
Other items include poi - taro root mashed into a thick paste - and lau lau plates, a traditional method of steaming fatty pork and salted butterfish encased in taro and ti leaves. Along with plate lunch combos, which come with a side of white rice and scoop of macaroni salad, Da Ono specializes in grilled and barbecued meats, such as kalua pig and barbecue short ribs. Da Ono Hawaiian Foodĭa Ono serves up some of the most traditional indigenous Hawaiian foods on the island of Oahu.

He called it “kooky,” but was all in on the experience. Bourdain is surprised at how “high-tech” the process was for 2008, when the episode of “No Reservations” ran. Then, all of the condiments are poured into the bun-tube, one by one, from beer-like taps. He marvels at the process in which the employee makes the Puka Dog - the bun is first “impaled on something vaguely medieval-looking” to create the center of the tube. “Every great culture has its own strange, local, mutant form of the hot dog,” he says in a voiceover. When Bourdain arrives at the shop, he asks what makes the quintessential Puka Dog experience.

Puka Dog is famous for its Hawaiian style hot dogs. This style of hot dog can truly only be found in Hawaii. Instead of the more well-known style of bun, which opens at the slit cut across the top, a Hawaiian-style hot dog presents the link of meat inside the bun, like a tube.Īll of the magic happens inside the bread: Along with the Polish sausage, or vegetarian hot dog, a classic Puka Dog comes with a garlic-lemon secret sauce with three levels of heat, Aunty Lilikoi’s passion fruit mustard and the addition of a tropical relish, which comes in mango, pineapple, coconut, banana or star fruit. This unique style of hot dog all starts with the bread - a handmade Hawaiian sweet bread made fresh daily. The shop specializes in Hawaiian-style hot dogs. Located on the island of Kauai inside the Poipu Shopping Village, Puka Dog serves up award-winning hot dogs, according to the Travel Channel. Open Tuesday through Sunday, 6 a.m.- 8 p.m. Tasty Crust, 1770 Mill St., Wailuku, Maui. After he chows down, Bourdain calls the plate lunch “fundamentally local.”
#Hamburger macaroni soup how to
The plate lunch is perhaps one of the most recognizable Hawaii staples - a choice of protein, such as chicken katsu, served alongside perfectly cooked white rice and a mayonnaise-based macaroni salad.īourdain, while eating alongside local journalist Daniel Ikaika Ito, orders the chicken katsu plate lunch, a furikake ahi tuna plate lunch and a hamburger steak plate lunch - two hamburger-like patties of beef drowned in what is described by Bourdain as a “dark, sinister, sticky, shiny gravy.” Ito shows Bourdain how to eat the hamburger steak combo like a regular: placing a patty on top of a scoop of rice, spooning over some gravy, topping it all with a forkful of macaroni salad and then cutting it with a fork to get a little bit of everything in each bite. The plate lunch in Hawaii is a staple at almost every restaurant.

The restaurant serves the same food it did 81 years ago when it first opened - its “world famous pancakes,” loco moco and the plate lunch, among other dishes. In fact, the restaurant first opened in 1942, during World War II. With its faded Coca-Cola sign, pleather booths, classic vinyl countertop that stretches nearly wall to wall, and metallic stools lining the dining counter, this diner looks straight out of a 1940s magazine. Open Tuesday through Saturday, 8 a.m.-2 p.m., takeout only. In classic Bourdain fashion, he was humbly schooled, as were all of the viewers, on the complicated history of Hawaii and its many cultures, all over delicious food.Įthel’s Grill, 232 Kalihi St., Honolulu, Oahu. Bourdain, Noguchi and Le chowed down on seemingly the whole menu, including pig's feet soup, a gravy-thick tripe stew, spam with bittermelon and some of the fan favorites at Ethel’s. As they discussed the complexities of Hawaii and Hawaiian identity, in Season 5, Episode 7, of "Parts Unknown," the daughter of the family brought out an exhibition of the menu highlights. On Bourdain’s visit, he ate with two local chefs, Mark Noguchi and Andrew Le.

Other fan favorites include the loco moco, mochiko chicken and goya champuru, an Okinawan-style stir-fry dish with pork and bitter melon.Įthel's Grill is one of Anthony Bourdain's favorite restaurants in Hawaii. Perhaps most famous is the tataki sashimi - lightly seared fresh tuna resting on a bed of bean sprouts and blanketed with a housemade garlic-shoyu sauce. Before the pandemic, it was a cozy, six-table restaurant right now, it is takeout only.ĭiners can expect a rotating specials menu with a few mainstays. Located on the ground floor of a nondescript apartment building in Honolulu, Ethel’s Grill is a neighborhood spot serving an array of creative Asian-inspired dishes and classic Hawaiian fare.
