Cooking
- Hank's Haute Dogs Restaurant Review
Despite mixed reviews I was eager to try Hank's Haute Dogs. I rarely eat hot dogs at home, but on the road there is sometimes a special one that calls out to me like a Chicago style or in New York a Papaya King dog or a Nathan's frank in Brooklyn....
- You Hungry?: Restaurant Review Closed
One of the secrets to finding good food in Hawaii is to look in unconventional places. Stay away from the touristy areas and you may just find where the locals eat. While you might never consider eating in an industrial neighborhood, at a drive-in or...
- I Love Plate Lunch!
When you think of Hawaii, what comes to mind? The beach? Surfing? Hula? All of that is good, but the food, now you're talking! I truly believe the food of Hawaii is the most underrated regional cuisine in the United States. The combination of excellent...
- Aloha Festival
Today is the Aloha Festival in San Francisco out in the Presidio. That means mellow Hawaiian music, enchanting dance performances and most importantly, if you ask me--plate lunches. Hawaii has a tradition of serving up a lunch that consists of a scoop...
- Do-it-yourself Wasabi
Pacific Farms is now selling wasabi seeds. I've written before that virtually all sushi places don't give you real wasabi; it's usually just dyed horseradish. Real wasabi is markedly different than its commercial imitator. It's not as...
Cooking
Poke Bar at Costco in San Francisco
One of the many things I enjoy eating in Hawaii is poke. It’s a raw fish dish, that generally combines fresh yellowfin tuna, also known as ahi, with local ingredients like seaweed, Hawaiian salt and kukui nuts. There are seemingly infinite varieties, with ingredients such as green onions, sesame seeds, mayonnaise, tobiko, wasabi, sriracha, etc. In Hawaii you can find it at delis but also in supermarkets where there is often a poke bar in the seafood department.
Well, guess what just arrived at Costco in San Francisco? A poke bar! It features fresh wild ahi from different regions of the world including the Philippines and Sri Lanka and marinades flown in directly from Hawaii. It’s all prepared fresh at the store and sold only on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Prices range from $15.99 to $17.99 per pound.
Varieties include ahi shoyu poke, ahi wasabi poke, and ahi spicy poke. They also had two cooked shrimp styles of poke. I tried the ahi limu poke which had onions, ogo (Hawaiian seaweed) Hawaiian salt, kukui nut, sesame seed and sesame oil. The limu was my favorite, it was very fresh and had a particularly nice balance of flavors and brightness. It's cool and savory, but has an intensity from the dense fish and slightly nutty and spicy flavors.
I also tried the ahi wasabi poke with wasabi, tobiko, green onion, kukui nut, hawaiian salt and sesame seeds. It was good but really spicy! You definitely want to try this one with a beer.
The poke tasted just like what I’ve had in Hawaii. It’s those local Hawaiian ingredients that really make this dish so special, and something that’s hard to make on the mainland. In Hawaii it's served as a snack or appetizer and is popular with rice. With all due respect to the Costco food court, it sure beats pizza or hot dogs!
According to the blog Chomping Board, the weekend poke bar is also available at the Redwood City, Concord and Almaden locations.
I know this isn't "local" but sometimes you just need a little Hawaii fix. I wish I could tell you if the fish was sustainable, but I really don’t know. Several years ago Costco stopped selling 12 of the most “at risk” fish such as Atlantic cod and halibut, Chilean sea bass, swordfish and bluefin tuna, but I don’t know much about their ahi sourcing other than what I was told by someone in the Costco meat department.
- Hank's Haute Dogs Restaurant Review
Despite mixed reviews I was eager to try Hank's Haute Dogs. I rarely eat hot dogs at home, but on the road there is sometimes a special one that calls out to me like a Chicago style or in New York a Papaya King dog or a Nathan's frank in Brooklyn....
- You Hungry?: Restaurant Review Closed
One of the secrets to finding good food in Hawaii is to look in unconventional places. Stay away from the touristy areas and you may just find where the locals eat. While you might never consider eating in an industrial neighborhood, at a drive-in or...
- I Love Plate Lunch!
When you think of Hawaii, what comes to mind? The beach? Surfing? Hula? All of that is good, but the food, now you're talking! I truly believe the food of Hawaii is the most underrated regional cuisine in the United States. The combination of excellent...
- Aloha Festival
Today is the Aloha Festival in San Francisco out in the Presidio. That means mellow Hawaiian music, enchanting dance performances and most importantly, if you ask me--plate lunches. Hawaii has a tradition of serving up a lunch that consists of a scoop...
- Do-it-yourself Wasabi
Pacific Farms is now selling wasabi seeds. I've written before that virtually all sushi places don't give you real wasabi; it's usually just dyed horseradish. Real wasabi is markedly different than its commercial imitator. It's not as...