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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Savor production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vocal Bam and today

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Speaker 1: we have an interview for you from our trip to Oahu. Yes,

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Speaker 1: and this was a super fun one. We get to

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Speaker 1: play with legos, uh and we're children, so so so Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so that was a very perfect for for us. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: this is our interview with Monica to Gucci Ryan Um

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Speaker 1: and Uh, joined in parts by her husband, wrestle Ryan. Yes,

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Speaker 1: he was kind of the peanut gallery. He was just

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Speaker 1: sitting back there. And then every now and then we'd

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Speaker 1: get a comment from Yeah, a really good, pithy, worthwhile comment.

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Speaker 1: It was. It was. It was an unexpected addition to

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Speaker 1: the interview and a very very good one. Yes, And

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Speaker 1: this was when we were really happy to get because

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Speaker 1: Monica provided such a great context too, the food scene

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Speaker 1: in Hawaiian. She's um a third generation owner of restaurant

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Speaker 1: called Highway In that has three locations now all around Oahu.

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Speaker 1: And she she had like visual aids and just was

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Speaker 1: so knowledgeable. Yeah, I mean we were expecting. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you know, we we knew that she's the owner and

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Speaker 1: this restaurant has been in her family for so long.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, the food at Highway in um uh. They

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Speaker 1: serve a lot of a lot of traditional Hawaiian dishes, um,

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Speaker 1: like fresh poke a roast clue a pig um allow law,

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Speaker 1: which is a dish of protein that's kind of steamed

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Speaker 1: in tea leaves that's t I not t e a anyway. Um.

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Speaker 1: Some stews and soups like squid luoo and chicken long rice.

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Speaker 1: You can you can get these things ala carte or

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Speaker 1: via the classic plate lunch with sides like poi or rice,

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Speaker 1: um lomami, salmon mac salad, and Helpia which is his

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Speaker 1: coconut pudding dessert which is also good anyway. Um. More

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Speaker 1: modern dishes as well, like loco moco and casadillas and

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Speaker 1: fried fish or chicken wings with house twists, all kinds

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Speaker 1: of lovely things. Oh, I have such a craving, now,

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Speaker 1: I know. Yeah. I was looking at their menus and

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Speaker 1: everything and just kind of quietly freaking out. Um. It's

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Speaker 1: like a really nostalgic craving for that brief beautiful window.

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Speaker 1: Oh gosh. Um. And and yeah, we we met up

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Speaker 1: with Monica near Highway in second location in the Salt

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Speaker 1: development in kaca Ako, which is this area of Honolulu

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Speaker 1: with a lot of history, and we talked some about

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Speaker 1: that in the interview. Um, but they're Um. The reason

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Speaker 1: that there were Legos is that we were meeting up

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Speaker 1: in like this this this office area in that development,

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Speaker 1: and they had this little Lego build out of the area.

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Speaker 1: So and we immediately we were very We tried to

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Speaker 1: put up a front for two seconds and then made

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Speaker 1: a bee line for it. Yeah. Absolutely, come on, Legos,

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Speaker 1: what do you want from us? Right? I mean, we're humans,

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Speaker 1: adult humans, but human beings. Everyone likes Lego. I bet

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Speaker 1: there's some amazing Lego projects happening right now. Leg I

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Speaker 1: have I have a friend who has been live streaming

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Speaker 1: some Legos and it has been amazing. That's awesome. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's a live streams are a great thing. Um uh

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Speaker 1: speech speaking of of COVID nineteen, if you happen to

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Speaker 1: be an a Wahu Highway in is open for takeout

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Speaker 1: and delivery right now, please support your local restaurants when

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Speaker 1: and if you can. Yes, absolutely, Oh so hungry, so jealous.

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Speaker 1: But okay, I suppose we should. We should happen to

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Speaker 1: our interview. Yes, yes, I will let former Annie, Lauren

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Speaker 1: and Monica take it away. This used to be the

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Speaker 1: sea wall, so this is kind of like all I

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Speaker 1: want a boulevard of the water in the shore line

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Speaker 1: came all the way up here, and they had judged it,

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Speaker 1: I think sometimes either in the late eighteen hundreds or

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Speaker 1: early nineteen hundreds, they judged all of this area. So

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Speaker 1: if you can take a look, their salt pans here.

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Speaker 1: And that's that's the reason why Commitments Schools named this

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Speaker 1: place salt at our cacaco um. The Hawaiian word for

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Speaker 1: salt is paki, but they wanted to be more inclusive

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Speaker 1: of other others and so they named it salt and

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Speaker 1: that's the reason why we got that name. Yeah, that's

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Speaker 1: kind of cool. Yeah, but these are all wide words,

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Speaker 1: and everybody complains, like how do you get around if

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Speaker 1: I'm trying to tell the cab driver where I'm not,

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Speaker 1: how do I pronounce that word? That word? And then

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Speaker 1: they end up in the wrong place, you know. So

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Speaker 1: we've we've been struggling with it ourselves since we have

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Speaker 1: been here. It's it's it's very um fanetic. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's like everywhere letters pronounced the way you typically see it.

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Speaker 1: So it's not it's once you kind of get the

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Speaker 1: basic role to to the language, it's not too hard. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean, I think that's I think what's different about

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Speaker 1: So there are a couple of big land owners in

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Speaker 1: this area called kakako um Commitment Schools. Bishop of State

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Speaker 1: is one of them. Across all Muana Boulevard is OHA,

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Speaker 1: which is Office of Hawaiian Affairs, which is part of

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Speaker 1: the Hawaii State government. UM it's a little arm offshoot

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Speaker 1: of the state government specifically to look after Native Hawaiians

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Speaker 1: and their interests. And then we also have Howard Hughes

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Speaker 1: Development that's kind of the more polished side of Cacaco.

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Speaker 1: So you have east side and west side. We're on

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Speaker 1: the west side of Cacacko. So but these three kind

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Speaker 1: of land owners have over the past couple of years

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Speaker 1: have really um gentrified this area. And and so now

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Speaker 1: what you see is a lot of multimillion dollar condos,

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Speaker 1: like many places around the country, a lot of the

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Speaker 1: local people feeling a bit pushed out because they can't

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Speaker 1: afford on the cost of living here in Hawaii. You know,

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Speaker 1: our hospitality here in Hawaii is and the military is

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Speaker 1: our main economic drivers here. In the state. And what

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Speaker 1: that means is you don't really have other kinds of

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Speaker 1: industries like high tech for example, Manufacturing is is kind

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Speaker 1: of on the low side to rely on to generate

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Speaker 1: a more diverse economy. Yeah, I imagine being literally positioned

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Speaker 1: where Hawaii is, it makes it more difficult to attract,

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Speaker 1: especially manufacturing, probably due to the cost of Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: mean you kind of think that if you look on

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Speaker 1: the map and you look on the globe, like what

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Speaker 1: you really is isolated. It is like this little tiny

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Speaker 1: island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, which is

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Speaker 1: like the largest body of water on the planet, and

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Speaker 1: we really you are this amazing piece of land. Um

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Speaker 1: that's just the middle of nowhere. And they've always been

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Speaker 1: talking about how strategically, um, we are positioned because we

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Speaker 1: are positioned between the west and the east, and how

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Speaker 1: that could be used in our interest for our interests.

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Speaker 1: That has never really materialized outside of the military position

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Speaker 1: and and tourism figured it out. We're still trying to

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Speaker 1: figure it out, and we haven't done a very good

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Speaker 1: job doing that well. I like to be fair Commertual

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Speaker 1: air flight has only existed for what like seventy years now,

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Speaker 1: So I think you're doing it just okay. Yeah, Because

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Speaker 1: we live in the middle of the Pacific, everything has

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Speaker 1: to be shipped in, and so what you find is

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Speaker 1: you find even your basic food products for example, things

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Speaker 1: that you need for construction, everything has to be shipped in.

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Speaker 1: And there's a bit of a monopoly on shipping. And

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Speaker 1: there's also some federal laws caught the Jones Act, which

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Speaker 1: requires any shipping boats that comes to our ports needs

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Speaker 1: to be US. It cannot be foreign. And so that

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Speaker 1: also drives up the cost here. And so as residents

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Speaker 1: and people that live here on this island, we pay

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Speaker 1: extra oil also gets shipped in, so we have one

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Speaker 1: of the highest energy costs, one of the highest cost

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Speaker 1: of living. And also if you buy like a gallon

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Speaker 1: of milk, it's probably like seven or eight bucks for

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Speaker 1: a gallon of milk here in Hawaii. It's very expensive.

