Friday Photo Shoot Out- Native Dishes and Restaurants

Aloha from Kapolei, Hawaii! I thought I would start my Friday Shoot Out post with my favorite restaurant in my town! This is Hapa Grill. Hapa means "mixed". So this is a place you can get lots of different things. They are even open for breakfast! This is where we go when we want Teriyaki Beef aka- "teri-beef plate". The food is amazing and the service is outstanding!

I decided to make my own food instead of taking pictures of native foods around my town. So not only will you have photos of some native Hawaiian foods, you'll have a recipe as well. ;)

I decided to make a traditional St. Patricks Day dish- Kalua Pork! All you need is Cabbage, Hawaiian sea salt, pork roast, Liquid Smoke, and Ti Leaves.

Cut cabbage and boil al dente'.

Add some sea salt to taste.

Rub sea salt (2 tbsp) over pork roast. Slice a few lines down the middle so that the meat absorbs the salt and liquid smoke.

Put over Ti leaves in roaster or you can wrap in aluminum foil.

Add liquid smoke (2Tbsp).

Cover with Ti Leaves.

Tie around the roast with twine and bake for about 1.5 hours at 350 degrees.

I also decided to make something I've never made before.. it's called Poke. There are lunch wagons that we have here around town that sell this. They also sell it on the side of the roads. I love to make new things so I gave this a try!

These are the ingredients: Crushed Red Pepper, Sesame oil, Sashimi grade Ahi Tuna, White onion and green onion.

First you dice the Ahi Tuna.

Then dice the onions. This is 2 cups of tuna, 3/4 cups white onion, and 1/2 cup green onion.

Diced Ahi Tuna.

Mix these ingredients together.

Add 2 tbsp soy sauce to the mixture.

Looking really good... yeah? In Hawaii, everyone ends a sentence with, "yeah"?

Add Crushed Red Pepper - However much you like. Add more if would like it to be more spicy!

Mix all together and chill for 2 hours. This is Poke! Pronounced -POH-kay.

I also made some rice for the Kalua pork.

This is the Kalua Pork dish. A bed of rice, the cabbage, and the pork on top. You can add soy sauce if you like also. This is one of my favorite dishes to make in Hawaii!

I didn't get to stay at home after I made this dish, So I prepared a plate this morning to take pictures of. The Poke is served in Hawaii as an appetizer and the Kalua Pig (pork) is served as a main dish. This is obviously not the way the pork is cooked at Luaus. But this is the closest way of making your own at home!

Mahalo for stopping by!