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More than 50 vendors applied, but only nine were chosen to be inaugural tenants of Honolulu’s newest food truck park, Street Food Stadium, which opened April 2 near the intersection of Kalakaua Avenue and Fern Street.
The chosen ones had to pass muster with Tomoya Tsuruhara, CEO of HL Honolulu, the company behind the incubator concept that helps entrepreneurs and chefs break into Hawaii’s food-truck industry. Street Food Stadium breaks down obstacles to entry by owning and leasing the nine food trucks, so wannabe business owners don’t have to deal with location, regulatory and cost issues. Instead of spending time with all the legalities, they’re handed a turnkey outlet with short-term leases of six months to a year, allowing them to focus on what they do best.
HL Honolulu is also behind sister truck park Pau Hana Market, which opened on Beach Walk in fall 2014, and its success led to this larger venue, which also follows the Japanese “yatai” and Asian traditions of street stalls catering to the hungry at permanent street and night markets.
One thing, you must like Japanese food. I consider options of gyoza, ramen, udon, takoyaki, yakisoba, rice tacos, chicken karaage and more to be varied, but some who look at Japanese fare as one entity complained about a lack of variety. Diners have suggested adding Mexican fare.
It’s still a great addition to the high-rise community, giving apartment dwellers in the area 10 more options for picking up a quick bite when too tired to cook. Others will have to deal with parking. Street Food Stadium has a few stalls near the back entrance on Kalauokalani Way and is working to secure more. Until then I’ve had luck finding metered stalls around the corner near Don Quijote.
The most popular times are evenings and weekends, so not all the trucks are open by day, when it’s hot in the open sun. Roofing solutions are in the works, and HL Honolulu is also securing a liquor license for a small bar serving beer and wine.
Turn the page for a look at the first round of vendors.
Ebisuya Udon
Launched in Fukuoka, Japan, Ebisuya gained renown for its fusion of Japanese udon with Korean kalbi and bibimbap, three things I love brought together in one bowl. The basic beef kalbi udon is $8.50 regular and $9.50 large. It’s worth the $4 more to get the combo with bibimbap, which gives you kalbi udon plus a bowl of rice topped with Korean seasoned vegetables, lettuce and red chili paste to toss into the broth after the udon is gone. I couldn’t resist adding the vegetables to the noodles and beef. Their crunchy texture and sesame oil flavor adds a lot to the dish. Afterward, little broth was left to combine with the rice, but staffers were understanding in ladling some extra to finish the dish.
Sahara
Among the Japanese and local offerings, Sahara, sister to Kan Zaman, looks out of place with its stark truck offering Middle Eastern fare. A simple menu of hummus, dolmas and grilled meat dishes is a welcome oasis amid the concentration of Far East flavors and eases you into one of my favorite cuisines.
The simplicity and vibrance of Mediterranean fare are reflected in the vegetarian dips of hummus and baba ganoush, $7 each. A lamb kebab gyro is $11. Grilled beef and chicken shawarma served with pita and greens are $12 and $11, respectively.
HI Cravings
Due to the heat, this is one of the most popular trucks by day thanks to its array of cooling acai and pittaya bowls topped with fresh fruit and choice of toppings ranging from hemp or chia seeds to chocolate chip cookie dough, Nutella and caramel drizzle. All bowls feature granola, strawberries, banana, watermelon, pineapples and honeydew, and start at $8.50. The truck is also home to Uncle Lani’s poi mochi and Tea Girls Hawaii iced teas and lemonades.
Rice Tacos Tokyo
With the growth of the gluten-free movement, rice has been pulling double duty, eaten in plain form or molded to replace wheat products such as hamburger buns and now the flour tortilla. I have no idea how it holds its form without sagging under the weight of some heavy chicken and beef, but it does. It’s a strange combination of sturdy and floppy and a novelty that’s a godsend for the gluten-averse. But for the rest of us, it won’t replace our favorite taco restaurants.
A $6 meal is one of the most affordable on the lot, offering a single taco with egg, vegetables and a couple of crisp mushroom poppers, which were the best things on the plate. A side order of poppers will cost you $5.
Poke Roll
Poke bowls have claimed a lot of media attention in the past year, but this company aims to put poke in your hands with sushi rolls of rice and a choice of ahi, Korean-style shrimp or salmon poke, at $5.80 to $6.80. Beef and combo options are also available plus bowl options for $6.80 to $7.80. Poke alone is $6.80 to $7.80.
Samurai Grill
This truck offers the most local of the offerings: rice bowls and plates topped with your choice of beef, pork or shrimp, at $9.25 to $11.98. If you don’t want the carbs, you can pick up pupu portions of grilled steak and pork for $6.50 or garlic shrimp for $7.
Edomae Gyoza
I’ve met every type of eater, including many who refuse to eat vegetables and some who seek out only brown food. This last group will revel in Edomae Gyoza’s all-brown $15.99 combo plate featuring three pieces each of pork gyoza, chaofan (their name for breaded, deep-fried gyoza, which I enjoyed the most) and fried chicken all layered over fried rice. A two-choice plate with fried rice is $12.99, and a single choice is $9.99. Without rice, five pieces of each of the three entree choices is $6.99.
Edomae’s claim to fame is “super juicy meat,” but although the purist no-filler pork is clean tasting, it wasn’t any juicier than other gyoza out there.
Ebizo
This is one of my favorite trucks, for its shrimp garlic ramen, which delivers strong garlic flavor in a shrimp and miso soup, for $9.80. Many will be excited by the Mega Meat Miso ramen ($10.80), the bowl lined with large slices of tender pork chashu, a meat lover’s dream.
Add-ons include $1 orders of fried garlic or fresh crushed garlic, a $1.50 seasoned boiled egg or additional slices of pork at $2.50 each. A roasted chashu pork bowl ($7.80) is coming soon.
Gindaco
This name resonates with Japanese nationals in Hawaii because it’s part of a popular chain of 300-plus takoyaki restaurants in Japan. Of course, Gindaco’s specialty is the grilled morsel with its single diced piece of octopus at the heart of a golf ball-size globe of dough. It’s cooked longer here than at other outlets — creating a light, crisp shell while keeping a moist interior — and topped with party-in-your-mouth flavor bursts of red ginger, seaweed, bonito flakes and Worcestershire-like takoyaki sauce.
When you tire of the original takoyaki, you can opt for a couple of other seafood balls, such as the oyster tartar I’ve come to prefer for its briny flavor and texture that meshes so well with the squishy dough, or a squid sepia ball with a calamari center and squid ink coloring the finished product. An order of eight pieces is $6.80 for any one flavor and $7.80 for a two-flavor combo.
If you cannot live by takoyaki alone, there is yakisoba — fried noodles with a minimal amount of cabbage, pork and bean sprouts ($7.80), as well as a popular seafood-topped yakisoba with oysters, tako, pork and veggies ($9.80).
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