Product Description
Enjoy over 200 enticing recipes from Hawaii's chefs and discover 70 favorite restaurants across the state with Tasting Paradise III: Restaurants & Recipes of the Hawaiian Islands.

The recipes range from simple to gourmet including tasty appetizers and soups, delectable entrees, mouthwatering desserts and more. (Thai Chicken Coconut Soup, Bouillabaisse, Macadamia Nut Crusted Ahi, Tequila Shrimp with Firecracker Rice, Thai Roasted Rack of Lamb with Sweet Potato Saute, Upside-Down Apple Pecan Pie, Kona Kahlua Cheesecake . . .)

As a restaurant guide with a map for each island, informative write-ups and artistic illustrations for each restaurant location, Tasting Paradise III guides you to an inviting selection of places to dine—from outstanding award-winning restaurants to hidden gems. The variety of cuisines includes: Hawaii Regional, Fresh Island Style, American, Comfort Foods, Euro-Asian, Pacific Rim, Japanese, and Italian.

The third edition features all new recipes and information, plus a bonus section with selected recipes from the sold-out first edition, and a comprehensive index.

An innovative resource while traveling in Hawaii or cooking at home, Tasting Paradise III artfully blends cookbook with dining guide. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Paradise!
The recipes seemed easy enough to follow(can't wait to make more of them) and the book is quite beautiful..also, everything sounds delicious and takes me back to the Islands!

Enjoyment
Just got back from Hawaii and had to have an Hawaiian cookbook.
We had eaten at several of the restaurants that provided recipes for the book while there and wanted to extend our island visit with island food at home.Great addtion to my cookbook collection and the eating is pure enjoyment. ... Read more

Product Description
Nearly 300 easy-to-prepare exotic recipes with tips on shortcuts, preparing ahead, substitutions, etc. Recipes include: sea bass with pine nuts, Lomi Lomi salmon, passion fruit soup, watercress soup, stuffed chicken breasts in pineapple sauce, chestnut duck, island shrimp salad, Maui tangy sauce, Polynesian meatloaf, ko ko nut balls, much more. Also, clever ideas for table decorations and interesting garnishes.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Great book!
I was pleasantly surprised with how good this cookbook is.I am having a big luau in a few weeks and this book has been a huge help!Not only are the recipes easy to follow but most of them can be prepared ahead and frozen, with all the details included at the bottom of the recipe.I prepared many of them ahead, and of course had to sample each!The Bali Bali meatballs with sauce, excellent. The stuffed mushrooms Lelani, awesome and my kitchen smelled wonderful!I can't wait to make the Hawaiian Banana Pie and the Tahitian Chicken, not to mention the Baked Clams!! Too many to mention. If your planning a Luau and need some great easy to follow recipes, this is the book for you. I highly recommend it! Oh, and don't forget to try the Beef with Peanut Sauce and the BBQ'd Pork!!!

well written but out of date
This cookbook written by the mainland-american manager of the now-defunct Hawaii Kai restaurant inNew York City represents the epitome of fine Tiki Restaurant Dining in the 1970s.

This style of cooking is perhaps best characterized as take-out Chinese food served with a slice of pineapple in a hollowed-out pineapple-shell used as a container, eaten in a restaurant decorated with carved wooden tikis, bamboo struts and thatched huts.

Half of this book is dedicated to this genre, where the actual recipes are very similar or even identical (soy sauce, sherry, ginger, garlic) but the presentations are elaborately different with an emphasis on outlandish (flambee recipes etc). Since the average reader scarcely have time to cook dinner, the advice on food presentation hardly seems relevant.

In the time since this book was written, the chinese tiki restaurant cuisine has evolved to Modern French or American cuisine with Asian ingredients, and these are the books that you can buy from the likes of Sam Choy et al, and these are the dishes that you will encounter in the fine dining hawaiian restaurants today.

Yet, what has always appealed to me about Hawaiian Cooking, is the more humble homecooking (today known as "plate lunches") that evolved from the simple traditional dishes that the plantation laborers from Asia and their Hawaiian polynesian spouses would make.This included grilled meats with asian marinade, japanese style fried cutlets, some chinese style noodle soups, and sadly only a small number of "real" polynesian dishes like laulau, kahlua pig, lomi salmon, haupia, and poi (perhaps less than a dozen of such traditional unadulterated polynesian recipes have survived).

