I used to spend a lot of time in Hawaii, and one of the more interesting
stores there was Crack Seed Center, in the Ala Moana shopping center.
They sell a variety of interesting Hawaiian and Oriental snacks,
including dried and pickled fruits, macadamia nuts in various forms,
rice crackers, fish jerky, and so on. Back in the 80s and 90s, when I
traveled to Hawaii frequently, they made a lot of the items on the
premises; if you asked, they would take you into the back and show you
the barrels of fruits and such marinating in all of the mysterious
liquids that they use.

I haven't been there since the mid-90s, but I still order from their
website once every couple of years when they send me a promotional
email. I am partial to their various forms of mango (wet, dry, li hing,
and so on), but I usually order some of their other items just to get a
taste. The selection changes from year to year; they used to have an
eclectic assortment of rice crackers, for instance, but nowadays they
don't have much that you wouldn't find in your local Oriental market, or
even at Walmart in the Oriental foods section. Many of the Hawaiian
foods, though, I have never seen anywhere else but in Hawaii.

If you know a bit about Hawaiian food, or are curious about some of the
local treats, this is not a bad place to investigate. Prices are not too
steep, considering, and the service has been good (at least to me) over
the years.

www.crackseed.com

Li Hing, by the way, is a local Hawaiian way of seasoning all sorts of
things, including fruits and candy, with Li Hing Mui powder. They put it
on all sorts of surprising things, such as dried and pickled fruit, sour
gummi candy, gummi worms, and whatever else seems to strike their fancy.
It's pretty good, even though I am not usually a fan of licorice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_hing_mui

Have you tried popcorn with arare? I have always wanted to try that.

Tara

On 4/25/2014 4:41 PM, Tara wrote:
> Have you tried popcorn with arare? I have always wanted to try that.

I guess I could google it but what's arare?


--
Jim Silverton (Potomac, MD)

Extraneous "not." in Reply To.

On Fri, 25 Apr 2014 16:42:50 -0400, James Silverton wrote:

> On 4/25/2014 4:41 PM, Tara wrote:
>> Have you tried popcorn with arare? I have always wanted to try that.
>
> I guess I could google it but what's arare?

Rice crackers

Tara

On Friday, April 25, 2014 1:42:50 PM UTC-7, James Silverton wrote:
> On 4/25/2014 4:41 PM, Tara wrote:
>
> > Have you tried popcorn with arare? I have always wanted to try that.
>
>
>
> I guess I could google it but what's arare?
>

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=what%27s+arare%3F+

On Fri, 25 Apr 2014 15:57:47 -0500, Tara wrote:

> On Fri, 25 Apr 2014 16:42:50 -0400, James Silverton wrote:
>
>> On 4/25/2014 4:41 PM, Tara wrote:
>>> Have you tried popcorn with arare? I have always wanted to try that.
>>
>> I guess I could google it but what's arare?
>
> Rice crackers
>

This is the kind of popcorn I want to try:

http://www.snapshotsofhappiness.com/...ricane-popcorn

Tara

On 4/25/2014 4:41 PM, Tara wrote:
> Have you tried popcorn with arare? I have always wanted to try that.
>
> Tara
>

Arare are the small rice crackers, about the size and shape of a cashew,
usually glazed with sweet soy sauce and often wrapped with dried
seaweed. Senbei are rice crackers in the shape of a silver dollar, often
flavored with ginger. A fortune cookie is a kind of senbei.

Crackseed used to sell a sort-of Hawaiian poppycock that had arare in
it; it was really good, but they don't seem to carry it any more. They
also used to have a lot of nice senbei as well, but they don't seem to
carry that anymore either. Luckily there are at least four Oriental
markets within a few miles of here, and they all carry at least some
kinds of both arare and senbei. The Hawaiian poppycock, unfortunately,
I've only seen at Crackseed.

