Remembering Diamond Head, Remembering Hawaii: A Cookbook Memoir of Hawai'I and Its Foods - Softcover

Parola, Shirley Tong; Gaynier, Lisa Parola; Parola, Lisa

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0966645707 ISBN 13: 9780966645705

Publisher: Diamond Hawaii Pr, 1999

Synopsis

A multicultural cookbook of Hawai'i and its foods, REMEMBERING DIAMOND HEAD, REMEMBERING HAWAIíI provides more than the Island recipes that form the basis of what has come to be called "East-West Fusion Cuisine." It traces the evolution and melding of the diverse immigrant tables into the varied fare that comprise the foods of Hawaii. What is Hawaiian food? Need luau tips? A royal palace in the United States? Hawaiíi - almost a Japanese protectorate! Cowboys in Hawaiíi? The cookbook memoir contains interesting stories plus over 250 recipes including the menu from the cafe they ran for seven years in Ann Arbor's Kerrytown Market.

About this title

About the Author

Shirley Tong Parola

Shirley is a retired teacher of English, Speech and Drama who has taught in Hawai’i, Michigan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. As the youngest of seven children of a mother who cooked Chinese and a former Hawaiian cowboy father who made great pumpkin pies and beef stew, she didn't have to do much in the kitchen. But this changed with marriage, children and a move to the "mainland." No longer able to depend on family or the profusion of inexpensive culinary establishments of Honolulu, she had to learn fast if she were to enjoy any of the foods she had grown up with. A quick study, she delighted her family and students as she further honed her skills through her involvement with the Flint International Institute, for whom she produced an annual ethnic festival. Her teriyaki "shish kebobs" earned so much money for the Institute that she became the youngest "Honorary Member" in its history.

When challenged by Lisa to go into the restaurant business, she expanded favorite family recipes to feed a crowd. After a summer of recipe testing, menu planning , kitchen organization, and training of cooks, Shirley managed to return to teaching in the fall, confident in the foundation she and Lisa had established for the business. She also visited the restaurant frequently to cast a critical eye --- and taste buds in order to keep the hired chefs to the high standards she had set.

As enjoyable and gratifying as the experience was, Shirley could not resist the opportunity to join her husband, a former professor and Director of Theater at the University of Michigan, Flint, in teaching jobs abroad. Returning from overseas, she retired again in 1996. However, as a volunteer teacher of English, she continues to "purvey culture" (as a dear friend puts it) to foreign wives, often interrupting language lessons to show them how produce a healthy breakfast of oatmeal! She resides in Honolulu, Hawai'i with her husband, Gene.

Lisa Parola Gaynier

Lisa is an organizational effectiveness consultant and leadership coach to major corporations. She is the product of a multicultural household--- Chinese-Hawaiian on her mother’s side and French-Italian on her father’s side. Throughout Lisa’s childhood her family was active in international activities and introduced their communities to their special multicultural cuisine --- whether it was fund-raisers for local charities or, entertaining friends at home or in the restaurants they later owned and operated. By high school, Lisa had also caught the entrepreneurial bug --- baking bread and sweets for the local farmers’ market.

In college, as a social science major, living in Japan, first as a student and later working for United Press International, she became well acquainted with contemporary Japanese cuisine and cooking trends. Little wonder then that Lisa dropped out of graduate school to go into the restaurant business! She opened her first operation in 1981, running it for six years before opening the Diamond Head Cafe in Kerrytown, Ann Arbor, a charming old world style mall. She developed the restaurant concept and recipes for the Diamond Head Cafe, which she ran for another six years before retiring in 1993.

Writing Remembering Diamond Head, Remembering Hawai’i was a five year project that combined writing and recipe testing with a deep exploration of her cultural heritage. Lisa continues to indulge in her love of food. She reads cookbooks and cooking magazines, and of course, continues to experiment with fusion cooking!

From the Back Cover

"I was seven years old when my folks got this crazy idea to open a restaurant. That may not sound so crazy but they were both in graduate school at the time and they had four kids!" Co-author, Lisa Parola Gaynier explains her love of food and her reason, years later, for leaving graduate school to be come a restaurateur. In so doing she continued her family's odyssey into the culinary world. Leaving their beloved Hawai'i for graduate school and careers, the Parola family brought their foods with them, and broadened the palates of scores of mainlanders.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The narrative portion of the book is difficult to describe, but here are titles of stories and discussions found throughout the seven chapters: "What Is It Like to Live in Hawai'i," "Hawaiians Can Talk Good!" "How Hawaii Eats: Ono Kau Kau" "Hawai'i Comes of Age" "Hawaiians' Love Affair with Spam" "Breakfast at Kerrytown" "Mom's Awesome Potato Salad" "Soups" "Broths" "Shrimp Shell Stock" "Golden Nuggets from the Sea" "Saimin" "Hawai'i's Snacks"

