Aloha Cuisine
Well, thank goodness for Rachel Laudan and her new “The Food of Paradise: Exploring Hawaii’s Culinary Heritage” (Cookbook Review, June 18). If I had read one more word about how high-toned chefs like Roy Yamaguchi or Jean-Marie Josselin have finally “created” a Hawaiian “regional cuisine,” I would have screamed.
Anyone who’s been to Hamamura’s Saimin Cafe in Lahaina or the Rainbow Drive-In or Ono Foods in Honolulu knows that Hawaiians have had their own wonderful, funky sort of local soul food for years. Implying that it took classically trained outsiders to devise a Hawaiian regional cuisine is tantamount to saying that there were no good regional dishes in San Francisco or New Orleans until Alice Waters or Paul Prudhomme came along.
Anyone who needs proof of the soul-satisfying nature of Hawaiian plate lunches and down-home local dishes need only hie their heinies to any number of Hawaiian fast-food joints in Gardena or visit the best of the best on the Eastside, Shakas on the corner of Garfield Avenue and Riggin Street in Monterey Park.
SANDY TEICH
Los Angeles
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