On 2014-04-25 1:01 AM, Travis McGee wrote:

>
> If you know a bit about Hawaiian food, or are curious about some of the
> local treats, this is not a bad place to investigate. Prices are not too
> steep, considering, and the service has been good (at least to me) over
> the years.
>

I can't say that I have ever had or been particularly interested in
Hawaiian food, but I will have a chance to do it soon. There is a
Hawaiian restaurant being built in our little town. Frankly, I will be
surprised if it survives. It is not like they are riding on the crest
of a food fad. It is a town of 15K, mainly anglo and european types. I
am sure that a lot of people will give it a try but there is going to
have to be some crazy wow factor there to keep it going.

On 4/25/2014 5:01 PM, Tara wrote:
> On Fri, 25 Apr 2014 15:57:47 -0500, Tara wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 25 Apr 2014 16:42:50 -0400, James Silverton wrote:
>>
>>> On 4/25/2014 4:41 PM, Tara wrote:
>>>> Have you tried popcorn with arare? I have always wanted to try that.
>>>
>>> I guess I could google it but what's arare?
>>
>> Rice crackers
>>
>
> This is the kind of popcorn I want to try:
>
> http://www.snapshotsofhappiness.com/...ricane-popcorn
>
> Tara
>
They have a "do-it yourself" hurricane popcorn kit:

http://www.crackseedcenter.com/Produ...ategor yID=13

On 4/25/2014 5:03 PM, Dave Smith wrote:
> On 2014-04-25 1:01 AM, Travis McGee wrote:
>
>>
>> If you know a bit about Hawaiian food, or are curious about some of the
>> local treats, this is not a bad place to investigate. Prices are not too
>> steep, considering, and the service has been good (at least to me) over
>> the years.
>>
>
> I can't say that I have ever had or been particularly interested in
> Hawaiian food, but I will have a chance to do it soon. There is a
> Hawaiian restaurant being built in our little town. Frankly, I will be
> surprised if it survives. It is not like they are riding on the crest
> of a food fad. It is a town of 15K, mainly anglo and european types. I
> am sure that a lot of people will give it a try but there is going to
> have to be some crazy wow factor there to keep it going.
>

Kalua pig is the pit-roasted pork that Hawaii is famous for; it is very
very good. I would also recommend lau-lau, which are seasoned fish and
salt pork, wrapped in something similar to spinach and steamed. Poki is
spicy Hawaiian sashimi; although I have seldom seen it stateside, it is
also pretty good. I personally would avoid poi, even though it is sort
of a Hawaiian official dish. It tastes something like soured library paste.

Hawaiians are also very big on Spam, a legacy of WWII. They serve it all
kinds of ways; I have even seen Spam sushi at McDonalds, and there was a
Spam cookbook that was popular in the islands back in the late 80s.

A local hero, Sam Choi, has written several cookbooks that feature
Hawaiian, ingredients, although not all the recipes are traditional.
"The Choi of Cooking" is a good start if you want to try making Hawaiian
food; I imagine you could get it used for not very much money.

On 4/25/2014 5:03 PM, Dave Smith wrote:
> On 2014-04-25 1:01 AM, Travis McGee wrote:
>
>>
>> If you know a bit about Hawaiian food, or are curious about some of the
>> local treats, this is not a bad place to investigate. Prices are not too
>> steep, considering, and the service has been good (at least to me) over
>> the years.
>>
>
> I can't say that I have ever had or been particularly interested in
> Hawaiian food, but I will have a chance to do it soon. There is a
> Hawaiian restaurant being built in our little town. Frankly, I will be
> surprised if it survives. It is not like they are riding on the crest
> of a food fad. It is a town of 15K, mainly anglo and european types. I
> am sure that a lot of people will give it a try but there is going to
> have to be some crazy wow factor there to keep it going.
>
Most of the food that I have enjoyed in Hawaii has been "fusion" food,
apart from pretty good seafood, sushi and other Japanese food (I did not
try Spam Nigiri!). I definitely do not like poi! But I do like Saimin
even if it is basically Japanese. You can also keep the Hawaiian plate
lunch.