Half of this book does try to address this wealth of simple but authentic home cooked dishes.But that is clearly not the strength or emphasis of this book, and in fact I'm not aware of ANY hawaiian cookbooks that seem to do these dishes any justice, and your best bet at the moment is to search for recipes on the internet.

I think that in emphasizing the "new" and "high class" restaurant style cooking be it from the 70s or today's contemporary cuisine,the cookbook authors have missed out on the true wealth of home cooked hawaiian cuisine that people in Hawaii eat everyday and perhaps take for granted, but for the rest of us living outside of Hawaii, it would be a priviledge to learn those recipes.

Hawaiian Cook Book Review
This book was really easy to use and didn't have a lot ofterminology or technique's that we're too "foreign" for usregular people.I have made at least a half a dozen different recipies out of this book so far.They have all turned out pretty well and had a lot of flavor.I am not a master chef by any means so I recommend this book to the simple cook! ... Read more

Amazon.com Review
Hawaii has perhaps the most culturally diverse population onearth. The story of how the Polynesians, Chinese, Japanese,Portuguese, Korean, Filipinos, Okinawans, Puerto Ricans, variousSoutheast Asian peoples, and Caucasians (known as haoles) broughttogether their culinary traditions on these islands makes fascinatingreading. Laudan concentrates on local food rather than the world-classglamour of the Hawaiian regional cuisine cooked up by famous islandchefs Amy Ferguson Ota and Roy Yamaguchi. She presents thepolyglot world of the plate lunch, Spam, mochi, seaweed, shavedice, sushi, and all the other dishes that Hawaiians really eatevery day. Primarily a living and lively culinary history, this bookdoes include recipes for the most commonplace Hawaiian dishes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Great to read, better to cook with
THE FOOD OF PARADISE ~ Exploring Hawaii's Culinary Heritage
Rachel Laudan
University of Hawaii Press ~ 1996
296 pages, softcover

I must say that I was delightfully surprised when I received this book in the mail- I had expected just another Hawaiian cookbook, and that would have been great too.Instead, I found not only recipes that were not available, ad nauseum, in every other Hawaiian cookbook, as I do seem to have an over-abundance of these, due to my obsession with Hawaii, but I was happy to get a few history lessons, as well.

As many already know, besides the first Polynesian settlers to Hawaii, from the South Seas, Hawaii was settled by many diverse cultures. Certainly, the Asian influence is very heavy here: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino,and Southeast Asians. There is a big Portuguese and Azores influence too. Europeans came to conquer and subjugate, but most of their food culture was not so compatible with the climate.New World foods did do very well, and many of the common foods we associate with Hawaii actually were imported from the Americas, such as pineapple.

It seems that most Hawaiian residents are a mixed up combination of heritages and cultures, and they are very proud of that assimilation, and their food choices reflect that.The beloved comfort foods may have originated across the globe, but Hawaiians have reinvented them uniquely in their own way.

A few favorites that are now heritage dishes are Jook, a porridge soup, Musubi (see my SPAM review!), Saimin noodles (available even at McDonalds), Shave Ice, Malasada donuts, and Crack Seed, which even has its own store in Ala Moana mall.

This book has many great features beside the recipes: seafood made easy, a glossary, all about the water, rice savvy, and many black and white photos.I can show you a sample recipe here:

In Hawaii, after Thanksgiving, everyone makes JOOK

Ham & Turkey Jook (a rice soup)
yield: 1 gallon, or 8 big servings

3 cups rice, well washed and rinsed
3 ham hocks of a big ham bone
1 turkey carcass, broken into pieces
1 cup raw, unsalted, skinned peanuts
Garnish: lettuce; salted, preserved cabbage, Chinese parsley or cilantro, and finely sliced green onion

Combine rice, ham hocks, turkey carcass, and peanuts in a large pot, add about a gallon of water, bring to a boil, and cover.Simmer for a couple of hours until the rice has disintegrated and the meat is falling off the bones.Carefully remove the bones and any bits of meat clinging to them from the soup.Chop the meat into small pieces and return to the pot.Add salt to taste.Ladle into large soup bowls and sprinkle some of the garnish on each bowl.Delicious. Many Hawaiians eat this for breakfast.