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Speaker 1: As as a business owner, as a small business owner,

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Speaker 1: is that prohibitive? I think people are struggling. You know

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Speaker 1: that the local people here UM, both Hoians and both

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Speaker 1: multigenerational families UM that have planted their roots here. So

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Speaker 1: back in the mid eighteen hundreds we have our plantation

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Speaker 1: history and so what had happened back then was a

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Speaker 1: bunch of American business people had recognized that Hawaii's climate

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Speaker 1: was excellent for sugarcane and for pineapple. And what you

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Speaker 1: find during that time period from what I know, and

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Speaker 1: I'm not a historian in any way, so I don't

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Speaker 1: claim myself to be an expert. So you know, people

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Speaker 1: can google this and then find out if I'm telling

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Speaker 1: the truth. They're making this stuff up. But you know,

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Speaker 1: around the same time, there was a gold rush that

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Speaker 1: was happening as well, and so that spurred this demand

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Speaker 1: for sugar. And because of our climate, a lot of

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Speaker 1: American business people started plantation for sugar canes and pineapple.

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Speaker 1: And so what you find in the eighteen fifties is

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Speaker 1: you start seeing they call this called the Masters and

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Speaker 1: Servants Act. It paid the way for a lot of

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Speaker 1: importation of workers from other countries, and the California gold

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Speaker 1: rest spur at the demand for Hawaiian sugar. So now

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Speaker 1: we see in the eighteen fifties, the first labors that

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Speaker 1: came to work on the plantations where Chinese labors, and

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Speaker 1: they did not bring their wives with them. So today

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Speaker 1: you see a lot of Chinese Hawaiian ethnic mixes. Then

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Speaker 1: the civil war in eighteen six you and also continue

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Speaker 1: you to increase the demand for sugar, and so now

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Speaker 1: you have these business people that have this very profitable business.

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Speaker 1: Then what you find is in the late eighteen hundreds, Um,

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Speaker 1: queen look, Lenny gets overthrown by American business people because

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Speaker 1: there's some American interest and so there's this you know,

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Speaker 1: generational unfairness of the people's lands being taken and a

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Speaker 1: sovereign monarchy being overthrown through the annexation of Hawaii. Uh So,

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Speaker 1: queenly look, Leni is the last Rainy monarch and she

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Speaker 1: was prisoned. I think can commitment the first Actually, if

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Speaker 1: you take a look at the Hawaiian flag, the Hawaiian

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Speaker 1: flag has a Union Jack on it. And my understanding,

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Speaker 1: can commitment the first understood how the Western world was

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Speaker 1: going to significantly impact the Hawaiian culture and you know,

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Speaker 1: perhaps wanted to have relationships more with England. Then when

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Speaker 1: in the from the United States and so adopted some

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Speaker 1: of the parts of the British flag and the Union jack.

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Speaker 1: And so you see in the Hawaiian fly the Union Jack,

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Speaker 1: which is our state flag. Um. You then find um,

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Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty eight, Japanese labors coming on board. The

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Speaker 1: Japanese labors were perhaps the largest group of immigrants, about

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Speaker 1: two hundred thousand Japanese immigrants came. I believe they all

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Speaker 1: believed that at one time they would go back to

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Speaker 1: Japan and they would make whatever money they could and

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Speaker 1: then go back to Japan. But they found out very

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Speaker 1: quickly when they worked on the plantation how hard life

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Speaker 1: was on the plantation. And they were very much like

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Speaker 1: indentured servants, and so it's really tough to get out

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Speaker 1: of that life. And then in eighteen seventy eight you

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Speaker 1: find the Portuguese. Now, the Portuguese, being at their fair skinned,

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Speaker 1: were an ethnic group that were typically, if anything, promoted

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Speaker 1: to what they call lunas or supervisors on the plantation.

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Speaker 1: So now in Hawaii you also see a lot of Portuguese, Chinese,

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Speaker 1: Hawaiian ethnic mixes because of all these different ethnic groups

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Speaker 1: coming on board. Hawaiian history also has Puerto Ricans, and

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Speaker 1: so we also have some food influences from from Puerto

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Speaker 1: Ricans and green bananas, for example, hotel Stu. I'm not sure.

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Speaker 1: I always get confused if it's Patel pastel I'm not

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Speaker 1: really quite sure how you know, different people have different

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Speaker 1: ways here pronouncing it. And then you also have like

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Speaker 1: the Koreans coming on board in the early nineteen hundreds, um,

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Speaker 1: and then also Filipinos arriving. And so what you find

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Speaker 1: in hawaiis food culture now is you have this very

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Speaker 1: diverse hodgepodge of foods on our table today. How do

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Speaker 1: you create a menu based on that? That's a great question. Well,

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Speaker 1: you know, I don't know if if your listeners out

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Speaker 1: there know this, but Hawaii is actually the spam but

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Speaker 1: all the world. Yeah, we had like a sam fest

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Speaker 1: and I think there was just this spam jam festival

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Speaker 1: not too long ago. A lot of the plantation workers

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Speaker 1: were very poor, and as a result, what you find

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Speaker 1: is the kind of foods that they ate were typically

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Speaker 1: things I could they could probably grow on their own.

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Speaker 1: There are a lot of people back then because of

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Speaker 1: our warm climate, also grew a lot of things like mangos, avocados. Um.

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Speaker 1: We have this thing called light chee. I don't know

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Speaker 1: how you guys might pronounce it, but it's that that

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Speaker 1: hard fruit with the white pitted fruit. And then, of course,

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Speaker 1: because meat was expensive, typically what you find is a

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Speaker 1: lot of canned meat. So one thing, for example, in

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Speaker 1: our restaurant, we have corn beef and hash. Now to

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Speaker 1: an outsider, you're thinking corn brisket. You're thinking something that's

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Speaker 1: slow cooked, you know in Irish corn beef and in cabbage. Right.

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Speaker 1: But here in Hawaiti, if you your cent our history

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Speaker 1: is actually canned corn beef. So when somebody from the

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Speaker 1: Milan comes over and they order a corn beef and hash,

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Speaker 1: they have a very different they're kind of caught off

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Speaker 1: guard because they're not thinking in the same way that

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Speaker 1: local people experienced corn beef yea from the can right? Yeah? Yeah? Um,

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Speaker 1: because you're you're the third generation owner owner, right and

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Speaker 1: have you changed the menu? Are kept it more or

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Speaker 1: less the same? Yeah? So you know Highway and started

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Speaker 1: ninety seven by my grandparents. Um, they were very poor.

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Speaker 1: They my grandfather only had a third great education. I

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Speaker 1: believe my sister always does me keep making up stories

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Speaker 1: because I'm never telling really the whole truth. But I

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Speaker 1: just don't really know the truth. Second, great, they're great.

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Speaker 1: You know the point of it is that he wasn't

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Speaker 1: formally educated. And I met my grandmother. Uh, started Highway

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Speaker 1: in nineteen seven and at that time, wine families made

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Speaker 1: their own food typically um, but it wasn't really a

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Speaker 1: mainstream thing, you know. And if you think about what

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Speaker 1: eating out meant back in the forties, it was really

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Speaker 1: a special occasion. I think, you know, um, not too

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Speaker 1: many people in the forties had a lot of disposable income.

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Speaker 1: So I'm you know, I'm going to assume that when

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Speaker 1: you went out to eat, it was typically for a

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Speaker 1: special occasion or or you know, something similar to that.

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Speaker 1: My grandparents were actually of Japanese ancestry. But my grandfather

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Speaker 1: was born here and grew up with Hawaiian food and

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Speaker 1: loved to wine food and many Huaian friends. And what

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Speaker 1: had happened was during World War Two, Pearl Harbor was

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Speaker 1: bombed and we have now the Japanese American internment story,

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Speaker 1: and my grandfather was interned um in Arkansas. So I

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Speaker 1: have an uncle born Jerome, Arkansas, amazingly, and my father

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Speaker 1: was born in an internment camp into La Lake, California.

