The Ocean waters outside are pronounced with their relaxing atmosphere the sound of water makes as it reaches the beach. What better to eat than some sweets that are really soft with a bit of a bite of chocolate that can make that sweet tooth urge go away especially if you are into chocolate. This would be the Butterfly Mochi that had originated from the island of Hawaii, once again Two Ladies Kitchen created a mochi that people would replicate in their homes. Butterfly Mochi is common to bring back as a gift (omiyage) in Hawaii tradition and is a dish that people would try to make at home.
The reason was for the chocolate rush as well as for its simplicity of looking inside of the filling. At family get togethers many families come together to pound mochi and place whatever it is that they enjoy eating as a sweet inside. What began as replicating Butterfly mochi would open a type of mochi that was experimental and used chocolate, so it was sometimes referred to as "Chocolate-an Mochi” Butterfly Mochi in Hawaii, Non-traditional flavors of Japan have become staple flavors of Hawaii, which is why many mochi made in the islands have left their mark on the cuisine. Not everyone appreciated traditional mochi and the islands had to adapt to new tastes to the area. Looking at the idea of placing the flavor of chocolate inside a mochi with paste is a complex taste. It is delicious especially when it is still warm, because the mochi is still very soft and plump while the chocolate and paste blend well together when it is at its freshest. Food Characteristics, Butterfly Mochi originally was filled with koshi-an and white chocolate in the shape of a round and plump butterfly. What really sticks out is the color of blue on the mochi as well as its unique shape that gave it a specific character in the mochi world. The rice that is used is mochi rice (glutinous rice) which is a bit chewy and is used for most mochi. The inside has the chocolate and has a paste like puree called Azuki bean puree (aka. Koshi-an). There are many possible confectionaries which can merge a creamy puree and chocolate. Hawaii Chocolate Storage, When the holiday seasons come there is chocolate, when Valentines day comes there is more chocolate, and when its Halloween there is chocolate again... What do families do with all this chocolate in the house that is stored or eaten? A few decided to stuff them inside mochi with their Azuki puree bean paste, so they can enjoy some mochi with their chocolate or is it their chocolate with their mochi? Depending on what they would want they would put a filling of their choice. It was a good way to make use of chocolate that was stored away. Butterfly Mochi VariationsPa'akai Milk Chocolate Butterfly Mochi -Mint Chocolate Butterfly Mochi, -White Chocolate Butterfly Mochi, -Dark Chocolate Butterfly Mochi -Haupia Chocolate Butterfly Mochi
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Big Island Regional Cuisine
Summer time is the time for heat, but also it is when there are many berries that are in season. Strawberries that are bright and tart with a bit of sweet, pineapple that is juicy and pleasant, and mangos fall from the trees for a nice tropical flavor. What can make those fruits taste even better? when there is vanilla cake and cream. Maybe even switch the vanilla cake for some chocolate cake and melted fudge? Its all in the plan for the the cake and mochi combo that goes great with some milk or ice cream. Shortcake Mochi was once placed on the specials list menu at Two Ladies kitchen in Hilo Hawaii and has been known as a Regional Hilo-style Mochi for those who not fans of the traditional azuki pureed bean koshi-an. When it was originally made the mochi was made with Strawberry Shortcake as a base, however anyone who has been to Hawaii knows that the fruits taste slightly more sweet than many other places. For this feature to meet mochi was the goal for fruit lovers to go on and make short cakes of many fruits and cakes, until the selection of fruit at the store could go into a tasty cake and surrounded by yummy mochi. Shortcake Mochi in Hawaii, The signature strawberry mochi of the big island was so popular that outer islands requested it become available in their parts. With no surprise the addition of fluffly moist cake and the sweet strawberry with cream would add a great texture properly named as shortcake mochi. Hawaii has no seasons, but many have it as their must haves for the summer time of sweets check list in the form of mochi. Food Characteristics, Shortcake Mochi is a classic that shoves a fully finished strawberry short cake and thinly wraps mochi over it. The size is slightly larger because of the fluffy filling and the cream along with the generous amount of fruit inside. The chewy mochi compliments the soft cake texture and smoothness of the cream that make this dessert many peoples favorite mochi. Abundant Sweet Fruits, Each island has its seasonal fruit and the Big Islands fruit get even sweeter during certain seasons. The season of summer in particular involves a quite a long list of fruits, but for this shortcake mochi write up were going in on the ones that work as shortcake. Many of the available fruits are what make many of the variations possible, such as: Pineapple, Strawberry, Guava, Mango, Dragon Fruit, and Coconut. Shortcake Mochi Variations-Strawberry Shortcake Mochi-Blue Berry Shortcake Mochi-Mango Shortcake Mochi-Pineapple Shortcake Mochi-Coconut Shortcake Mochi (chocolate crumbs) Hawaii Saimin Association Series | Part 11