A wonderful book, this will give you deeper insight into the food culture of Hawaii, but also appreciation for the way the foods transcended the racial problems each new ethnic group ofimmigrants encountered, and brought them all together to Paradise.

Fun times here, makes you hungry!

If it's paradise, it must be the food of the gods
Rachel Laudan has written a hymn to the plate lunch, a rhapsody on the theme of two scoop rice.

The presses are running hot with glossy books about Pacific Rim cuisine. Laudan says she has nothing against it, but she is interested in local food. The recipes that conclude each of the essays in this book include such fare as Okinawan pig's foot soup. You will not find anything with lilikoi-Maui onion-ginger salsa on top. (Lilikoi is the local term for passion fruit.)

For someone who had been in the islands only eight years (as a teacher of history of science at the University of Hawaii), she really knows her local grinds (but grinds, surprisingly, is not used anywhere in this book).

For Laudan, food is not just a way of keeping the body fueled. The way people east, their tendency to avoid strange foods, their willingness to make great efforts to maintain culinary traditions in new settings tell a big story.

In Hawaii, they tell a story of a creation of a successful multiethnic, multicultural society. She doesn't go as far as the historian Gavan Daws, who says, correctly, that Hawaii is the most successful multiethnic society on Earth, but she does note that in the islands, half of marriages are across ethnic or cultural boundaries.

Crossing food boundaries is just as significant, in her view. Local food is a meaningful development, the offspring of "a culinary Babel."

"There are few places in the world," writes Laudan, "where the creation of a cuisine is so transparently visible."

Well, yes, if you look, and this is where "The Food of Paradise" excels. I have at least a couple hundred Hawaiian cookbooks (only a fraction of the published total), but all of them together don't provide as much food for thought as Laudan's one volume.

While admirably thorough, she does stop short of of the extremes of local food -- neither milk guts nor finger Jell-O is mentioned.

One thing she has done is to compare different editions of local cookbooks. The changes in the recipes are revealing.

Take poke. (Pronounced po-kay, from a Hawaiian word, usually taken to be the word for slice, although this is controversial.) It is so common that surely it has been around forever, but Laudan says not. It seems to have been created around 1970, a typical (for Hawaii) melding of themes from several sources -- the main ones Hawaiian and Japanese, with minor notes from America and other parts of Asia. The result is pure local Hawaiian. (Poke is simply cubed raw fish, preferably ahi tuna, with minimal flavoring of onion or scallion or seaweed and possibly salt or shoyu; but since this book was published it has become a contest to devise the most unexpected combinations. There have also long been versions of cooked seafood, notably baby octopus.)

Local food, as an identifiable cuisine, "began to appear in the 1920s and 1930s," writes Laudan. She has done her homework, interviewing food preparers and vendors at what she calls Open Markets.

This is very much a Honolulu book. Despite being the most cosmopolitan place in the islands (if not in the entire Pacific), Honolulu also has preserved many more local food traditions than Maui has.

At the Aloha Farmer's Market, Laudan found fresh pig's blood, fresh chitterlings, dried fish poke and lomi oio. (You could occasionally find any or all of these on Maui, but not at the same time at the same place. If you ever encounter lomi oio, bonefish flesh scraped off with a spoon (an ancestor of poke), you are definitely out of the tourist zone.)

There are a few oddities here that reveal that Laudan is malihini, though a very simpatico one. She says shave ice is sometimes called ice shave on the Neighbor Islands. She talks about the days of "sleeper jets" (they weren't jets). She starts pineapple plantations much too early.

But Laudan does bring a verve, an extensive background as a world traveler and the skills of a professional reseacher to her book, which is easily the solidest work on local food there is.

NOT a recipe book - excellent historical work
Professor Laudan, who is primarilly a philosopher of the history of science, has produced an outstanding book on the origins and background to Polynesian food. It is not supposed to be a recipe book, and Heaven knows what the reviewer who talks about "sherbert" was on about. That was not a review.

It is well-written, engrossing and in beautiful English, a real rarity nowadays. Richly deserved to win the Julia Childs Award for America.

I gather that Professor Laudan's long-awaited magnum opus, the World History of Food, will be ready soon. Should be excellent and ground-breaking.

