago, Hawaiian food has experienced a mini-revival on the mainland, exposing more people to the joys of loco moco, tuna poke and kalua pork. Besides earning the presidential seal of approval, Hawaiian dishes and flavors have proved popular with today’s urban trendsetters: food trucks. Furthermore, the TV presence of James Beard Award-winning chefs Alan Wong, Roy Yamaguchi and Sam Choy has made more haoles aware of the cuisine, which combines island ingredients with flavors from Japan, Korea and the South Pacific.

“It’s only a matter of time until Hawaiian food makes its way across the U.S.,” says Choy. One of the 12 founders of the Hawaiian regional cuisine movement (now more than 20 years old), the chef opened his Pineapple Express food truck – inspired by food trucks on Oahu’s North Shore – in Los Angeles earlier this year. “I think we will see a big boost in Hawaiian concepts this next year and moving forward.”

Kamala Saxton, whose Marination Mobile spawned two brick-and-mortar restaurants in Seattle, says people are drawn to the emotional connections of Hawaiian food, even if the dishes aren’t familiar to them. “Hawaiian cuisine is tied to hospitality,” she says. “If you are in a small town in the Midwest, you might not know about laulau (fish, pork, chicken or vegetables steamed inside ti leaves). But you might know the people who are cooking for you. That extended ‘aloha’ is part of our culture.”

While a trip to the islands remains the best way to sample the state’s particular blend of fusion flare, consider the following dishes a delicious dip into Hawaiian cuisine while you’re on the mainland.

LOCO MOCO

What it is: The comfort food centerpiece of almost any Hawaiian plate lunch establishment, the typical loco moco involves several hamburger patties on heaping servings of rice, slopped with gravy and a runny egg (or two). If that’s not enough, some places add a scoop of macaroni salad.

Don’t miss it at: Some restaurateurs have gone upscale with loco moco. For instance, Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, the L.A. chefs behind meat-centric restaurant Animal, offered a foie gras version before California banned the delicacy. But if you want a more typical gloppy experience, go to one of the 175-plus outposts of L&L Hawaiian BBQ. There’s even one in New York City’s Financial District.

SPAM MUSUBI

What it is: The Hawaiian taste for spam has been well-documented; its popularity dates back to World War II, when the processed meat put out by Hormel was widely distributed to GIs. While you can find Spam prepared in various ways on the islands, it’s most often marinated and pan-fried, then wrapped with dried seaweed on a block of rice.

Don’t miss it at: At Kamala Saxton’s Marination Mobile in Seattle, Spam musubi is often ordered in a whisper. “It’s a bit of a dirty secret,” says Saxton. One of her employees even made a sign telling customers not to be “spam-prehensive.” “It’s a guilty pleasure. It’s salty and sweet and really hits the spot.” Besides following the Marination Mobile food truck on Twitter (@curb_cuisine), Seattle Spam lovers can find it at Saxton’s storefronts, the Marination Station in Capitol Hill and Marination Ma Kai in west Seattle.

POKE

What it is: If you’re a sashimi fan, you’ll love poke (pronounced po-kay). Served in grocery stores on the islands, poke consists of raw fish cut into cubes that are then marinated with sea salt, soy sauce, sesame oil, chili oil and sesame seeds; onions, tomatoes, macadamia nuts and other local ingredients can be added. “It is something that I’ve always loved,” says Choy, who considers it the “gateway” Hawaiian food. “It is something that can be reinvented to complement any season, peak produce and, of course, seafood.”

Don’t miss it at: Choy’s truck, the Pineapple Express, serves poke in sliders, a parfait or a simple cup. “We pride ourselves on utilizing only sustainable seafood species,” he says. “So one day it may be ahi, and the next it’s ono or salmon. It’s really provided our guests an opportunity to sample the dish over and over again.” Find the truck in Los Angeles on Twitter (@SamChoysPX) or Facebook.

KALUA PORK

What it is: Served at luaus, kalua pork usually comes from a pig that has been seasoned, salted and cooked in an underground oven, or imu, lined with banana leaves and stuffed with hot rocks. Over the years, chefs and home cooks have streamlined and modernized the dish by wrapping pork shoulder butt in ti leaves, flavoring it with mesquite or liquid smoke and slow cooking it in an oven or pressure cooker.

Don’t miss it at: Roy Yamaguchi, one of the pioneers of Hawaiian regional cuisine, usually has at least one kalua pork dish on the seasonally changing menu at his nationwide chain of Roy’s restaurants (23 on the mainland U.S. and six in Hawaii). Look for it in quesadillas or tacos, baked in a smoked Gouda mac ‘n’ cheese or popped into an eggroll-like lumpia.

MALASADA

What it is: While Hawaiian food is more commonly associated with Pacific Rim flavors, Europeans played a role in its development as well – and nowhere is that more apparent than in this doughnut-style pastry of Portuguese origin. Deep-fried and traditionally served before Lent, malasadas came from the Madeira and Azores islands to the Hawaiian ones through plantation workers; now visitors and local residents line up at bakeries like Leonard’s in Honolulu to get their fix.