--
Jim Silverton (Potomac, MD)

Extraneous "not." in Reply To.

On 4/25/2014 5:48 PM, James Silverton wrote:
> On 4/25/2014 5:03 PM, Dave Smith wrote:
>> On 2014-04-25 1:01 AM, Travis McGee wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> If you know a bit about Hawaiian food, or are curious about some of the
>>> local treats, this is not a bad place to investigate. Prices are not too
>>> steep, considering, and the service has been good (at least to me) over
>>> the years.
>>>
>>
>> I can't say that I have ever had or been particularly interested in
>> Hawaiian food, but I will have a chance to do it soon. There is a
>> Hawaiian restaurant being built in our little town. Frankly, I will be
>> surprised if it survives. It is not like they are riding on the crest
>> of a food fad. It is a town of 15K, mainly anglo and european types. I
>> am sure that a lot of people will give it a try but there is going to
>> have to be some crazy wow factor there to keep it going.
>>
> Most of the food that I have enjoyed in Hawaii has been "fusion" food,
> apart from pretty good seafood, sushi and other Japanese food (I did not
> try Spam Nigiri!). I definitely do not like poi! But I do like Saimin
> even if it is basically Japanese. You can also keep the Hawaiian plate
> lunch.
>

A very famous Thai restaurant (not really Hawaiian in focus) on Oahu is
Keo's; there used to be a couple of them in Waikiki. They were a bit
pricey, but the food was very good. Keo's was very trendy in the 80s,
but it looks like at least one of the restaurants was shut down recently.

His cookbook is a fair way to get acquainted with Thai cooking. "Evil
Jungle Prince" is simple and tasty, for instance.

On Fri, 25 Apr 2014 16:01:01 -0500, Tara >
wrote:

> On Fri, 25 Apr 2014 15:57:47 -0500, Tara wrote:
>
> > On Fri, 25 Apr 2014 16:42:50 -0400, James Silverton wrote:
> >
> >> On 4/25/2014 4:41 PM, Tara wrote:
> >>> Have you tried popcorn with arare? I have always wanted to try that.
> >>
> >> I guess I could google it but what's arare?
> >
> > Rice crackers
> >
>
> This is the kind of popcorn I want to try:
>
> http://www.snapshotsofhappiness.com/...ricane-popcorn
>
I think I'd forget about the rice crackers and stick with the
seasoning.


--
I take life with a grain of salt, a slice of lemon and a shot of tequila

On Fri, 25 Apr 2014 17:03:46 -0400, Dave Smith
> wrote:

> On 2014-04-25 1:01 AM, Travis McGee wrote:
>
> >
> > If you know a bit about Hawaiian food, or are curious about some of the
> > local treats, this is not a bad place to investigate. Prices are not too
> > steep, considering, and the service has been good (at least to me) over
> > the years.
> >
>
> I can't say that I have ever had or been particularly interested in
> Hawaiian food, but I will have a chance to do it soon. There is a
> Hawaiian restaurant being built in our little town. Frankly, I will be
> surprised if it survives. It is not like they are riding on the crest
> of a food fad. It is a town of 15K, mainly anglo and european types. I
> am sure that a lot of people will give it a try but there is going to
> have to be some crazy wow factor there to keep it going.

Hawaiian "BBQ" type restaurants are popular on the West Coast. It's
the aloha version of a rib joint.