There was a rich component that would break the traditional idea of a standard saimin a light bowl of soup that is served with a set with a burger, dipped grilled sticks, and a drink. This particular component of a saimin would be really startling to those who have followed the dishes changes over the years as a big leap. It really was necessary to have such change to compete with rich flavored recipes of more trendy dishes coming to Hawaii from the outside world. Things like Ramen and Pho were taking over the market, so the saimin chefs would be developing a soup recipe that would involve fats that would still have lots of that light-flavor at well. Lighter then deeper and oily broth it would provide a flavor of a braising liquid that would have the extraction of the fats of the braise itself. It would be well seasoned and enriched through time in the oven or imu (underground oven). The place that is credited with serving the first bowls of this sort of saimin with Braising liquid or the “Kele” was from the “Saimin Dojo” by Josh Tamaoka, Josh Planas, and Brandon Baptiste on the island of Kauai. The soup when touched by the braising liquid would no longer have that clearness that is known in most bowls, but this was a bowl of saimin that would stand alone with its toppings with its own category of saimin. The preparations of the braise would be a mixture of influences from Japanese techniques as well as French techniques that would lift up the local dish in a way that seemed unlikely at the time of its arrival. The braising liquid brought body to the soup that is much deeper than any saimins served before. This developed as a technique that would begin to be called the Kele, which in shorthand in Hawaiian for Kelekele in reference to the fat that is released into the braising liquid. This can be fat from meat or fish or even something with natural fats like coconut and flavored with kalo (taro) or luau leaves. This might seem really non traditional to locals, but it was an important factor in any success to take back the title of best soup and noodles of people who lived in Hawaii to invest and be vigilant in further developing saimin as a powerful competitor. Hawaii Saimin Association Series | Part 10
Mixture sauce is a way to taste another layer of flavor as a component of dish modification. There might be a standard saimin and then a spicy saimin that uses something to give it that property of spiciness and this can go for other tastes like: bitter, sweet, salty, sour, and savory. The classic mixture sauce is adding in dried mustard mixed with shoyu and that was the simple sauce that was thrown in to kick up the heat and make the nose clear again. As time went on there were other sorts of sauces like adding in some shoyu mixed oyster sauce or shoyu mixed with chili garlic sauce or just a wallop of pureed ginger scallion garlic in oil. Classifications by sauce is a deeper way to season the broth and transform it from its previously light flavor of savory salty deliciousness. This is not talked about too much as it is seen as something commonly done as one of saimins strengths of being light, so it can be eaten as you like it by adding these deeper flavors as table condiments. However these have evolved into Mixture sauces aka "Da Magic Mixcha" that can consist of different bases like: Ginger Saimin (ginger-mixture), Mustard Saimin (mustard-mixture), Chili-Sauce Saimin (chili garlic-mixture), Shoyu Saimin (shoyu-mixture). The way to properly flavor a saimin is to have the individual layers to be identified by the tongue and actually taste them. Put a little of this inside and a little of that inside and make a combination that still tastes like the dashi and still tastes like the added flavors for a balance of flavor. This widespread use of mixture sauces originated as table condiments, but would effect the selection of saimin to be the more complex and less traditional saimin that is being developed by flavor classification. Pa’akai Saimins (1), Meakai Saimins (1a.) Iomauka Saimins (1b.), Mixed Saimins (2), and Stewed Saimins (3). Restaurants would take notice of this as people would start modifying their usual orders to have a stew like tripe to make a tripe saimin (Shiro’s), beef stew for a stewed beef saimin, luau stew for a luau saimin, and of course