Don’t miss it at: You can find malasadas at bakeries in places with traditional Portuguese communities, such as Providence, RI, and southeast Massachusetts. Chef Carol Wallack (who has a home in Maui) makes a version with hot fudge and raspberry sauce at her Hawaiian-influenced fine dining restaurant Sola inChicago‘s North Center.

SHAVE ICE

What it is: Don’t add the “d,” and definitely don’t call it a snow cone. Hawaiians feel proprietary toward their keep-cool-on-a-hot-day, melt-in-your-mouth dessert, made with fine ice that has been shaved, not crushed, from a block. Various flavors of brightly colored syrups are absorbed into the ice, usually served in a paper cup. Ice cream, condensed milk and even adzuki beans can be used as toppings.

Don’t miss it at: Shave ice flourishes in Southern California, where Hawaiian expats have long taken advantage of the hot weather and beach culture to spread their cuisine. Not as logical: the success of shave ice in suburban Washington, DC, where two food vendors serving up the sweets have become summer staples. The Clayboys Shave Ice stand in Bethesda (corner of Bethesda and Woodmont) has been around for more than a decade (as a twist, a Swedish fish is stuck inside).

The young operators of AJ’s Hawaiian Iceez (brothers Adam and Jonathan Holland are still in their teens) make up in publicity what they lack in years: The Prince George’s County residents have been highlighted by BET and the Washington Post and have won several entrepreneurship awards. Find them at festivals and large events during the summer; check their Facebook page for details.

http://news.travel.aol.com/2012/12/22/hawaiian-food-where-to-eat-like-the-president-on-the-mainland/

By Olena Heu | KHON

Camille's on Wheels

The latest food craze sweeping the nation has also taken off here in Hawaii.

Gourmet lunch trucks can be found on streets across town but many lunch wagon owners say they could be forced out of business because of an out of date law.

Lunch wagons in Hawaii have long been known as a quick and easy way to grab something delicious to eat.

“We are really trying to be enterprising in an economy that’s down and we are trying to create work for ourselves,” said Camille Komine, Camille’s On Wheels.

Former television set decorator and food stylist Camille Komine took her culinary skills to the streets a year ago and has received national acclaim for her fusion tacos and homemade pies. But recently Camille along with several others say their future has become uncertain.

Recently Honolulu Police officers started enforcing a city ordinance, originally written in 1978, that states “It is unlawful for any itinerant vendor… to carry on or solicit business in one location on any street or on any public highway for a period of more than 15 minutes.”

“It has put at least one vendor out of business because he can’t set up in 15 minutes,” said Komine.

The citation comes with a fine of $500 per person and up to 30 days in jail and has lunch truck operators driving scared.

“It doesn’t allow a food truck to operate in any capacity,” said Joe Twarowski, Chicago Eatz.

Police officials say “The HPD has received complaints from the community regarding the lunch trucks taking up some of the limited parking spaces in the area. For the past few months our officers have been educating the vendors about the law and have been giving them warnings. After repeated warnings, some of the vendors have been ticketed.”

“We are providing a service for people, we don’t park in front of other businesses out of respect,” said Komine.

But are they breaking the law?

“The way the law is written some of them probably are but you know so were black people who sat at certain lunch counters,” said Marcus Landsberg, trial attorney.

City Councilwoman Tulsi Gabbard introduced a bill Thursday seeking to increase the time limit to two hours.

“They are complying with the law in every other area, the problem that we are seeing here is an outdated law,” said Tulsi Gabbard, Honolulu City Council.

“I am a very small business and the irony of being chased out of business is pretty unbelievable.” said Komine.

http://www.khon2.com/mostpopular/story/Lunch-wagon-crackdown/FtN6eqV6nUyuSs2aLM2gpA.cspx

Photo: courtesy Michi Harris

Since 2008, self-taught cook Michi Harris has been serving up full family meals-to-go through Michi’s Cooking Fresh for You. The food is nutritious (low butter, low salt), delicious and affordable. For example, you can get a chicken shepherd’s pie and a barbecue chicken chopped salad that serves six for $53. You order online and pick up the goodies at Star of the Sea cafeteria, near Kahala Mall.

There’s little chance of getting bored—her dishes take cues from around the world. One night may be shredded pork enchilada casserole, the next Greek-style roasted chicken. I ordered the stuffed shells—filled with creamy ricotta—and Caesar salad, and three adults had dinner, then lunch for the next two days.

In April, Harris added to her repertoire and took her show on the road with a lunch truck. Now fans don’t have to wait until dinner. The 14-item menu includes five-spice teri chicken with pineapple salsa, Vietnamese-style pork chops and a salad of the day. The plates come with two scoops of Genji-mai whole grain brown rice,  salad with miso vinaigrette and fresh fruit.

After a nomadic start, Cooking Fresh for You now has regular stops: You can find the truck at Servco Mapunapuna (2850 Pukoloa St.) on Wednesdays and Fridays, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. She also makes appearances at Servco Auiki Street on Sand Island, and in front of Sports Authority on Ward Avenue. Right now, her overall schedule is a little mysterious, but Harris promises she’ll start using her Twitter account (@CookingFresh4U) to let hungry lunchers know where she’s at.

