The Weekly Eater
The Weekly Eater
Waipahu High students
serve quick, sophisticated fareI was recently invited back to my alma mater for school lunch, with the notion that I could compare today's experience with mine from so many years ago, except that I really have little basis for comparison.
I never ate lunch during the four years I was at Waipahu High School. I don't know why. I wasn't a particularly fussy eater and had eaten my way through the cafeterias at Waipahu Elementary and Intermediate without complaint.
Island View Cafe
Waipahu High School's student-run restaurant is open February through April 11.Unfortunately, it's so popular that only a few seats remain on April 3.
For future reference, reservations must be made a week in advance and a $2 deposit per person is required.
For more information about the program, call the high school at 675-0222.
Even taking a spill in the middle of the intermediate school cafeteria during seventh grade didn't stop me from showing my face there the next day, even after a mighty fine eighth-grade jock hangin' round outside the bandroom recognized me and said, "Eh, you the girl that fell down, right?"
Damn those platforms.
The food was fairly tolerable all those years: meatloaf, Salisbury steak, baked spaghetti, Sloppy Joes, pigs-in-a-blanket. It was stuff our parents would make, and if the entree were intolerable, at least there was the reward at meal's end, the shortbread cookie.
In high school the meals changed. In trying to appeal to finicky teens, the cafeteria ladies tried to offer "cool" foods such as those served up at drive-ins: tacos, burgers, fries and pizza. As if. The cafeteria could not compete with Zippy's or McDonald's or Taco Bell, so I just stopped eating, opting to spend recess playing cards with my friends in Japanese class (theirs; I took Spanish).
Talking to some of the students today, I gather the cafeteria food hasn't increased much in appeal, but at least the students and teachers at Waipahu High have a second-semester option.
That's when Elaine Matsuo's culinary students get to show what they've learned by running a restaurant from February to April. Students, faculty, teachers and the community are welcome to make reservations, but with limited seats, it's a rush, which is sort of what the experience is like.
My lunch companions and I had settled in a half-hour before the lunch period and placed our orders for a leisurely meal. We realized something odd as I placed my order and, hedging at dessert, asked waiter Mary Julie Madarang, a junior, if she'd be coming back to take a separate dessert order. She said that we should order it now because everything would arrive at once.
Huh? I'd forgotten how strange an environment school can be.
At 11:45 the lunch bell rang, and about 40 students stormed the tiny cafe. We found ourselves reshuffling our nine plates to make way for Bernard Baradi and Channon Chebalier, who probably would have preferred sitting with their friends than gabbing with three chatty, nosy older women.
BETTY SHIMABUKURO / BETTY@STAR-BULLETIN Waipahu High School culinary students prepare desserts for guests of the Island View Café for lunch.
As it turned out, we had ordered way too much food, not having realized that because the meals are geared toward the students' schedule, there's no time for the luxury of separate courses. Therefore, salads are sized as entrees. Our shutome (swordfish) salad ($3.50) was a platter full of mixed greens topped by slices of grilled fish and a mild lilikoi vinaigrette.
Spicy pineapple shrimp ($6.75) was a sweet-sour dish geared toward the students' sweet tooths, while pork quesadillas ($4.50) served up by the students would be a welcome addition to any restaurant menu. And the ever-popular pesto made an appearance in a dish of vegetarian pasta primavera ($4.25). Trust me, there was no such thing as pesto at Waipahu when I was growing up.
Most surprising was the macadamia nut-crusted chicken ($5), which on first sight looked like little more than an overcooked piece of chicken but which proved to be incredibly tender and delicious.
We felt sorry for our table mates, who, after ordering and waiting for their food to arrive, had about 20 minutes to devour their entrees and pound down dessert before heading off to afternoon classes, desserts handily packed to go if necessary.
Meanwhile, the three of us were allowed to enjoy John's fruit taco, Sean's chocolate cheesecake and Richard's banana lumpia, each $2.50, in privacy, at a table where a Taplight became a base for a clever seashell lamp.
For the kids behind the pans and notepads, I salute you -- not every restaurateur could manage a 45-minute rush as well.
See some past restaurant reviews in the
Columnists section.
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.