the oxtail saimin that was popular from Violet’s Grill. This made sauces, stews, and soups have a whole new level of consideration when looking for a saimin dish that started to befit the palettes needs of the ever changing consumer needs. More recent variations have been: Curry Saimin (beef curry-mixture) and Hawaii Miso Saimin (miso-mixture). Not only the sauces were considered to change the flavor and competitiveness of a saimin shop to other noodles shops, but also the condiments. Because Saimin shops at one point started to make pickled cabbage in order to cleanse the palette before eating each bite, similar to ramen complimentary sides of pickles. This would beside the: Hot Mustard, Aloha Shoyu, Ginger Container, Hoisin, Salt, Pepper. Other pickles that would be served with Saimin were: Pickled Garlic, Pickled Sweet Onion Ogo, Pickled Radish, and Kimchee Cucumber. Hawaii Saimin Association Series | Part 9
Dashi, a group of broths that use various ingredients that bring out the most flavor that is usually a sort of savory flavor. It is used in Japanese cuisine and also made its way into Hawaii cuisine from the immigrants who brought over the techniques on how to make it from scratch. Making dashi became widely known as families shared their recipes to make a variety of mixtures for a shared pot of saimin noodles. In the early days a dried seafood of flakes a seaweed and salt were not always easy to come by, so Japanese had to make use of the ingredients they had, and made dashi. This would involve all sorts of tuna from the Hawaiian waters which were once brimming with life and many sorts of Hawaiian Seaweed. It would be nick named "Dashi Wai", “Waidashi” or "Hawaiian Dashi" and would be a sort of dashi based on survival rather than a luxury of different selection of taste. Dashi Wai is the most commonly used foundation of the soup and can be made with all sorts of ingredients with nearly endless possibilities. There can be overlaps from the salts as some ingredients are salted, some are dried, and some are placed in as is and that really can change the flavor according to who is making the dashi. Dashi is known as a Japanese soup base and some local families in Hawaii call the dashi that is unique to hawaii “Dashi Wai”, because “Wai” means water in Hawaiian and that translates to dashi water. There is a soaking process to the dried ingredients and then a simmering process that brings out all the flavor into the dashi wai. Originally the main flavor would come from the Dashi with dried ingredients for full flavor extraction with some of those ingredients that were rehydrated would be pureed and used in other ways in the shop to add additional flavor. Old timers may joke that the dried ingredients are what represents the cared for flavor of home while the dashi wai represents the flavor of natures bounty of the ocean. The dried ingredients that were most commonly used were: Dried Shrimp, Dried Scallop, Dried Clams, Dried Sardines, Dried Cuttlefish, Dried Bonito, Dried Mackerel, Dried Abalone, Dried Shiitake, Dried Limus, and Dried Kombu. Tuna flakes were always favored for being used in Japanese cuisine, specifically Bonito Skipjack Tuna flakes. Sticking to the refinement of the flavors there would be other fishes used in search of culinary advancement in the ways of soup. Tradition of using skipjack tuna would be a must for many who opened up their stands and shops and would have to rely on their parents recipes, some of which would have some unusual tuna that were not quite the same as Japan as they were from Fishing families. These would be a variety of deep sea fish depending on the island, but those that would be used most often were: dried aku tuna fillet, dried ahi tuna fillet, and dried tombo tuna fillet (albacore). While mostly known for its use of ingredients from the ocean there were still many recipes that included a variety of bones and the most popular bones would be the throw away pig shanks and oxtails that were at one point in time seen as less desired parts for the poor. People in Hawaii made the best of what they had and would use it anyway for their soups and that would also include the hunters. The Hunters in Hawaii would be known to use the bones of their catch and make a soup that reflected those sorts of ingredients, such as: pork bones, wild pork bones, elk bones, goat bones, sheep bones, chicken bones, beef bones, and/or turkey bones. Over the years many of these ingredients that were once really affordable and easy to find have fluctuated in costs and are sometimes difficult to source. Because of this it would be much easier to use Japanese dashi from dashi-packets that can be found when purchasing saimin in the super market, but for a saimin chef they may look into furthering their skills by making dashi from scratch with the standard: dried opae, dried kombu, dried shaved bonito, pork bones, hondashi, scallions, and paakai salt. Then tasting the prepackaged soup mix in competition against the from scratch soup that was made would tell the tale of power that a scratch made soup has in making the difference in a bowl of saimin. Hawaii Saimin Association Series | Part 8