Michi’s Cooking Fresh for You, 286-6484, cookingfreshforyou.com.

http://www.honolulumagazine.com/Honolulu-Magazine/Biting-Commentary/September-2011/New-Food-Truck-Cooking-Fresh-for-You/

Here’s John Heckathorn’s quick guide to food trucks running around Honolulu, as well as a handy food truck Twitter list to follow. Print it, follow it and go eat it!

Soul Patrol

If you can’t make it into Soul’s Waialae location, then grab some shrimp and grits, and delicious fried chicken, at the Soul Patrol food truck. Locations and hours vary, 542-8749, pacificsoulhawaii.com.

Xtreme Tacos

Who can pass up tacos for $2.50 each? Choose from a menu that includes chicken and carnitas tacos, a carnitas salad or a chicken burrito. Locations and hours vary, 599-0597, xtremetacos.com, or facebook.com/xtremetacos.

Ono To Go

With a fixed parking-lot location near the back of Walmart, you always know where to go when you want pulehu-rubbed chicken, short ribs and teriyaki steak. Parking lot behind 1346 Kapiolani Blvd., enter from Makaloa St., Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. facebook.com/onotogo.

GoGi Korean Tacos

Korean BBQ meets taco is a nationwide food-truck craze serving up kalbi quesadillas, spicy pork tacos and pork belly on steamed buns. Location and hours variable, (702) 808-7044, eatgogi.com, or facebook.com/eatgogi.

Melt Honolulu

Gourmet grilled cheese became an instant hit when it took to the streets. Followers enjoy regular grilled cheese with Gruyere, Gouda and Cheddar, a bacon melt and the Melt of Shame. Locations and hours variable, melthonolulu.com.

Inferno’s Wood-Fire Pizza

A wood-fired brick oven on a trailer makes this the most interesting place to order pizza, but try it and that won’t be the only thing you’re talking about. Enjoy made-to-order pizza, such as fresh tomato and mozzarella, or fusion pizzas. 951 N. King St., 375-1200, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday, 12 noon to 9 p.m., infernospizzahawaii.com.

Yajima Ya

A lunch-truck Japanese eatery with tempura shrimp and vegetables and cold udon topped with a sweetened ginger pork slices. Sheridan Street between Liona and S. King Streets, 497-7991, Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. facebook.com/Yajima Ya

T.A.S.T.E.

If you’re near Beretania, why not order some $2.75 tacos? Though they have rib-eye, chicken, mahi and shrimp, we recommend you order the char siu tacos—it’s tender and tasty. 2012 S. Beretania St., 429-0818, Daily 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Camille’s on Wheels

If you’re looking for the best fusion tacos, Heckathorn suggests Camille’s, with options such as shoyu chicken, kalbi and spicy Thai pork. Also, ask for off-the-menu dessert options. Location and hours variable, 282-1740, facebook.com/camilles-on-wheels

Zaratez

Kapahulu Avenue has this Mexican taco option with carne asada, pollo, carnitas and chorizo, topped with cilantro, onion and salsa. 3121 Mokihana St., 227-1422, Tuesday through Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday until 9 p.m., Saturday until pau. facebook.com/zaratez

Fairy Cakes

Not included in Heckathorn’s roundup, this new mobile cupcakery brings cupcakes, brownies, cookies and cakes to you. Check out Lei Chic’s article, and look out for the mobile bright purple van. 447-8861, fairycakeshawaii.com

http://www.honolulumagazine.com/Honolulu-Magazine/Biting-Commentary/May-2011/Your-Food-Truck-Guide-for-Honolulu/

No need to go to the North Shore for your shrimp truck fix. Bluewater is parked across the Ward Theatres. John Heckathorn

There’s a new food truck in town. Right in town.

Blue Water Shrimp & Seafood has parked its brightly painted blue truck at Ward Center, across the street from the Ward Theatres.

That’s the spot that was occupied by Haili’s “Backyard Luau” truck. Lorraine Haile reports that she and sister Rachel’s Kapahulu location (760 Palani Ave.) is so busy seven days a week that they decided to take a break with the truck. “It got too much. We’ll find a new location eventually.”

Bluewater is a shrimp truck, and then some: garlic shrimp and shrimp scampi, furikake and cajun ahi, plus a large array of plate lunches, all at plate lunch prices. See the menu on the left.

We tried out the scampi and spicy garlic shrimp plates, both full of flavor, though a tad messy if you want to reach in and take the shells off the unpeeled shrimp. (We had to ask for more napkins.)

There was a nice hot pepper buzz on the spicy garlic plate, and the tang of capers on the garlic shrimp. The plates came with furikake rice and tossed salad or an a typical mac salad, made with spaghetti, not bad.

But what really sparked our tastebuds was the grilled ahi belly special (right).

“I was surprised. Guys like you don’t usually order ahi belly,” said the cook to Biting Commentary. (We think he meant haole.)

But ahi belly is the best part of the fish to grill: rich, moist, full of flavor, and plenty on the plate for $7.95.