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Speaker 1: And anybody that is familiar with Japanese American history knows

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Speaker 1: that Tooley Lake was was one of the worst internment

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Speaker 1: camps you could have been sent to. So he went

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Speaker 1: there and you know, he made lemonade out of lemons

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Speaker 1: and met a lot of other Japanese American cooks from

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Speaker 1: around the country and learned when you were into and

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Speaker 1: you had to list a skill, like if you are

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Speaker 1: a barber or your teacher. And my my grandfather being

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Speaker 1: that he was always cooking and put cook and so

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Speaker 1: he learned how to cook certain American dishes like sortline cutlets, hamburger,

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Speaker 1: steak um in the mess hall with these other Japanese Americans,

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Speaker 1: and so they became a part of the highway in menu.

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Speaker 1: When the war ended in nineteen forty five, he was

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Speaker 1: released in from the internment camp in January of nineteen

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Speaker 1: fourty six. He tried a couple of things. He tried

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Speaker 1: to grow pigs, but they got skinnier instead of fatter,

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Speaker 1: and recognized pretty quickly he was in a pig farmer um.

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Speaker 1: And by that time when he left, you know, when

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Speaker 1: he was interned, they left with I think three kids

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Speaker 1: and came back with five. And now eventually they ended

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Speaker 1: up having seven children. But back then, you have you

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Speaker 1: had a lot of children, and that was an unusual

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Speaker 1: back then, and and so he decided to he really

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Speaker 1: loved to wine food and really thought that it was

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Speaker 1: something worth sharing. And at that time a lot of

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Speaker 1: a lot of restaurants were more Japanese or Chinese. Um.

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Speaker 1: I think even today there's probably more Mexican restaurants. There's

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Speaker 1: not too many Hawaiian food restaurants, and for those that

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Speaker 1: are around, a lot of them are family owned, have

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Speaker 1: been around. Hiawaian is one of the older Hawaiian food restaurants.

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Speaker 1: Things are very simple back then. You know, you you

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Speaker 1: have your basic Hawaiian food staples Poi la la pipikla

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Speaker 1: trips do now lomi salmon, which is a really interesting

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Speaker 1: Hawaiian dish. This is this is where you start to

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Speaker 1: see how the introduction of different peoples and different groups

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Speaker 1: come into play. So here in Hawaii we have no salmon.

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Speaker 1: I was noting that. Okay, I'm glad you wrote it.

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Speaker 1: I'm glad you noted that. So you know, if you

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Speaker 1: think pre if you think about pre contact, when Hawaiian's arrived,

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Speaker 1: they had two mean migrations, the first one from the

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Speaker 1: Marquesses and the second one from Tahiti. And this is

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Speaker 1: all pre contact seventeen seventy and what they brought with

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Speaker 1: them on their or their canoe where things like taro

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Speaker 1: which we call calo in Hawaiian banana which is maya

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Speaker 1: coconut new um. They also brought bread fruit ulu um,

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Speaker 1: and they brought dog illegal chicken moa, and pigs poa,

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Speaker 1: and they brought things like even like our root, which

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Speaker 1: we call pia. So we do have a dessert at

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Speaker 1: highway in or a lot of point restaurants have this

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Speaker 1: is called how pia because originally it was made with

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Speaker 1: our roots and out instead of pia, we we use

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Speaker 1: corn starch to help me this dessert. But then you

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Speaker 1: see what happens in seventeen seventy eight and the early

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Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds is you start to see whalers and merchants

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Speaker 1: starting to arrive here in Hawaii, and what they start

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Speaker 1: bringing with them is salted fish. And they start seeing

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Speaker 1: that also Hawaiians have salts that you know, around the world,

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Speaker 1: salt is a very valuable commodity, of course, especially back then,

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Speaker 1: right and I believe the root word of salary actually

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Speaker 1: also derives from the words salt. Yeah, it's Latin. So

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Speaker 1: we have our common commentator in the background here, the

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Speaker 1: British commentator, the colonists and We have some more of

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Speaker 1: our interview with Monica, but first we have a quick

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Speaker 1: break for a word from our sponsor, and we're back.

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Speaker 1: Thank you sponsored. Let's get back into the interview. The

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Speaker 1: sound of would actually was at one time something that

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Speaker 1: Hawaiian's actually treated as well sandal would before the pineapple

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Speaker 1: and trigger cane industry came about. But you know in

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Speaker 1: seventeen early eighteen hundreds, um now you see salted fish.

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Speaker 1: So that's how you see um loammi salmon. We have

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Speaker 1: this dish called pipecla. Captain George Vancouver actually gifted King

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Speaker 1: Kamehameha the first cattle. This eventually created the Paniola history,

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Speaker 1: which is the Hawaiian cowboy. They had a cock poo

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Speaker 1: on it, which cop kind of means like forbidden. So

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Speaker 1: can come in with the first you know, nobody could

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Speaker 1: touch this animal that they've never came across, which is

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Speaker 1: a cattle. And they had to bring the Mexican bakatos,

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Speaker 1: which I believe means he us your commentator, because ye so,

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Speaker 1: so they brought cattle and they didn't know what to

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Speaker 1: do with it. They didn't know how to manage this animal.

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Speaker 1: So they brought vocados and they taught Hawaiians how to ranch,

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Speaker 1: and so now we have peepecola peepe meaning beef like

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Speaker 1: strips or jerked beef. They would salted too, you know,

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Speaker 1: they cut up the animal they could preserve as much

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Speaker 1: needs by making it into like salted or jerky. And

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Speaker 1: so you have this story of pepecola. Now in the

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Speaker 1: Paniola Hawaiian cowboy history and different groups of people throughout

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Speaker 1: you know, the decades um brought over different types of products.

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Speaker 1: So like which you find is Don Francisco Marin Arizon, Honolulu,

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Speaker 1: and he starts bringing tomatoes. So now we have the

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Speaker 1: Hawaiian cevici, which is bumomy salmon. You get the salted fish,

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Speaker 1: and now you get this tomato that's all dye stuff.

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Speaker 1: And you have sam. And now it is a it's

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Speaker 1: a food item that comes post Western world contact. But

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Speaker 1: because it's been around since late seventeen hundreds, early in

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Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds, people have now adopted it as part of

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Speaker 1: the Hawaiian food culture. And so you see lemi san.

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Speaker 1: And the other thing that you see in the Hawaiian

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00:22:19,960 --> 00:22:23,600
Speaker 1: food menu that is also influenced by another group of

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Speaker 1: people is our chicken long rice and I'm looking at

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Speaker 1: Dylan because he just ordered that yesterday. Okay, it was

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Speaker 1: so good. It was It's a very simple it's a

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Speaker 1: very simple dish. And and that's the thing, you know,

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Speaker 1: one of the things at Highway and I did create this.

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Speaker 1: What was most important for me when people who are

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Speaker 1: not familiar with Hawaiian food come and they eat with

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Speaker 1: us at Highway End, it really wanted them to understand

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Speaker 1: what I'm explaining right now, which is part of that

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Speaker 1: culture and that history. Because when you understand what has

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Speaker 1: happened here in the islands, then you can have a

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Speaker 1: great appreciation for why the food is the way that

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Speaker 1: it is. Otherwise you just can't appreciate it as much

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Speaker 1: because what you're doing is you're comparing native foods that

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Speaker 1: are simple in both in preparation, but it takes a

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Speaker 1: very long time. It's very laborious. Um. But you know,

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Speaker 1: if you think about seasonings, what do they have popkey

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Speaker 1: salt lemal like seaweed and they cook nuts just like

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Speaker 1: a tree nut for seasoning, and um, we didn't have

379
00:23:32,880 --> 00:23:38,440
Speaker 1: like cheeses and basil and spices. So you know, if

380
00:23:38,480 --> 00:23:43,240
Speaker 1: you compare it to other types of world cuisines, you

381
00:23:43,359 --> 00:23:47,600
Speaker 1: just don't have the layered flavors there. Um. But once

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Speaker 1: you understand the story, for example, like poi. I don't

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Speaker 1: know if anybody tried poi different currents okay, and different

384
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Speaker 1: varieties of Yeah, we had we had one that was

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Speaker 1: that was pretty for mented and one that was very

386
00:24:02,080 --> 00:24:05,320
Speaker 1: lightly prevented. Um. And I really like the sour kind honestly,

387
00:24:05,440 --> 00:24:08,000
Speaker 1: like it's it's it goes so well with the sweetness

388
00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:12,240
Speaker 1: of a roast pork. Yeah, and actually it's better to

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00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:16,400
Speaker 1: eat it more sour. Sure it's health here for bacteria.