Well Researched, Good Resource
It seems this book was born out of Laudan's attempt to categorize and make sense out of the foods in Hawaii. I was raised in Hawaii and grew up surrounded by the foods that Laudan presents in her book.Many of the local cookbooks put together and sold by Hawaii's churches, schools, and communities give you recipes from local home kitchens; nothing too fancy and usually no description of the dish, because it is assumed you know what the ingredients are and how they are used.

More than a cookbook, Laudan has written well-researched histories of how various local foods have developed throughout the islands before each main and sub sections (The Plate Lunch, The Matter of Mochi, Sorting Out Sushi to name a few).And, she includes a brief explaination of the dish before each recipe.

I bought this book hoping to shed some light on "crack seed" and how to make it.Unfortunately, it appears that she was able to get only the more well known recipes due to the fact that the main ingredient (oriental flowering apricot) is not widely available.

This book is a good resource, if not for the recipes, then for the history of Hawaii's local food for both non-Hawaii and island cooks. One caveat: a recipe found in a cookbook is no more than a base on which to add/subtract/change ingredients as you see fit. There is no such thing as "The Recipe" for teriyaki sauce - recipes vary from home to home and island to island.

where's maui sherbert?
Maui Sherbert

2 (7oz) cans strawberry soda AND 1 can sweetened condensedmilk AND 1 (7oz) can 7-up

Mix together and freeze for 3 hours. Whisk.Freeze again. ... Read more

Product Description
Look no further for the local recipes you love and crave.Jean Watanabe Hee has handpicked the most delicious, can't-miss dishes from her five Hawaii's Best cookbooks and put them into one handy volume - complete with a few new recipes you won't find anywhere else.

With a bounty of pupu, salads, sides, soups, desserts, and 52 mouth-watering main courses, these recipes have been gathered from family tables, group picnics, and school cookbooks across Hawaii, then tested and perfected in Hee's homestyle Windward Oahu kitchen.Decades of culinary history are distilled in this treasury of island cooking - a history that's rich, delicious, and still putting smiles on even the youngest faces. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Delicious!
If your from the state of Hawaii or have some Hawaii ties, this is a great "local" food cookbook to add to your collection. I find some of the recipes are fun to change up a little, and add some of my own flair.

Shopping?
The book itself is fantastic.The only problem I have with it, are the ingredients.I bought this so I could remember some of the food I had while Maui.Many of the recipes have ingredients that can only be bought there.Or are in Hawaiian and I have no idea what would be a good substitute.In order to cook something I have to do some research to find out how to get many of the things this book is good for.

If you have a store near by that sells some of these Hawaiian foods...then this is an excellent book.If you are stuck in suburbia main land USA..it could be more difficult. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Awesome muddled (crushed fruit) tropical drinks!!
This book has tons of tropical drink recipes using muddled fruit (like a Mojito is made).The book is divided into sections -- each section focuses on a fruit or other ingredient from Hawaii.At the beginning of each section, the author has a page or two explaining a little bit about the fruit, including interesting facts and funny stories about the fruit (did you know that macadamia nuts are toxic to dogs?) and tips, like how to cut up a mango.

The cocktail recipes are awesome!My favorites are the Rocket Collins (made with local oranges), the Grapes of Wrath (pineapple and green grapes), the Princess Pupule (papaya, strawberry, and watermelon pucker) and a yummy Lycheetini.Some of the ingredients are unusual but fun to play with, too, like Kona coffee, sugarcane, poi, and dragon fruit.There's also a tasty Pacific Rim Bloody Mary Mix, using wasabi, shoyu (soy sauce), and Hawaiian chili pepper water.Yummy!And fun for parties!

This is really the muddled (crushed) fruit cocktail bible!I really recommend this book if you want to do something fun with cocktails, instead of the same old-same old.The recipes and look of this book are just head and shoulders above any other drink book I have ever seen.If you like cocktails, you should definitely have this in your cookbook library. ... Read more

Product Description
Picture yourself on a sandy beach, a faint breeze rustling the coconut fronds, the sun sinking in an orange sky.What are you drinking in your fantasy?Mai tai?Zombie?Beachcomber's Gold?All these drinks were created by the legendary mixologist Don Beach, a.k.a. Don the Beachcomber, a South Seas adventurer who dreamt up cocktails for everyone from Clark Gable to Marlene Dietrich to you.Don the Beachcomber's Little Hawaiian Tropical Drink Book contains thirty-nine of Don's best recipes including lû'au libations, Polynesian potions and tropical tonics, as well as invaluable mixing and bartending tips and advice on finding the best rums.So invite some friends over and get ready to enjoy the drinks of paradise, compliments of Don. ... Read more