Blue Water Shrimp & Seafood is not entirely new. It has three other locations: 2145 Kuhio Ave., International Market Place and 848 Ala Lilikoi St., Salt Lake.  The two Waikiki locations explain the orchid and pineapple garnishing the plates.

The truck has a Twitter account (@BlueWaterShrimp). But you don’t need Twitter to find it. It’s at Ward 12 hours a day, seven days a week.  Welcome to town.

Blue Water Shrimp & Seafood, daily 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Ward Center, 2145 Auahi St., 542-0045, Facebook page

http://www.honolulumagazine.com/Honolulu-Magazine/Biting-Commentary/May-2011/New-Shrimp-Truck-in-Town-Bluewater-Blue-Water-Shrimp-amp-Seafood-Ward-Center/

Mexican and Korean mash up well together at GoGi’s taco truck.

We visit 10 food trucks and, between bites, reflect on the phenomena of mobile food and Twitter.

My month of lunch trucks. Hold onto your hats. We’re not starting at the beginning here, but smack in the middle.

We’re not even going to start with comprehensible prose. Here goes:

@johnheckathorn At #EatTheStreet Hawaii’s 1st Food Truck Rally! 2 Fr*kin much! 13 Food Trucks in 1 parking lot! crowds, mega long lines!

That’s only 120 characters, in case you want to RT it.

However, in case you’re averse to ReTweeting anything, let’s start again, in English this time:

Hawaii has always had lunch trucks, but this is a phenomenon of a different scale and character.

The parking lot next to Aaxtion Adult Video on Kapiolani Boulevard is packed—perhaps super packed!!! as people say in Twitterese.

As many as 1,000 people have shown up for the first EatTheStreet food-truck rally, standing in lines that stretch 30, 40, 50 minutes long. Why? To eat from food trucks—buttermilk fried chicken, hot dogs with bulgogi, cheese and egg, and tacos of all varieties, Baja fish, Greek gyros, Korean spicy pork.

All the food trucks have Twitter handles: @MeltHNL, @EatGogi, @PacificSoul. As does almost everyone in the young crowd—not 18-years-old young, but 34-years-old young, the prime demographic for Twitter users.

Two trends have converged here, forcefully.

The first: After 40 years, American foodie culture has filtered down from the Alice Waters, Thomas Kellers and Alan Wongs of the world to people eating street food. As my 23-year-old daughter puts it, “Dad, people will eat everything now.”

No more mixed plates and beef stew. These trucks scramble cultures (kalbi quesadilla, anyone?) and high and low cuisine (foie gras soup and grilled-cheese sandwiches with duck confit).

But it’s not just about food. Jubilation seems to be running high, as if this is a huge success, though, from a foodie standpoint, EatTheStreet is a disaster. Too many people, punitively long lines, truck crews overwhelmed, food running out, limited seating, loud DJ, no wine, no restrooms.

No matter, this event is, to cobble together a term, technotribal. You can almost hear the crowd thinking, “Look how many of us there are! This is TOTALLY AWESOME!”

EatTheStreet was organized by Poni Askew (@streetgrindz). Askew wanted her own food truck. Since she couldn’t afford one, she became, instead, Hawaii food trucks’ unpaid online evangelist.

She organized and publicized EatTheStreet via Twitter and, she says, “It just sort of spiraled out from there.”

These new trucks are nomadic. To find one, you need Twitter. When you do find one, you can’t just eat, you have to tweet.

At EatTheStreet, the trucks are tweeting, the crowd is tweeting, people in the crowd are tweeting each other: I’m eating this with @soandso; The lines are long; This is off the hook; Here’s a cell phone pix of my plate.

If it’s not tweeted, it’s like it didn’t happen. A gentleman named Augusto DeCastro (who I know only as @augusto_photo) had by the next morning posted a web scrapbook composed entirely of Tweets and Twitpics from the event, including one of mine.

Yes, when the guy in front of me in line at Soul Patrol got the last piece of buttermilk fried chicken, I could do nothing with my disappointment but tweet it out to the universe.

Soul Patrol

Locations and hours vary, (808) 542-8749, (808) 735-SOUL, www.pacificsoulhawaii.com
Twitter: @pacificsoul

I wasn’t surprised Soul Patrol ran out of chicken. I was surprised that Sean Priester’s food truck was at EatTheStreet at all. Not long ago, Priester had told me that, despite the romance associated with lunch trucks, Soul Patrol would never roll again, now that he had a fixed location for his restaurant, Soul.

Reluctantly, he gave in to fan clamor and showed up. “Great reluctance,” he said. “My first concern was to protect the food, so we could use it at the restaurant if it didn’t sell.”

Priester all but sold out, despite selling plates at very unplate-lunch prices, $11, $12 and $13. He talked me into ordering shrimp and grits.

He had plenty, because nobody much in Hawaii eats grits, but this was shrimp in a bacon pan sauce, dotted with toasted garlic and drizzled with balsamic vinegar. Startling flavor accents, crunchy shrimp, soft yet toothsome white grits enriched with cheese. You might stand in line yourself for something this good.