390
00:24:16,920 --> 00:24:23,440
Speaker 1: Black is blacktopius, and it's good for your microbiome, Yeah,

391
00:24:23,480 --> 00:24:28,000
Speaker 1: your microbiomem and and and so Hawaiians fundamentally understood this.

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Speaker 1: And and they have the same a poop akeye cock cole,

393
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Speaker 1: which means they would you know, pretty much put salts

394
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Speaker 1: in the poi because I was so sour, you know,

395
00:24:38,800 --> 00:24:41,840
Speaker 1: does scrape off all the furry stuff growing on it.

396
00:24:41,920 --> 00:24:46,520
Speaker 1: But some something with the with the poi created really

397
00:24:46,560 --> 00:24:51,000
Speaker 1: good bacteria for your gut and and colo for example,

398
00:24:51,520 --> 00:24:54,439
Speaker 1: So when people eat Hawaian food, I always say that

399
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Speaker 1: the most culturally significant dish is going to be the poi.

400
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Speaker 1: But from any other p sspective, it's probably the most unappealing.

401
00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:12,880
Speaker 1: I think. I think it's just I think it's just unexpected. Like, um,

402
00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:15,000
Speaker 1: we have a friend who's who grew up on Hawaiian

403
00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:17,840
Speaker 1: has only been in Atlanta for a few years, and

404
00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:20,159
Speaker 1: when we asked her what it's like, like what to expect,

405
00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:22,800
Speaker 1: she was like, you'll just find out. She's like, there's

406
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Speaker 1: no way to really explain it, like, yeah, yeah, to

407
00:25:25,840 --> 00:25:28,680
Speaker 1: experience it firsthand. Yeah, And it is like it's it's

408
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Speaker 1: strange like as as a you know, like like I

409
00:25:31,160 --> 00:25:33,800
Speaker 1: grew up in Ohio and and and the American South,

410
00:25:33,960 --> 00:25:36,439
Speaker 1: Like you know, there's nothing that's um that's kind of

411
00:25:36,440 --> 00:25:39,560
Speaker 1: sticky and and sour like that that like it's either

412
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Speaker 1: sticky or it's sour and that. So the combination of

413
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Speaker 1: that texture in the fire. Yeah. And and the thing

414
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Speaker 1: about it is I think you know, within the Pacific

415
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Speaker 1: and even Southeast Asia, taro is used throughout Southeast Asia

416
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Speaker 1: and through the Pacific. What is really I think you

417
00:25:54,240 --> 00:25:57,840
Speaker 1: need to Hawaiian culture is the fact that they pound

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Speaker 1: the taro so we call i and then it turns

419
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Speaker 1: into what we call put ei. So put ei is

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Speaker 1: it's very use only enough water to be able to

421
00:26:09,280 --> 00:26:12,080
Speaker 1: pound the poi or pound the tower. I'm sorry. And

422
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Speaker 1: then you get it into this form called put e

423
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Speaker 1: i and you wrap it in in tea leave to

424
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Speaker 1: keep it fresh, and once you're ready to actually you know,

425
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Speaker 1: eat it and share. Hawaiians is a culture, very generous,

426
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Speaker 1: generous culture. You add the poi so you can stretch

427
00:26:26,480 --> 00:26:28,720
Speaker 1: the colo, you can stretch the taro and share it

428
00:26:28,760 --> 00:26:31,760
Speaker 1: with other people. But also, like we spoke about earlier,

429
00:26:31,840 --> 00:26:35,800
Speaker 1: is that it it has a very healthy aspect to

430
00:26:35,800 --> 00:26:40,080
Speaker 1: to the product where the fermentation process occurs um. And

431
00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:43,199
Speaker 1: I don't think any other culture actually does this with

432
00:26:43,359 --> 00:26:49,000
Speaker 1: tarot in this way. I certainly hadn't. I wanted to

433
00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:51,920
Speaker 1: ask you about the about the tea leaves. That's a

434
00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:56,880
Speaker 1: that's also part of the cooking process for like a Yeah, yeah,

435
00:26:57,440 --> 00:27:01,359
Speaker 1: can you talk about what that adds to the us? Yeah,

436
00:27:01,440 --> 00:27:05,040
Speaker 1: So tea leaf is a really phenomenal product. Also in

437
00:27:05,040 --> 00:27:08,360
Speaker 1: Hawaiian culture, it's also used um. It's a special kind

438
00:27:08,359 --> 00:27:14,840
Speaker 1: of tea leaf that cockus or spiritual leaders use for blessings. Oftentimes,

439
00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:19,760
Speaker 1: when you hear like Pele the fire goddess upon Kilauea

440
00:27:19,960 --> 00:27:23,160
Speaker 1: that is you know, for the lava. They tell you

441
00:27:23,200 --> 00:27:25,840
Speaker 1: the folklore is put tea leaves around your house so

442
00:27:25,880 --> 00:27:28,440
Speaker 1: that sh'll go the lava will floor around your house.

443
00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:33,120
Speaker 1: So it's also um from a cultural and you know, perspective,

444
00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:39,399
Speaker 1: like a divine protection. In food, it's used to wrap things.

445
00:27:40,359 --> 00:27:43,280
Speaker 1: I saw this one restaurant actually, I think it's on

446
00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:46,720
Speaker 1: Maui there they were actually using tea leaf to wrap

447
00:27:46,760 --> 00:27:50,359
Speaker 1: their sandwiches so that it was zero waste. And I

448
00:27:50,400 --> 00:27:53,120
Speaker 1: was like, oh geez, we're gonna drive up the cost

449
00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:55,639
Speaker 1: for tea leaves now because now there's another use for

450
00:27:55,720 --> 00:27:59,200
Speaker 1: tea leaf. But what we use it for is to

451
00:27:59,359 --> 00:28:03,040
Speaker 1: wrap the law law in and then we steam it. Um.

452
00:28:03,320 --> 00:28:07,280
Speaker 1: It helps to keep the laula. If you've ever had allaala,

453
00:28:07,359 --> 00:28:12,639
Speaker 1: it's this wonderful bundle of joy of delicious pork. And

454
00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:16,320
Speaker 1: we call it butterfish, but most people know this fish

455
00:28:16,359 --> 00:28:19,960
Speaker 1: is black cod. It's a little tiny piece of black

456
00:28:20,040 --> 00:28:23,119
Speaker 1: cod and and it it helps to keep the shape

457
00:28:23,160 --> 00:28:26,400
Speaker 1: of the lau la and it also helps to keep

458
00:28:26,400 --> 00:28:29,440
Speaker 1: it from burning from so it does have this element

459
00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:33,199
Speaker 1: where it keeps the laala from being burnt. Look at

460
00:28:33,320 --> 00:28:36,720
Speaker 1: like a moisturization keeps the moisture in there, keeps the

461
00:28:36,800 --> 00:28:40,400
Speaker 1: lua leaves fresh. Um um. You need to steam the

462
00:28:40,440 --> 00:28:43,800
Speaker 1: laula for quite some time because you need to break

463
00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:50,240
Speaker 1: down the lua leaves. So it's it's called calcium oxalate.

