On the North Shore of Oahu is a town called Kahuku, the freshwater aquafarms were there for many years. They have tanks for different phases of shrimp life from birth to the end of the road that is their sell size. In 1993, there was the Shrimp Truck craze that swept the island with Garlic Shrimp and many other dishes, so many farms that raised shrimp had take out plates that became fairly popular. The fresh, tasty, and buttery experience was something that met well with the Hawaii residence palate.
During the Shrimp Truck craze in the 90's, a family went to Romy’s Prawns & Shrimp Stand to eat and had some leftover shells from their large prawns. The family threw the throw away shrimp shells and whole prawns into a pot to simmer and made it into some left over warm saimin to warm the heart during Hawaii’s rainy season of winter. The family wasn't trying to develop a Saimin, but by throwing in some saimin noodles to finish up some left overs it just turned out to be that way. A dish made out of stretching an already eaten meal by with the goal of having a cheap snack in a bowl. The original seafood broth comes from left over prawns and garlic butter sauce from a plate lunch with alaea sea salt, sesame seed oil, dab of tomato paste, and a instant dashi, and canned clams. This process could be brought to an even more flavorful level by having clam dashi made by scratch with dried clams or purchasing clam dashi powder while boiling away a clam broth. As many things the recipe has changed over time, so what was once just a bowl of soup and noodles has added some delicious toppings to add to its plated appeal. The plating of Kahuku Saimin is topped with a whole prawn shell, pickled onions, pickled bok choy, fish cake ball, sliced omelette, seared cherry tomatoes or barbeque pork, roasted garlic sprinkles, dusting of powdered onion powder. The list of ingredients given without measure was: water, dried clams, clam shells, konbu, prawn carcass, sugar, tomato paste, fermented shrimp paste, dark shoyu, sesame seed oil, and garlic butter. When asking about the sourcing the family stated "I'm no Saimin expert, so I no like people think i getting all big head.". It was then talked about the reasons in certain information lacking with their response of "Without ingredient measurements and staying anonymous it stays as an idea without anyone pointing finger", which gave the writers an idea that its a matter of protection and respect to the people who made it that no body could say was the originator. As these being an ongoing question in all of the recipe cards the crew has explored its interesting to see the responses differ in their reasons from family to family. There is currently no Saimin shops that can be held responsible for Kahuku Saimin, but without the story from the family there would be no example of this variation of regional Saimin! As anonymity is the best way for people to open up it helps with getting the hidden recipes of yesteryear.
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