Lucky Cricket 1 for 2019 - Jet Pilot & Lychee Coconut Bowl

Sunday, February 17, 2019

Lunch was a whole bunch of awesome. We had the Szechuan wontons to start (not pictured). Dale had the Hunan Chicken Salad (background) and I had the Kung Pao Shrimp Bowl (foreground). All of it was delicious. 

My second drink was the classic Jet Pilot. Dessert was the Lychee Coconut Bowl. It was too divine for words and, sadly, I didn't get a photo. 

I'd never seen a lychee before. Dale and I noticed what looked like oversized peeled grapes in the dessert. We assumed those were the lychee and our server confirmed that they indeed were just that. I've encountered tiki cocktails which have lychee juice in them but have never tried the fruit itself. 

Tropix Hawaiian BBQ

Friday, August 3, 2018

Dale, Brenda, and I went to Tropix Hawaiian BBQ for lunch. We all started with the egg drop soup and spring rolls.

Brenda had a small plate of the crispy shrimp. Dale had the white fish, and I had shrimp pad thai.

All of it was quite tasty. After we ate I ordered a pineapple coconut smoothie to go. Yum.

I'm not sure what exactly constitutes Hawaiian cuisine although I found a bit of information on Wikipedia. My understanding is that in the pre-contact period of ancient Hawaii (300 AD - 1778 AD) the inhabitants of the islands ate plants and animals brought by the Polynesian voyagers. "After first contact in 1778 European and American cuisine arrived."

Immigrant groups from China, Korea, Japan, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico arrived on the Islands between 1850 and 1930 to work the sugarcane and pineapple plantations. They introduced their own cuisines which influenced the area. 

Spam has been popular on the Islands for decades and today I learned why. It seems fishing was prohibited around the Islands during WWII and Spam became popular to natives as a source of protein. It was brought to the Islands by American servicemen as part of their rations. 

Spam musubi is a slice of fried Spam on rice and wrapped in a strip of nori (edible seaweed). It was on the menu at Tropix. I may have to try it next time. But maybe not. I'm not sure how I feel about Spam.

Tropix Hawaiian BBQ

Tropix Hawaiian BBQ

Tropix Hawaiian BBQ

Hawaiian Burger

Dale and I ate at the Lowbrow tonight. The special was a Hawaiian burger which I didn't even know was a thing. However, upon a little research I've found that there are tons of recipes for this type of burger online.  All recipes found online include pineapple (mostly grilled) and most include cheese (frequently provolone but also mozzarella or Swiss). Some recipes included bacon (Canadian and also applewood smoked) which gives it a connection to Hawaiian pizza. Sauces were usually a teriyaki/mayo type. Other ingredients I saw included onion and red pepper. A list of different types of hamburgers on Wikipedia say the Hawaii burger is "topped with pineapple and teriyaki sauce" and is "from the Japanese American culture." Other than this I could find no other references to the history of this type of burger.  The version at the Lowbrow included pineapple, provolone, and a barbecue type sauce. It was delicious.

Throwback Thursday - Tonga Room

Last year on a trip to California to visit my friend Warren, we visited the Tonga Room in San Francisco. We ordered Mai Tais which turned out to be most fabulous and took in the sights and sounds of the place. What a whole bunch of fun. The place had a pool in the middle of it with a floating stage. Unfortunately there were no musicians playing on it at the time. In addition to all this, it was fixed up to rain over the pool every so often. How cool is that? I found the above photo on Instagram today. 

Mai Kai

Today I finished Mai-Kai: History and Mystery of The Iconic Tiki Restaurant by Tim "Swanky" Glazner. Well worth the read.