There can be no way to emphasize the power of salt as it essential to Dashi Wai (aka. Waidashi) that can not be taken out of the soup. The amount of salt is always told to be used as something to enhance the flavor with little bits at a time, but the amount of salt in Hawaii bowls of soup can sometimes make a need for it with the more course pa’akai salt. There are different combinations of pa’akai salts that can be used from vegetable salts, seafood salts, and seasoned salts, although it is most common to use simply alaea salt. Salt is the after taste of the soup that fills the mouth with an elongated taste of the flavors. It is what causes the ingredients inside to absorb more of the soup flavor rather then stick to it. The noodles also have the effects of the salt and make the soup flavor in the noodles ever so slightly depending on which dry ingredients are used to add to the layers of flavor that were all stretched to their limits as a light soup. It sort of is refreshing to taste all the small parts like the salt that don’t overtake the flavoring. Pa’akai is to solidify the sea and it is unique from the cleaners in water and the algae is cleaned by the cleaners and in the case of some of Hawaii’s best salt from Hanapepe they use shrimps to add a sweet flavor to the saimin. The salt ponds have three layers and the third layer is for fishermen and blessings, the second layer is what is used in saimin, and the first layer is the brightest salt used for table salt. The quality of salt changes depending on where it is sourced and the quality of the salt ponds and if there was any fish placed in the salt process of those ponds. Pond salted fish salts that were used in the past were: Manini Surgeon Fish, Kumu Goatfish, Aholehole, and Puhi White Eels. In Hawaii, there are all sorts of fish that are eaten and their heads, bones, skin, and tails make for no waste as these seafood carcasses can be salted and used in soups that are not limited to just saimin. A few of these notable seafood selections would be used as fillets made for lomi and then the left overs used for: Mullet Varieties, Snapper Varieties, Uhu Varieties, Crab Varieties, Clam Varieties, Shrimp Varieties, Tuna Varieties, Salmon Varieties. Much of these were found from trial and error of what tasted good in soups and which ones didn’t, because fishermen would do their best to not waste what they had caught. Saimin was one of many dishes that would be made with seafood left overs that used flavored salts as well as dried ingredients preserved by sun-drying. Hawaii Saimin Association Series | Part 7
Walking down the street there would be the view of the sky and on the side there might be a fire station or a comic book store and a fountain shop nearby that would be on route towards the saimin shop. Originally walking from the Plantation camps it would be quite a walk and there would also be entertainment like the local theater in the area, a park, and a general store all on the same side of the street with everything costing around a quarter. Eventually making it to the saimin shop doors and passing the register and over to a seat with a menu and being greeted from the people behind the counter awaiting for your order. For those that were tall enough they could see from counter seating the kitchen where the cook would grab a bowl and a saucer with a saimin spoon with napkins and place it in front of the customer. There would be containers that would be filled in the back with alaea salt (salt seasoning) and hondashi, dried ingredients that were usually opae shrimp and scallop or a secret mixture, kamaboko (fish cake), scallions (green onions), shaved ula charsiu (pork), wontons (dumplings), tamago (rolled eggs), all prepared ahead of time for service to be clean and quick and straight to the noodle slurpin. The set up would make the soup taste exactly to order if there were familiar customers that wanted their saimin soup served in a particular way. On the fire-burner was Hawaii wok to warm up the ingredients that needed to be served warm and it would be on the side of the large stainless steel pot simmering with dashi ingredients. It wouldn’t be strange to find fish bones wrapped in a upena bundle (net) similar to a seafood version of a bouquet garni, a fish head, and vegetables, with Hawaiian-Japanese nicknaming it Waidashi (water soup seasoning). On the other side would be a grill with a noodle cooker which is set to a low-boil with rising steam coming from the noodle strainers with the containers full of noodles visibly nearby for easy access. Another hard working day another bowl of saimin leaves the cooks hands over to another hungry customer. When thinking about