CRAIG Miyamoto has the right idea. The executive vice-president of Professional Communications, a local public relations firm, loves food as much as any of us, but he has a particular passion for tiramisu. A taste of tiramisu
and fresh voicesThe Italian dessert inspired him to launch the computer web site, "Tiramisu: Heaven in Your Mouth."
Those plugged in to the Internet can reach the site at http://www.geocities.com/napavalley/2490. Miyamoto went online Jan. 19, and just nine days later, I was the 10,001st person to access the site after it got a thumbs-up review, as one of Yahoo's picks of the week. The Internet directory company said of the site, "See, you can have your cake and eat it, too. Only might we suggest a little Tiramisu instead?"
Miyamoto, who creates web pages professionally for clients, said this one was just for fun, adding that he never realized the page would be such a hit. "It's amazing how many people like tiramisu. They tell me all kinds of stories about tiramisu, about how they met their wives through tiramisu, and I'm getting ratings from all over the nation," he said.
It's gotten to a point where Miyamoto is losing sleep, staying up past 2 in the morning to answer his 50 e-mail messages a day. "I have a responsibility now," he said. Otherwise, "it's like inviting people over to your house, and you're not there."
A tough cookie, though, this Miyamoto. His ratings of Honolulu versions of the dessert range from 4 to 8 on a 10-point scale. None has achieved the elusive "10," the highest standard represented by the first tiramisu he tasted, at Carlucci's in Chicago in 1984. Of that experience, he recalls, "A tear crept slowly down my cheek. My focus blurred ... I couldn't feel my feet ..."
AFTER checking out Miyamoto's site, I was hungry for more web grinds, and chanced upon "Mo'o and Lolo's Fine Restaurant Guide" at http://hisurf.com/Restaurant.html. Now, their restaurant trials and tribulations read like a Bu La'ia adventure. Here's one example, from a trip to Byron II, at Ala Moana Center:
"... We were turned away at the door, they said shirts and footwear were required to eat at Byron II. Mo'o got all upset and was ready to start a fight with the door man, but just so happen that Aunty Leilani came walking by and Mo'o calmed down. I told her the problem and she took us shopping to by [sic] our shirts and slippers."
After that, they wrote, it was an excellent experience.
Another site I visited was "Driving and Discovering Hawaii," a slick e-zine by Richard Sullivan and Dr. Alex, at http://www.discoveringhawaii.com/.
These two have gotten some flak over some of their snippier reviews, but in their defense Sullivan e-mails, "Even though we're poor, we don't accept any restaurant freebies, paying for all our meals ourselves ... that's why at times we are brutally frank ... we paid for it out of our own pockets, and we're mad that the food was so crummy!"
I know the feeling. And I love that the Internet exists, to give more people more opportunity to speak out against culinary wrongs. Believe it or not, there are souls out there who act as if the First Amendment, guaranteeing freedom of speech and expression, doesn't exist; who think that anyone who writes about restaurants should report only good things and ignore the bad.
If that day ever comes, we will have one very mediocre society. Once upon a time, the local media did just that and Hawaii was the butt of national travel writers' jokes. Dining in Hawaii, they wrote just 10 years ago, is like taking a trip back to the '50s.
These days, no one is laughing at Hawaii anymore.But in a place where the Golden Rule is, "No talk stink," diners report bad experiences to me, instead of taking complaints to restaurant owners.
I don't imagine anyone deliberately sets out to pan a restaurant. I don't take pleasure in writing negative reviews. But neither do I enjoy bad food. I don't imagine anyone does.
To recommend a restaurant, write: The Weekly Eater, P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, Hawaii 96802. Or send e-mail to features@starbulletin.com- excellent;