Product Description
Hawaii's parties have always been a potpourri of style drawing from the different cultures that piled into the Islands since their discovery by the West in the nineteenth century.Kaui Philpotts grew up with these cultures and loves to celebrate them.In this book, she shows you how.This books walks you through all the steps to throwing a successful party with Island style.Each party is accompanied by a special cocktail and food menu as well as recipes and step-by-step guidance.While the menus are contemporary, there is always a nod to local tastes, and an emphasis on produce and products grown or made close to home.Party Hawaii shows how to entertain simply with ease and style.Celebrate in a completely fresh, new way while having fun yourself. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

cute book but laking in detail
This book has several themes for Hawaiian type parties. The ideas are good, the photography lovely. I would have like to see more ideas per theme so that there were choices. It would also have been nice to have a section for people wanting the look of the islands who live on the mainland. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent book that was more than i expected
When I ordered this book I was expecting mostly foods of Hawaii and ethnic foods of other nations Hawaiian-ized.It took me a while to figure out that I had gotten a bit more than I had bargined for.At first I was a bit dissapointed as I was looking forward to the Hawaiian versions of the different ethnic cuisines but as I got into the different chapters I was very pleased with what was included in this book.

The first chapter is a nod to strictly Hawaiian cuisine that has limited seasonings and strictly fresh ingredients.Chapters that follow are :
Chinese
Japanese
Okinawan
Portuguese
Puerto rican
Korean
Filipino
Samonoan
Thai
Vietnamese

Each chapter talks about cooking methods, ingredients and styles of that cuisine as well as how that cuisine came to the islands....and is very interesting.The recipes seem authentic to each area.They could have come out of a collection of ethnic recipes from that area.Some of the recipes I have come across similar versions of before...like the wonton recipe in the Chinese section (altho this one called for fish cake or shrimp and I have usually seen it call for pork only).there is a japanese pickle recipe that is quite good and very easy.There is a very good recipe for chicken or pork adobo in the Philipine section (calling for a few more ingredients than the usual vinegar, and the additions are very welcome).

Some things were new to me.I don't think I have ever come across Samoan Recipes.The Samoan recipes were very interesting but there were alot of uncommon ingredients (breadfruit, taro leaves, octopus (fresh), green papayas, etc.Clearly I would have trouble finding some of these items but I really enjoyed reading these...As well as the Okinaowan recipes (thought by some to be the healthiest in the world.

The book is a paperback book with a wipeable cover that will not lie flat, unfortately.The pages arent cleanable and the paper is a bit thin.The drawings are attractive enough, if a bit mixed in sytles.

While this book wasn't what I was expecting, it turned out to be a very nice surprise.The recipes were true to their ethnic roots.The ones I tried had *clear* tastes and while some ingredients could be hard to find, many were not.The additional information seemd to be well researched and I enjoyed reading the *extra* info as much as the recipes.

Primer On Local Ethnic Foods, Plus Delicious Recipes
Ann Kondo Corum, is a librarian who decided kids had a tough time researching the various ethnic foods of Hawaii. What did the early Hawaiian eat? What cultures influenced what is now known as modern Hawaiiancooking?

Fascinating, and easily devoured tidbits on Chinese, Japanese,Korean, Portugeuse, Samoan, Filipino and other eating habits, taboos andcultural heritage that make up the delicious melange that represent ethnicfoods of Hawaii.

The recipes are simple, and representative of eachgroup's classic dishes. Find your favorites from among kahlua pork, chickenlong rice, haupia, malassadas, Portuguese Bean Soup, adobo, Kal Bi Ribs,Kim Chee, and more.

An amazing little book that is sure to be thebeginning of adventures in cooking foods like those found in the drive-ins,the coffee shops and the places locals like to eat. The author's chatty andlaid back style help to decrease the intimidation factor and demystifyplenty of delicious ingredients and culture so germane to each group'scuisine. ... Read more

Product Description
Good Food, Classic Recipes & the Remarkable Story of Hawai'i's Mixed Plate

Kau kau: It's the all-purpose pidgin word for food, probably derived from the Chinese "chow chow." On Hawai'i's sugar and pineapple plantations, kau kau came to encompass the amazing range of foods brought to the Islands by immigrant laborers from East and West: Japanese, Portuguese, Filipinos, Puerto Ricans, Koreans and others. On the plantations, lunch break was "kau kau time," and the kau kau could be anything from adobo to chow fun to tsukemono.

