Sushi & spirits
TEN SPEED PRESS
The Snow 'Ono, above, combines vodka, and unfiltered sake with pineapple juice. Below, the Caterpillar Roll is a lighthearted take on sushi.
Recent cookbooks offer fresh ideas
for a New Year's celebration
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Sushi....
"D.K.'s Sushi Chronicles from Hawaii"
By D.K. Kodama with Bonnie Friedman
(Ten Speed Press, 2003, $35)
Among Hawaii's most successful restaurateurs is an Aiea High School grad, D.K. Kodama, who opened Sansei Seafood Restaurant and Sushi Bar on Maui back in 1996.
The casual place with its colorful, new-wave take on sushi created all kinds of buzz there at the Kapalua Resort. In the few years since, Kodama has opened two more Sansei locations -- in Kihei and on Oahu at Restaurant Row. Last summer he opened the wine bar Vino, also at Kapalua.
Kodama's operating philosophy has always been to serve food with fun. He encourages sharing and passing plates, family style.
His first cookbook is a high-gloss coffee-table affair, but with function, and it reflects his emphasis on family. Included are penny-stretching recipes from his Grandma Tsuwa for the likes of tuna patties and pork and beans.
His cookbook is about his food, Kodama writes, but more. "It's also a book about family, in the broadest and most embracing sense of that word. It is a book filled with recipes and stories."
Kodama shares many Sansei specialties, reflecting his brand of Pacific Rim fusion, Ramen with Foie Gras, for example. But what makes the cookbook distinctive is its in-depth discussion of sushi, from key ingredients, to equipment suggestions, to how to roll up your rice and nori.
Use this mix to begin your own sushi exploration.
Combine all ingredients and mix well. Refrigerate. May be made a day ahead. Makes 3 cups.Spicy Tuna Mix
3 ounces sashimi-grade ahi, chopped
2 tablespoons Masago Aioli (recipe follows)
1 teaspoon smelt roe (masago)
1/8 teaspoon sambal (Indonesian chile paste)
1 teaspoon finely chopped green onion
1/8 teaspoon sesame oil
Pinch cayenne pepper
Combine all ingredients. May be refrigerated up to 1 week. Makes 1 cup.Masago Aioli
1 cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons smelt roe (masago)
1 teaspoon finely chopped garlicNutritional information unavailable.
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...Spirits
"101 Great Tropical Drinks"
By Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi (Island Heritage, 2003)
Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is the Star-Bulletin's travel columnist, but these days a gal's gotta multi-task, so right now she's into booze.
"101 Great Tropical Drinks" is a bright, spritzy little book, cleverly designed and full of artful photographs that make you want to go out and buy fancy glasses and swizzle sticks.
"A tropical drink is as fun, flirtatious and flamboyant as a Las Vegas showgirl," Tsutsumi begins, before delving into the possibilities.
The standard paper-umbrella drinks are here, from the mai tai to the pina colada, recipes mainly drawn from hotel and restaurant bars. More unusual specialties are here as well -- for the daring drinker, for example, the All Kona Coffee Poi Cocktail, a contribution of the Kona Coffee Festival. In fact, there's a whole section on coffee drinks, and virgin drinks, too.
Recipes are quick and to the point, the key with cocktails being to get the right combination of liquors lined up. Instructions may simply say, "Blend all ingredients." So filling out that book are the stories behind some of the classics.
The Blue Hawaii, we learn, was created in 1960 at the Hawaiian Village (not yet a Hilton), by bartender Harry Yee, who was asked by a liquor distributor to come up with a drink using blue caracao. Being a teetotaler, Yee experimented on his customers and came up with a rum-vodka concoction that may have been the world's first blue drink.
Also included: a comprehensive glossary of cocktail terms and a section on where to get a good drink in this state.
For your New Year's cocktail party, try this, from the bar at Roy's Restaurant:
Blend all ingredients except grenadine. Strain into a martini glass. Slowly add grenadine so it collects on the bottom.Snow Ono
1/2 ounce vodka
1/2 ounce Triple Sec
2 ounces pineapple juice
1-1/2 ounces unfiltered sake
1/4 ounce grenadine
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