You can, of course, have chicken or shrimp and grits, six days a week at Priester’s Waialae Avenue eatery. But I guess that’s not the same as buying it from a beat-up truck. Emboldened by EatTheStreet, Soul Patrol is once again rolling. “Having fun now,” says Priester.

Xtreme Tacos

Locations and hours vary, (808) 599-0597, www.xtremetacos.com
Twitter: @xtremetacos
facebook.com/xtremetacos

Soul Patrol was my second truck at EatTheStreet. That I made it to two was a testament to my perseverance and patience. On my arrival, some friends were standing at the edge, appalled by the crowd. They suggested I join them for dinner at a nearby restaurant.

Couldn’t. I was on a mission. What I needed were younger, less sensible friends—and, luckily, I found a pair who let me slip into line with them at Xtreme Tacos. Xtreme Tacos, to its credit, seemed on top of things.

After only 20 or so minutes, we ordered every kind of tacos they had left. Tacos were $2.50 each, but they weren’t exactly Xtreme. More like bland, the chicken tasting like the carnitas tasting like the sweet pork. You needed to grab squirt bottles of salsa to make them come alive.

We were still hungry, hence another half hour in line for Soul Patrol. By then, most of the trucks were running out of food.

Fortunately, I wasn’t relying on this food-truck rally for my street-food adventure. I’d armed myself with my own Twitter account.

Wedge Lee (@WedgeLee) works the window of his OnoToGo truck in a parking lot off Makaloa Street, serving up Hawaii-style comfort food.

OnoToGo

Parking lot behind 1346 Kapiolani Blvd., enter from Makaloa St., Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Twitter: @onotogo
facebook.com/onotogo

OnoToGo has a Twitter account, but, mercifully, also a fixed parking-lot location near the back of Wal-Mart.

In the lot, owner Wedge Lee (@WedgeLee) fires up a black Weber Grill, just like in your neighbors’ backyard. That’s what the food reminded me of, too—if your neighbor could pull off highly competent pulehu-rubbed chicken and short ribs and make sure his teriyaki steak was incredibly tender to the bite. Add rice and a macaroni salad better seasoned than most, and the cuisine at OnoToGo was 100-percent Hawaii comfort food.

GoGi Korean Taco

Location and hours variable, (702) 808-7044, www.eatgogi.com
Twitter: @eatgogi
facebook.com/eatgogi

If OnoToGo seems essentially Hawaii, GoGi is all Los Angeles.

GoGi is a tribute to—that sounds better than a copy of—Los Angeles’s Kogi Korean BBQ, which set off the food-truck craze nationwide. Founded by a Filipino-American who’d married into a Korean family, Kogi came up with fusion Korean tacos. And, finding it hard to gain a following, finally hit upon the notion of tweeting its whereabouts.

In 2009, Bon Appetit put Kogi on its “Hot 10” restaurant list. In 2010, Food+Wine gave its chef, Roy Choi, “Best New Chef” accolades. Newsweek called Kogi “America’s First Viral Restaurant.”

Must be viral, it’s spread to Honolulu. GoGi’s Jim Wilson ate Kogi tacos in Los Angeles, then discovered a friend in Las Vegas with a lunch truck he wasn’t using. A fancy mobile kitchen like GoGi’s costs about $100,000 new, $50,000 used. Says Wilson, “Fortunately, my friend gave me a good price.”

Fusion food: A kalbi quesadilla with kim chee mayo and a GoGi Dog, because a hot dog always needs bulgogi, cheese and fried egg.

Wilson, who learned to cook on Matson container ships, intuited that Honolulu was hungry for Korean tacos. He struggles to keep up with the demand. “I hate seeing long lines. EatTheStreet, that was crazy.”

I finally found him via Twitter on Kapiolani, on a normal weekday, with a normal three or four people in line in front of us.

On the way there, @thedailydish (who, IRL, that is, in real life, is blogger, Facebooker and incessant Twitterer Cat Toth) asked her 3,515 followers what we should order.

That’s how we ended up with the pork belly on steamed buns, which was not on the menu, but fabulous, a thickish slab of pork belly, soft bun, a little crunch supplied by a slice of cucumber and perhaps a little too much of a sweet jolt from hoisin.

Plus a vividly flavored kalbi quesadilla, and even more vivid french fries with kim chee mayo, Parmesan, green onions and pickled garlic. Whoo hoo!

We also ordered a spicy pork taco, which, perhaps only in this context, seemed bland. Outside of that disappointment, this was, for $25, a thoroughly flavorful and pleasurable lunch for three—even though we had to eat it off the trunk of my car in a hot parking lot.

Melt Honolulu

Location and hours variable, www.melthonolulu.com
Twitter: @meltHNL

Food trucks seem taco-centric. I’ve eaten more tacos this month than in the previous year. But, mercifully, there are more than tacos out there.

Case in point: Melt, which does grilled cheese. [Editor’s note: One of Melt’s owners, Martha Cheng, contributes food articles to HONOLULU.] Melt doesn’t mix cultures like a taco truck, it scrambles comfort and gourmet food. When I finally caught up with the nomadic eatery, I figured out why. Cooking at the truck grill was Lindsey Ozawa.