In Kau Kau: Cuisine and Culture in the Hawaiian Islands, author Arnold Hiura—a writer with roots in the plantation culture—explores the rich history and heritage of food in Hawai'i, with little-known culinary tidbits, interviews with chefs and farmers, and a treasury of rare photos and illustrations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good history, not enough recipes
This book has a lot of great history about the many cultures that emigrated to Hawaii; from the missionaries, to the plantation workers.There were a lot of interesting facts about the various foods that Hawaii enjoys.Like manapua is actually char siu bao, and that kau kau is not Hawaiian but a blending from pidgin. The only drawback was that although there were recipes in the book, I don't think there were enough recipes to capture all of the cultures from Hawaii.It is especially if someone (like me) who doesn't live in the islands and have to make a lot of the things instead of having the luxury of buying from the local groceries.A recipe for char siu for instance wasn't in there.But overall it is a good book to recommend for the history and culture of eating in Hawaii.

Highly recommended, especially as a sumptuous souvenir for anyone with fond memories of visiting Hawaii
Gorgeously illustrated with historical photography (some images in black-and-white, some in color), Kau Kau: Cuisine & Culture in the Hawaiian Islands is a coffee-table book featuring more than seventy traditional Hawaiian recipes as well as an in-depth history of culinary culture in the Hawaiian Islands. From what it was like to live, work and eat in a missionary or a plantation, to how the introduction of cattle transformed the Hawaiian diet and created the Hawaiian cowboy (or paniolo), to pictures of a medley of different menus found at various Hawaiian restaurants and much more, Kau Kau is an enthralling tour that gourmets, culinary historians, and anyone interested in preparing or sampling Hawaiian cuisine are sure to enjoy. Highly recommended, especially as a sumptuous souvenir for anyone with fond memories of visiting Hawaii. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

I miss Don's
It is the best book about Don the Beachcomer and his wonderful style. Great to have recipes of both the food and the drinks. What a treat! Sadly, they missed "Don's Speial Daiquiri" but, luckly, I have it. What great places they were. I visited all of them. You were transported to a different era and a different world. The book also transports one back in time - We were happier then. We who remember, remember well and thank you.

A bit of nostalgia
This is a great book to have for your bar, but also a bit of nostalgia for those of us who went to Hawaii in the 50's when it truly was a paradise.I remember drinking those Vicious Virgins at the Moana in Waikiki. And who could forget Don the Beachcomer! This is a beautifully done collector's book.

More than just a recipe book
I like to know the history behind a cocktail.This is a fun little book with pictures and stories about Don The Beachcomber.It is concise with recipes for a perfectionist.If you like Rum based cocktails then this is the ultimate guide.

A partially fulfilled legacy
Don the Beachcomber deserves, at long last, his own book of food and drink.His longtime friendly-rival and occasional plagiarist Trader Vic (Bergeron) happily pumped out a number of food and drink guides during his lifetime, while Donn Beach notoriously guarded his recipes.

Unfortunately, while nice to look at and of legitimate pedigree (Donn's widow is a co-author), this book could have done with a stronger editing job and concept.The book tries to claim a a legit Hawaiian cultural affiliation even though the Beachcomber was originally a mainland Californian phenomenon later exported to Hawaii.Even the infamous Zombie recipe, the holy grail of all tiki formulas is confusing, as it calls for Pernod twice - is it a misprint?This Zombie is totally different from another recipe in Jeff Berry's excellent "Intoxica" that also came directly from the Beachcomber himself.No one is ever going to know what was REALLY in that sucker.There are also confusing rum substitution suggestions in the book.Sometimes when 3 obscure rums are called for in a drink, only 2 are given as alternates - and they may or may not be in the correct order for substitution as given in the recipe.The "original" Mai-Tai recipe is also bizarre, atypically calling for grapefruit juice and no orgeat syrup.I'm going to have to put the classic recipe for that one in Vic's column.

