we have popeye's and churches is good too, they only made a comeback to the islands within the past few years. unfortunately there are no chuches'/whitecastles here.

there are a bunch of greek places. indian and even egyptian/mediterreanean/greek.

no chipotle. maybe you could start a franchise, i here only good things about them.

there used to be some brazilian restaurants, dunno if they are still around.

i second the motion, though does dc even have good mex?

russian, eastern european aren't represented at all.

i haven't had a decent cubano here, although when i was in ny, the good ones were hard to find despite a plethora of cuban restaurants.

what are some of your favorite chains?

ok, so i've decided on home bar and grill. the allure of the tater tot nachos can't be ignored. some of the other stuff on the menu drew drool as well.

will bring an update soon.

what kind of sausages did you end up using?

i like han yang in kalihi but some consider the place grungy. it's clean enough for me.

choi's garden is a fave, but a little pricy.

there's always sorabol on keeamoku which is 24/7.

there are so many vietnamese restaurants now, but i like the green papaya, saigon's, mixed plate cafe. the pig and the lady can be found at the kcc farmers' market and has good reviews, but i have yet to try them.

i've had jellyfish in chinatown, not sure of the places.

my bd is coming up and i have to choose between tater tot nachos (home) or spectacular rare burger (wolfgang).

what do you think? i haven't been to either before.

it's just typical diner coffee

ok, so i caved and got the mini tarts from whole foods. i thought they would be dry, but the crust was light, buttery, and flaky. the little pastry cups had a large layer of sweet filling topped with chopped pecans. i assumed the whole tart would be the pecan bits, and thus, dry, but no. moist, but too much filling. too much for most of the posters here, even me, though it beats dry. the filling had a caramel/maple flavor which i did not like as much as the intense brown sugar taste of anna miller's. thanks for the tip, i enjoyed them.

how would you describe the taste?

can you find them in chinatown?

i'm open to trying the actual fruit now.

pacific brand port sausage, available from factory or don quijote (smaller size only). it's the brand used by mcdonalds and used to be sold when i was at mae mae elem for fundraiser.

put in the ingredients so that everything not supposed to be mushy is not mushy and with the flavor boiled away! that's my number one complaint about this soup. also lots of black pepper and hot pepper and not over salted.

well, i live on oahu and there are a great many memorable meals and foods, but one that stands out is a durian milkshake i had in the maunakea marketplace in chinatown with fresh durian. i have not had durian by itself, but the shake tasted like sweet, fruity sauteed onions. i couldn't drink the whole thing; the flavor did not match the texture, but it wasn't as bad as some have made out.

the articles make him sound like adecent guy, but yelpers paint him/the staff as jerks.

at such prices, though, i can't afford to find out.

i do like kua aina as well - they made me a nice almost rare burger once, although i don't think they usually do. i remember enjoying it and that it was messy!

also, you reminded me of an actual rare i had at the kaimuki big city diner as well! again, they usually won't make em like this, but it was delish.

i just scarfed a sourdough jack and am thinking how good it would be twice as large and using some premium rare hamburger. a bag of frozen curly fries would complete the meal.

yelpers say that the new owners are strict, won't make more than 30 burgers per day?! and even $13 is a hellovalotta cash for a hamburger.

sadly, i never ate at the whole ox in its glory days.

nix ono hawaiian and try haile's, also on kapahulu. you want a positive experience with hawaiian food.

you may want to try zippy's on kapahulu for a lunch (or late night eats, they are 24/7). bakery, plate lunches, diner food, local flavors.

(nadine kam is a foodie who has a newspaper column here in the star advertiser.)

i have never heard of beef bacon before.

they actually have a normal shelf life and get changed at the store frequently.

BTW hostess is going to be making their snacks again

in my experience, lean meat may have a nice basic flavor, but lacks the richness of a fattier ground beef. it also is drier and more crumbly, which are negatives for me. but i am not sure as to what exactly 12% tastes like vs more; i don't know the numbers. but if i were to look at the steak i would expect good marbling.

today i had a primeburger from zippys on dillingham by violet's grill, and was just expecting some blah sandwhich, but boy was i surprised! the burger was juicy and flavorful. obviously, it was not top notch beef, and it wasn't raw/rare that i like such good beef to be, but i was very happy for a fast food burger. i have had the same item at other zippy's, but never so tasty.

you're right. now two destinations for latin food, although different varieties.

two places i have to try in waianae now, this and luibuenos.

do they do it double rare?

i was told to try wolfgang's but haven't yet.

ordered another pie. there is a good amount of thick, sweet filling, which i like, but i would love to try the pecan overload ones you describe.

bill, any luck with the recipe?

you did get to keep the bowl? how did they look?

all of those soups sound chowable.

i think the way a lotof mainlanders feel about spam is how I feel about scrapple - kind of a novelty with a following.

i like spam too, but i once made the mistake of making a spamburger... can you say too salty?!

got a sweet chili and a ranch because they were 2 for 1. they were small, i had to eat both because 1 wasn't enough.

surprisingly i liked the cucumber slice (there were 1 or 2) because i don't usually like raw cucumber.

they tasted alright, but def nothing special. i would absolutely not order again.

thanks for the crab tip.

we checked whole foods and the tarts looked a little dry, both the crust and the filling.

i caved and got some anna miller's. for me, it's the gooey goodness of corn syrup and sugar that appeals in their pie. the pecans are ok, but wow, they would be nice roasted with butter.

is she willing to share the recipe? I am not fond of baking, but pecan pie is in my league.