The last place I’d seen Ozawa cook? Nobu Waikiki. Ozawa said he’d left his job as Nobu’s executive chef when the company asked him to move to the Bahamas.

“How did you end up with a lunch truck?”

“We all got drunk one night, and it sounded like a good idea.”

Ozawa created a huge buzz at EatTheStreet with his duck confit sandwich, which sounded great, but not so great that I was willing to wait in line 40 minutes to order, then another half hour to get a text message that it was ready.

However, Melt’s regular menu, eaten on a Wednesday on Ward Avenue, no line, offered much to be enjoyed.

The regular grilled cheese ($6) comes with three cheeses—Gruyere, gouda and cheddar—on sourdough. For $2, you can dip it in a little cup of Ozawa’s perfectly textured San Marzano tomato soup.

There’s also a bacon melt ($8), with the sharp tang of cheddar and marinated tomatoes. But save room for the $11 Melt of Shame. A grass-fed beef burger between two whole grilled-cheese sandwiches, with grilled onions and Melt of Shame sauce, a lot like McDonald’s secret sauce, except it tastes good: mayo, tomato paste, shallots, brandy.

Have a Melt of Shame. Tweet me if you can finish it.

Inferno’s Wood-Fire Pizza

New address: 951 N. King St., (808) 375-1200, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday, 12 noon to 9 p.m.
www.infernospizzahawaii.com

Inferno’s Wood-Fire (no d, apparently) isn’t a truck. It’s a wood-fired brick oven on a trailer. But since its two young owners break down their encampment every day and bring it back the next, it counts.

John Wong and Kyle Okumoto were installing air conditioning at Hawaii Hardwood Flooring, talking about their passion—wood-fired pizza, a passion that ran so deep they had a mobile oven.

Hardwood’s owner suggested they set up in his lot, just to see what happened. Business exploded. At press time, Inferno’s had just moved to a North King Street location with a larger parking lot.

Inferno turns out excellent made-to-order pizza, classics such as fresh tomato and mozzarella, or fusion pizzas such as a smoked beef brisket with barbecue sauce. All on crispy, slightly charred crusts redolent of kiawe smoke.

It’s the best pizza you’ll ever eat in a parking lot, at about $12 each. “We wanted to be reasonable, because this is fun,” says Wong. “We started out making pizza for friends—and now pizza has made us a whole lot of new friends.”

Yajima Ya

Sheridan Street between Liona, and S. King Streets 497-7991, Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Twitter: @yajimayahawaii
facebook.com/Yajima Ya

Yajima Ya has a tent that you enter through blue noren. It seems just like a Japanese eatery, if Japanese eateries were open air and had a truck.

When Tomo, who was manning the lunch truck, turned around, emblazoned on the back of his T-shirt were the car wash and detailing prices, available at the Cosmo Yajima Service Station, right around the corner on South King.

“Advertising,” he said. “They own the lunch truck.”

I have no standard of comparison for lunch-truck Japanese eateries, but the food Tomo assembled for us in his truck kitchen tasted like the real deal.

A donburi topped with tempura shrimp and vegetables, and a sweetened ginger pork sliced thin as bacon, called buta syougayaki.

Also, cold udon in broth came topped with what the Japanese call “mountain vegetables,” sansai: various ferns and young bamboo shoots, little mushrooms. Plus more buta syougayaki.

The food wasn’t Nobu, but it was as good as anything I’ve ever had in a white paper bowl. It felt, well, really Japanese, at $20 for lunch for two, including a couple of Diet Cokes.

T.A.S.T.E.

2012 S. Beretania St., 429-0818, Daily 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

So there’s pizza, grilled cheese, donburi and udon. But the main thrust of the new street-food movement is tacos. Why? You can put anything on a taco.

T.A.S.T.E., a trailer permanently parked in front of a Beretania sports bar, was a forerunner of fusion tacos in Honolulu. T.A.S.T.E.
stands for Tasty Asian-Style Taco Eatery.

All tacos here: rib-eye, chicken breast, char siu, mahi or shrimp. With a chopped cabbage salad and housemade dressings.

To me, the problem with T.A.S.T.E.’s tacos—if you can even rightly complain about $2.75 freshly made tacos—is that the meat is barely seasoned. The flavor gets obliterated by the dressings, especially the wasabi dressing on the beef and the honey wasabi cream on the otherwise good shrimp.

The exception: The housemade char siu is tender and redolent with five spice, so good it shines through the shoyu aioli and hoisin vinaigrette.

Next time I sit on a stool at its little metal table in the parking lot, I am ordering three or four char siu.

One more good thing about T.A.S.T.E. It doesn’t have a Twitter account. You can find it by driving down Beretania.

Camille’s on Wheels

Location and hours variable, (808) 282-1740
Twitter: @Camillesonwheel
facebook.com/camilles-on-wheels

If you really want a great fusion taco, it’s not at T.A.S.T.E. or GoGi or Xtreme Tacos. You need to find a light blue truck called Camille’s on Wheels.