sharing recipes it is often considered to either keep with the aloha spirit and share the recipe or to keep a recipe to the grave that is incredibly common in the west. There was always that story of the man with the ancienbt chinese secret or the american sauce secret or the family secret, but hoarding was not Hawaiian in values and that same attitude was imbued in local culture that is based on that sharing, so quietly, many chefs were reluctant, but showed their techniques and ingredient lists along with the processes. While many people said they had kept their recipe in the family or in the store there would be recipe cards here and there that were passed along when people asked for them as a show of aloha. A particular Saimin chef had some knowledge to pass on in a bit of a talk story by explaining that many people are taught from the Saimin head-chef and the chef and cooks may not beable to change the recipe to their own preferences or vision of flavor. It was explained that showing aloha by giving the most popular recipes are okay, because a customer wants to taste a clean, refined, and personal flavor of the place they are eating and that often times has to do with every aspect of making one bowl of saimin different from the other in food appearance and what its served in. Those who can’t veer from the original recipe can’t improve upon it, can’t change it, and can’t make variations of it that feel like they have the same goals as the original saimin chef unless they understood that particular persons saimin philosophy. Hawaii Saimin Association Series | Part 6
Saimin doesn’t look like a particularly scary or intimidating presence with its ingredients covering the broth with a wide mix that is all over the place messy and organized to those who know about how to eat it. It looks like something that might be a snack at first as it depends on the size, because as it gets bigger and bigger the dish can feed just about any appetite. The quiet dish that has remained in the hearts of many would have to go from simple to the complex to make people talk about saimin and eat more of it, and it would be either good saimin or bad saimin, a make or break deal for the dish. Several institutions mark as the almost religious locations of the saimin world and those places would be like: Hamuras in Kauai, Sam Satos in Maui, Noris on Big Island, and Shiros on Oahu. With such limited amounts of Saimin shops the opinions of each place that still exists tends to sit on the side, meanwhile it has become the interest of many to spread the saimin word of mouth to the masses about how comforting it is. In 2018, Hidehito Uki (Sun Noodle) and Ed Sugimoto started spreading the celebration of noodles with “Noodle Fest” and has lot’s of Saimin noodles to keep the community engaged and interested in the potential and concepts of the future of Saimin. This would bring awareness to basics like: saimin noodle making machines, dumpling folding techniques, attention to saimin bowls, a nice meat slicer, plantation woks, noodle cutting knives, and just the whole process of making saimin from scratch. It would show people what saimin could do and what to make with it as well as show that there is all sorts of Saimin out there needed to be documented into a resource that could share with saimin hunters in Hawaii. It kind of made saimin detectives who would start looking at grandmas old recipes or granpa’s noodles and see if there was a family saimin somewhere out there, which gave people not only a reverence or obsession with saimin, but a family home connection to the food. This would bring a more modern interest of variety and subtlety to the famous saimin of the islands. Eating on Kauai there would be a really understanding of the heart of saimin and running a shop as a way of training the mind as well as the philosophy of being part of the saimin lovers community. On oahu the toppings and richness of the soup would show if there would be clear soup or a more cloudy soup and what happened when flavoring would be added. Maui with its dipped saimin and more. It would really pique peoples interest in local foods, because saimin is so symbolic of the cooperation of cultures of Hawaii during the time it was created. The more experienced saimin eaters would be amused by the enthusiasm and happiness saimin brough to newcomers that seeked out styles and types to be a sort of local food discussion start point to talk about not only the food, but the rich history involved from stands to shops and beyond. People would make it a point to distinguish between saimin and ramen and have a understanding of a saimin cuisine. Saimin would be seen as a important food that many foreigners would have a hard time making, even though it was simple and ono (delicious), but those who were truly dedicated and small kine obsessed would beable to use some methods to a particular style of cooking and still make it