Signature Menu Items

Mama’s Southeast Asian Chicken Salad

Posted on March 6, 2012 in: Signature Items
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Mama’s Southeast Asian Chicken Salad
What’s the best way to make the national dish of Laos? Get someone from Laos to make it!
A beautiful thing about Hawaii Regional Cuisine is it’s ability to capture the essence and origin of what proceeded it – specifically: the food of the many diverse cultures that people bring to Hawaii. One example of that is Mama’s Southeast Asian Chicken Salad at Tiki’s – Spicy Laotian style Larb, lemongrass, cilantro & Island chili peppers. Served in a crispy rice basket with Fresh Kula butter lettuce, Nalo Farms opal basil & mint. Larb is the national dish of Laos and typically flavored with lime juice and fresh herbs.

“Mama” refers to our own Vath Inthapanhhnha who is originally Vientiane, Laos, and first came to work at Tiki’s over six years ago! We love her maternal style in the kitchen, and especially the way she makes her salads!

From Wikipedia:
Larb (Lao: ລາບ; Thai: ลาบ, RTGS: lap [lâːp], also spelled laap, larp, laab) is a type of Laotian and Isan (Northeast Thailand) meat salad that is regarded as the national dish of Laos. Larb is a creation of the Lao people, with 20 million living in the Isan region of Thailand, and 4.5 million in Laos. Larb originated in Laos and is one of the most famous dishes from Laos. Since larb is eaten all over Laos, including the southern half of Laos, which formerly included present-day Isan region of Thailand, published books regarding Southeast Asian cuisines generally refer to larb as simply a Lao-style (Laotian-style) salad.

Larb is most often made with chicken, beef, duck, turkey, pork or even fish, flavored with fish sauce, lime juice and fresh herbs. The meat can be either raw or cooked; it is minced and mixed with chilli, mint and, optionally, assorted vegetables. Roughly ground toasted rice (khao khua) is also a very important component of the dish. The dish is served at room temperature and usually with a serving of sticky rice and raw vegetables. Fresh Thai holy basil (bai kraphao) is also one of the standard accompaniments for larb in Thailand.
There are several kinds of larb from Northern Thailand which do not use lime or fish sauce, but rather other local condiments for flavor and seasoning. “Larb pla” (Thai: ลาบปลา) is a kind of larb which is made of minced fish mixed with spices. There is also a kind of larb called lu (Thai: หลู้), which is made of minced raw beef or pork mixed with blood, bile and spices. Lu is usually eaten with vegetables and often served with beer or the local moonshine called lao khao.

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Grilled Hawaiian Opah

Posted on January 6, 2012 in: Dinner Menu, Signature Items, Uncategorized
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Soft Shell Crab Po’ Boy

Posted on December 1, 2011 in: Signature Items, Uncategorized
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Our Hawaii fusion puts some spice into this Louisiana style sandwich!

Tiki’s Chef Ronnie Nasuti loves Hawaii Regional Cuisine, mixing the influences of our island with standards we already love.  His latest creation is a Soft Shell Crab Po Boy sandwich with Furikake crusted and crisped soft-shell crab, spicy chili mayonnaise, Kula lettuce, Hau’ula tomato all on an Island made taro bun with house made kim chee on the side.  As we say here in Hawaii, this sandwich is “broke da mouth!”

Check out this video where Chef Ronnie puts one together for the KGMB morning show.

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Kahalu’u “Smoke Meat”

Posted on September 28, 2011 in: Signature Items, Uncategorized
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How about some “Smoked Meat?”

Our featured item is pure local and pure onolicious!  How does Avocado wood smoked Hawaiian grown pork with caramelized island sweet onions sound to you?  What if we glaze it with guava jelly and toss it with Kauai’s Oyama Farms homegrown Poha Berries?  It’s new on our pupu (appetizer) menu and has already become a favorite.  Watch Chef Ronnie make it here on KHON2 as we help profile “Yelp Eats Local” and Kanu Hawaii last month.

 

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Kalbi Beef Gyoza Potstickers

Posted on September 28, 2011 in: Dinner Menu, Lunch Menu, Signature Items
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Crunchy dumplings stuffed with a filling of marinated, charred & minced beef tenderloin tips, grilled onions and choi sum. Drizzled with miso chili aioli & kabayaki sauce.

If you ask someone who works at Tiki’s what their favorite pupu (appetizer) is, there’s a good chance that they’ll tell you they love the “Kalbi Beef Gyoza.”  Added to our menus earlier this year by Chef Ronnie, these little bites have a big story here at Tiki’s and historically as well.

At Tiki’s, Chef Ronnie took something that originated in China, was arguably improved upon in Japan, added a filling commonly known to Korean barbeque, and embellished it with sauces unlikely to be paired with the dishes in their host cultures.

According to Chinese legend and as told in the cookbook, “Dim Sum” by Rhoda Yee, the aged chef to the royal household left a pot of dumplings on the stove too long and discovered the bottoms had burned. The horrified chef thought this would mean his head, but his smart son decided to present the dumplings to the emperor himself. When the emperor asked why the dumplings were burned, the son quickly explained it was a new recipe for something called potstickers. The emperor liked the crunchiness of the browned bottoms and a new dish was born.

According to Amy Tan, best-selling author of “The Joy Luck Club” and as told to the San Francisco Chronicle, potstickers are so appealing because they are so accessible to so many. “You can have the most glorious potstickers and be poor. They transcend class and money,” she explains. “Anyone can enjoy them and everyone throughout China makes them. You can go to the most humble dwellings with outdoor kitchens and the wok resting on a pile of rocks and they make them.”

Where the Chinese get credit for the invention of this little dumpling, it is the Japanese who call it “gyoza,” which is essentially the same as the Chinese Jiaozi.  The gyoza was not introduced to Japan until the 1940′s most likely adapted after the Japanese invasion of China in the late 1930′s. Since then the Gyoza has become so popularized that there are Gyoza restaurants and even a Gyoza Stadium located in Osaka, Japan. The Gyoza Stadium has a museum complete with history and explanations of the many varieties of this adopted dish.

Chef Ronnie makes the gyoza at Tiki’s unique first by adding Kalbi beef as a filling.  This marinated short rib is popular throughout the southern peninsula of Korea and is common in Korean barbeque restaurants across the US.  He then adds his own special sauces to perfect the dish.

 

Jiǎozi 餃子 or 饺子 (Chinese transliteration), gyōza (Japanese transliteration), Mo:Mo: or Momocha म:म: or ममचा (Nepali transliteration), or pot sticker is a Chinese dumpling widely spread to Japan, Eastern and Western Asia.

 

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