464
00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:54,720
Speaker 1: And basically if you don't cook the lua leaves long enough,

465
00:28:55,440 --> 00:29:01,880
Speaker 1: it will make your mouth and your throat itchy. Oh yeah,

466
00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:04,360
Speaker 1: that's I'm sure it's just a protein breakdown of something

467
00:29:04,400 --> 00:29:07,520
Speaker 1: that like reacts that we react poorly to that this

468
00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:10,360
Speaker 1: allows us to process. Yeah, and so the lu all

469
00:29:10,440 --> 00:29:13,080
Speaker 1: leads really needs to be cooked and steamed a long

470
00:29:13,160 --> 00:29:15,400
Speaker 1: time or you might feel a little bit itchy in

471
00:29:15,400 --> 00:29:21,080
Speaker 1: your mouth. Yeah. Yeah, that's fascinating. But also to like

472
00:29:21,160 --> 00:29:23,720
Speaker 1: what I said when you CoA and you palm boys

473
00:29:23,760 --> 00:29:27,560
Speaker 1: also sometimes used to carry product, you know, to wrap product,

474
00:29:27,640 --> 00:29:30,560
Speaker 1: food product and as a way to be able to

475
00:29:30,640 --> 00:29:34,280
Speaker 1: transport it from one place to another. Sure, thank you

476
00:29:34,320 --> 00:29:36,800
Speaker 1: so much for speaking to the to the history of

477
00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:41,280
Speaker 1: the islands, and we absolutely agree that getting the history

478
00:29:41,320 --> 00:29:43,800
Speaker 1: of where people are from in those food waves is

479
00:29:43,840 --> 00:29:47,280
Speaker 1: critical to understanding Yeah, what you're doing here. I always like,

480
00:29:47,360 --> 00:29:49,520
Speaker 1: you know, people always say, well, what's your favorite what's

481
00:29:49,520 --> 00:29:52,720
Speaker 1: your favorite meal? And I like to say, I think

482
00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:55,480
Speaker 1: was really healthy in the Hawaiian food menu is a

483
00:29:55,560 --> 00:30:00,160
Speaker 1: bullet point because you have your complex car and it's fermented, right,

484
00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:03,320
Speaker 1: so you also have your fermented food and la la

485
00:30:03,560 --> 00:30:06,920
Speaker 1: which is you get your daily dose of greens, which

486
00:30:06,960 --> 00:30:09,320
Speaker 1: is like spinach or kale. You know, it has like

487
00:30:09,440 --> 00:30:13,760
Speaker 1: vitamin A, C, iron, calcium, you know, all that good stuff.

488
00:30:14,040 --> 00:30:16,000
Speaker 1: And then you have your protein you know, which is

489
00:30:16,040 --> 00:30:19,280
Speaker 1: your your pork, and you have your omega three witches

490
00:30:19,400 --> 00:30:23,240
Speaker 1: for which is from the black plot. You know. So

491
00:30:23,320 --> 00:30:25,480
Speaker 1: to me, I think like and and the funny thing

492
00:30:25,520 --> 00:30:29,680
Speaker 1: here too, I don need blood and a really good

493
00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:32,400
Speaker 1: you know. The girl said, well, you know, before you

494
00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:34,760
Speaker 1: go and donate blood, beside drinking a lot of water,

495
00:30:34,800 --> 00:30:36,600
Speaker 1: you should eat a lot of poke it and you

496
00:30:36,640 --> 00:30:39,080
Speaker 1: shoot a lot of poi poi and poke it. And

497
00:30:39,120 --> 00:30:42,320
Speaker 1: I was like, um, there's something about poke it which

498
00:30:42,360 --> 00:30:45,320
Speaker 1: is you know, Hawaiian cubed fish. And you know from

499
00:30:45,320 --> 00:30:48,640
Speaker 1: what I hear is that it's just like this this

500
00:30:48,840 --> 00:30:52,440
Speaker 1: rage across the country. And for us it's like saying, well, well,

501
00:30:52,520 --> 00:30:54,760
Speaker 1: spam musu be is the rage across the country which

502
00:30:54,720 --> 00:30:58,800
Speaker 1: would probably never happened, but um, poke a We've been

503
00:30:58,800 --> 00:31:00,520
Speaker 1: eating this for a long time and we don't we

504
00:31:00,520 --> 00:31:03,240
Speaker 1: don't get fussy about it here. We just keep the fish,

505
00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:06,680
Speaker 1: you know, put put throw some Hawaiian salt or you know,

506
00:31:06,760 --> 00:31:10,239
Speaker 1: put put some soy sauce or sesame oil, and you know,

507
00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:12,960
Speaker 1: eat it raw, eat it on its own, like as

508
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:14,880
Speaker 1: we call it poopoos. I'm not sure if you've ever

509
00:31:14,920 --> 00:31:17,120
Speaker 1: heard that, so it's so again, it's one of those

510
00:31:17,120 --> 00:31:19,360
Speaker 1: things that's really funny. It's kind of like, would you

511
00:31:19,360 --> 00:31:22,200
Speaker 1: like some poopoos? And people are like, what, you know,

512
00:31:22,320 --> 00:31:25,120
Speaker 1: like poopoos? That sounds like, you know, that just sounds

513
00:31:25,120 --> 00:31:29,720
Speaker 1: like a really weird word, but it means appetizer or

514
00:31:29,800 --> 00:31:32,400
Speaker 1: you know, or DERs for for people that don't know.

515
00:31:33,040 --> 00:31:34,840
Speaker 1: But you know, we just eat it and we eat

516
00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:38,680
Speaker 1: it with chopsticks or fork or whatever. And you go,

517
00:31:38,880 --> 00:31:41,720
Speaker 1: you go on Instagram and they're just putting pineapple on

518
00:31:41,840 --> 00:31:44,560
Speaker 1: it and they're doing some crazy stuff with it and

519
00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:47,440
Speaker 1: and for people like here and when you're just like, yeah,

520
00:31:47,520 --> 00:31:52,520
Speaker 1: we don't eat it with pineapple. Yeah. Down the street

521
00:31:52,560 --> 00:31:55,800
Speaker 1: from my from my house, there is a poke chain

522
00:31:55,840 --> 00:31:58,960
Speaker 1: restaurant um with a poke bar where you can get

523
00:31:58,960 --> 00:32:01,480
Speaker 1: all kinds of different fish and different you can get

524
00:32:01,480 --> 00:32:04,760
Speaker 1: it served on top of like right, or or kale

525
00:32:04,960 --> 00:32:10,840
Speaker 1: or whatever it is. We don't, but you know, I

526
00:32:10,840 --> 00:32:13,840
Speaker 1: mean it's it's it's open to interpretation, right, I mean

527
00:32:13,880 --> 00:32:18,960
Speaker 1: that's basically food, food culture is it's open to interpretation.

528
00:32:19,320 --> 00:32:21,520
Speaker 1: So that's that's what you know here. And know what

529
00:32:21,680 --> 00:32:26,120
Speaker 1: we call people in the continental US Mainlanders, I don't

530
00:32:26,120 --> 00:32:28,320
Speaker 1: know what you guys call us, like, you know, just

531
00:32:28,400 --> 00:32:33,200
Speaker 1: like islanders in the middle of nowhere, um. But you

532
00:32:33,240 --> 00:32:36,200
Speaker 1: know on the mainland, you know, they've taken something that

533
00:32:36,240 --> 00:32:41,760
Speaker 1: we've grown up with and have interpreted in whatever culinary

534
00:32:41,800 --> 00:32:45,600
Speaker 1: palette that suits them, whether that's New York or the

535
00:32:45,640 --> 00:32:49,160
Speaker 1: Midwest or the West Coast and waiting for like poke

536
00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:55,080
Speaker 1: bagels things. Yeah, we actually did this thing where there's

537
00:32:55,120 --> 00:32:57,480
Speaker 1: a really great dessert. We get it once a week.

538
00:32:57,520 --> 00:33:03,120
Speaker 1: It's called kololo. Basically it's made out of taro, sugar, honey.

539
00:33:03,480 --> 00:33:06,960
Speaker 1: So we got some yesterday and it's a dessert that's

540
00:33:07,040 --> 00:33:10,120
Speaker 1: very hard to find. And what we did is it's

541
00:33:10,120 --> 00:33:12,480
Speaker 1: only good for like a day or two. So we

542
00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:15,880
Speaker 1: took it and we we made it into like a

543
00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:18,240
Speaker 1: ball and we put like polke in it and we

544
00:33:18,560 --> 00:33:20,680
Speaker 1: just try to fright up and see how that turned out.