--
I take life with a grain of salt, a slice of lemon and a shot of tequila

On Fri, 25 Apr 2014 01:01:46 -0400, Travis McGee
> wrote:

>I used to spend a lot of time in Hawaii, and one of the more interesting
>stores there was Crack Seed Center, in the Ala Moana shopping center.
>They sell a variety of interesting Hawaiian and Oriental snacks,
>including dried and pickled fruits, macadamia nuts in various forms,
>rice crackers, fish jerky, and so on. Back in the 80s and 90s, when I
>traveled to Hawaii frequently, they made a lot of the items on the
>premises; if you asked, they would take you into the back and show you
>the barrels of fruits and such marinating in all of the mysterious
>liquids that they use.
>
>I haven't been there since the mid-90s, but I still order from their
>website once every couple of years when they send me a promotional
>email. I am partial to their various forms of mango (wet, dry, li hing,
>and so on), but I usually order some of their other items just to get a
>taste. The selection changes from year to year; they used to have an
>eclectic assortment of rice crackers, for instance, but nowadays they
>don't have much that you wouldn't find in your local Oriental market, or
>even at Walmart in the Oriental foods section. Many of the Hawaiian
>foods, though, I have never seen anywhere else but in Hawaii.
>
>If you know a bit about Hawaiian food, or are curious about some of the
>local treats, this is not a bad place to investigate. Prices are not too
>steep, considering, and the service has been good (at least to me) over
>the years.
>
>www.crackseed.com
>
>Li Hing, by the way, is a local Hawaiian way of seasoning all sorts of
>things, including fruits and candy, with Li Hing Mui powder. They put it
>on all sorts of surprising things, such as dried and pickled fruit, sour
>gummi candy, gummi worms, and whatever else seems to strike their fancy.
>It's pretty good, even though I am not usually a fan of licorice.
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_hing_mui

Fun to read. I am from Hawaii and forever so may I say something. Li
Hing Mui and generally see-moi is actually a Chinese way of preserving
fruit. As kids, it was our tasty- very salty/sweet after school
snack. Other snacks were lemons soaked in salt-(makes my mouth water
to remember it) and dried abalone which you bought out of a large jar
for a quarter. Then you'd use your pen knife to carve off small
bites.

I know that crackseeed store in Ala Moana on Oahu. But my son who
lives in MO said he likes Obachan's best for mail delivery
(https://www.obachans.com/) so you might try that too.

Arare is tasty and was described exactly in another post. Very crisp,
comes in all sorts of shapes/seasonings and when alone or mixed with
nuts is a relay awesome snack.

Just my $.02.

aloha,
Cea

On Friday, April 25, 2014 11:03:46 AM UTC-10, Dave Smith wrote:
> On 2014-04-25 1:01 AM, Travis McGee wrote:
>
>
>
> >
>
> > If you know a bit about Hawaiian food, or are curious about some of the
>
> > local treats, this is not a bad place to investigate. Prices are not too
>
> > steep, considering, and the service has been good (at least to me) over
>
> > the years.
>
> >
>
>
>
> I can't say that I have ever had or been particularly interested in
>
> Hawaiian food, but I will have a chance to do it soon. There is a
>
> Hawaiian restaurant being built in our little town. Frankly, I will be
>
> surprised if it survives. It is not like they are riding on the crest
>
> of a food fad. It is a town of 15K, mainly anglo and european types. I
>
> am sure that a lot of people will give it a try but there is going to
>
> have to be some crazy wow factor there to keep it going.

Those guys are dead meat. Most of the Hawaiian restaurants over here kind of suck. It's a pretty good idea to call a restaurant "Hawaiian" but it's a bad one to serve Hawaiian food. I'd serve Korean food and local style plate lunches and call it Hawaiian food. That's my awesome tip for today. :-)

On Friday, April 25, 2014 11:01:01 AM UTC-10, Tara wrote:
> On Fri, 25 Apr 2014 15:57:47 -0500, Tara wrote:
>
>
>
> > On Fri, 25 Apr 2014 16:42:50 -0400, James Silverton wrote:
>
> >
>
> >> On 4/25/2014 4:41 PM, Tara wrote:
>
> >>> Have you tried popcorn with arare? I have always wanted to try that.
>
> >>
>
> >> I guess I could google it but what's arare?
>
> >
>
> > Rice crackers
>
> >
>
>
>
> This is the kind of popcorn I want to try:
>
>
>
> http://www.snapshotsofhappiness.com/...ricane-popcorn
>
>
>
> Tara

There's no doubt about it, hurricane popcorn is the most awesome popcorn there ever was.