Not that Camille’s is particularly easy to find. Only my friend Marianne Schulz could have gotten me to drive to remotest Kailua to have a #tweetlunch in an industrial park on Kapaa Quarry Place, sitting at a card table on an inverted Hardware Hawaii bucket.

After a career in restaurant design, Camille Komine has put herself on wheels, selling fusion tacos and homemade desserts. Schulz claimed Komine’s food was worth the drive. An understatement.

Camille’s tacos are amazing: shoyu chicken, kalbi and, her crowning achievement, spicy Thai pork. Everything tastes different. In every case, you can taste the seasonings on the meat, through the stack of cabbage, tomatoes and fresh cilantro. Tacos come with a side of tasty black beans and rice cooked with kaffir lime leaves. You can add a side of her curried quinoa salad, as packed with flavor as her tacos.

Which brings us to the Bl-uuu-e Velvet cupcake. I have been thoroughly immune to the cupcake craze. I wouldn’t have eaten Komine’s blue velvet cupcake, except she was standing right in front of me, singing its name like she was Bobby Vinton.

Not bad, freshly topped with cream-cheese frosting. Lunch trucks sometimes have off-the-menu desserts; always ask.

And look for Camille. “I’m starting to go to town some days,” she says. “I need to find my tribe.”

Zaratez

3121 Mokihana St., (808) 227-1422, Tuesday through Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday until 9 p.m., Saturday until pau
Twitter: @zaratez
facebook.com/zaratez

Of course, dare I mention, tacos are Mexican food. Mexican tacos are what Paul Zarate serves out of his reconverted Roberts Hawaii tour bus, which used to roam but now is permanently parked in a small lot off Kapahulu Avenue.

You step out of your car, breathe in the aroma and know you’ve hit the flavor jackpot. For $2.50 each, Zaratez does tacos with carne asada, pollo, carnitas and chorizo, all seasoned so the meat shines through. Then he piles on the onion and cilantro, and finally, salsa, roasted dark in a cast-iron pan to mellow and deepen the flavors.

The chorizo dances across your tongue with pepper, spice and everything nice. May I suggest a $3 mullita—a grilled tortilla sandwich with layers of cheese and meat.  Order half chorizo, half pollo asada, which is deeply flavored but a little less forward.

Wonderful food, and unlike most food trucks, open for dinner. We left, tweeting our thanks for fortifying us for a night on the town. Zarate tweeted us back. Tribal custom.

John Heckathorn has been writing award-winning restaurant reviews for HONOLULU Magazine since 1984.

http://www.honolulumagazine.com/Honolulu-Magazine/March-2011/Street-Grindz-Not-just-food/index.php?cparticle=1&siarticle=0#artanc

On a warm winter evening last month, more than 1,000 hungry Honoluluans converged in a small parking lot near Ala Moana Center to sample some of the city’s best food truck cuisine.

The event, dubbed Eat The Street, wound up a wildly successful first-time-for-Honolulu venture, thanks, in part, to social media sites like Twitter and the cadre of food trucks that embraced the idea.

People, many of them just off work, braved long lines and virtually zero parking to check out the city’s brand new food truck and street food rally and, of course, indulge in everything from Mexican and Korean tacos to gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches, Hawaiian plate lunches, cupcakes and soul food.

Demand for a second rally was so fervent that event organizer Poni Askew decided to take the event monthly. And if you’re on Oahu this Friday evening, with no dinner plans, you’re in luck.

The second Eat the Street food truck and street food rally is happening from 5 to 9 p.m., Feb. 25, at the 555 South Street parking lot, near Restaurant Row in Kakaako.

“You can again taste all the food trucks in one place, at one time, in the evening and in a relaxed environment,” says Askew. “What could be better than that?”

This month’s Eat the Street will boast double the amount of food trucks on quadruple the amount of space—a four-acre parking lot will hopefully offer attendees more room to move. You can also expect a few of the mobile vendors—such as uber-popular Melt Honolulu, which serves gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches—to unveil new menu items specifically for the event.

A tip about the bigger spread for Eat the Street part deux, tho, from a veteran of last month’s event: As with any event drawing a 1,000-plus crowd, a larger venue doesn’t necessarily translate into shorter lines at the food trucks.

My advice? Get there early and plan your food truck attack ahead of time.

Check out the list of Eat the Street vendors at the end of this post, and check out their websites. Peruse their food offerings and prioritize. Follow their Twitter feeds for updates. The more popular trucks — Gogi Korean Tacos, Melt Honolulu, T.A.S.T.E., Soul Patrol— will likely have longer lines, so hit those first.

Most importantly, however, don’t wait too long in lines at trucks whose food you want to sample. At last month’s Eat the Street, a few trucks sold out before the event was over. Move around, or better yet, bring a group of friends and divide your attack on the food trucks so everyone gets a piece of a the food action.

Trust us. You won’t be disappointed.