545
00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:24,080
Speaker 1: And it was kind of really interesting because the consistency

546
00:33:24,160 --> 00:33:27,440
Speaker 1: of of coololo is kind of like if you're familiar

547
00:33:27,520 --> 00:33:32,320
Speaker 1: with um mochi, which is that very gelatin. I don't

548
00:33:32,360 --> 00:33:36,800
Speaker 1: know is the word witness rice? Right? You look like

549
00:33:36,840 --> 00:33:39,320
Speaker 1: you're still processing it, yeah, because it was the cheft

550
00:33:39,360 --> 00:33:42,280
Speaker 1: did that, and I was like, it tastes good, but

551
00:33:42,320 --> 00:33:44,040
Speaker 1: I don't know what to make of it because I've

552
00:33:44,120 --> 00:33:48,120
Speaker 1: never had this combination of texture together. What was the

553
00:33:48,240 --> 00:33:52,280
Speaker 1: was that you said poke and some inside inside and

554
00:33:52,320 --> 00:33:55,240
Speaker 1: then we like deep fried it? So was so was

555
00:33:55,280 --> 00:33:57,760
Speaker 1: the poke inside still like like raw? It was like

556
00:33:57,920 --> 00:34:01,080
Speaker 1: semi was like kind of like a little bit steamed,

557
00:34:02,040 --> 00:34:05,040
Speaker 1: a little seared. Yeah, I can't yea. So we do

558
00:34:05,120 --> 00:34:08,080
Speaker 1: that with rice balls? Oh yeah, so you do that

559
00:34:08,280 --> 00:34:10,960
Speaker 1: like here in Hawaii there's there's some places that will

560
00:34:10,960 --> 00:34:13,319
Speaker 1: take like a rice ball and put poke in the

561
00:34:13,320 --> 00:34:16,600
Speaker 1: middle and then so it's really crispy on the that

562
00:34:16,760 --> 00:34:19,120
Speaker 1: side and then you've got this fresh polk in inside

563
00:34:19,160 --> 00:34:23,880
Speaker 1: that's really pretty ummy. Um. But Hawaiian food is is

564
00:34:24,080 --> 00:34:26,920
Speaker 1: you know how it has changed over the years is

565
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:30,440
Speaker 1: you know I think back then, like my grandparents time,

566
00:34:31,160 --> 00:34:35,319
Speaker 1: things were very simple. You know, it's very straightforward. You know.

567
00:34:35,400 --> 00:34:38,680
Speaker 1: People ask us, how do we get the name highway In. Well,

568
00:34:39,480 --> 00:34:43,560
Speaker 1: my grandparents first store was on Farrington Highway, which is

569
00:34:43,600 --> 00:34:45,640
Speaker 1: a stretch of road on the west side of o Wahoo.

570
00:34:46,960 --> 00:34:49,799
Speaker 1: And back then in the forties there were a few

571
00:34:49,840 --> 00:34:54,320
Speaker 1: popular restaurants Victoria in Colombia and with Terry and so

572
00:34:54,520 --> 00:34:57,680
Speaker 1: all the people in their seventies and eighties will fondly

573
00:34:57,680 --> 00:35:01,480
Speaker 1: remember these restaurants. Um and so he named it Highway In.

574
00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:05,360
Speaker 1: And so we're like, well, yeah, that's very uncreative, but

575
00:35:05,719 --> 00:35:08,240
Speaker 1: it works, you know. I mean it was I think

576
00:35:08,239 --> 00:35:11,840
Speaker 1: our our grandparents generation was very straightforward and very practical.

577
00:35:11,960 --> 00:35:14,680
Speaker 1: There was no such thing as marketing gimmicks and trying

578
00:35:14,680 --> 00:35:17,520
Speaker 1: to persuade you to buy their product on Instagram. And

579
00:35:17,560 --> 00:35:20,759
Speaker 1: I mean they're very simple, you know. And and and

580
00:35:20,800 --> 00:35:25,040
Speaker 1: now people create names in a way that they're much

581
00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:30,440
Speaker 1: more thoughtful in terms of what that name communicates to

582
00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:33,520
Speaker 1: to an audience, where whereas Highway In really just came

583
00:35:33,600 --> 00:35:36,320
Speaker 1: with the practicality of where it was located and in

584
00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:41,040
Speaker 1: that time period. And then interestingly enough, in we opened

585
00:35:41,080 --> 00:35:43,000
Speaker 1: Highway In on all a Wanta Boulevard, which is also

586
00:35:43,040 --> 00:35:46,520
Speaker 1: known as name Is Highway, so you know it works.

587
00:35:46,560 --> 00:35:50,440
Speaker 1: But here in Cocaco it is a different group of

588
00:35:50,600 --> 00:35:53,719
Speaker 1: not different and the same. Whereas we're very close to Waikiki,

589
00:35:54,520 --> 00:35:56,920
Speaker 1: so we do get more tourists, um, we get more

590
00:35:56,920 --> 00:36:00,440
Speaker 1: business people because we're also right next to downtown on Lulu,

591
00:36:00,480 --> 00:36:03,640
Speaker 1: which is our business district, and we have our local

592
00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:05,560
Speaker 1: families that come and eat with us, and so we

593
00:36:05,600 --> 00:36:07,600
Speaker 1: have a very diverse group of people that come and

594
00:36:07,600 --> 00:36:11,120
Speaker 1: eat with us here in Coca Acko. Alternatively, our Waipaca

595
00:36:11,239 --> 00:36:14,680
Speaker 1: location which is kind of like our starbooks at Pike's Market.

596
00:36:14,840 --> 00:36:18,960
Speaker 1: You know, it's the original, UM, but not in a

597
00:36:19,000 --> 00:36:22,239
Speaker 1: famous place like Pike's Market. It's in a place called Waipahu,

598
00:36:22,840 --> 00:36:26,759
Speaker 1: which means like gushing fresh water. We draw a lot

599
00:36:26,800 --> 00:36:30,600
Speaker 1: of our customers from places like non Akuli and Way

600
00:36:30,680 --> 00:36:34,880
Speaker 1: and I a lot of Native Hawaiian populations that are multigenerational.

601
00:36:35,680 --> 00:36:39,719
Speaker 1: So our customers in Waipa, who they know what they want.

602
00:36:40,600 --> 00:36:44,280
Speaker 1: They if we have specials, it doesn't matter to them.

603
00:36:44,400 --> 00:36:48,160
Speaker 1: Whereas our customers they come in and they're like, well,

604
00:36:48,239 --> 00:36:50,839
Speaker 1: you know, I'm vegan, what do you have And we're

605
00:36:50,840 --> 00:37:03,719
Speaker 1: like pois a little bit of salt haw kai U. Yeah,

606
00:37:03,880 --> 00:37:07,040
Speaker 1: but are but you know, joking aside, it is a

607
00:37:07,120 --> 00:37:10,759
Speaker 1: little bit more diverse in menu offerings more than our

608
00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:14,720
Speaker 1: white packet location. Because our customers here in Cocaco are

609
00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:18,000
Speaker 1: are are far more diverse than those in White Papa.

610
00:37:19,640 --> 00:37:21,920
Speaker 1: You know. I think we are really fortunate here in

611
00:37:21,960 --> 00:37:24,239
Speaker 1: a way. And and one thing I think that's really

612
00:37:24,239 --> 00:37:26,799
Speaker 1: great about the restaurant industry that I try to share

613
00:37:26,920 --> 00:37:31,719
Speaker 1: with our staff because my friend who owns another restaurant,

614
00:37:31,840 --> 00:37:35,520
Speaker 1: Tikis out in Waikiki, shared with me the restaurant industry

615
00:37:35,600 --> 00:37:37,759
Speaker 1: is unique in the sense that it's one of those

616
00:37:37,800 --> 00:37:40,600
Speaker 1: industries where, for the most part, not always, I mean,

617
00:37:40,640 --> 00:37:43,319
Speaker 1: you get those customers that you really prefer not to have,

618
00:37:43,520 --> 00:37:46,480
Speaker 1: but you know, it's it's to make people happy. You're

619
00:37:46,600 --> 00:37:49,280
Speaker 1: You're we're in an industry that you can make people happy.

620
00:37:49,480 --> 00:37:53,239
Speaker 1: You know. Unlike doctors and lawyers you know, E m

621
00:37:53,320 --> 00:37:57,840
Speaker 1: t s right there, they're always in difficult situations that

622
00:37:57,880 --> 00:38:00,919
Speaker 1: are not either people are fighting, where people are sick,

623
00:38:01,239 --> 00:38:05,000
Speaker 1: or you know, there's it's an emergency situation. Um, there's

624
00:38:05,040 --> 00:38:08,400
Speaker 1: a lot of pressure in the kitchen. But ultimately we

625
00:38:08,440 --> 00:38:11,719
Speaker 1: are in in a position to be a positive experience

626
00:38:11,719 --> 00:38:15,520
Speaker 1: in people's lives. And I think oftentimes restaurant people forget

627
00:38:15,600 --> 00:38:18,840
Speaker 1: this because it is very there's a lot of pressure,

628
00:38:18,880 --> 00:38:22,120
Speaker 1: and you know, our servers. I always like to share

629
00:38:22,160 --> 00:38:24,640
Speaker 1: with our servers that it's kind of like having a

630
00:38:24,760 --> 00:38:29,520
Speaker 1: hundred bosses every day. Get me this, I want this.