On 4/25/2014 8:13 PM, pure kona wrote:
> On Fri, 25 Apr 2014 01:01:46 -0400, Travis McGee
> > wrote:
>
>> I used to spend a lot of time in Hawaii, and one of the more interesting
>> stores there was Crack Seed Center, in the Ala Moana shopping center.
>> They sell a variety of interesting Hawaiian and Oriental snacks,
>> including dried and pickled fruits, macadamia nuts in various forms,
>> rice crackers, fish jerky, and so on. Back in the 80s and 90s, when I
>> traveled to Hawaii frequently, they made a lot of the items on the
>> premises; if you asked, they would take you into the back and show you
>> the barrels of fruits and such marinating in all of the mysterious
>> liquids that they use.
>>
>> I haven't been there since the mid-90s, but I still order from their
>> website once every couple of years when they send me a promotional
>> email. I am partial to their various forms of mango (wet, dry, li hing,
>> and so on), but I usually order some of their other items just to get a
>> taste. The selection changes from year to year; they used to have an
>> eclectic assortment of rice crackers, for instance, but nowadays they
>> don't have much that you wouldn't find in your local Oriental market, or
>> even at Walmart in the Oriental foods section. Many of the Hawaiian
>> foods, though, I have never seen anywhere else but in Hawaii.
>>
>> If you know a bit about Hawaiian food, or are curious about some of the
>> local treats, this is not a bad place to investigate. Prices are not too
>> steep, considering, and the service has been good (at least to me) over
>> the years.
>>
>> www.crackseed.com
>>
>> Li Hing, by the way, is a local Hawaiian way of seasoning all sorts of
>> things, including fruits and candy, with Li Hing Mui powder. They put it
>> on all sorts of surprising things, such as dried and pickled fruit, sour
>> gummi candy, gummi worms, and whatever else seems to strike their fancy.
>> It's pretty good, even though I am not usually a fan of licorice.
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_hing_mui
>
> Fun to read. I am from Hawaii and forever so may I say something. Li
> Hing Mui and generally see-moi is actually a Chinese way of preserving
> fruit. As kids, it was our tasty- very salty/sweet after school
> snack. Other snacks were lemons soaked in salt-(makes my mouth water
> to remember it) and dried abalone which you bought out of a large jar
> for a quarter. Then you'd use your pen knife to carve off small
> bites.
>
> I know that crackseeed store in Ala Moana on Oahu. But my son who
> lives in MO said he likes Obachan's best for mail delivery
> (https://www.obachans.com/) so you might try that too.
>
> Arare is tasty and was described exactly in another post. Very crisp,
> comes in all sorts of shapes/seasonings and when alone or mixed with
> nuts is a relay awesome snack.
>
> Just my $.02.
>
> aloha,
> Cea
>

Thanks for the link. I just sent in a large order to Crackseed, but I'll
try this one next time around.

I wish I could get back to Hawaii; it's a really neat place. I always
enjoyed visiting.

On 4/25/2014 5:03 PM, Travis McGee wrote:
> On 4/25/2014 4:41 PM, Tara wrote:
>> Have you tried popcorn with arare? I have always wanted to try that.
>>
>> Tara
>>
>
> Arare are the small rice crackers, about the size and shape of a cashew,
> usually glazed with sweet soy sauce and often wrapped with dried
> seaweed. Senbei are rice crackers in the shape of a silver dollar, often
> flavored with ginger. A fortune cookie is a kind of senbei.
>
> Crackseed used to sell a sort-of Hawaiian poppycock that had arare in
> it; it was really good, but they don't seem to carry it any more. They
> also used to have a lot of nice senbei as well, but they don't seem to
> carry that anymore either. Luckily there are at least four Oriental
> markets within a few miles of here, and they all carry at least some
> kinds of both arare and senbei. The Hawaiian poppycock, unfortunately,
> I've only seen at Crackseed.

