Hawaii Cooks: A Chinese Kitchen, Traditional Recipes with an Island Twist

Chinese cooking is one of the most popular in the world and in Hawai‘i it’s undoubtedly the favorite cuisine. After two years of gathering recipes from family, friends, and the community, Hawai‘i food writer Lynette Lo Tom has captured the delicious cooking of her mother Lorna Lee Lo, extended family, and friends. There is a wide range of dishes to satisfy not only the novice, but professional chefs as well. Most of the recipes, not surprisingly, are Cantonese, as three-quarters of the Chinese workers who came to Hawai‘i to work on the plantations were from Zhongshan, an area in Guangdong province (formerly called Canton). Lynette, a Hawai‘i born, fifth-generation Chinese, explains some of the unique foods in Hawai‘i such as “cake” noodle. The book’s 112 recipes includes popular dishes such as Boiled Peanuts with Star Anise, Chinatown-style Crispy Skin Roast Pork, and Mongolian Beef. More traditional recipes are also included: Prune Apricot Mui, Winter Melon Soup, and Chicken Soup with Ginger and Whiskey (called Gai Jow). A Chinese Kitchen goes behind the scenes explaining the recipes, providing insights into Chinese food traditions, culture and experience in Hawai‘i. The many stories interspersed throughout the book give colorful insights into Chinese life in Hawai‘i from the 1950s until the present.   About the Author Lynette Claire Lian Fu Lo Tom is the eldest child of Richard Cheong Lo and Lorna Lee Lo. Her grandparents were Tan and Louise Ho Lo and John (Duck) Sau and Florence Wong Lee. Growing up in Makiki and M?noa with her sisters Joanne and Charlene and her brothers Russell and Barry, she ate Chinese food almost every day and always appreciated its variety. She is an enthusiastic home cook. Lynette is a proud graduate of M?noa Elementary, Stevenson Intermediate and Punahou School. She earned a journalism degree from University of Colorado at Boulder and an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley. A former reporter, she created a successful public relations and marketing firm, Bright Light Marketing. Now she is focusing on the culinary world with her company Bright Light Cookery and is especially fascinated by foods cooked “back in the day.”   Recipes: Appetizers Cola Soy Sauce Chicken Wings Jellyfish Salad Tripe “Poke” Stuffed Black Mushrooms Boiled Peanuts Lup Cheong Gau Gee Old-fashioned Pickled Mango Dried Five-Spice Star Fruit Mui Prune Apricot Mui Mandarin Pancakes Green Onion Fried Bread Soups Chicken Feet Soup Silk Squash with Fish Cake Soup Oxtail Soup for a Crowd Lotus Root Soup Chicken Long Rice Hot and Sour Soup Dried Scallop Soup Winter Melon Soup Won Ton Soup Chicken Napa Cabbage Ginger Soup Chinese Hot Pot Soup and Dipping Sauces Chicken Soup with Ginger and Whiskey Watercress and Pork Soup Pork Sweet and Sour Pork Spareribs Sweet and Sour Spareribs with Pineapple and Green Pepper Char Siu / Chinese Barbecued Pork Char Siu Pork Belly Char Siu Spareribs Crispy Skin Roast Pork Black Bean Spareribs Pepper Salt Pork Chops Steamed Pork Hash with Dried Squid Kau Yuk with Taro / Chinese Pot Roast Pork Mu Shu Pork / Shredded Pork and Vegetables Lion’s Head Sweet and Sour Pig’s Feet Fish and Seafood Chinese-style Poached Whole Fish Steamed Fish Fillets ‘O‘io Fish Cake from Scratch Fish Cake Appetizers Fish Cake Egg Rolls Raw Fish Salad Fish Cake Stuffed Peppers Fried Oyster Rolls Fresh Oysters with Ginger and Green Onion Pepper Salt Calamari Black Bean Seafood Abalone Stew Dried Oyster, Abalone, Roast Pork Chopped Stew Honey Walnut Shrimp Curried Lobster with Fried Haupia Poultry Ginger Chicken with Jade Pesto Lup Cheong Chicken Soy Sauce Chicken Minute Chicken Chicken Salad Tea-Smoked Chicken Pressed Almond Duck with Sweet and Sour Sauce Barley Duck Duck with Gingko Nut and Dried Orange Peel Lemon Chicken Tofu & Eggs Steamed Stuffed Tofu Cold Tofu with Dried Shrimp Tossed Foo Jook Salad Ma Po Dou Foo / Spicy Cooked Tofu Easy Tofu and Gluten M?noa Valley Stuffed Fried Bean Curd Shrimp Fried Dried Bean Curd Roll Steamed Eggs Salted Eggs Preserved or 1,000-Year-Old Eggs Pei Dan with Chives and Egg Chinese Tea Eggs Beef Beef Tomato Tripe Stew Beef with Bitter Melon Mongolian Beef Oxtail Stew Beef Broccoli or Chinese Broccoli Stewed Beef Tongue Rice and Noodles Chicken Rice Bacon Spam® Fried Rice No Mai Fan / Chinese Sticky Rice with Sausage and Mushrooms No Mai Gai / Sticky Rice with Chicken Joong / Savory Glutinous Rice “Tamale” Rice Noodle with Tsin Choy Turkey Jook / Turkey Rice Porridge Hawai‘i-style Cake Noodle Chow Mein / Fried Noodles E-Mein with Mushrooms and Yellow Chives Easy Homemade Dumplings in Soup Singapore Rice Noodles Char Siu Chow Funn / Stir-Fried Rice Noodles with Char Siu and Vegetables Vegetables Watercress with Fermented Tofu Sauce Ham Ha Ong Choy / Chinese Water ?Spinach with Preserved Shrimp Sauce Quick-Fried String Beans Hakka Ham Choy / Chinese Salted Vegetables Hakka Style Tsin Choy / Pickled Mustard Cabbage Tsin Choy with Squid Cucumbers and Dried Shrimp Taro with Roast Pork Long Beans with Chinese Sausage Lo Han Jai / New Year’s Monks Food Taiwan-style Pickled Cucumber Sweets Sesame Cookies Paper Thin Sesame Seed Cookies Flaky Almond Cookies Almond Gelatin Dessert Nien Gao / New Year’s Gao Dau Lau / Chinese Sweet Rice Balls in Peanut, Coconut, Sesame Coating Black Sesame Pudding   Author: Lynette Lo Tom