631
00:38:29,520 --> 00:38:32,200
Speaker 1: This is not good, you know. And and it's stressful

632
00:38:32,239 --> 00:38:34,279
Speaker 1: for our servers just as much as it's stressful for

633
00:38:34,320 --> 00:38:36,719
Speaker 1: our kitchen staff try to get the food out. But

634
00:38:36,800 --> 00:38:38,560
Speaker 1: the one thing here and what you think that makes

635
00:38:38,640 --> 00:38:42,880
Speaker 1: us quite unique and quite fortunate is the sense of aloha.

636
00:38:43,320 --> 00:38:46,440
Speaker 1: And and not to sound cliche about it, but we

637
00:38:46,520 --> 00:38:52,040
Speaker 1: do have this overarching cultural value of aloha which anybody

638
00:38:52,120 --> 00:38:55,440
Speaker 1: who is born and raised or moved to the islands

639
00:38:55,600 --> 00:39:00,640
Speaker 1: would be very aware of. And like all o you know,

640
00:39:00,719 --> 00:39:04,600
Speaker 1: like forward or presence ha meaning breath, you know, the

641
00:39:04,680 --> 00:39:10,080
Speaker 1: presence of life. To be compassionate, to show kindness, to

642
00:39:10,160 --> 00:39:13,799
Speaker 1: show grace. These are things that are just very much

643
00:39:13,800 --> 00:39:17,440
Speaker 1: a part of the Hawaiian culture, the host culture, and

644
00:39:17,440 --> 00:39:22,360
Speaker 1: and so it's much easier to try to train people

645
00:39:22,520 --> 00:39:27,120
Speaker 1: because they fundamentally understand this idea of aloha. This like

646
00:39:27,200 --> 00:39:29,680
Speaker 1: Southern hospitality, I guess would be a bit similar. They

647
00:39:29,680 --> 00:39:35,799
Speaker 1: have very unique type of hospitality perspective. Yeah, we're just

648
00:39:35,840 --> 00:39:37,680
Speaker 1: talking about that in the lift on the way over.

649
00:39:38,760 --> 00:39:41,960
Speaker 1: Those two people like Southern hospitality, and you know, the

650
00:39:42,080 --> 00:39:46,560
Speaker 1: Hawaiian hospitality is it's very much like that. And you know,

651
00:39:47,440 --> 00:39:52,839
Speaker 1: I think several people, including you know, my favorite President Obama,

652
00:39:53,560 --> 00:39:58,840
Speaker 1: you know, um, um, you know, I think it's I

653
00:39:58,880 --> 00:40:03,000
Speaker 1: think it's cool that you know, they oftentimes recognize the

654
00:40:03,040 --> 00:40:06,480
Speaker 1: place that they come from can be, you know, beacon

655
00:40:06,560 --> 00:40:10,440
Speaker 1: of hope for for the world. Obviously in our own

656
00:40:10,480 --> 00:40:14,399
Speaker 1: little microcosm. Even here in Hawaii, where life is cost

657
00:40:14,440 --> 00:40:17,160
Speaker 1: of living is so high, it's very stressful for families

658
00:40:17,160 --> 00:40:19,560
Speaker 1: here in Hawaii to make it work. And so a

659
00:40:19,600 --> 00:40:22,640
Speaker 1: lot of families here in Hawaii they are very stressed out,

660
00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:25,240
Speaker 1: you know, as a result of it. But we're fortunate

661
00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:30,480
Speaker 1: enough to have this cultural value of aloha. Um, what

662
00:40:30,520 --> 00:40:34,520
Speaker 1: are you looking forward to in the future? More help?

663
00:40:38,120 --> 00:40:40,799
Speaker 1: I can only think like one day at a time, mom.

664
00:40:41,120 --> 00:40:44,160
Speaker 1: And And you know, anybody who who runs a restaurant,

665
00:40:44,160 --> 00:40:47,520
Speaker 1: who works in a restaurant, you know understands, Um. There's

666
00:40:47,520 --> 00:40:49,480
Speaker 1: a lot of competition now I think I think there's

667
00:40:49,480 --> 00:40:51,680
Speaker 1: a lot of people that talk about over saturation in

668
00:40:51,719 --> 00:40:55,840
Speaker 1: the restaurant industry. Um, there's a lot of restaurants that

669
00:40:55,880 --> 00:40:58,759
Speaker 1: are in need of kitchen help. You know, we're we're

670
00:40:58,800 --> 00:41:03,200
Speaker 1: all very price sensitive in terms of you know, there's

671
00:41:03,239 --> 00:41:05,680
Speaker 1: minimum wage issues going up. How is that going to

672
00:41:05,760 --> 00:41:09,799
Speaker 1: affect menu prices? When you start increasing menu prices, you

673
00:41:09,800 --> 00:41:14,239
Speaker 1: start to become concerned about consumer demand flattening or softening.

674
00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:18,200
Speaker 1: Then you can't really give hours to your staff. You know.

675
00:41:18,239 --> 00:41:22,399
Speaker 1: There's also the other layer of of technology and how

676
00:41:22,480 --> 00:41:25,480
Speaker 1: technology comes into play in the Russian industry, and you know,

677
00:41:25,520 --> 00:41:29,600
Speaker 1: you see McDonald's, for example, utilizing this in terms of

678
00:41:29,640 --> 00:41:32,800
Speaker 1: having people go up to the kiosk and playing placing

679
00:41:32,800 --> 00:41:36,200
Speaker 1: their own order. And so I think technology is also

680
00:41:36,320 --> 00:41:40,320
Speaker 1: changing the industry. And um, you know, as cost increase,

681
00:41:40,520 --> 00:41:43,440
Speaker 1: you know, people are trying to find ways to minimize

682
00:41:43,480 --> 00:41:45,759
Speaker 1: cost it that it doesn't affect the menu prices in

683
00:41:45,800 --> 00:41:50,000
Speaker 1: a way that will affect the demand. And so you know,

684
00:41:50,040 --> 00:41:52,839
Speaker 1: everyone is just just really trying very hard right now.

685
00:41:52,880 --> 00:41:56,960
Speaker 1: It's it's a very tough business to be in. And

686
00:41:57,400 --> 00:42:00,399
Speaker 1: I give anybody in this this business and body who

687
00:42:00,400 --> 00:42:03,560
Speaker 1: owns it anybody who manages it, anybody who works in it,

688
00:42:03,600 --> 00:42:07,680
Speaker 1: deserves a lot of credit. Absolutely. Yeah, it's tough. Do

689
00:42:07,719 --> 00:42:10,399
Speaker 1: you see some begins of hope out there? I think

690
00:42:10,760 --> 00:42:15,759
Speaker 1: you know so what I share with you earlier, I'm

691
00:42:15,760 --> 00:42:18,680
Speaker 1: losing some key people, which is common. You know, it's

692
00:42:18,719 --> 00:42:22,160
Speaker 1: moving in the right direction. Just before this, I had

693
00:42:22,160 --> 00:42:26,279
Speaker 1: a video interview with with Commitment School Salt about some

694
00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:30,680
Speaker 1: of our artwork here in Cocackle, and right outside our

695
00:42:30,760 --> 00:42:35,080
Speaker 1: restaurant there's a mural that says this is a good

696
00:42:35,160 --> 00:42:38,120
Speaker 1: day or this was a good day. And it's a

697
00:42:38,160 --> 00:42:41,560
Speaker 1: great mural to have right outside my restaurant because when

698
00:42:41,600 --> 00:42:44,600
Speaker 1: you're having a really crappy day and you see this big,

699
00:42:45,239 --> 00:42:48,600
Speaker 1: you know, street art that says this this is a

700
00:42:48,640 --> 00:42:55,399
Speaker 1: good day, Um, kind of reminds you to appreciate all

701
00:42:55,400 --> 00:42:58,320
Speaker 1: the good things that happened, because it could always be worse.