If this sounds like a lot of kvetching, it really isn't.Still a better book than any number of lousy nouveau cocktail guides that just blasphemously add "-tini" onto a fruit and call that an exotic cocktail.It's affordable, attractive, and is well within the ballpark of the classic tiki world.Just not the masterpiece it could have been.

Between the drinks and the stories, it's a great book
I've always been a fan of the Zombie. It's just a great tropical drink. When I decided that I had had enough of paying $7 for them at restaurants, and that I wanted my own at home, I looked up Trader Vic's recipe. It was okay, but it really was geared more for a sort of "Zombie Punch" -- where ratios were expressed in fifths (entire bottles) rather than ounces.

Later, I happend upon Suzanne Matczuk's Cocktail-o-Matic, which had a much more approachable recipe for Zombies. I began to make those, and was happy.

However, this year I spent two weeks on O'ahu. I became totally hooked on the atmosphere (one could say the entire island made a left turn at 1968, and has just sort of "lived tiki" since), the people, and the drinks and cuisine. So while I was in Hilo Hatties, I picked this book up on a whim.

I was totally impressed. Where I thought I would be getting a book full of touristy BS, I got a book with authentic (one of the authors is Donn's widow, these recipes were taken from his belongings) recipes for both drinks and food.

The drinks are quite palatable. Many of them (such as Beachcomber's Gold and Rum Barrel) are just classic. A couple are "out there" (such as Test Pilot), but you can really taste and feel what the author was going for. I feel I must mention the Zombie recipe from this book. Not only is it authentic -- the man invented the drink -- but we learn that it contained Absinthe! Also, that it was prepared at least a couple times with added glycerine. Wow. This explains the drink's somewhat evil reputation.

If all you got in this book was the drinks, it would be worth the price. However, you gain priceless insight into the culture, and into Donn himself. Of particular interest was the conversation between Donn and Vic about the Mai Tai. Additionally, the story of his shipping gardenias from hawaii (daily!) and his experience in the Army during WWII.

Highly recommended. I'd also recommend the Suzanne Matczuk book, as it is told in the same way (plenty of culture with the drinks), and it is instructional to see the difference in the drinks as she writes them, and the way they were originally... "prescribed." ... Read more

Product Description
Offering more than 175 recipes that reflect the many cultures of the Pacific islands - including Polynesian, Filipino, Thai, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Samoan - this cookbook features low-fat, healthy cooking emphasizing vegetables, fish, seafood, poultry and pasta. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Delectable & Innovative!
We loved this book. We had been in Hawaii last summer and were looking for a source to reproduce the kind of dishes we found at the top restaurants there. This book had many of them, and then some! Superior ingredients. Weused the book for a Pacific Rim dinner for our gourmet club! ... Read more

Product Description
Want to... prepare the popular Huli Huli Chicken... bake delicious Coconut Macadamia Nut Crisps... learn all about cooking Oven Kalua Pig an dall the other traditional lu'au recipes?Now you can!This cookbook will introduce you to all these wonderful native dishes, plus many more.Scattered among the recipes are fascinating facts and photos that capture Hawaii's unique history and culture.

Over 300 favorite recipes from sixty-three of Hawaii's leading cookbooks make up this extraordinary collection.These contributing cookbooks are listed in a special section along with ordering information - a treasure for anyone who collects cookbooks. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Great Book
I am so happy with this book.Brings up lots of memories of wonderful food growing up in Hawaii.I have made several receipes from the book and have many more book marked to make.

cook book review
Good book, good food and simple to prepare.
It is likely what the locals eat, rather than the restuarant food, which is what I wanted.

Wonderful gathering of the best of the best Local Hawaii Recipes
This is a great book. It's not original/new recipes but compilations of the best of the best local Hawaii cookbooks up to the date of population. I own a cramp load of local Hawaiian cookbooks, and this is the one of the two (the other one is 50th Anneiversary Best of Our Favorite Recipes 1946 -1996 by Maui Association for Family and Community Education )I grab for when I want to make a local dish.I have also bought and mailed copies to my friends on the mainland, who have left Hawaii.
Anther local cook book I just picked up you want to try once Amazon starts carrying it, is Jean Hee's Best of the Best Hawaii Recipes by Jean Watanabe Hee. Hee is one of the top local Hawaii recipe book writers. You might want to check out her other books that Amazon dose carry.

A compilation of other cookbooks
I have very mixed feelings about this cookbook.

