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Is "Local Food" on the Way Out?

Arnold Gatilao
arnold gatilao

 

Noe Tanigawa
Credit Noe Tanigawa
Henry Adaniya, owner of Hank's Haute Dogs, in front of Kamehameha Schools' new Salt complex, where he will be relocating.

  

Noe Tanigawa
Credit Noe Tanigawa
Chef Mark Noguchi with adorable Elee at the opening of "Positions", a show of artworks inside Noguchi's Mission Social Hall and Cafe at Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives. Note in the background, Marissa Abadir of Kakaako Agora with little Clementine and curator isabella Ellaheh Hughes with her new baby. If I'd had a wide angle lens I could have gotten 5 more babies in the picture!

  

Chef Hiroshi Fukui in a spotless work space at Hawai'i's Favorite Kitchens, next to Rainbow Drive Inn.

   Poke, chicken long rice, l?‘au stew, pork katsu, ox tail soup---we all know what local food is, and we’re watching it evolve.  Changing demographics, food media, and travel are introducing new formats and flavors even as we continue to flock to our favorites.  HPR’sNoeTanigawa reports.

Meat, gravies, double carbs---that's the recipe for success at Rainbow Drive Inn.  Add a slush float, and it's no wonder they average 1500 plate lunches a day from that 500 square foot kitchen/service area.  The prices at Rainbows' are a big draw, but the flavors are also what hit our emotional buttons.  Respected restaurateur Henry Adaniya of Hank's Hot Dogs says a new crop of local chefs is managing to stretch our ideas about food while keeping that connection to home.

Noe Tanigawa covered art, culture and ideas for two decades at Hawaiʻi Public Radio.
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