The Weekly Eater
By Nadine Kam
Star-Bulletin
This story is excerpted from April 4's column.
If you've somehow managed to shield yourself from the news for the past few weeks, the Mad Cow scare started when 10 Britons were said to have caught a rare and fatal brain disease - bovine spongiform encephalpathy -from eating infected beef.
The official line is that the American beef supply is safe, but whew, what a scare huh? Without beef, the "burger" in Burger King might come to stand for patties shaped from chicken or chickpeas. Tacos and chili would need some reengineering to hold up to new standards, and testosterone-charged bullies would have to think twice before issueing the threat, "Like beef o' wat?"
But should that fateful day come when beef is taboo, I thought I'd offer a few sandwich alternatives to your basic burger.
OF course the best way is to wean yourself off burgers with a small step. I think you'll find the Buffalo Burger ($7.95) now offered at Marina Grill (396-2228) in the Aina Haina Shopping Center the closest thing to lean beef. And according to William Mowry, who has been raising bison for 17 years at Hanalei Garden Farms on Kauai, he's never heard of bison coming down with BSE.
"Bison don't get a lot of diseases associated with cattle. Bison don't get cancer. In fact, some people claim buffalo meat protects you from cancer," he said.
The bison's virtually disease-free reputation comes from years of living in the wild, where Mother Nature culled the sickly and feeble, according to Mowry. And the cancer claim may simply be due to the low fat content of buffalo meat, at 2 percent vs. 28 percent for cattle.
"Most wild animals are extremely low in fat," said Mowry, whose buffalo still roam a vast open plot of land, chowing down on buffalo grass. "People feed domestic animals a lot of grain and it's built into their genes to get fat because people have always paid for that. Never mind that when you pop that meat into the oven it shrinks down to half its size and a pool of fat."
Those who try the buffalo burger will find it drier than a regular burger and not gamey at all. "Some people say it tastes like what the best beef should taste like," Mowry said.
Here are a few more options:
Pork: Kalua Pig Sandwich ($8.95) from Henry Loui's, Restaurant, 2850 Paa St. (833-3728). Plain and simple, it beats the sauce-slathered pork offered at most rib joints. Henry Loui's mound of shredded, smoke-flavored pork overflows the boundary of the onion roll it's served on, and that's easy to see, even if this is one of the darkest bar/restaurants in town.
Fish: Kua 'Aina, at 66-214 Kamehameha Highway in Haleiwa (637-6067), does not live by hamburgers alone. Sure, the burger made them famous, but they also make a juicy Mahi Burger ($5.40) topped with an Ortega chile and well, your choice of cheese. I'm guessing that without beef, there would be no cheese either, but one really doesn't miss the cheese when the sandwich also is topped with two slices of tomato, lettuce and plenty of sweet, grilled onions.
Veggie: You won't miss the meat in Kakaako Kitchen's (1216 Waimanu St., 596-7488) Veggie Burger, ($5.95) made with a mix of brown rice, wheat flour, walnuts, finely chopped greens, mushrooms and herbs. The textured and tasty pattie is served on a homemade herb bun.
For those who prefer more unadulterated greens, Brent's, at 629-A Kailua Road ( 262-8588) offers "Joanne Loves It!" The vegetarian sandwich ($7.50) is a stack of eggplant, spinach, roasted red peppers, cilantro, cucumbers and more, on toasted bread.
This is just a short list. I'd love to hear more "sandwich" alternatives, such as best Peking Duck.
To recommend a restaurant, write: The Weekly Eater, P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, Hawaii 96802. Or send e-mail tofeatures@starbulletin.com