local. What is important is to make the noodles, soups, toppings, and it can be charming in its own way and that is when the history of saimin started to change, because people would pull out recipes that they may have previously been ashamed of, but they really were just as local as saimin recipes in restaurants. They would just be inside the creeky drawer that held all the cook books near the pantry and having those changes of what would be the standard of saimin would change from there, and as long as certain elements were followed it certainly would be Local. After trying many bowls of Saimin what would normally be a strictness of simplicity and comfort wouldn’t have boundaries of being one way or another, because there are new things to try and help hone the dish further. The dish would be improving and evolving and something that still reminded people of when they were younger and try to bring back those memories in flavors that they were fed in their family or made for their own family. Saimin is not a trend and has been established for a long time and that makes it quite traditional to the local community and its hard to introduce a new style, but being embraced by the community is the most important step. Not everyone gets to try all sorts of saimin, so as cooks go on to make their own saimin it will come to a point where each person is challenging flavor and expectations as a balance to make it so everyone can enjoy saimin. Hawaii Saimin Association Series | Part 5
In Hawaii, there are local TV shows that feature food and food channels that feature food and with awareness of what makes Hawaii unique grows the shops that still are around get some of that lime light. There are many people who are looking for the really old establishments and the cooks or the customers and try to get the names preserved as well as the stories and get some cloudy idea of the flavors. As Saimin started to go out on posts and magazines there would be more people looking for the dish of Saimin from specialty eateries as well as from fast-food places that served a variety of foods alongside it. Famous saimin makers are sought out from the foodie groups that treat food as a serious thing to them and a adventure to drive to the best places to get their noodle on wherever the best saimin restaurants are. Those already familiar with ramen will be looking for the sort of dumplings used, the consistency of the saimin noodles, the Charsiu (aka. Charshu), the spam, the egg, the vegetables, and the side. It is a Hawaii plantation dish in the late-nineteenth century that draws influence of of Chinese, Japanese, Okinawa, Portuguese, Korean, Hawaiian, Filipino, and others that would be working the fields. The famous story goes that when the plantation workers came together to eat their “kau kau” lunch, each of them had their meals from their homes and would throw it into a pot and saimin was born. It was a working persons food and was made to be originally affordable, simple, thrown together, quick, easy, and comforting. After families left the plantation there would be saimin restaurants and passed on recipes from home to their children and their grandchildren from the old school plantation workers. Overtime each area had its own and every neighborhood had its own and that would make its way to a diner or a fountain that saimin was the specialty. People would go to these locations and grab a huge pot to the eatery and fill it up with soup and have lots of noodles to feed the family that would be taken home for the family to eat. Saimin was part of the neighborhood and was part of the food of the multi ethnic community that was brought to life from the vision of bringing people together to show each other their respect and Aloha that was practiced from the Hawaiian Kingdom. Saimin as a local staple would show these values found in local culture of sharing what they had and the people who shared back then did not have much, but they made do with what they had. As people may mention the good old days with nostalgia of living during a time period of various Saimin stands it is important we also figure out what many of those variations were and where they came from. No one should forget about the light tasting warm soup that is perfect during the day or the night with a air conditioner and many sides. In such a short time there were places where people stood in line, talking story about the places they regard as the top saimin spots and at the end of the meal be all had it or feeling of fullness from tackling the challenge to overcome a bowl of saimin. Satisfying and full are things that keep people from complaining and hardship when scooting from their seat to pay the bill. The growth of Saimin is a trail of houses with kama'aiana secret recipes, stories of closed establishments, and those who would meet a wall that stopped people from eating Saimin and that would be the major competition of