And you thought eating gourmet popcorn couldn’t possibly get more fun.
Put your science thinking cap on and convert 77 Kelvin to Fahrenheit. No really, fun is coming, I promise.
The answer is minus 321.07 degrees Fahrenheit, just so you know, and that is the temperature to which Rylen Sato takes many flavors of his Primo Popcorn in order to create his new frozen popcorn treat, called 77K~orn. It almost melts in your mouth.
But wait, there’s more fun.
As you bite down on the tasty popcorn that has been flash-frozen by food-safe, nontoxic liquid nitrogen, vapor comes out of your mouth and nostrils, making you look a bit like a dragon.
What kid, even one in her 50s, wouldn’t love that?
The 77K in the name is for the 77-degrees-Kelvin temperature of the liquid nitrogen, but the K also serves alongside the squiggly tilde as a fun way to spell the main ingredient.
The literally and metaphorically cool treat will make its public debut at the Spring Home & New Product Show at the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall going on Friday through Sunday.
The freezing process works well with the candied or chocolate-coated flavors of Primo Popcorn, as he demonstrated for TheBuzz on Tuesday at the Sand Island shop.
HOME & NEW PRODUCT SHOW
» Blaisdell Exhibition Hall
» Friday, 5 to 9 p.m.
» Saturday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
» Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
» General admission $4; $3 for seniors, students and military members; free for children 12 and under
PRIMO POPCORN
» 120 Sand Island Access Road
» 729-7322
» Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
» Weekends, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
» Holidays, call first
» Davies Pacific Center
841 Bishop St. No. 156
» 260-8550
» Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
ON THE NET
» primopopcorn.com
» pidginoverdrive.com |
The buttery, cinnamon-y Cinnamon Toast flavor, the mint-chocolate Sham Rock flavor and the Watermelon Dream flavor each held true to its unfrozen flavor, and seemed sort of like crunchy ice cream that did not require a spoon.
Cups of candied 77K~orn will sell for $3, while servings of chocolate-coated flavors will cost $5 this weekend.
Because of the flash-freezing, 77K~orn is pretty much a get-it-and-eat-it-right-there affair, but plenty of room-temperature Primo Popcorn and Pidgin Overdrive products also will be available for purchase. The latter company is a long-established maker of T-shirts and products emblazoned with Hawaii-style pidgin English owned by husband and wife Pat and Leo Sato, Rylen’s parents.
The family’s companies regularly appear at events around the island, but 77K~orn won’t be served at all of them. To find out the wheres and whens, social media users can stay updated via Primo Popcorn’s presence on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The company’s emailed newsletters are likely to contain the information, and, of course, customers can call their retail locations.
Sato previously worked in the restaurant industry, including five years as a manager in Roy’s restaurant in Las Vegas. He misses the camaraderie "but not the sweat," he said. He also misses being around new "things" in the culinary industry, including taste-testing new products.
That nostalgia, coupled with his interest in branching out from his retail shop into more community events, got him thinking about a way to change up the popcorn and present it at different locations beyond just popping and coating it. He did research and talked with his dad. "I showed him videos," Rylen said, and his father encouraged him to try out his idea.
It wasn’t easy to find a liquid nitrogen supplier well versed in molecular gastronomy — a type of high-tech approach to cuisine — but he was successful, and so was his experimentation with the candied and chocolate-coated flavors of Primo.
Coatings on the savory flavors have yet to gel with the liquid nitrogen blast-freezing, but it is something with which Sato is experimenting further.
The best-selling flavor of Primo Popcorn is Raging Crab, which offers a burst of buttery, garlicky flavor with a hint of crab and enough spice to win a 2013 Fiery Food Award. Sato notes that the crab flavoring is artificial, so even people with shellfish allergies can safely eat it.
"You just can’t go anywhere after," as one’s breath becomes a bit pungent, he said with a laugh.
The name Raging Crab is used not just with permission of the Keeaumoku Street restaurant of the same name, but at the suggestion of co-owner Sean Saiki, Sato said. The popcorn also is sold at the restaurant.
Several flavors of Primo Popcorn have won food industry awards, including the 2014 Scovie Award-winning Wicked Cacao. The Scovie Award is named for Scoville heat units, which quantify the heat of chili peppers. Wicked Cacao is sweet, savory and spicy, with a mix of dark chocolate, Hawaiian chili pepper and sea salt. As a frame of reference, Hawaiian chili peppers can range from 30,000 to 200,000 Scoville units, depending upon whose research one believes.
Sato has taken this year off from competition as he develops new flavors.
Shira Cha Cha is a playfully named Sriracha-flavored popcorn, while Dah Reaper is another new flavor. Its name is taken from the Carolina Reaper chili pepper. At 2.2 million Scoville units, it is hotter than the ghost pepper and the Trinidad scorpion pepper, Sato said. Customers who want to buy it are asked to sign a waiver.
For the spice-averse, there are dozens and dozens of nonspicy savory and sweet flavors, available at both locations on a rotating basis.
Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com, or on Twitter as @erikaengle.