The Weekly Eater
Here's one malihini's observation about food in Hawaii: Paradise revisited
in a hidden corner of
modern Hawaii"I was consumed with curiosity about the taste of little piles of green and brown seaweed ... I saw plates of opihi, a favorite sea food, as I was to learn later. There were tiny chili peppers, coarse orange-colored salt; and a rough dark brown paste which I tasted and found salty. It was, I found, from the kukui nut. Moist cotton bags held a thick gray paste. Could this be poi?"
The year was 1940; the writer was Katherine Bazore, who came from Ohio to head up the University of Hawai'i home economics department and later put what she had learned into the book "Hawaiian and Pacific Foods."
For the most part, her observations seem no different from those of any tourist circa 2001, and yet hers was a world away, marking a time before World War II ignited a passion for Spam, before Pan Am introduced planeloads of tourists and before some entrepreneur eyed the backyard luau as a commodity.
Present imperfect falls away the minute one ventures into La Mariana, which did not materialize until the '50s, yet satisfies a longing for an island paradise, innocence intact. Never mind that it reflects a romantic idyll as imagined by Hollywood. Why quibble with that?
Hollywood, after all, is the reason this town will be buzzing this week.
With all the filmmakers, movie stars and military brass in our midst, I figure they've seen a lot, but they probably haven't seen anything like La Mariana.
It's not the kind of place one finds on one's own. Tucked away off Sand Island Access Road, the restaurant is still a masterpiece in the making, continually being tweaked by Annette La Mariana Nahinu, a good-humored dynamo who recognized in 1955 that paradise was disappearing and has fought ever since to preserve a piece of it.
LA MARIANA
Food 1/2
Service Ambience Value Address: 50 Sand Island Access Road. Look for a makeshift that reads "50," make two quick rights and look for the sign on the left
Phone: 848-2800
Hours: Lunch 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily; dinner 5 to 9 p.m. Sundays to Thursdays, to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays
Cost: About $20 for two for lunch; about $30 to $40 for dinner for two without drinks
La Mariana Sailing Club was born that year, but it was never smooth sailing for the club as the leased land underneath it changed hands, forcing Nahinu to move operations. A snack bar was started to help with upkeep and rising berth costs, and it has kept growing and improving. It's still far from a four-star operation, but the food is decent and try as theme restaurants might, they could never capture this sort of ambience, rooted not in a manufacturing plant and what money can buy, but in affection for another era.
I'd like to say this is located waterfront off Keehi Lagoon, but people would get the wrong impression. This is the sort of water surrounded by brush as existed before hotels came in and cleared any elements that might mar a tourist's panoramic vista.
The restaurant's interior is festooned with fisherman's glass floaters holding multicolor lights. In the back is a waterfall, and kitschy totems grin and glare. Corky, a meowing African Gray parrot, also greets guests.
This is still a good place for a business lunch, the surroundings immediately putting people at ease. Trouble is, it's so comfortable, you might linger too long or promise too much. On the menu by day are club sandwiches ($7.75), burgers ($6.75), fish and chips ($7.75), eggs benedict ($4.75 half, $9 full order), your standard coffeeshop fare, whether it's 1955 or 2001.
In the evening, bring on the strawberry margaritas and relax over sashimi (market price) and crisp, veggie-filled lumpia ($4.95) served with a fiery blend of vinegar, garlic and likely some of those Hawaiian chili peppers that caught Bazore's eyes more than 60 years ago.
Stuffed eggplant au gratin ($16.50) had more breadcrumb coating than eggplant, but the jumbo shrimp and generous chunks of fish in it were quite good. I guess I had slipped into a '50s mindset and was expecting something closer to creamy, mushy seafood a la king.
Such cream did materialize, tasting like evaporated milk, in a dish of mahimahi Florentine ($14.95). Accompanying fettuccine was appropriately bouncy, flavored with garlic and butter.
Play it safe with New York steak ($14.25), pepper steak ($16.25) or garlic steak ($16.25) with anchovies, although I had to scrape off the bulk of the fish on the latter dish. A little anchovy is good; this much was hard to take.
As you get up to leave, you linger for a last look around, and say good-bye to Corky and Annette, who's never far from the center of things. It's hard to leave paradise.
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Nadine Kam's restaurant reviews run on Thursdays. Reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Bulletin. Star ratings are based on comparisons of similar restaurants:
To recommend a restaurant, write: The Weekly Eater, P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, Hawaii 96802. Or send e-mail to nkam@starbulletin.com
excellent; very good, exceeds expectations; average; below average.