I went to World Market today; they had a small Hawaiian section in the
foods area. It had Hawaiian popcorn with arare. It wasn't called
"Hurricane Popcorn", but it showed the arare amongst the popped corn and
other stuff on the package, and arare was listed in the ingredients.

On 4/26/2014 1:48 PM, Travis McGee wrote:
>
> I went to World Market today; they had a small Hawaiian section in the
> foods area. It had Hawaiian popcorn with arare. It wasn't called
> "Hurricane Popcorn", but it showed the arare amongst the popped corn and
> other stuff on the package, and arare was listed in the ingredients.

It used to be common practice to dump a package of arare into a bag of
popcorn when watching a movie in a theater. I never did that because I'm
not a fan of popcorn. If I did happen to have a bag of popcorn and a bag
of arare, I'd sure as hell dump the arare into the popcorn. I mean, I'm
not stupid.

On Fri, 25 Apr 2014 22:50:32 -0400, Travis McGee
> wrote:

>On 4/25/2014 8:13 PM, pure kona wrote:
>> On Fri, 25 Apr 2014 01:01:46 -0400, Travis McGee
>> > wrote:

>>
>> I know that crackseeed store in Ala Moana on Oahu. But my son who
>> lives in MO said he likes Obachan's best for mail delivery
>> (https://www.obachans.com/) so you might try that too.
>>
>> Arare is tasty and was described exactly in another post. Very crisp,
>> comes in all sorts of shapes/seasonings and when alone or mixed with
>> nuts is a relay awesome snack.
>>
>> Just my $.02.
>>
>> aloha,
>> Cea
>>
>
>Thanks for the link. I just sent in a large order to Crackseed, but I'll
>try this one next time around.
>
>I wish I could get back to Hawaii; it's a really neat place. I always
>enjoyed visiting.
My son loves Obachans and he used to love the CrackSeed Center you
mentioned.

I called him to ask why he likes about Obachans. He said it feels like
he is dealing with a real person and he loves their mango- ordering
10#s at a time- egads. Obachans has quite a following on FaceBook and
he suggested you might want to check there too.

Yes Hawaii is a neat place. Lucky to call it home Hope you get
back soemtime.

aloha,
Cea

On 4/25/2014 2:12 PM, sf wrote:
>
> Hawaiian "BBQ" type restaurants are popular on the West Coast. It's
> the aloha version of a rib joint.
>

The Hawaiian barbecue places on the mainland sell local dishes in a
"plate lunch" style. Originally, plate lunch was served by lunchwagons
over here starting in the 60s. I used to eat a bunch of plate lunches
back when I was going to school. What could be better than sitting on
the grass and eating large portions of cheap and delicious foods on a
paper plate with your favorite girl? Nothing. The price of the plates
would be $1.75 to $2.00 back in the early 70s.

The classic plate lunch would consist of 2 ice cream scoops of rice and
one scoop of macaroni salad. The meat part would be teriyaki beef or
roast pork or hamburger patty with gravy. There would also be fried
mahimahi and beef stew and beef curry.

L&L Hawaiian Barbecue started serving lunchwagon food back in the late
70s using a franchise model. It was a pretty successful idea they
started their move into the mainland in 2000. They have been quite
popular over there too. Good for them.

From what I see on the menu, it's pretty authentic and a guy like me
would feel right comfortable eating at an L&L. My guess is that the
chicken katsu is the most popular dish served on the mainland, as it is
here. I think katsu is going to make it big on the mainland and
boneless, skinless, chicken thighs will be the chicken of choice on the
mainland - as it is here.

I have the L&L Hawaiian Barbecue "cookbook." It's as funny as hell. I
can't say if all y'alls would see it that way though.

http://www.amazon.com/266-Million-Wi.../dp/1566479886

Hey thanks. Some of us has been taught to think they live on spam and flied lice over there.