Ramen that would be all the rage. Many eateries had closed down as Saimin went out of fashion and was deemed less interesting and less flavorful to Ramen and would be called not special by any means, other than something that brought the older days back to life. Luckily a couple decades past and Saimin had survived the noodle wars and was featured by Hawaiian Airlines segment “Saimin Says” with Roy Yamaguchi and Mark Noguchi, The Eater spotlight on Hawaii with Lucas Peterson, and Diners Drive in and Dives with Guy Fieri, and Tabi Eats (Shinichi’s World) with Shinichi Mine and Satoshi... It really took the whole community of chefs, people, and being featured to make saimin bounce back as a must go to dish to eat. Hawaii Saimin Association Series | Part 4
In Mainland America, there would be the trend of ramen taking on many forms as it would have variations that were from the regional cuisines of the area, but saimin wasn’t anywhere really to be seen. Those that did have it on the menu would likely to be not passable at all or even mislabeled as ramen, which is really unacceptable, but it was what it was and couldn’t be helped that Hawaii dishes would be hard to come by. If you were really lucky a friend or Hawaii transplant to the mainland would have their mothers or aunties uncles cousins recipe and would make it for you for a meal and it would be satisfactory for that moment, but those looking for something to satiate their saimin desires it simply wouldn’t do and they would ask themselves “what have I done” as the saimin they loved would be so far away back home in Hawaii. Taking a family trip back to the islands would be eye opening and really become something more than it was when leaving the Hawaii, because the want to have some really satisfactory saimin in that big bowl and that comforting atmosphere would have changed. It all changed from going somewhere else for a very long time and not seeing the simple things like Saimin as a staple that could be commonly found anywhere to a deserted wasteland where there was practically no saimin at all, but in daydreams about home. It still has its charm of being this large amount of starch and light flavored soup that accompanies so many things, but when eating it after so long away from the headquarters of saimin, Hawaii, it starts to become a symbol of Hawaii. The pioneering bowls of combinations from cooks like Shiro’s Saimin Haven, Dillingham, Like Like, Sekiya, and Shige’s would have their simple crafted bowls of next generation Saimin with quality ingredients and noodles that were so tasty. People started looking at Saimin as a lost craft and searched for recipes of their families where it would be a soup that added saimin noodles or had noodles and soup and discover the ingredients were a saimin dish. A particular place that paved the true path of what a saimin shop would be is Hamura saimin stand where it was featured on television and by influencers as well as from coconut wireless (word of mouth) to ohana’s all over Hawaii to go to the shop for a must have bowl of saimin. It really had the heart of the saimin bowl covered to complete the local vibe that money can’t buy. When heading back to the Mainland one can’t help but think of all the saimin that isn’t presented in data basis and the old time recipes of the areas on each island. Soup recipes can be as simple as buying frozen saimin noodles and boiling them, throwing them in a bowl, and adding the dried shrimp-dashi seasoning that makes the usual lighter-soup with a mostly clear look and a bit of cloudiness when stirred. Then there would be the chefs who would up the preparation time for a dashi rich broth to make use of the dried-ingredients with closely following the drying of shellfish, artisanal salt blend, and make all the noodles from scratch in the day that would make flavors that were older, but there would be varieties that would make it taste a tad stronger with braising liquid (seasoning-base, vegetable-base, meat-base, seafood-base). The braising liquid, broth, and dashi would be a recent creation where the chef has three layers of saimin based on the depth of flavor the ramen is envisioned to have upon serving it. The result would be a more complex varieties with deeper flavors of saimin that could really stand alone by giving a bit of a wow factor to the local soup and noodles. There was no longer just the light-soup but also a saltier-soup that is not as simple. This would bring culinary notoriety back to the local dish that would start being shown to the rest of the noodle and soup world to show that saimin could adapt to the times and make a come back. Going back to Hawaii for those who had to move or chose to move away from home would never be the same and their interest in saimin would keep on growing with time. Everyone who grew up with saimin, it would never leave their hearts. |
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