I gather from the introduction that this is one of a series based on visiting different states and putting together a cookbook to "preserve their food heritage".How the authors plan on summarizing the entire culinary experience of a state with such an interesting history, mix of races, and emphasis on FOOD is answered by what you get: a compilation of other cookbooks.So on the plus side, many of their sources are really good.(The entire Honpa Hongwanji series are great and are in my mother's, grandmother's, aunt's, etc collection.They're sort of dated, but have a lot of classic everyday food.) On the negative side taking a few recipes from other recipe collections gives you very little coherence, understanding of where that recipe came from (time period or heritage), or understanding of the ingredients.Plus, the selection of these recipes are just sort of strange.Spicy Garlic Eggplant and Pork (pg 128) and Spicy Szechuan Eggplant (pg 100) are basically the same recipe with minor changes from 2 different cook books.Several recipes are for poke, but the authors don't seem to realize they're related, or, at least, don't explain what it is. I have to wonder if they actually cooked these recipes at all or just leafed through the other books.

Pictures are chosen to be more atmospheric with tourist photos of the authors, scenic places, and some line drawings (not of the food).The photos of people in "native garb" (at tourist sites) also contrast with the recipes, which are largely modern pot luck sort of food. (In particular, there's a cringe-worthy vintage photo near the front that must be just for nostalgia's sake because no one I know in Hawaii would be caught dead looking like that.)

Besides the food, there are also little tidbits of information peppered through the book that are supposed to give you an idea of island life.My question: Who exactly told the authors that curry is often served at parties?What a strange generalization.They also commit the faux-pas in the preface of calling their friend a second generation Hawaiian.Hawaiians are like American Indians; you can't call yourself one just because you've moved somewhere.

So, there are definitely some good recipes in here.It's just that you stumble upon things that are just plain wierd if you're from Hawaii.

Not something you would use in a big party
The receipe directions are vague.It's a good book, but just not a party book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good if you want to cook a pig in the ground
This book was o.k.; however, it has very few recipes.It provides detailed information on how to cook a pig in the ground for a luau, and has a few recipes (for 25 or more people) that seem fairly simple to make.Ipurchased the book to get some menu ideas for a luau that I am having andthis book did not provide me with that. ... Read more

Product Description
Hawai'i has four types of delicious 'ahi—albacore, yellowfin, bigeye and skipjack—which provide Island chefs with seemingly endless possibilities for preparing this favorite dish.'Ahi can be prepared raw, blackened, seared, grilled.It is eaten plain, in salads, in sushi, in sandwiches and in pasta.The Little Hawaiian 'Ahi Cookbookintroduces more than thirty of the best ways to prepare 'ahi, including Grilled 'Ahi and Pineapple with Coconut Sauce, and Vietnamese Tuna with Dill and Almonds.Raw preparations are well-represented and include Tahitian Seviche, Spicy Poke, and a Japanese 'Ahi Tartare.Tips for shopping for 'ahi are offered, so you can be assured of finding the best fish possible for these delicious Island recipes. ... Read more

Product Description
In this second edition of the bestseeling Hawaii cookbook, enjoy over 190 outstanding recipes from Hawaii’s chefs, and discover 78 of the Islands favorite restaurants. Recipes include simple to gourmet: appetizers, entrees, desserts and more; and a variety of cuisines: Hawaii Regional, Pacific Rim, Euro-Asian, Thai, Japanese, Italian, French and more. Complete with a map and section for each island (Oahu, Maui, Lanai, Hawaii and Kauai), many award-winning restaurants and other nationally and locally acclaimed eateries are presented - from award-winning restaurants and other nationally and locally acclaimed eateries are presented - from elegant to artsy. Each restaurant is featured with an artistic illustration and essential information. This second edition features all new recipes and information! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Perfect
Book in perfect condition, I couldn't be happier.Fast ship, great price. excellent transaction.

Very good recipes, easy to work from
Have used this from a friend. Am so sad that it is not available anymore. It should be republished so many more people can enjoy it!

Incredible
I just returned from the Islands yesterday and couldn't wait to open my cookbook I purchased a few years ago.. I have made many many recipes from this book and I am always amazed at how great the recipes turn out.Iwould love to see another edition come with some recipes from some of thenewer resturants.Aloha and Mahalo ... Read more