"See-Moi and Crack Seed" "It's 'Shave Ice,' not 'Shaved Ice!'" "Spam Musubi" "Munchies to Go" "Rice" "The Secret is in the Knuckle" "Peas or No Peas, That is the Question...." "Rice Stuffing and Other Patriotic Stuff...." "Okazuyas....Japanese Delis" "Greens" "Teriyaki: Hawai'i's Barbecue" "Chinese Fermented Black Beans (Dow See)" "The Art of the Stir Fry" "Chow, not Ciao!" "Ginger" "Squid, Buying and Preparing" " About Tofu" "The Absent Chinese Host" "On Steaming" "How to Win Friends and Impress People in a Chinese Restaurant" "Fish Stories" "Pasta by Any Other Name" "Isn't This Fun?" "Linguistic Minefields" "Jicama" "New Mother's Best Friend" "You're Local....if you eat beef stew with rice." "Celebrations and Festivals: Hawai'i's Parties" "The Merry Monarch's Legacy" "Luau" "A Dissertation on Roast Pork" "Dim Sum: A Little Something to Please the Heart" "Manapua and Peppiau" "Wrappers, Wrapping and Fillings" "Christmas in Hawai'i" "Hawaiian Christmases in the Hoosier State" "New Year's in Hawaii" "Gung Hee Fat Choy!" "Banzai" "Jai or Monk's Food" "Of Wine Tastings, and East Meets West, New American Cuisine, and the Pacific Rim" "Grillin' on Kerrytown's Brick Patio" "Hawaii's Fruits" "Carnation Goop: A Depression Era Treat" "Island Bakeries" "Star Fruit" " AND UNTITLED SIDEBARS ON EVERY PAGE.

FISH STORIES. Humu-humu-nuku-nuku-aku-a-wa, Opakapaka, Hapu'upu'u. But also, aku, ta'ape ulua and ono!

Of course the fish most identified with Hawai'i is mahimahi, and if you can pronounce that, you can pronounce the names of all the other varieties of deep-sea fish found in the Pacific. Just take it syllable by syllable. Almost as famous as the mahi is the marlin, whose Hawaiian name is a'u. (Not all Hawaiian words are unpronounceable!)

While the smaller fish are better suited for steaming, Hawaiians will eat fish, big or small, in any number of ways. I was fortunate to have a deep-sea fisherman for a brother-in-law and his catches always started out as beautiful, thin pearly-white slices of sashimi arranged artfully on a platter to be eaten with ginger, wasabi (Japanese horseradish), and soy sauce. But my sister, Carrie would also dribble hot peanut oil onto the delicate slices, giving them just the slightest degree of doneness, and a totally different, but equally delicious taste. A day later, we would have steamed filets with black bean sauce, followed by another dinner of fried fish...all ono. (Which besides being the name of a fish, also means 'delicious'.)

Until recently, Ed could always be depended upon to bring home something, even occasionally a thousand-pound marlin. And once, he even made it into the pages of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED where his losing struggle to save a huge fish from the sharks earned him the nickname "Old Man of the Sea". These days, Hawaiian waters are not as bounteous as they used to be, but Ed still goes out every Sunday with his son, Glenn.

The popular fresh water mullet favored by Chinese housewives were actually farmed in the brackish waters of inland ponds. But this was before one of the great tidal waves of the '50's. This natural phenomenon tied to volcanic activity or earthquakes doesn't happen often, but it is capable of great destruction, and this time it essentially forced the fish farmers out of business.

One such farm was in an area at the end of a ribbon of road which connects downtown Honolulu and Koko Head, an extinct volcano. As the huge wave thundered in and reduced parking meters elsewhere to bent pieces of strange sculpture, it raise the pond water and fish up onto the paths and swamps that used to surround the quiet rural community of Kuliouou. The masses of people who took advantage of the disaster didn't have to be expert fishermen!

A few years later, the developer, Henry J. Kaiser, shipbuilder, car builder, founder of Permanente Health plan, saw another opportunity, one much more lucrative than mullet. He built Hawai'i Kai, today a sophisticated suburb with upscale restaurants and shops, and sweeps of expensive condominiums and homes on the nearby mountain overlooking the sea.

Edition details

• Publisher: Diamond Hawaii Pr
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0966645707
• ISBN 13: 9780966645705
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 312