Eat the Street, part deux, participating food trucks (with Twitter handles) :

• 4 Caterers
• Aloha Ice Cream Tricycles
• The Cafe Truck (@CafeTruck)
• Camille’s on Wheels (@camillesonwheel)
• Dixie Grill (@DixieGrill)
• Elena’s Home of Finest Filipino Foods (@ElenasFilipino)
• Fairy Cakes Hawaii
• Gogi Korean Tacos (@EatGogi)
• Hawaii Hot Dogs
• Jawaiian Irie Jerk
• Kakaako Kool (@KakaakoKool)
• Le Crepe Cafe
• Let Them Eat Cupcakes (@LTEatCupcakes)
• Lickety Split
• Malia’s Pasteles and Poke
• Melt Honolulu (@meltHNL)
• Ono to Go
• Soul Patrol (@pacificsoul)
• Stacy’s LauLau and Grindz
• T.A.S.T.E.
• Tacos Vicente
• Whys Catering
• Xtreme Tacos (@xtremetacos)
• Yelp (@yelphawaii) — (non-food)
• Zsoli’s Chimney Cake Hawaii (@ChimneyCakes)

For more information on Eat the Street, visit the website of event organizer www.streetgrindz.com.

http://www.hawaiimagazine.com/blogs/hawaii_today/2011/2/24/guide_Eat_the_Street_food_truck_rally

By K5TheHomeTeam.com

HONOLULU (KFVE) — In this week’s Cheap Eats, Russ and Lyle head back to Kalihi to one of the best lunch trucks on the island. They’re at Carval Express located at the corner of Mokauea and Kalani Streets. It’s a place that never disappoints.

Carval Express is a lunch truck that’s kicked up a notch. You can enjoy your food in a nice outdoor seating area. They offer good eats like pepper fried chicken with potato salad. There’s also the short ribs with spicy garlic sauce and Nalo greens. Carval Express also has a list of daily specials. For example, they have fried pork chops with spicy ketchup for $7, and hamburger steak with gravy, mushrooms and onions also for $7.

It’s only been around for six months, but already Carval Express has developed a following.

“We like to go for the specials. Always the special menu whatever is on the Facebook,” said Gene Gibo of Hawaii Kai.

Carval Express also offers a loco moco. It comes with a couple of eggs, hamburger and gravy all over rice. But if you’re a pork lover, you can’t go wrong with their roast pork wrapped in bacon.

Don’t forget, Carval Express is at the corner of Mokauea and Kalani Streets in Kalihi.

**Facebook Link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Carval-Express/138667399499321

http://www.k5thehometeam.com/global/story.asp?s=14085675

Honolulu may be isolated — equator-adjacent and Pacific-surrounded as we are — but we’re as in the thick of the food-truck craze as any other metropolis.

A few weeks ago, Eat The Street debuted at a parking lot on Kapiolani Blvd. — a convergence of these food trucks in one place at one time. You could jump from truck to truck and sample from cuisines ranging from Korean to gourmet grilled cheese to Hawaiian laulau to soul food.

A few of us from the office planned to be there, but it was the night of Hawaii Business Magazine’s Small Business Awards gala (we won!), so we planned to hit it up afterward. However, a quick text to friends at the soiree revealed the trucks were running out of goods — fast. Apparently, more than 1,000 swarmed the area and most of the food was kaput after an hour or so. We missed it.

But obviously the demand for a food-truck rally had been established. So here comes Eat The Street 2.0, on a larger lot (courtesy of landowner Kamehameha Schools) and with the backing of local entertainment and events site Nonstop Honolulu. It’s coming Friday, Feb. 25 from 5-9 p.m. It’s a fast cab ride from Waikiki, so if you’re visiting you won’t want to miss it.

Nineteen trucks are on board and two DJs will spin throughout to keep your digestive juices flowing. Sample morsels from Melt Honolulu, Gogi Korean Tacos, Soul Patrol, Xtreme Tacos, Stacy’s LauLau and Grindz, Malia’s Pasteles and Poke, T.A.S.T.E., Let Them Eat Cupcakes, Dixie Grill, Elena’s Home of Finest Filipino Foods, Chimney Cakes, Camilles on Wheels, Jawaiian Irie Jerk, Lickety Split, The Cafe Truck, Kakaako Kool (shave ice), Fairy Cakes and Aloha Ice Cream Tricycles.

Many of these vendors have the best food on island. You will definitely want to leave room for Let Them Eat Cupcakes. Full disclosure: founders Kawehi and Nick are good friends of mine, but I’ve had their cupcakes fully vetted by the 3DHawaii staff and they’ll back me up on the following statement — their cupcakes are the best you’ll ever have. Super moist cake, not overly sweet buttercream frosting whipped into the creamiest texture ever laid upon your tongue. (That’s their red velvet cream cheese with vanilla buttercream at left.) They sold out in about 45 minutes last time, but I think they’ll be bringing quite a few more cupcakes this time around.

Eat The Street: 555 South Street (catty corner to Restaurant Row in Kakaako). Friday, Feb. 25, 5-9 p.m. Below: Scenes from the first Eat The Street event.

http://content.3dhawaii.com/post/local-file-food-trucks-converge-for-eat-the-street