Ono Kaukau

Utah has a pretty strong connection to the Islands, to Hawaii in particular. It seems like everyone you meet there (whether they're LDS or not) has an auntie who lives in West Valley City. As a result of this, Hawaiian places here in Utah have come and gone, particularly in strip malls, where rents are relatively cheap.

Opening a restaurant has been an important part of the immigrant experience in this country, but I've noticed that if you want to try out one of these places, you have to be quick, because many are gone pretty quickly. (A good example is Tiki’s Island Eats, which I happened to visit for lunch before it disappeared. I think it's now a Thai restaurant.)

Here's the real Hawaiian experience. Last summer I was on a long bike ride with the Scouts from our troop. On a Saturday afternoon, we were riding on Geneva Road down by the Provo boat harbor and road past a place where a family had set up a grill and was selling "plate lunches" in their own driveway. (I didn't have time to stop, so I'll have to see if I can track them down this summer.)

What is a plate lunch? It's a traditional Hawaiian take-away lunch that includes some kind of meat, a couple of scoops of rice, and a scoop of either macaroni salad or potato salad. These were historically prepared for workers in the field. In Hawaii these are often served out of a little shack with a couple of picnic tables out in front (painted white). Made to travel, they are usually served in a styrofoam clamshell container.

In addition to someone's driveway, Provo offers a few other options. The Aloha Grill is a relatively new Hawaiian place located in the huge retail area on the Southwest corner of State Street and University Avenue in Orem. It's in the location of the former Durango Grill (home of the "burango" and some pretty good chicken tortilla soup). This is a local place where they offer traditional Hawaiian plate lunches. There are handwritten signs taped to the walls ("soda" or "restrooms" with arrows making sure you don't confuse the two). They kept the original Mexican decor and just added some pan-Asian/pacific island tchotchkes. The food was OK, not great, but it did come served on a banana leaf, and the people working there were friendly. But I was surprised to see that kalua pork was an off-menu item. We had kalua pork with cabbage and some deep fried Mahi Mahi (with two "shrimps"). Their menu offered several other barbecue selections along with saimin, a Hawaiian variation on ramen.

The Bamboo Hut in Provo has a pretty loyal following, but my favorite is L&L. Although this is a chain, it's a Hawaiian chain, found throughout the islands (at 52 locations). And the older L&L restaurants offer some local variety. This is where you'll find the real deal. (If you're visiting the temple or BYU-H in Laie, make sure you stop off at the L&L.) In addition to plate lunches, you'll find laulau, BBQ short ribs, loco moco, chicken katsu (one of my favs), saimin, and spam musubi (a Hawaiian variation on sushi). For dessert you can get malasadas, the Portuguese-style doughnuts that are usually sold out of vans or trailers. For those without a sense of adventure, they have hamburgers.

Want to have your own luau? Bamboo Hut and L&L offer catering, and you can also order items from BYU catering's "islander buffet": kalua pork, shoyu chicken, long rice, sweet and sour chicken, lomi lomi salmon, and guava sheet cake. Now that's ono kau kau ("oh no, cow cow," which means "delicious food").

We've also learned that you don't need an imu (underground oven) to make kalua pork at home. Just buy a couple of pork shoulders, add lots of salt and some liquid smoke and wrap these in foil. Stick them in a roaster oven for several hours, pull the meat, and add more liquid smoke and sea salt (as needed, to taste). Eat some for dinner and put the rest in the fridge or freezer. This is a good use of your turkey roaster after Thanksgiving.

Maybe this summer I'll start selling it out of my driveway.