702
00:42:59,520 --> 00:43:01,480
Speaker 1: We have a little bit more of this interview for you,

703
00:43:01,520 --> 00:43:03,279
Speaker 1: but first we've got one more quick break for a

704
00:43:03,320 --> 00:43:14,720
Speaker 1: word from our sponsor, and we're back, Thank you sponsor,

705
00:43:14,840 --> 00:43:17,440
Speaker 1: and back to the interview. Every now and then we

706
00:43:17,520 --> 00:43:19,520
Speaker 1: end up burning our law law and we can't use it.

707
00:43:19,560 --> 00:43:23,680
Speaker 1: And unfortunately there's a nonprofit organization called a Local Harvest

708
00:43:24,120 --> 00:43:26,400
Speaker 1: and I called him up and it's like, do you

709
00:43:26,440 --> 00:43:29,200
Speaker 1: think you can, Like the leaves are not burnt, but

710
00:43:29,280 --> 00:43:31,880
Speaker 1: it just kind of has that smell like it's burnt,

711
00:43:31,880 --> 00:43:34,000
Speaker 1: but nothing is really burnt. And this is to feed

712
00:43:34,040 --> 00:43:36,960
Speaker 1: the hungry, and so they were willing to take it.

713
00:43:37,040 --> 00:43:39,440
Speaker 1: So at least forty six law law that has his

714
00:43:39,560 --> 00:43:43,200
Speaker 1: burnt smell went to feed the hungry. So it's smith

715
00:43:43,239 --> 00:43:46,239
Speaker 1: and all bad, but still that's great. It's great that

716
00:43:46,400 --> 00:43:51,720
Speaker 1: organization thinks. Yeah, if anybody ever visits us here out

717
00:43:52,120 --> 00:43:55,400
Speaker 1: at Highway in and you're not familiar with Hawaiian food,

718
00:43:55,920 --> 00:43:58,839
Speaker 1: asked for a malahini guy. I have this guy that

719
00:43:58,880 --> 00:44:02,640
Speaker 1: says smalahini eye to Hawaiian food. And my standing joke

720
00:44:02,800 --> 00:44:06,399
Speaker 1: is that momyhini doesn't mean idiot, it means and he's

721
00:44:06,400 --> 00:44:10,920
Speaker 1: a newcomer. So it's not the idiots guy to Hawaiian food.

722
00:44:10,960 --> 00:44:16,160
Speaker 1: It's the newcomers guy to Hawaiian food. Just for clarification purposes. Um.

723
00:44:16,160 --> 00:44:19,000
Speaker 1: But but it is a great piece because it has

724
00:44:19,160 --> 00:44:21,760
Speaker 1: pictures and it talks about pepe Kala and it talks

725
00:44:21,760 --> 00:44:25,680
Speaker 1: about the story of Lomi salmon and it talks about Poi,

726
00:44:25,760 --> 00:44:29,239
Speaker 1: and it talks about Klope and La Lau and and

727
00:44:29,280 --> 00:44:33,520
Speaker 1: so if you really want to experience culture through food,

728
00:44:34,160 --> 00:44:37,000
Speaker 1: that's a great place to start. It truly is a

729
00:44:37,080 --> 00:44:40,000
Speaker 1: universal language. When you sit down and you offer food

730
00:44:40,080 --> 00:44:42,640
Speaker 1: or you make food for someone, it truly is an

731
00:44:42,640 --> 00:44:45,479
Speaker 1: act of love. And and so you know, I tell

732
00:44:45,520 --> 00:44:49,040
Speaker 1: all my staff that, and I'm sure every chef, every

733
00:44:49,120 --> 00:44:52,319
Speaker 1: cook knows this. The secret ingredient is always going to

734
00:44:52,400 --> 00:44:56,080
Speaker 1: be aloha. It's always going to be love. Because if

735
00:44:56,120 --> 00:44:58,840
Speaker 1: you don't have the feeling of aloha when you're cooking,

736
00:44:58,960 --> 00:45:02,560
Speaker 1: or the feeling of love, you know that that's the

737
00:45:02,680 --> 00:45:06,000
Speaker 1: mana or the spiritual nous of that process is what

738
00:45:06,120 --> 00:45:09,640
Speaker 1: makes you care about it. And that's why Grandma's food

739
00:45:09,680 --> 00:45:12,480
Speaker 1: is always the best, right, I mean, anybody's grand fog

740
00:45:12,520 --> 00:45:14,920
Speaker 1: boy in my case is my grandpa. But you know

741
00:45:14,960 --> 00:45:17,600
Speaker 1: that's why grandma's and grandpa's you know, cook the best

742
00:45:17,719 --> 00:45:20,960
Speaker 1: because when they cook for their children and their grandchildren

743
00:45:21,040 --> 00:45:29,719
Speaker 1: is always infused with aloha. Oh I love that so much, right, Yes,

744
00:45:31,880 --> 00:45:36,080
Speaker 1: that she was full of beautiful, beautiful things like that.

745
00:45:36,080 --> 00:45:40,360
Speaker 1: That just made me appreciate so much the power of

746
00:45:40,400 --> 00:45:45,920
Speaker 1: food in the connection that it it brings us absolutely. Oh,

747
00:45:45,960 --> 00:45:47,799
Speaker 1: I want to I want to go back right now.

748
00:45:49,080 --> 00:45:53,880
Speaker 1: I know. I was telling Dylan last night because we

749
00:45:53,880 --> 00:45:57,840
Speaker 1: were talking about this producer Dylan, that spirit of Aloha

750
00:45:58,040 --> 00:46:00,719
Speaker 1: and missing it so much, and I was was recounting

751
00:46:00,760 --> 00:46:02,920
Speaker 1: the tail of when I was in seventh grade. I

752
00:46:03,000 --> 00:46:07,480
Speaker 1: had a teacher, my social studies teacher who I loved,

753
00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:09,800
Speaker 1: but he used one of those kind of gruff. Also

754
00:46:09,880 --> 00:46:13,000
Speaker 1: a gym teacher, teacher okay, okay, yeah, And on the

755
00:46:13,080 --> 00:46:16,960
Speaker 1: last day of seventh grade, we were joking with him

756
00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:19,120
Speaker 1: because he was all decked out and like a straw hat,

757
00:46:19,160 --> 00:46:23,440
Speaker 1: a Hawaiian shirt, all this stuff, and we were like, coach,

758
00:46:23,760 --> 00:46:25,560
Speaker 1: why are you what are you going to way? And

759
00:46:25,560 --> 00:46:30,959
Speaker 1: he said, in my mind, I'm already there. He said

760
00:46:31,000 --> 00:46:33,759
Speaker 1: it so seriously, and I think about it all the time,

761
00:46:34,600 --> 00:46:36,600
Speaker 1: so we can be there in our minds. It's not

762
00:46:36,680 --> 00:46:40,640
Speaker 1: the same, Lauren, it's it's not the same. Certainly for

763
00:46:40,719 --> 00:46:44,920
Speaker 1: my stomach, yes, but uh, but man, I need to

764
00:46:44,960 --> 00:46:50,600
Speaker 1: go order some Loco moco from somewhere a solutely. That

765
00:46:50,719 --> 00:46:55,759
Speaker 1: sounds amazing right now. So we hope you enjoyed that

766
00:46:55,800 --> 00:46:59,479
Speaker 1: interview as much as we did. And we would really

767
00:46:59,520 --> 00:47:03,000
Speaker 1: love to hear from you listeners. You can email us

768
00:47:03,200 --> 00:47:06,200
Speaker 1: at hello at savor pod dot com. We're also on

769
00:47:06,239 --> 00:47:09,640
Speaker 1: social media. You can find us on Instagram and Twitter

770
00:47:09,719 --> 00:47:12,600
Speaker 1: and Facebook at savor pod, and we do hope to

771
00:47:12,680 --> 00:47:15,440
Speaker 1: hear from you. Savor is production of I Heart Radio.

772
00:47:15,520 --> 00:47:17,640
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit

773
00:47:17,800 --> 00:47:20,719
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

774
00:47:20,800 --> 00:47:23,400
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to our

775
00:47:23,440 --> 00:47:26,160
Speaker 1: super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to you

776
00:47:26,200 --> 00:47:27,960
Speaker 1: for listening, and we hope that lots more good things

777
00:47:28,000 --> 00:47:36,640
Speaker 1: are coming your way